So they did the deal; a deal we couldn't afford. And for the past few days they have been talking about all the good things in the deal. But there's a lot in this bill that they aren't telling us about this bill.
Look I understand that Obama is a lawyer not a leader. Lawyers are trained to negotiate towards a resolution. That's what he does. But the devil is always in the details.
Did you know that the deal also ushered in an additional $205 billion in wasteful corporate tax favors? New racetracks will get tens of millions, Goldman Sachs gets $1.6 billion in tax-free financing for its new massive headquarters, banks get a $9 billion dollar loophole for offshore financing, and U.S. multinationals are allowed to dodge taxes on income earned by foreign subsidiaries – giving them all the more reason to move jobs offshore.
Did you know that taking care of ill family members at home was dealt a set-back with a provision in the Affordable Care Act designed to let millions of elderly and disabled people get help at home rather than be placed in institutional care being repealed?
Probably not, because no one is talking about these parts of the bill.
That's what happens when you make a deal with the devil. Everyone talks about Obama winning by raising taxes on the rich. I would say that the Republicans won because they made the Bush tax cuts permanent for 98% of the country. These are tax cuts we cannot afford.
The POTUS would have been better off extending the Bush tax cuts for another year in exchange for control over the debt ceiling.
Now going into the next 90 days, Obama says he won't negotiate over the debt limit. We have no reason to believe that. He always negotiates at the last minute just like a lawyer. He doesn't understand that sometimes no bill is better than a bad bill.
This is a serious concern going into the next 90 days. We know that he had put cuts in Social Security up for negotiation during the fiscal cliff crises. Thank god Boehner couldn't sell that deal.
My concern is what is he going to give up next? He worked so hard to get health care reform but in doing so he gave up the public option and other promises he made in 2008. In order to get this fiscal cliff deal he gives more to corporations but let the payroll tax holiday expire. This is ridiculous when corporate taxes are lower today than in the past 60 years. And none of these corporate gifts will do anything to create jobs.
The Democratic party needs to understand that the GOP does not want to reform anything. They want to detroy everything where entitlements are concerned. If they are smart, they will put out their plan to fix Social Security and Medicare, stand firm on it and use this issue to take back the house in 2014.
Just as taxing the rich was an issue in 2012, entitlements needs to be the issue in 2014. If the Dems negotiate on entitlements, they will see a repeat of 2010 in 2014.
The Democratic Party can take back control of Congress in 2014 but only if they stand strong in their policies.
If they let Obama (who won't be running again) negotiate the farm on entitlements, the American people lose and so does the Dem party.
So let's spend the next two years talking about entitlements. The reason the GOP wants to include entitlement cuts in their grand scheme is because they know they can't sell it to the American people. George Bush tried and lost control of the Congress in the next election cycle.
In the meantime there are plenty of other areas they could look at. Again, there was a fantastic slide show on HP yesterday. Here is the link again for anyone interested.
So in 60 days when the POTUS back is against the wall again, I hope the rest of the party will stand up for and do the right thing for the people and for the party. Don't negotiate with the devil. A bad bill is not better than no bill. POTUS Obama is a lawyer, not a leader. What next will he give away and not tell us the details?