Mr. Obama is back in town (after a long weekend golfing in Hawaii). He’s meeting with senior leaders from Congress today to try and avoid the $600 billion fiscal cliff.
This all started four years ago with the “financial meltdown” and the $900 billion stimulus bill passed to bail out the major Wall Street banks. At the time the annual deficit was about $150 billion, including what we were spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are now all but over.
Obama and the Democrats had control of both houses of Congress at that time. Their budget for the next fiscal year was still $900 billion over what was spent in Bush’s final years. Ditto for the next year and the next.
The Republicans have rolled over on these exorbitant deficits for the last two years even though they had control of the House. Now that it looks like the Democrats plan on $1 trillion deficits indefinitely the conservatives have drawn a line in the sand. No more!
The Democrats and the drive by media have excoriated conservatives for refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy. This resonates with almost everybody, including the wealthy.
The Republicans have explained ad infinitum that “it’s a spending problem” not a revenue problem. People are starting to take notice. The 40 conservative congressmen who blocked Speaker Boehner’s
“Plan B” are supposed to be villains, if you’re a politically correct person.
Team Obama screwed up. They failed to realize that people always root for the underdog. Obama has said repeatedly that he won by a landslide, and this gives him a mandate. It also makes the Republicans the underdog.
Hang in there, Sloopy.
