Obama Defends Republicans?
Posted by admin on Dec.21, 2010, under Uncategorized
Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) explains that now that the president has agreed to a deal that includes numerous tax breaks for the rich, the Obama White House is forced to defend Republican ideas and ideology.
The Hidden Cost of Capitulation
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/the-hidden-cost-of-capitu_b_793969.html
Now that the president has signaled yet another collapse in agreeing to tax cuts for the rich, there is a hidden cost to this capitulation. He is now stuck defending this deal for the rest of his term. I predicted this on the show yesterday and today it’s playing out exactly the way I imagined, with the president sending out advisers to talk about what a great idea it is to give tax cuts to the rich.
Once you sign off on a political position, you own it. This could be a corollary to Colin Powell’s doctrine on foreign policy. Powell said if you break it, you own it. In this case, if you make it, you own it.
The president claims he will fight hard against these same tax cuts two years from now. It’s hard to stop laughing long enough to make a point against that, but I will try. If you are sending out your people to talk up polls about how right the Republicans were on the tax cuts for the rich now, how are you going to send out the same people to talk about how wrong they were – and how wrong you were – two years from now?
These are the things that make me wonder if President Obama has a firm grasp on basic political fundamentals. Yesterday he said that the political reality is that he just didn’t have the votes in the Senate (by far his favorite excuse). He even said “I can’t win” in the Senate. That’s a damning reversal for a man who ran on “Yes we can.”
But more importantly, he doesn’t seem to understand Politics 101. You don’t just count the votes based on how the other side says they’re going to vote. From time to time, you call their bluff. Which means you go to the home states of swing senators like Scott Brown in Massachusetts and Olympia Snowe in Maine and you campaign on this winning issue there until you make them feel the political pain. Then you put them to a decision — do you want to risk your career voting against me on this issue where I have huge popular support or do you want to vote with me? Then you take the vote and they will bend. If he doesn’t understand that, boy did we elect the wrong guy.
Of course, the alternative is that he does understand that but doesn’t ever have the stomach for a real fight. Or even worse yet, secretly likes this deal and will always find an excuse to get more tax cuts and sweet deals for the rich and powerful. In which case, boy did we elect the wrong guy.
Duration : 0:8:53
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral You seem to be willfully ignoring the issue there. You’re absolutely right that employees will not prosper if the employer doesn’t. I never argued against that. The issue occurs when your employer prospers and the employee does not. It’s not only the banking industry that is raking in profits. You are stunningly ignorant about our economy. It’s small businesses that have suffered. Large ones are doing quite well and at the expense of labor.
Corps can’t control you?
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@shalcall Employees …
@shalcall Employees will not prosper if the employer doesn’t… Simple… If you don’t like your job, then quit… The economy is so right now… What profits are you talking about?.. Almost EVERYTHING but the banking industry is collapsing… You act like the Government can create wealth, IT CAN’T, only the private sector pulls in profits… AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I’ll take corporate fascism over government fascism any day of the year… Corporations cannot control you… The Govt can
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral No, I have a problem with increased productivity among the working class with all the gains from that increase going to the wealthy. Working harder for the same or less money while your boss gives himself a raise is not the economic system you want to encourage.
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@shalcall So what …
@shalcall So what you have a problem with is not taxes, you in fact have a serious case of green envy…
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
Obama, TYT and …
Obama, TYT and their follows are commie bastards, global zionists and the spearheads of the NWO… As are Bush, the Big Banking corps and most Pharma companies… Wake up you sheeple… We haven’t had one president that REALLY cared about this country since Theodore Roosevelt died at the turn of the 20th century… Since then we’ve been whored out to other countries’ manufacturing companies and world banking interests…
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
but the ones that …
but the ones that got the funds, especially in the republican states, didnt use the money as they should have. all the states got billions of dollors to help create jobs but they used it for something else. including some of the tax cuts. they redirected the fund. we let too many things happen here. these republicans know exactly what they r doin. where is our fight. we can do better than this. get together in your towns, cities, counties an do something. make these idiots listen.
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
Im not mad at …
Im not mad at Barrack Im mad Joe Biden He just sat there and let him do it
That strike two Obama, one more and you gone !!!!!
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
everytime obama …
everytime obama does something, i notice the uproar of “oh my God, he doin something bad.”
actually whatever he done since he’s been n office hasnt been bad at all. he’s tried to help the middle class more than any president. but a lot of what was suppose to help is stuck in the senate. Obama cant pass these bills, he has to have the help of the congress. this young man isnt helping.
people need 2 crack down on their govenors, senators, mayors. there were plenty of money the states got.
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
Get your passport …
Get your passport and Lets move to Canada
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@sharky0922
I …
@sharky0922
I don’t care if Obama takes Cenks advice or not, but he needs to consider it!
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral Are you kidding me with that video? That’s not the way our tax system works because it leaves income out of the equation. What if I told you that the rich guy paying half of the tab made more than 80% of the income. All of a sudden, it becomes clear that the middle class is being shafted.
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
Plant closings …
Plant closings announced in the United States this week: A printing plant in Greenburg, Ind., costing 220 jobs; a tomato processing plant in Westover, Md., with 103 people fired; an office-supply facility in Mattoon, Ill., with 129 jobs lost. None of these companies are going out of business. They are outsourcing due to unfavorable policies by Obama and the gang. Are you willing to work for $20.00 a day? There are people oversea’s that will work for $5.00 a day so who is getting the jobs?
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@misterzero84 …
@misterzero84 republican stands for = In bed with lobbyists.
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
One point I don’t …
One point I don’t think Cenk brought up. (to an otherwise great video)
Why will Obama win the tax cut fight 2 years from now when the GOP has even more power than they do right now?
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
If he looks like a …
If he looks like a republican
Acts like a republic
Talks like a republican
HE IS A REPUBLICAN
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@Joxman2k 100% …
@Joxman2k 100% true..
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
I wouldn’t believe …
I wouldn’t believe I would say this a few years ago, but down with Obama.
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
America will be a …
America will be a lot better when Cenk is a Presidential advisor
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
Obama the …
Obama the republican!!
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
All remaining …
All remaining democrats must disown Obama
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@shalcall watch?v= …
@shalcall watch?v=Xj7nRc3_EG0
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@gamerman2360 watch …
@gamerman2360 watch?v=Xj7nRc3_EG0
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@bonnevie9 i agree …
@bonnevie9 i agree that getting over politics, would be a HUGE thing. Buzz words seem to mean a of a lot more than what’s actually going on, to a lot of americans. A little childish, rather stupid.
I don’t know.. I’ll keep on hoping for the best, and expecting the worst. Sadly we haven’t seen any “the best” in a long time.
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@cchanderson Tax …
@cchanderson Tax rates are pretty low these days. They have gone as high as 50% for the uppermost bracket during the Reagan years.
December 21st, 2010 on 8:42 pm
@erdal0 Cool story, …
@erdal0 Cool story, account that closed (already? In 2 hours? Run like a bitch)
Still, American communism might be better than a Soviet communism. No economic system runs exactly the same in all countries.