According to
The Roll Call, the Republicans are hopping mad about President Obama going on the road and taking his case for ending the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy and keeping in place middle-class tax cuts to voters.
Instead, they would rather have President Barack Obama put pressure on Democrats to agree to changes in earned benefit programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Here's the little screech from Senator McConnell on this point:
McConnell said that rather than beating up on the GOP, the president should be lining up Democratic support for changes to entitlements.
“The people [he] needs to be talking to are members of his own party so he can convince them of the need to act,” he said. “We’re not going to solve this problem by creating villains and drumming up outrage.”
And
another little screech of dismay from the Boehner spokesperson, Brendan Buck, along the same lines:
“Republicans understand that we must avert the fiscal cliff and have laid out a framework to do so that is consistent with the ‘balanced’ approach the president says he wants,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said. “In contrast, Democrats in Congress have downplayed the danger of going over the cliff and continue to rule out sensible spending cuts that must be part of any significant agreement to reduce the deficit. The target of the president’s rallies should be the congressional Democrats who want to raise tax rates on small businesses rather than cut spending.”
Uh-uh, I don't think so. The target very deservably are the House Republicans, the Senate GOP, and their corporate allies in the Fix the Debt campaign that want to keep tax rates for the wealthy low. The President is right to go out on the road and use the bully pulpit that comes with the presidency to advocate for a repeal of the Bush tax cuts, and keeping in place the middle class tax cuts.
For too long, the wealthy have refused to put their skin in the game, and they've fouled up the economy. Now they insist that we suffer more for their for foolishness and reward them by keeping their tax breaks the same. Not anymore. The President was re-elected by a greater margin than George W. Bush and he certainly has the mandate from voters to make this happen.
The Republicans are in a tough spot right now, and they know it. The President and the congressional Democratic leaders should keep on remembering this, and not to weaken their own position. We are in a different place right now as a party, and by not giving in to the GOP on cuts to earned benefit programs, we actually will be setting ourselves up for a stronger position going into 2014. It's incumbent upon us to keep reminding our Democratic elected officials about this, especially the ones that are up for re-election in 2014.