Like many progressives, I feel my blood pressure and sense of outrage rise whenever I hear politicians, Republican or Democrat, consider cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. I say that even as someone who will be less reliant on those programs considering my current and likely future income level, approaching the 250k mark including my wife's income, and as a future military retiree in the not too distant future.
That said and even though I sometimes, sometimes weigh my political affiliation, only from a tax standpoint, because believe me we pay around 6k per year on April 15th which is mostly infuriating when one considers how poorly 'the government' seems to mismanage our tax dollars (too much spent on pointless wars, bank bailouts, etc), the point is those programs were a promise made for a lifetime of honest work.
I can remember back when as a teenager, even before I had any idea of what I would do for a living, I thought, you know, that I'd get a job, work, live and one day retire with some measure of security from Social Security. Of course, I know now that I should have saved more and that social security wasn't going to make me rich or anything, but it was reassuring that, after a lifetime of toil and potential injury or illness, there was something for a backup plan-paid out of my own wages mind you, not a handout like the GOP seems to think.
So for the better part of the last two months I have watched the pundits, read the diaries and dreaded the approaching debt deadline with apprehension and fear of what we're going to have to give up to raise the debt ceiling. But haven't we been here before in other things? Remember when we thought the lame duck Congress wouldn't achieve anything? And the shutdown seemed inevitable?
I'm no political strategist, but I think a pattern is emerging-at least I hope so. The President asked for a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling. The immediate Republican response was to hold the debt ceiling hostage and demand significant concessions from the dems lest the country drive off a cliff. That alone has consumed weeks of 'news' coverage.
The more obstinant the Republicans have been about their demands and lack of compromise, the more it made me wonder why The President didn't start off with his own extremely left-leaning plan that would make them compromise somewhere in the middle. Something like raising taxes 25% on the rich and cutting defense by 10% etc. As much as I would have liked to see that, I think it would have been meaningless since Congress needs to legislate and it would have invited accusations of extremism that may have lost some independent voters.
But the more this whole drama unfolds, the more I think we are seeing the brilliance of The President at work in ever so subtle ways. First, I think brooklynbadboy's diary "Influencing President Obama is easy" (sorry can't find quick instructions on how to link) is an accurate portrayal of why our President behaves the way he does. That does seem like how he handled the lame duck legislation and shutdown negotiations, as the great mediator. In this context, he has made the case that concessions need to be made by everyone for the good of the country.
Of course, the Republicans just dug in their heels, smelling blood and hoping the dems would eventually cave. This only worked out to the President's advantage, demonstrating just how extreme was the republican position, but leaving him room to say he tried to work out a compromise. Then just when the left began to think the President was going to cave to republican demands and, in fact, he wanted an even larger, 4 trillion dollar debt reduction package, "a leak" suggested social security, medicare and medicaid in debt reduction discussions were still on the table. This obviously infuriated and reinvigorated democrats, but again shows that the President may be considering all things to work out a resonable compromise.
So now that the lines are now drawn both sides, does it really seem likely either is going to concede for any meaningful cuts or revenues? I don't think so and it's already starting to appear that the most likely scenario is that the President will continue to make attempts to get republicans and democrats to agree to a deal, but at the end of the month, as more pressure is put on the republicans by their corporate masters to avert a financial disaster, that the debt ceiling will be raised, with both republican and democrat votes, in a clean bill, just like the President wanted.
The republicans will save face with Wall Street and their voters by saying they did the best thing they could to avoid the default of the U.S., preserved tax cuts and blame the President for not making 'entitlement' cuts. The democrats will 'take the blame' for helping to raise the debt ceiling without making cuts vital to our interests, but retain the political talking points for preserving our social safety net.
Anyway, I've got to get back to work now, but that's what I'm thinking for now. Thoughts?