Monday, December 6, 2010

The Season of Giving



Today, President Obama dropped a krugerrand in the Republican's christmas kettle by going along with a one two year extension of the Bush tax cuts including benefits to people making over $250,000 a year, 2 percent of the population. Nothing new. Obama never confronted a major piece of legislation that wasn't worth caving in on by tossing the bill's virtues under the bus for the sake of expediency. Take the Health Care Reform Bill, namely the stipulation that mandates every citizen purchase health care insurance or pay a penalty. That wasn't the Obama administration's idea. Instead it was a demand by the health care industry to which Obama acquiesced, and mandatory coverage became the new law of the land with his signature.

Without the concession, the health care industry threatened that they would bombard a national audience with negative television ads and surely snuff out Obama's quest for health care reform and deny him his place in history for accomplishing something that no other US president had been able to pull off. And we certainly can't have that. To appease Sen. Joe Lieberman, the holdout vote, the public option (gov't option) provision in the same health care reform package was dropped at the midnight hour which granted the health care industry a monopoly over a captive market under the final draft of the watered down bill. Up until last month, Obama was suppose to pull the troops out of Afghanistan by summer next year. Notwithstanding Obama's unannounced 4-hour visit to Afghanistan last week, apparently the new deadline in the sand seems to be for 4 years more.

5 comments:

Bradley Farless said...

From everything I've seen, Obama is more a douchebag than anything. I really hope that someone worth a damn runs against him next election.

RONW said...

Brad- all this caving in is starting to get old, already. I still wish him well because he grew up here. Will Obama get re-elected? Dunno. Surely not by democrat voters.

Kay said...

If he didn't compromise with the health care reform, wouldn't he have lost everything? Didn't he have to make concessions on the tax cut in order to get the extension assistance for those who lost their jobs? I wish he could have done everything. I really think he tried, but Republicans have him over a barrel, don't you think?

Anonymous said...

I like Obama. I'll vote for him again.

RONW said...

Kay- everything that you've said is true. It's just that if holding the unemployment insurance extention and the under-$250,000/yr tax cuts, holding these items hostage, works so well in their favor, the Repubs might get the idea that taking hostages is something beneficial for all future legislation. At some point, Obama has to stop caving in. If memory swerves, eliminating tax cuts for billionaires was a major campaign promise, er, a line in the sand.

The Dems even went so far as to tender a counter-offer to raise the cut-off ceiling to people making a million dollars per year, only to have the Repub leadership scoff at them. Indeed, Obama might simply be handing off the hot potato to congress for passage, if that's The Plan. The Dem leadership wasn't consulted or sought for their opinion. Meanwhile, it does seem that the Bush Tax cuts for billionaires is permanent. Who needs 2-years? As already mentioned, the Repubs can always round up new hostages.

gigi- yeah, it's simply not reality that everybody incensed with Obama's capitulation isn't gonna vote for him again in the long term. 2-years until the next presidential election is eons in the political timeline.