It’s been a year and half since the GOP and Democrats hammered out an agreement that raised the debt ceiling and put us on the lip of a fiscal cliff, threatening mutually assured destruction if a budget deal wasn’t worked out before January 2013.
It made sense for all sides at the time.
The GOP figured there was a good shot that Obama wasn’t going to be reelected. The Democrats figured there was a good chance shot Obama wasn’t going to be reelected. And Obama was content to do what he did best: run a campaign on TV, eat his peas on vacation and hold his breath with Congress- all while stamping his feet.
"That is not an acceptable approach," the president said at a press conference in July of 2011.
Back then the crisis de jour was called “the debt ceiling.”
Politicians from both sides of the aisle faced the political abyss if they couldn’t find a way out, and they knew it. That’s why this time around they have cleverly renamed the crisis “the fiscal cliff.” They are hoping to scare the civilians into thinking it’s some sort of natural disaster rather than the artificial disaster that has been created by politicians.
"So we might as well do it now,” said the prez back in July. “Pull off the bandaid. Eat our peas. Now is the time to do it. If not now, when?"
Or why not in the in the 16 months since he made that statement? Why not November 8th? Maybe, um why not… now? Or wait: how about…now? Or…now?
Oh, yeah, here’s “why not now”: Nothing has changed since July, 2011 except perhaps the president is starting to turn a little blue.
The political landscape is pretty much the same since the last time no one wanted to vote on an Obama budget proposal. But one thing that will change for certain is that Obama won’t win reelection in 2014 or 2016.
Obama won his swan-song reelection campaign in November with about 7 million fewer votes than in he did in winning the first time in 2008. Yet he still pretends that the election is a mandate, showing up at congress holding his breath and stomping his feet, puking his peas.
And while he may feel that the people are with him on the make-the-rich-pay gambit, it’ll be very interesting to see if can get the members of congress from his own party to go along with him- the people who will ultimately have to approve the latest political prescription from Doctor Obama.
Because that’s something the president has missed since ramming through Obamacare.
And it’s the reason why Republicans don’t have to reach a deal
If Democrats want tax increases, then let them get the increases legitimately- with a majority in the House- not with the GOP acting as a ways and means committee for Jack Ass, the Party.
You see, only a jack ass would raise taxes and grow government in an environment like this, as the Democrats are proposing and as most Americans already know.
Or are the Democrats really proposing it?
If Obama’s budget deal was such a great idea politically, Democrats would have voted for it the first time around. Or even the second. Or perhaps the third time.
Despite the brave rhetoric about Obama’s budget coming from the left side of the aisle, the proposal is neither new, nor popular with Democrats.
Last year, Harry Reid, the Democrat version of Senator Palpatine, spent more time blocking a vote on the floor of the Senate for this proposal than he did at his official residence, 2nd Floor Penthouse, Ritz Carlton Hotel, 1150 22nd St NW, Washington, DC 20037.And why?
Because raising taxes is the surest way of losing seats in the House and, outside of Massachusetts, in the Senate as well.
You see, it’s time now for the mid-term election cycle to get under way; the cycle where the president has nothing left to lose, except for a few members of congress.
Oh, you thought we were done with all that?
Yeah, so did Obama.
But now that the president is effectively off the board, it’s only just begun.
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