Republicans are focused on keeping tax breaks for the ultra wealthy and holding tax breaks for the middle class, jobs, economic stimulus, healthcare, education, unemployment insurance extensions, environmental protection and the 600 other bills stacked up in the house and the 250 some odd confirmations being blocked all hostage until they get them.
Democrats need to hang tough First demand that the hostages be released. Thats how negotiations with bank robbers holding hostages usually proceed, let the hostages go and we'll send in a pizza.
We need an economic swat team out there training to go in and release the hostages.
Lets allow that as commander in chief Obama can bring the troops home from Afghanistan, end their "adviser" roles elsewhere and then issue executive orders that cancel pentagon spending so as to do a work around on the house forcing gridlock over deficit cap extensions, spending cuts and the budget.
Lets take the $700 billion a year we are spending on unnecessary wars back into our domestic economy.
Bang! All the hostages released. Then its just a matter of mopping up what remains of the holdouts.
We can then begin negotiating if there is any interest that remains in making America competitive with the rest of the world as regards mass transit technology, alternative energy technology, climate change technology and give tax breaks as carrots to the corporations willing to invest in the future.
To get social security back on a sound footing we don't need to extend the age of retirement, cut benefits or otherwise reward our senior citizens with misery in return for all the sacrifices they have made; all we really need to do is refuse to extend the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2% of Americans and put that money into the Social Security trust fund.
We ask a young Americans who serve in the military to make sacrifices. We ask the middle class to be patient and make do with a lower standard of living than earlier generations had, working two jobs, not being able to have a parent at home to nurture children, not being able to afford family vacations, college educations, working their entire lives to have a few final years of retirement when they can relax and play with their grandkids.
I think its time we asked the rich to make sacrifices. What's wrong with demanding sacrifices from the wealthy? How about starting with a redistribution of wealth to balance the system? Tie maximum wages to minimum wages, let the maximum be ten times the minimum. Anything over that ought to be considered unpatriotic, against the best interests of the country as a whole.
We should be looking at a policy of from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs. That would be fair and balanced, in keeping with what most religions claim their goals are, and the way Americans used to do things.