When I heard that he caved to extending the tax cuts to the wealthy, I was angry. Once more he had moved to the middle or beyond in order to get the Republicans on board. He let the lapdogs of the rich hike their leg on him again. Then I saw his press conference on Tuesday.
I get it. I was thinking about my position, I'm prepared for a tax increase if it comes. When Bush initiated the "temporary" tax breaks more than a decade ago I changed my withholdings so that I didn't get use to bringing home a higher amount. I'm prepared to lose it when the cuts expire. But I didn't look at the bigger picture, the picture he's obligated to look at.
The true "hostages" of this situation are those that are relying on unemployment to keep their homes. They are those that are scraping by because of the few extra dollars that they take home because of the tax cuts. As much as the President wanted to stand his ground, prove his point through the failure of the Republicans, he couldn't let the hostages down.
Mr President, I offer my apologies. I'm sorry for seeing it so myopically, only looking at how it will affect me. I'm sorry those bull-headed Republicans and Democrats can't see the little people down here on the ground that would suffer over their power plays. And I'm sorry I initially reacted the same way they did.
You're clearly looking at people all across the American spectrum, something few others are doing. I thank you for that. In that light, the only thing I would have done differently would have been extend the tax breaks for the rich for the same amount of time as the unemployment extension. After all, the rich only need help as long as the poor do, right? ;-)
Now, to all of the Republicans out there that are cheering about forcing President Obama into a compromise. You're just thrown away billions of dollars that could help with the deficit problems in order to pacify your rich friends. You probably don't realize this yet, but you've painted yourself into a corner.
Every time you mention the rising deficit, you're going to hear about this. Every time you talk about cutting "entitlement" programs for the lower and middle classes, you're going to hear about this. Every time you complain about the President not working with you, you're going to hear about this. Time to quit bitching and start showing us what you plan to do for us. And "us" would be the larger portion of the population, the ones that can vote you out of a job, not the rich few that can fund your campaigns.
Finally, someone who can back up far enough to see the bigger picture and the huge rock/hardspot our president is in. I fully understand, even if I don't like, the decisions he is making. In the long run, they are the right decisions considering what he is up against. Consequently, I continue to stand behind him and support him.
ReplyDeleteOn a much, much smaller scale, I understand how difficult it is to come into a situation where you have information and understanding that others don't and you have to rescue and rebuild simultaneously. What happens is that everybody hates you and nobody notices that you are doing the right thing. Then ... when all the little pieces start coming together ... nobody notices until one day, baddabing, everything is working like clockwork and everyone forgets all the bitching, moaning, and complaining they did. They also forget to thank the person they were hating on who made it all happen.
Human beings. Greedy little, ungrateful little creatures to the end sometimes.