We have all heard about the looming “fiscal cliff” from every pundit imaginable, with reactions ranging from ‘we’re all gonna die’ to ‘it’s only a fiscal slope’ to ‘let’s jump.’ Having watched the republicans conduct a record number of fillibusters over the past four years in order to destroy President Obama, and having watched them extort the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent by holding unemployment insurance and the debt ceiling hostage these past two years,and now watching them hold the other 98 percent of Americans’ taxes hostage, the time has come for President Obama to play hardball with these scumbags, and if necessary, jump off that fiscal cliff and then begin more earnest negotiations in January.
The dysfunctional senate, with the near miraculous help of a few republicans, has passed a bill that makes permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of all Americans, those making less than 250 thousand a year. President Obama carries a pen with him which he says is ready to sign it the minute it passes the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, it is looking like that pen may run dry before that happens, as head douche bag and sometimes public weeper, Orange American, John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, and Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, continue obstructing and pretending to have a reasonable counter offer. These men, loyal to their tea bagger caucus and slave to their financial backers, are hell bent on refusing to grant the middle class tax cuts to the bottom 98 percent if their top two percent puppet masters can’t keep their historically low and irresponsible tax rates. Boehner and Cantor continue to lie about the White House not having laid out the specifics of what they would cut. The truth is that the republicans are the ones who have only typed a brief outline of the amount of cuts and spending and tax revenue they want, without having provided any specifics. The only thing specific they can say is that they don’t want the tax rates on the top two percent to go up at all, and that they are willing to screw everybody over if they don’t get their way.
Given the ridiculousness of their reasoning and resolve, their past record of hostage holding as a means of getting their way, and Speaker Bonehead’s indication that he will again use the debt ceiling as a future bargaining tool, it is time for President Obama to stand strong against these greedy, heartless, lying bastards and not give another dime of ‘entitlement reform’ as a concession, and to let taxes go up on everyone if necessary if a deal cannot be reached by the end of this year. He will be in a much stronger position in January to explain to the Americans who weren’t paying that much attention that their taxes have gone up because the republicans demanded that unless their club of millionaires and billionaires keep their tax cuts, then everyone’s must go up. Maybe the Joe the Plumbers and our friends and family members out there who are still blinded by the republican misinformation campaign will finally begin to see that being a ‘fiscal conservative’ really means that you are willing to run up huge deficits during two wars in which you give the rich the most generous tax cuts of this past century, and then pretend to want to balance the budget by cutting and gutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Mr. Obama must realize by now that after four years of trying to work with both parties that the republicans are rotten at the core, and reflected by the leadership of the king of fillibusters, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – who this past week out did himself by fillibustering himself – and the Weeper of the House, John Boehner. Both of these men have spent the last four years trying to undermine and destroy President Obama, not only in their own words as Mitch McConnell famously declared as his number one priority, but in their deeds as well. Fillibustering everything, trying to defund Obama Care after failing to defeat it, threatening to not pay the nations debt back that it had already approved and incurred, and now taking us over the fiscal cliff in an effort to preserve tax rates for themselves and their cronies, the republicans have proven themselves time and again to not have any genuine interests in negotiations to do the right thing for all Americans. They continue to act as if they are a majority, which they are not, and as if the majority of Americans are with them and their tax policy, which we are not.
It is time for Obama to stop pretending that he is dealing with honest brokers, and to stop conceding more and more to the crooks across the aisle who only demand more and more from everyone except the top two percent. So far, he seems to be doing this. I am willing to have this fight afresh in the spring, when the republicans have lost their tax rates through spite, and every middle class tax payer finally sees who it is that is spitting in their eye from their thrones made of gold atop Capital Hill.
Stay strong, President Obama, the country is with you and ready to take a black eye or two if necessary. We are tired of trying to negotiate with hostage takers, and have learned that it only leads to more hostage taking.
Time to Play Hardball with Republicans
We have all heard about the looming “fiscal cliff” from every pundit imaginable, with reactions ranging from ‘we’re all gonna die’ to ‘it’s only a fiscal slope’ to ‘let’s jump.’ Having watched the republicans conduct a record number of fillibusters over the past four years in order to destroy President Obama, and having watched them extort the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent by holding unemployment insurance and the debt ceiling hostage these past two years,and now watching them hold the other 98 percent of Americans’ taxes hostage, the time has come for President Obama to play hardball with these scumbags, and if necessary, jump off that fiscal cliff and then begin more earnest negotiations in January.
The dysfunctional senate, with the near miraculous help of a few republicans, has passed a bill that makes permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of all Americans, those making less than 250 thousand a year. President Obama carries a pen with him which he says is ready to sign it the minute it passes the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, it is looking like that pen may run dry before that happens, as head douche bag and sometimes public weeper, Orange American, John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, and Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, continue obstructing and pretending to have a reasonable counter offer. These men, loyal to their tea bagger caucus and slave to their financial backers, are hell bent on refusing to grant the middle class tax cuts to the bottom 98 percent if their top two percent puppet masters can’t keep their historically low and irresponsible tax rates. Boehner and Cantor continue to lie about the White House not having laid out the specifics of what they would cut. The truth is that the republicans are the ones who have only typed a brief outline of the amount of cuts and spending and tax revenue they want, without having provided any specifics. The only thing specific they can say is that they don’t want the tax rates on the top two percent to go up at all, and that they are willing to screw everybody over if they don’t get their way.
Given the ridiculousness of their reasoning and resolve, their past record of hostage holding as a means of getting their way, and Speaker Bonehead’s indication that he will again use the debt ceiling as a future bargaining tool, it is time for President Obama to stand strong against these greedy, heartless, lying bastards and not give another dime of ‘entitlement reform’ as a concession, and to let taxes go up on everyone if necessary if a deal cannot be reached by the end of this year. He will be in a much stronger position in January to explain to the Americans who weren’t paying that much attention that their taxes have gone up because the republicans demanded that unless their club of millionaires and billionaires keep their tax cuts, then everyone’s must go up. Maybe the Joe the Plumbers and our friends and family members out there who are still blinded by the republican misinformation campaign will finally begin to see that being a ‘fiscal conservative’ really means that you are willing to run up huge deficits during two wars in which you give the rich the most generous tax cuts of this past century, and then pretend to want to balance the budget by cutting and gutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Mr. Obama must realize by now that after four years of trying to work with both parties that the republicans are rotten at the core, and reflected by the leadership of the king of fillibusters, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – who this past week out did himself by fillibustering himself – and the Weeper of the House, John Boehner. Both of these men have spent the last four years trying to undermine and destroy President Obama, not only in their own words as Mitch McConnell famously declared as his number one priority, but in their deeds as well. Fillibustering everything, trying to defund Obama Care after failing to defeat it, threatening to not pay the nations debt back that it had already approved and incurred, and now taking us over the fiscal cliff in an effort to preserve tax rates for themselves and their cronies, the republicans have proven themselves time and again to not have any genuine interests in negotiations to do the right thing for all Americans. They continue to act as if they are a majority, which they are not, and as if the majority of Americans are with them and their tax policy, which we are not.
It is time for Obama to stop pretending that he is dealing with honest brokers, and to stop conceding more and more to the crooks across the aisle who only demand more and more from everyone except the top two percent. So far, he seems to be doing this. I am willing to have this fight afresh in the spring, when the republicans have lost their tax rates through spite, and every middle class tax payer finally sees who it is that is spitting in their eye from their thrones made of gold atop Capital Hill.
Stay strong, President Obama, the country is with you and ready to take a black eye or two if necessary. We are tired of trying to negotiate with hostage takers, and have learned that it only leads to more hostage taking.