For the first time, I am furious with Congressional Democrats and Liberals.
I am hearing all of this righteous indignation from Jane Hamsher, Adam Green, et al. I hear Congressman Anthony Weiner say that the President is "punting on third down". I hear talk of a filibuster from Senator Bernie Sanders.
Where the hell were all of these critics of the Bush Tax Cuts in September? Where were these people when the Congress decided to take a pass on debating this very issue and not use it as tool in their election strategy?
To hear Anthony Weiner use that football metaphor is laughable. Michael Moore appeared on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" back in September when it was announced that the Congress was not going to try to resolve this issue before the election when it could have been used as a tool to gain votes. He and Keith threw up their hands and said, "We've lost." The Congress didn't punt on third down. They fumbled the ball on the opening kickoff.
Back then, we heard nothing from people like Hamsher, Green, et al on this. Nothing. Now, all of a sudden, the Senate and the House are in an uproar over a deal to try to keep people from losing their houses, or not being able to pay their electric or heating bills. Was their strategy actually to wait until the very last day of the lame duck session to see if the Republicans were going to blink? Did they really think that ignoring DADT, the Dream Act, the START treaty and more was a good thing? No matter what, they were going to win this one argument. If they didn't get what they wanted, then let all of the Bush Tax cuts expire. Suddenly, in the 11th hour this has become a moral imperative.
When was this not a moral imperative? Why wasn't it this important in September when the Congress could have owned this debate? Why didn't we try to resolve this back then instead of waiting until
people were going to have their benefits cut, making them shake in their boots, hoping and praying that something, anything would be done.
Were we actually going to use the unemployed as pawns to get this one thing? Were we going to ignore everything else that we have been discussing, the START treaty, DADT, the Dream Act, etc. and let them slide into oblivion? I am a Democrat because I believe that when people need help they should get it when they need it, not until it is politically feasible for me to give it to them. No wonder the Democrats got killed last November.
A lot of liberal pundits were complaining that the President wasn't doing enough on this issue. Let's see. Every campaign stop that he made in October mentioned this very issue to huge crowds. That wasn't enough? Is he supposed to now drop everything to campaign for them some more? You might not know this, but the President has a country to run.
I personally think that the President did this to see how pissed off he could make the liberal base, because all the liberal base has done over the past two years is whine and moan and complain about how much they didn't get. The Health Care Initiative was not enough, the stimulus was not enough, SCHIP getting 4 million more kids health care was not enough. Stopping a depression was not enough. Two more non-conservative justices was not enough. No, the liberal base wanted only single-payer health care, a clone of Justice John Paul Stevens to replace the two Supreme Court Justices leaving in the last year, a roaring economy with 4% unemployment IN JUST TWO YEARS.
My God, how much purple mescaline are you people dropping?
Rachel Maddow lost a lot of respect from me tonight. She has been an impassioned defender of getting unemployment benefits approved. Tonight, it's as if she has completely ignored that argument. She made a speech about how she thought the President was irrelevant. Tonight, we heard Senator Sherrod Brown talk about how he wanted to keep debating on this one thing until Christmas in the hopes of making the Republicans blink. What if they don't blink? What the hell was Plan B? Do they really think that letting the tax cuts expire is good for the future of the Democratic Party? I have seen the polls as well. Around 60% of the people polled would like to see people making over $250,000 a year pay more in taxes. You know what I see? Around 60% of the people polled do not want to see their taxes go up. Still, people like Sherrod Brown seem to think that using the unemployed as a weapon is good politics and good policy. Congressman Weiner said that he was willing to let the tax cuts expire for everyone. He said that to Mr. O'Donnell Monday night. There is a problem with this. Other taxes are going to go up along with the federal rates. This will happen regardless of what deal is made in Washington, D.C. In my county, my property taxes are going up 10%. Others I know are going to have their rates go up by 20%. You might want to know at this point that if the Bush Tax cuts expired the earned income tax rate for those at the bottom of the income pyramid would go up 50%, from 10% to 15%. Who do you really think people are going to blame if the tax rates go up? This could be the 1994 government shutdown in reverse. If people start paying too much too fast right now, they will want to take it out of the hide of the people who are responsible: Democrats. The middle class is being ignored in the debate by both sides, not just the Republicans. Today, the President went after the two unruly kids in the room, the Democrats and Republicans and he was right to do so. Procrastination is not a strategy. It's an excuse to get more attention. That's why the Democrats lost the House in the last election.
I was watching the liberal round up on "The Last Word" with Lawrence O'Donnell and all I am seeing is a bunch of arrogant wannabes smiling over the conundrum that the President is facing. Jane Hamsher and Adam Green love taking shots at the President. It's like a hobby with them. Tonight, they couldn't contain their glee at other members of the panel taking shots at the President, as if they could run the country so much better than him. (Please.) Meanwhile, the people who actually have more knowledge of the issue, Lawrence O'Donnell and Ezra Klein are completely serious. They get it. We can't keep playing this game with the unemployed and the poor just to see who wins. This has been the biggest problem in Washington for decades. There is a good reason why Congress' poll numbers are so incredibly low, because they keep pulling stunts like this.
I loved it when Lawrence yelled at Jane over the estate tax. She said it was worse than the rates under George Bush. Lawrence screamed at her, "Worse that 0 percent? How in the world could it be worse than zero?!" By the way, the estate tax is not gone under this bill. It would be at 35% as opposed to 0% under George Bush with this deal. I am surprised the Republicans caved on this issue. They have been harping on this for years.
This kind of playing around with people's lives is something that I expect from Republicans, not the liberal base. It's as if there is no difference between the two. They both are playing this chess game using the unemployed as pawns. This is not a game over cocktails where people trade jabs to see who has the wittiest one-liner. This is not some theoretical argument. These are people's lives they are playing with. Jon Stewart got it right when he railed against both sides in his "Rally to Restore Sanity". The only place where we can't get things done is with our government. The President went at both sides because he is fed up with this reality. He is right. He is the only adult in the room.
Okay, let the snark begin.