And so last night I heard that the president was willing to cave on [yet another] campaign promise and extend the tax cuts enacted by President Bush. The reason for this being that the Republicans would not allow anything such as an extension on unemployment benefits to be voted on, much less approved, until this matter was settled. By settled, the Republicans meant "extended for the rich".
So the joke's on you. If there was ever a moment that so crystalized the fact that the Republicans are deeper in the pockets of the rich than our other corporate entity the DNC it is this particular nasty turn of events. There's always this talk about so called "class warfare" trotted out whenever someone mentions that those who aren't rich ought to tax the rich. It's a clear case of red baiting, but it still gets plenty of play in the traditional media. Still though, the rich manage to tax the poor with impunity. You know what they call that? "stimulating the economy."
The kicker of this "economic stimulation" that has been going on has been a net 0% economic growth over the last decade. Don't look all surprised. This has been reported by every news outlet there is. All the deregulation, non-regulation, non-oversight oversight and tax benefits extended to the rich has resulted in the highest, and thought by some to be the new normal, unemployment rate in current US history. So since that horse has already been ridden and has proven to be a loser with 3 bad legs, why is it still allowed to run in the race?
As if to add more comedy to this situation, it is being reported that various investment houses and banks are considering paying out bonuses early so that their employees would not have to pay higher taxes next year. The NY Times reporting that some executives don't want to "upset their employees" by leaving them exposed to such taxes. You would think that people living in the [formerly] richest country on the planet where they do not have to walk around with body guards and change their routes to work and home in order to avoid kidnappings or in "radio frequency free" mobile zones to avoid remote detonated bombs would appreciate sending ol' Sam his cut. You know, a "Thanks for the hook up dude."
You would think.
In a non-bizarro world the public holdup of unemployment benefits, needed precisely because of the actions of the catered to, rich, in order to give those same rich people more tax breaks, by the Republicans would make the party cease to exist in the next election. I would think there would be "random acts of violence" directed at such "leaders". Not that I'm calling for such acts but I would understand.
Bringing us back to Obama. This particularly public and nasty cave in, is an example par excellence of why young voters get completely turned off by voting and political participation in general. Tell that "change voter" who was all high on promises why they ought to be so hype about voting again?
Furthermore; if this is the best that the Democrats can do now, while they have majority in both houses, what the hell is going to happen next session? All this talk about needing 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. Look, make them stand up and do it. Let 'em shut down everything like they did in 1995. They seem to have fond memories of that.
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(17 years of informed commentary)