In a speech at Carnegie Mellon University, the President provided a simple outline for defeating Republicans this fall. He described the Republican approach to the challenges we face as a nation as
...an agenda that basically offers two answers to every problem we face: more tax breaks for the wealthy and fewer rules for corporations.
There, it's pretty simple...and here's how it spins out.
We need to dog Republican candidates with this observation and with the obvious questions it raises: Do you support ongoing tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans? (And perhaps a related question: Do you support the current special tax treatment and reduced tax rates for Hedge Fund managers and other millionaires and billionaires who invest money for their living?)
and
What regulation will you work to pass that will rein in the corporate irresponsibility that led to the banking crisis and the Gulf spill?
Don't let them off the hook.
You see, if they offer even a hint that they are soft on tax breaks for the wealthy, or agree to accept the term corporate irresponsibility and the notion that it should be reined in, they will be eaten alive by their owners and the irrational fringe of tea party activists. Their base will not tolerate retreat from the narrow solutions Obama has summarized.
But for most of America, these ideas--fair taxation and reasonable regulation in the face of grotesque corporate abuses--are not crazy, socialist ideas. They are what most of us believe to be sensible. But we need to prevent the bait and switch that allows Republican candidates to claim that they aren't radically disconnected from the common sense of the American electorate. (Look what happened to Rand Paul--make them come clean about their beliefs and the ugly truth forces them in to hiding.)
So make them fess up.