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June 29, 2011
Obama's Strategy For Debt Talks: More Class Warfare (Updated)
Topics: Political News and commentariesRon Fournier makes it crystal clear over at NationalJournal that Barack Obama's far-left ideological bent hasn't changed an iota, he's 'still' a Marxist at heart and can't help himself from falling back on using class warfare to accomplish his political objectives.
Take, for example, the president's Wednesday afternoon news conference that, as Fournier puts it, underscored in striking tones, his strategy for winning the debt ceiling fight with Republicans: Make it a clash of classes ... Rich versus Poor ... Us versus Them ... Those who supports children, food safety, medical research and, presumably, puppies and apple pie versus the rich fat cats who don't:
In Obama's world, Democrats are for kids and Republicans are for corporate jets. That is a sharp distinction that could help put the GOP on defensive, but it may not be enough to persuade Republicans to change their posture on the debt-ceiling talks.Read the whole piece.Republicans have cast Obama as a tax-raiser and a Big-Government spender. This was his jujitsu move to turn their arguments against them. With a hint of disdain, Obama even dredged up the death of Osama bin Laden to score a political point.
"I've been doing Afghanistan, bin Laden and the Greek crisis," Obama said, jabbing Congress for being out of session so much. "You stay here. Let's get it done." ...
In his first full-scale news conference since March, the president insisted that Democrats had compromised in private talks by agreeing to billions of dollars in budget cuts that would hurt their voters. But, he said, Republicans were refusing to bend by not agreeing to eliminate tax breaks to owners of corporate jets and profit-rich oil companies. If Republicans get their way, Obama said, the end result would be unbalanced deal that lifts the debt limit but forces the government to make deeper-than-necessary cuts.
"If we do not have revenues, that means there are a bunch of kids out there who do not have college scholarships," Obama said. "[It] might compromise the National Weather Services. It means we might not be funding critical medical research. It means food inspection might be compromised. I've said to Republican leaders, 'You go talk to your constituents and ask them, "Are you willing to compromise your kids' safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?"'"
Just in case any viewer missed his class-clashing message, Obama referred to corporate-jet owners at least three more times before he took his second question.
Update: Boehner Responds to Obama Presser:
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) pushed back against President Obama's call for higher taxes -- and greater leadership from Congress -- at a Wednesday press conference. "The President's remarks today ignore legislative and economic reality, and demonstrate remarkable irony," Boehner said in a statement. "His administration has been burying our kids and grandkids in new debt and offered no plan to rein in spending. Republicans have been leading and offering solutions to put the brakes on this spending binge. The President has been AWOL from that debate."More here.
Update 2: Jim Geraghty puts Obama's references to corporate-jet owners and tax breaks into it's proper perspective:
Today he mentioned a tax break for corporate jets six times. He didn't mention that he signed legislation preserving the tax code provision into law, or that the grand total of the savings of ending that tax break would be about $3 billion over ten years.Read more for Geraghty's examples as to how easily questions from the White House press corps can take Obama off his game.The man who flies anywhere he wants, anytime, cost-free, complained at great length that other people's private jets are insufficiently taxed. Tomorrow, Obama will fly on Air Force One to Philadelphia, Pa., to attend two DNC fundraisers, where he will probably again denounce the current tax rates on corporate jets, without anyone remarking on the irony.
And in yet another bit of irony, apparently Barry has forgotten that those evil corporate jet owners he's slamming are the very same people he gave stimulus funds to.
Related: CNN's Acosta Derides Conservative Debt Ceiling Pledge as Extreme (Apparently, a pledge to reduce the deficit and cap spending long-term and vote for a strict balanced budget amendment is an extreme measure.)
Posted by Abdul at June 29, 2011 1:56 PM
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