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Home Front: Politix
Obama: Republicans unified around protecting the rich
2012-12-31
[Iran Press TV] US President Barack Obama
Ready to Rule from Day One...
has blamed congressional Republicans for the so-called fiscal cliff deadlock, saying their refusal to raise taxes on the rich is the main obstacle to finding a solution to the looming economic crisis.

"They (Republicans) say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected," Obama said in a prerecorded interview for NBC's “Meet the Press” program that was broadcast on Sunday.

"That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme," the US president added.

Obama also warned that the failure to reach a deal on taxes and spending cuts would have serious consequences for the US economy.

"If people start seeing that on 1 January this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have had, had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them...then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets," he said.

The president noted said the priority was to ensure taxes do not rise for middle-class families, saying that would "hurt our economy badly."

"That's something we all agree on. If we can get that done, that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff," he said.

In response to ObamaÂ’s comments, House Speaker John It is not pronounced 'Boner!' Boehner
... the occasionally weepy leader of House Republicans...
 issued a statement, saying Obama should not cast blame on Republicans for a possible failure to avert the nearing crisis and that the president was equally responsible.
Posted by:Fred

#12  But, I thought it was about the ATM Machines. What about the ATM Machines?
Posted by: newc   2012-12-31 20:57  

#11  They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The second Amendment guarantees the other freedoms. We are not like other countries where basic rights have been given up as a knee-jerk reaction to singular horrible events caused by deranged individuals. As Americans we are sorry and we grieve but our fundamental rights do not hinge on the acts of the unhinged. If politicians react to such events by chipping away at basic freedoms, they do not understand and or they care little for these basic rights. These rights were maintained across the more than two centuries since we became a country with the blood of patriots. To give up these rights easily is the path to tyranny, statism and dictatorship. History in Europe and other places tells us that giving up these basic rights invites tragedies far larger than the local tragedies we have witnessed recently.
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-12-31 16:38  

#10  It really has become clear that Champ's marxist beliefs ("from each according to his ability, (now itis clear that if you make more than others that is your ability and is expected of you), to each according to his need (and they, the elites, will define the baseline)".
Class warfare is both a way to harness the envy of the masses, and their resentment that others have what they don't (notwithstanding any judgement of their efforts to do the things needed to gain more, work, education, initiative, persistence), as well as a tool to create over time a leveling of expectations from equality of opportunity (American vision of limited government and capitalism) to equality of outcome (socialism/communism in all the dreary variants that have failed).

The bite comes as people begin to see that the fundamental principle of property ownership, whether it is physical, material or capital (wages) is the heart of the change, along with the reversal of the role of government (elites) from servant to master. Many, many of our fellow citizens comprehend nothing of the way the system was based on the idea of true property rights, immune from the reach of government beyond the taxation taken at the inception of ownership. The most egregious example is of course the estate tax, at any level, since it reflects multiple levels of taxation in its creation, and literal confiscatory governmental power at its taking at death, creating an essential life-estate status for any and all property. This is now devolving through the "progressive" tax structure to wider levels that rival or surpass the rates of serfdom in mideval Europe during the feudal ages. People are becomming wage-serfs again, but also now suffer the egregious taking of their earnings disproportionately to pay for the ruling class and their special wards, the 47% of the populace who are essential takers, not makers, and whose voting power is manipulated through emotive slogans and media for the ignorant (broadcast tv and the scerotic print organs in their death throes).

All this sets the stage for the next true requirement, that pesky 2nd amendment, and the need to disarm the burdened class as much as possible, since the true intent of the 2nd amendment was the power to create a standing militia for the common defence, and that was able to resist tyrannical central government, now an ominous portent on the horizon, so much more quickly that ever imagined even a decade ago. (The founding fathers knew their history and grounded in Hobbs, Locke and Rousseau, also saw the power of the Barons and the militia to compel King John to sign Magna Carta, a cautionary tail worthy of knowing).

I know this is a screed my friends, but it is heartfelt and cathartic, and might resonate for many of you as we await the "change" this truly evil man has planned. I am more fearful than at any time in my life for the future of the nation and our form of government.
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2012-12-31 15:30  

#9  Well, The One did want a luxury tax on corporate jets.

Wonder if anyone would think this would repeat, though.
Posted by: Pappy   2012-12-31 14:53  

#8  Easy enough to fix.
Begin taxing luxury goods:
1) cars over $30k
2) non-commercial boats
3) housed providing more than X sqft per occupant
4) property providing less than X $ of declared income per unit
5) private aircraft providing less than X $ of declared income per passenger seat mile
6) second 'residences', etc...
A good start.
Posted by: Skidmark   2012-12-31 13:24  

#7  Class warfare continues.
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-12-31 12:45  

#6  "...then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets."

Since when has Obama cared about markets?
Posted by: Raj   2012-12-31 10:48  

#5  Say hi to John Corzine for me, will ya?
Posted by: Pheting Gleaque9435   2012-12-31 09:44  

#4  Our governing class is united around protecting the rich. Statement is purely a smokescreen.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2012-12-31 09:25  

#3  Obama: Republicans unified around protecting the rich

Really??? How many banksters have you sent off to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in the last term for their market activities that lead up to the 2008 crash and market manipulation? Can we mention MF Global? /rhet question

Now there's campaign donation protection!
Posted by: P2Kontheroad   2012-12-31 08:46  

#2  Keynesian Kenyanian logic sez we're all bloody rich!
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-12-31 01:23  

#1  I, me, they. I, me, they. I, me, they.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-12-31 00:11  

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