I was really hoping President Obama wouldn't cave in to the Republicans, yet he has. What is astonishing to me is that the Democratic Congressional leadership was apparently blindsided by the tax cut "deal." The President went before the media and laid out the plan before he even informed the leadership what the deal was! I was hoping that having Joe Biden as his VP, who had been in the Senate for so long, would help Obama avoid this kind of political error. Obama, like the Republicans, has completely misread the mid-term elections. The results had everything to do with the demographics of the people who voted, it wasn't the blank check the GOPers think it was.
Have we learned nothing from what's happening in Europe? Several countries in the European Union have come close to bankruptcy due to high debt. So what did they do? They put into place some "austerity" measures, cutting some services and raising taxes. They realized that you cannot bring less money in, keep spending more, raise the debt ceiling, and expect the budget to ever be balanced. It just simply is not going to happen. But that's exactly what we're doing.
By bluffing and blustering the Republicans got the tax cuts extended for everyone. Why? Because the wealthy are the ones who give to their reelection campaigns! This is why we need public funding for political campaigns, folks. Unless and until we have that, politicians will continue to do what's necessary to get reelected instead of what's best for the country.
Remember the last time we balanced the budget, under Clinton? The Republicans screamed and hollered, but there were 24 million jobs created during the Clinton Administration. What has happened since the so-called Bush tax cuts went into effect? Well, we know what's happened... yet they yell for more. I don't think we necessarily have to have no debt at all, but we do need to get it down to size. China is laughing all the way to the bank.
