Posted on 12/04/2012 4:53:44 AM PST by Kaslin
Some commentators wonder why President Obama always engages in brinksmanship. Why can't he meet Republicans halfway, like Clinton did, they ask. Let me try to respond.
One blogger suggests that Obama prefers to play chicken, taking the nation right to the edge of a fiscal disaster because it will increase the likelihood that the GOP will cave. Perhaps, but there's more to it.
Many of us warned that Obama is not, by nature or ideology, a conciliator. He is not a centrist, and he's not someone who is interested in the other side's ideas. He knows what he wants to do, and he is hell-bent on doing it. He is not just playing hardball as a matter of strategy; he has no interest in compromise and is angling to get his way entirely. And he wants to further damage the Republican brand in the process.
The way Obama probably looks at it is that Republicans will cave and he will either get most of what he wants, or the Republicans will hold fast and he can effectively blame them for taking us over the fiscal cliff. You'll note that in none of these explanations is there a hint that Obama is motivated to do what is best for the country. He intends to act in his own best interests and those of his party, and decidedly against the interests of the GOP and, ultimately, the nation.
To better understand what we're dealing with and what the stakes are in these negotiations, let's take a look at what people mean when they say we're headed toward a fiscal cliff in January -- as distinguished from the much bigger cliff we're heading for if we don't get our deficits and debt under control very soon.
The immediate fiscal cliff includes the largest tax increase in a single year in our nation's history ($494 billion), dangerous defense cuts via sequestration, a Medicare reimbursement fiasco and an expiration of federal funding for extended unemployment benefits.
Despite these looming concerns, Obama hasn't approached these budget talks in good faith, but in a way that even former defenders recognize is designed to result in an impasse. Indeed, Obama's proposal is so manifestly unreasonable that even his own party - Democratic senators and congressmen -- has consistently rejected less extreme versions of it in its unanimous votes against his budgets.
Consider: He chose Timothy Geithner to be his lead negotiator. Geithner has repeatedly shown he is not serious about entitlement reform. He and the president have failed even to put a proposal on the table. Also, they've proposed no real short-term spending cuts, twice the level of tax increases Obama campaigned on, more stimulus spending, an intransigent demand for an economy-smothering tax rate increase on the "wealthy" as opposed to decreases in deductions, and the topper: a demand that Congress surrender to this reckless spender of a president its constitutional prerogative over spending limits.
The upshot is that Obama is demanding Republicans agree to policies that will further damage the economy and ensure the nation's financial demise even sooner than is now inevitable. Adding insult to injury, Geithner is arrogantly boasting that Republicans will cave.
Republicans are agreeing to let Obama increase taxes (by reducing deductions for upper income earners) even with the anemic economy, but are demanding from him, on behalf of the nation, serious discretionary spending cuts and major structural entitlement reform. If Republicans cave in exchange for Obama's vague, illusory, insincere promises to cut spending and reform entitlement down the road, they will be complicit in accelerating the nation's fiscal destruction.
Some painfully superficial analysts argue that Obama is right to offer an extreme position as his first volley, because that's the way negotiations work. But Obama's hardball offer is not merely a different approach to the shared goal of restoring the nation's fiscal health. It unequivocally guarantees national bankruptcy while the Republicans' proposal is designed to avert that disaster.
Obama is playing chicken, all right, but he's not driving his own car; he's driving the United States of America. People can quibble endlessly over whether he is intentionally trying to harm America. The better way to frame it is that Obama is, by his own admission, trying to fundamentally transform America.
His transforming vision means continuing to expand the welfare state, major tax hikes, increased spending and obstructing reform of our already insolvent entitlement programs, the major debt drivers that are leading us toward the real "fiscal cliff."
Obama's policies in furtherance of his vision -- as clearly laid out during the campaign and even more so during these "fiscal cliff" negotiations -- left unchecked will complete the fiscal destruction of the nation.
So if you insist, don't call it intentional destruction. Call it, euphemistically, "the intentional fundamental transformation of America that will necessarily destroy her."
How about the GOP simply goes to bat aggressively, for American workers and (American) companies.
What is so complicated about that?
Keep unions out of the discussion. In fact root against unions, if asked.
But why in the world, are we not fighting for America?
Why not bring a bill to the floor immediately that authorizes EVERYTHING the The Bozo wants. See if the Rats pass it and see if the Senate passes it.
Remember the negotiations with the North Koreans over the Pueblo ship,
The Chinese with the aircraft at the start of Bush 2 presidency
and the legendary delays etc with the N. Vietnamese in winding up the Vietnam war.
History repeating.
“If you are truly rich”. I may be rich or just have little bit but either way it is mine. How are “WE” supposed to bring jobs here? If I have wealth then I can bring it here and which may create jobs. If you do not have wealth to invest, please drop the we. We is a collective pronoun typically used by those who know best how to invest and spend someoneles’es wealth.
Investor do not buy and sell jobs. You should learn how and whythe jobs are created and destroyed.
I would be interested in hearing what jobs you want here.
I don’t think that arrogant pos of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave knows what negotiating means
At this point, I think the best reasonable hope is for a regional breakup of the former USA, like the former USSR.
This will happen when the economy implodes, bond rates explode, the dollar crashes, and Uncle Sam can’t pay anybody anything but worthless digital dollars that won’t buy a can of soup.
At that point, some of the military might stick around to keep in good standing for pensions, but the military overall will not be able to mount expeditions to corral the states. Like the USSR 90-92 could not stop the Baltic states and the Stans from departing.
That’s my best-case scenario. THe others are much worse.
Why do you think he refused to give-up his BlackBerry?
Thanks. It won't matter, but I did anyway.
you better not work.
you better not try.
you better not earn.
Im telling you why.
The Federal Partys’ are coming to town.
They sees you when youre building.
They wants what you all make.
that being rich is a mistake.
oh you better not work.
you better not try.
you better not earn.
Im telling you why.
Every Party Bureucrat is coming to town.
They’ll tell you to be thankful.
to bow down and give thanks.
or send you to a Arbeitsziehungslager camp.
to get your thinking straight.
oh you better not work.
you better not try.
you better not earn.
telling you why.
Both Federal Work Camp Partys’ are coming to town.
oh you better not work.
you better not try.
you better not earn.
Im telling you why.
The Federal Government coooming tooo tooown in every way!
How does Obama win if we go over the cliff? He’s supposed to be the leader so why doesn’t he lead? Of we go over the cliff it’s his fault for not extending the bush tax cuts for the middle class and negotiating tax on the rich later. His all or nothing approach is his fault.
He is a leader; just not our leader. He is acting as a Judas Goat to lead us to our destruction. He hates America and all that it stands for. He believes the US is responsible for most of the ills of the world through Anglo-American colonialism and must be brought down to pay for its massive sins. He is also spreading Islam and the creation of the Greater Caliphate as fast as he can, and the removal of the US as a world power will greatly hasten his project.
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE ARMAGEDDON
It’s beginning to look a lot like Armageddon
Bama’s still squatting in the White Hut;
Uses a teleprompter so well, it’s Jarrett can’t you tell
Soros and globalists like the show.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Armageddon
Hurtling over the fiscal cliff;
Michelle’s spending all she can, while still blaming the white man
Liberal fascism for sure.
Well there’s commies n muzzies n Benghazi but no worries
says the propaganda press ministry of spin;
Ayers n Davis Black Panthers n Operation Furious
Solyndra don’t forget Cloward Piven;
And the ruling class of corrupt Congress hacks are giddy all over again.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Armageddon
Bama’s still squatting in the White Hut;
No birth documents to show, the Usurpers gotta go
Reggie Love is waiting under the mistletoe (oh no!).
It’s beginning to look a lot like Armageddon
ObambiCare they say is the “law of the land”;
Justice Roberts violated his oath, Barry Soetoro still smokes
And our troops keep dying in ‘Stan.
obama (controlled by someone) does what’s best for him. If the republicans cave they’re doing the same thing.
Agree. Our once republican government, that which the Framers got right in 1787, has been corrupted beyond recovery.
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