As I was reading Eugene Robinson's op-ed In budget wars, the GOP demands the impossible I came across the line:
Obama, I fear, is about to repeat the pattern.
and that reminded me of the classic "Killing Me Softly with His Song."
In particular the lyrics
I heard he sang a good song
I heard he had a style
and so i came to see
and listen for a while
and there he was this younge boy
a stranger to my eyes
Struming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
killing me softy with his song
killing me softly with his song
telling my whole life
with his words
killing me softly with his song
reminded me of President Obama. President Obama's words are great. He says all the right things, close Guantanamo, end the war in Iraq, stimulate the economy, universal health care for all, . . . And along comes his actions.
Is he better than a republican president, well as Sara Palin would say "You betcha." In death is being better really important.
As Robinson says:
Ryan pays lip service to the need to maintain and strengthen America’s safety net, but nothing in his plan suggests he really believes in the idea of collective responsibility for those in need. His favorite author, the laissez-faire extremist Ayn Rand, would be proud.
Progressives who do believe that a healthy, prosperous nation is more than a collection of self-interested individuals have a duty to respond. From all indications, the plan for debt reduction and entitlement reform that Obama plans to announce Wednesday will include a mix of sensible spending cuts and modest tax increases — something that everyone should be able to live with.
But mark my words, the response from the ideologues of the far right won’t be to sit down with the president and negotiate a middle course. They won’t even pretend to look for common ground. They’ll insist on spending cuts in the 2012 budget that go far beyond even the outrageous demands that Republicans made for the current year. As leverage, they’ll have a crucial upcoming vote on raising the debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default. Think they won’t try to use it?
Politically, Obama gets to be seen as sensible, pragmatic and more interested in solutions than political gamesmanship. But step back and look at the bigger picture. Why are we even talking about spending cuts, rather than increases, when the economy is still struggling to climb out of one of history’s worst recessions? If rising medical costs are the real long-term problem, Obama’s reform law took the first steps toward a solution. Why aren’t Democrats saying the obvious: We need to go farther down that road — at least to a government health plan — rather than reverse direction.
And so it goes.
The President is "Killing me (all of us) Softly."