One-Two Punch

Obama and Cantor in unholy alliance -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Today’s blog entry might meander a little but there’s actually a couple of underlying themes. One of them is our President who seems to be losing altitude by the minute. I’ve been referring to him as President Feather Duster for a time now. The Faustian bargain he just made with House Republicans concerning tax breaks for the wealthy is maddening … no wonder that the Liberal Dems are looking to body block it. We could use some tax breaks for the little guy – the rich man doesn’t need it.

Now along similar lines, there is talk of reducing the deficit by eliminating the mortgage interest deduction – across the board, for everyone. So what we have friends, is a one-two punch to the middle class. Obama’s devil deal will assure that wealthy people aren’t on line to help out with the deficit via tax. Mortgage interest elimination will assure that the middle (and lower middle) class will be roped in, hogtied and branded for “deficit reduction”. Why is it that politics reminds me of a rowdy game of crack-the-whip? People think they know what they want and vote accordingly. But the result is horrible and bears no resemblance to whatever was offered. It would be like mixing the ingredients for fudge and coming out with lemon tarts.

Now let’s move the discussion along to earmarks and pork barrel spending. Several strident Tea Party candidates lambasted earmarks during the mid-terms and prominent “next generation” Republicans came along for the ride. Representative Eric Cantor made earmarks his campaign centerpiece as did Speaker John Boehner. Now both have suggested Hal Rogers, Kentucky’s notorious Pork Barrel King as the head of the Appropriations committee. Rogers would even like to bring along a Lockheed lobbyist as the committee coordinator. If these guys really care about reducing the deficit, would they be heading their committee with the King of Pork?

And speaking of the Tea Party above, they’ve been cited by Citizens Against Government Waste. It appears that Tea Party candidates have now received over 1 billion dollars in earmarks. Republicans everywhere, did you get what you voted for? It looks like several initiatives are adding to our tax bill and taking away tax revenue. The only people being billed are middle class home owners so far. This has all developed during our lame duck session at yearend 2010. We haven’t even let the dogs out yet.

It turns out (surprise, surprise) that people want what they want, never mind the cheap rhetoric. Politicians of both parties want to fund home district projects and would prefer that someone else pay for it. To be rigorously consistent with any idealistic goal is political suicide – the case of being dead right. What I have to offer is that there are comparatively fair and less painful ways of doing deficit reduction but it involves help from all corners – no one group gets stuck with the tab. Obama shouldn’t cave to Republicans bearing “gifts”. There won’t be a double dip recession here – just a double dose of regrets about who we elected, and who gets saddled with reining in the budget.

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