12.07.2010

The double fork

On December 7, 1941, Americans woke to “a date which will live in infamy.” This morning many who voted for President Barack Obama would mark today’s date in similar terms.

They need to stop and think.

The president of the United States of America has not been checkmated by a Republican gambit. He has not found himself in a stalemate. He has been caught in a double fork, Loosely interpreted: he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.

And he did it - for lower- and middle-class Americans.

DemWit recommends this New York Times article for a clear understanding of both Obama’s dilemma and his willingness to compromise.

And, if you don’t remember anything else about this whole tax-cuts game, remember these words:

“I am not willing to let working families across this country become collateral damage for political warfare here in Washington.”
- President Barack Obama, 6 December 2010

3 comments:

Tiny said...

Like President Obama, Tiny is not happy with giving tax breaks to the millionaires and billionaires. However, she respects him for letting his heart lead him in this decision to try to help the masses of people who have lost their jobs and their pay checks, as well as their unemployment insurance checks.

However, Tiny thinks it should be announced and/or mentioned every time he, and anyone else who is against it, let's it be known that the greedy ones refused to give up even an iota of their greed in order to help our fellow brothers and sisters who are in dire need of jobs, pay checks and help from their fellow brothers and sisters, including those in political offices.

The conditions in which we are living must be realistically recognized and laid bare before the American people and the world. Plus, we need to let our President know that we support him, knowing he is doing the best he can under the mitigating circumstances of a bunch of jealous, whining, spoiled people who, from the start, had/have no intention of working in conjunction with him for the good of the masses of the people.

B.J. said...

Tiny and anyone else out there: I had a call today from a dear friend, an absolutely brilliant woman who will be 93 in February. I have known her and loved her for 45 years. Conversations with her are amazing. At one point, she began to talk about this tax cuts issue, and it took everything in my power to keep my mouth shut and listen. There was no way I was going to challenge a 92-year-old woman on the telephone. She defended the rich’s right to their tax cuts and called Obama “incompetent.” She said the rich provide jobs for the poor, that Democrats want to tax everyone into the ground, and on and on. I suppose the moral in what I’m relating is that people view an issue from their own perspective and no amount of facts will sway them from their preconceived notions. BJ

Shaw Kenawe said...

It's pretty obvious now--a day after the firestorm--that President Obama is not thinking about re-election or politics. President Obama put his presidency on the line for the American people.

He could have played chicken with the Republicans, and they would have won, and the unemployed and 98% of the American taxpayers would have lost.

No one who has been beating up on Obama can say for sure that the Repubs would have backed off, and it's certain they wouldn't have.

Everyone seems to be ignoring a very essential thing that the president said: He would not gamble with the American people's economic lives for a political show down with the Repubs.

Every single senator and representative that is enraged over this does not have to worry about getting a paycheck. Not one of them.

They have no idea of how terrifying and degrading being out of work is.

The president, apparently, is the only one who understands.