While it is a Republican deal, it's the Democrats who are still the majority voting to keep these tax breaks for the rich. If they don't want it done, they still don't have to do it. It's not like their jobs are on the line anymore. But it's a compromise that needed to be made in order for those people without jobs to still receive benefits.
Are the Democrats happy about it? No, of course not. To say they are upset would be a major understatement. Why would they be happy about it though? The leader of their party rolled over and allowed something like this to happen. Will they vote for it, probably. But don't expect any of them to send Christmas cards to President Obama.
My point is the majority of congressional Democrats are lame ducks anyway. Why fight for something else when you don't have a job to come back to after the holidays. It's like working at a factory. If tomorrow you were told that you were being replaced by a machine at the beginning of the year, would you work as hard to make sure you kept your job? Probably not because you're going to lose it anyway. That's going to be the Democrat's logic behind allowing this and voting for it. They have nothing to fear anymore and just need to get something done that's worthwhile. Now, I'm not saying the tax break is worthwhile. I'm saying the extension of benefits is.
And furthermore Obama knows he's probably not going to get re-elected if elections were held tomorrow, especially with the turn of events in November. He's trying to make the Right happy so he can get more votes in the general election in 2012, which probably won't happen. He's just fighting an uphill battle at this point and beating his head against a brick wall. There's no way out for him now and he needs to realize that there will probably be no second term. He needs to get back on his agenda instead of catering to the Right because if he doesn't there's no way a Democrat will get within 10 feet of him in 2012. If he's not going to stand on the principles he ran on in the first place, why would anyone stand by him?
Also, Obama isn't solely to blame here, just like George W. Bush isn't solely to blame for the mess we're in, but I'll get to that later. We have to realize that politics is a series of compromises, and while we don't like it, we have to accept the fact that things are done for our own good. That's why we elected these officials in the first place. That's also why the founding fathers decided to have elected officials because the general population isn't well-informed enough to make these tough decisions. That's not an insult. It's just historic fact. So if you don't like what they're doing, then get out and vote.
What I'm ultimately saying is Obama is fighting a losing battle right now and has to do certain things to make people happy. Whether we like it or not, it's for the greater good. He inherited this office with a mess to clean-up and can't really stick to what he set out to do. I'm not saying it's anyones fault we're in this mess because I can't really pinpoint if it was Bill Clinton who put us there or Bush. Either are probable candidates because Clinton withdrew funding from the military that Bush had to put back in, but if we didn't go to one war that wasn't really necessary we wouldn't have spent as much and the deficit wouldn't be sky high. Also, the economy in the tank can't be blamed on any one president. Anyone with a degree in economics can tell you that. But we're in a mess regardless of who's to blame and what actually happened. But a good president leads us as we falter. He's sitting at his desk asking himself "What the hell do I do now?" But when you have a timid party behind you it's hard to actually get anything done. His first 100 days were pretty much wasted when he got into office. He passed a couple of bailouts, which did save businesses whether we liked it or not, but ultimately he didn't get a fair chance to lead at first. Not that he's really leading now.
He is also going back on some of his campaign promises (i.e. the tax breaks), which is fine because it's actually producing something useful. But overall I'd give his presidency so far a C+ and that's only because he did get healthcare reform passed, which has been a difficult task for other presidents. It's not perfect mind you, but it's a start. He also pulled troops out of Iraq, which was definitely necessary.
Obama is a better president than Bush for sure, but that's not saying much. It's like saying Gerald Ford was better than Richard Nixon. That doesn't necessarily make him a top president, but it's better than what we had. So, in essence, we've stepped sideways and are dodging bullets more than we did up and avoided the gun all together.
Disclaimer: Some of this blog was taken from comments I made on Facebook regarding the tax break vote.
Obama really had no choice other than to give the Republicans their tax break. Soon the Republicans will have the house and would vote to give the wealthy their tax break anyway. At least this way the Democrats get /something/ in return. There is a silver lining to this vote. We get to point out the Republicans' hypocrisy on the deficit issue next election. The right got the house by screaming about deficits and how we need to reduce them, but when it really comes down to it all they really care about is giving themselves and their rich buddies tax breaks. With an added bonus of further increasing the wealth gap. They are trading billions of dollars in additional deficits for this. I can't wait for our chance to throw it in their big, fat faces.
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