Pelosi and a group of Democrats in the House of Representatives have refused Obama’s GOP tax giveaway for the rich, at least in its present written form. They have refused to bring the tax plan to the floor for a vote.
This is a positive development, but I’m remaining skeptical until I see where the issue ends. We’ve seen this scenario before in which the Democrats strike a pose of making such a stand only to see them finally capitulate, anyway, in the end. It’s clear, however, that if Democrats in the public are opposed, Democrats in the House are opposed, Democrats in the Senate are opposed, that this deal does not represent the values that Democrats are supposed to represent.
If the Democrats have any chance of success as a political party in the near future, they will have to start making stands based on principle, even if it means going against Obama’s weakness for capitulating to the Republicans. If the party can’t demonstrate some real ability to make a stand and truly lead, even when such decisions are tough, or go against Obama, then they simply have no value.
I’ve been extremely critical of the current Democrats in Congress, and of Pelosi in particular, but this stand gives even me some degree of hope.
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Beth Winegarner
SnippytheGrammarDog
Paul Nevins
Chauncey DeVega
Belinda T.
Erica K
Salon.com
Comments
I couldn't agree more. It's interesting how this gets spun as "bi-partisanship". It's called hostage taking.
"...hostage taking." And terrorism.
I am also on the fence about the bill. The economists seem to like it, but I'm no economist. I do have the feeling that this bill was hastily thrown together at the eleventh hour and I can't see how you can spend close to a trillion dollars without more consideration.
It seems if we are to spend a trillion dollars, most of that should be spent on infrastructure wich is a sure fire way to create jobs. Much of the stimulus package went to tax cuts on the Republican's insistence. That saved some jobs, but it didn't get the economy moving for anyone but the rich. Good for them, but what about the rest of us?
We need jobs, not tax cuts for the rich. They've nearly doubled their income in the last ten years. If anything they should be paying way more taxes, not less.
Of course, if the Bush tax cuts run out the Thugs will try to find a way to blame the Dems. On the other hand, if they expire and the American people hold the Thugs accountable, they could put immense pressure on them to get things done. Time will tell.
M.Rodgers,
If we go back to 2006 and look at the capitulations by Dems to Repubs since that time, we see a steady trend of increasing surrender by the Dems on point after point and I can't see that we have really gained anything substantive for those capitulations, aside from Obama's weakened position, the weakening of the Dem Party and the loss of many opportunities.
The Dems could have stood firm on many issues, and when no progress was made, taken the message to the public about exactly how Republicans failed to work toward any progress. Instead, the Dems have surrendered and will now be blamed, rightfully so, for the failures of the policies they have passed under Republican terms.
We've seen the Republicans even say no to their own suggestions once the Dems have endorsed them, so the game the Repubs are playing is pretty obvious, straightforward and only fools would continue to play.
Even passing the tax cuts initially was a game that should never have been played; the Dems back then should have been the "party of no" and simply killed these cuts, especially when they were essentially also voting to fund wars, but instead they played along even when many experts (and those of us with some common sense) already knew that the game would end exactly where it is today -- with these debates about expiration and the intention of extending the cuts with the idea of gradually making them permanent at the expense of the average American. It was never difficult to see, which is why it is so difficult to not believe the Dems were simply complicit rather than duped.
Regardless of whether they were complicit of duped, they come out of it with a stench that is nearly impossible to deodorize, now. They have two years to break out the deodorizers and incense and perhaps get rid of that stench.
This is where we are, now; in a position where we don’t trust ANYTHING positive from the Democrats because they’ve so consistently disappointed in recent years. I confess that absolutely any hope I feel is based purely in desperation and emotion with very little, if any, intellectual reason.
As I said, “…I’m remaining skeptical until I see where the issue ends.”
I'm not sure Democrats in the public are yearning for a fight on this, though. Just reading the posts here on OS, I get the impression many Dems are actually happy with the deal, even proud of it. Not sure why, but there it is.
We could probably come up with all kinds of possible explanations for the behavior you describe, and my thinking is that there are probably a variety of valid explanations, not just a single explanation.
People who say they are "proud" of this deal are either totally out of touch, or incapable of connecting the dots of a more complex web of interactions like those set up by this "compromise".
Many of them may be so invested in the Democrat versus Republican mindset that all they see is that the Democrats will pass another piece of legislation, which they see as a win.
One large group of people who support this deal are probably those among the long-term unemployed who are feeling stress about their benefits running out, which is a short-term solution for a problem that is a long-term problem. In essence, the solution is not a solution, but a temporary bandage that will cause more long-term damage.
I think those of us who are opposed to this deal are opposed primarily because of the long-term problems this deal will create if enacted in its current form. It seems to me that this deal is analogous to finding oneself in a hole out of which one wants to be and digging deeper thinking that will get you out.
How soon will we revisiting this very set of problems again finding them even worse because of this deal? It's a strong likelihood it won't be too long a time.