President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to fiscal balance while splendidly applying some intense heat on the GOP House. He said he was open to "compromise" and "new ideas"--two concepts vigorously rejected by tiresome tea partiers--and he reiterated the electorate's recent demand: "cooperation, consensus, and common sense." You will note in this C triad the pregnant omission of John Boehner's "common ground," which has become famously synonymous with GOP entrenchment.
Perhaps the highlight of Obama's news conference was his repetition of "I will not, will not" reduce the deficit the Republican way, and by that he meant, of course, piling more burdens on the backs of those least able to bear the load. Obama's kicker, the highlight of the highlight: The electorate just ratified this choice. A delicious moment.
What's more, Obama reminded that electorate that Damocles' sword awaits us. Congress can do nothing, and watch everyone's taxes go up, or it can follow the dictates of Election Day and simply reimpose Clinton's rate on upper-income taxpayers. This, Obama more than merely implied, is the House GOP's choice.
So do get back to us, won't you, dear Republicans?
The gop line, as stated by McConnell, is that (t)he(y) was not sent to congress to raise anyone's taxes. But reality is that he already voted to raise EVERYONE'S taxes when he agreed to the sequester. I'm sure President Obama will be pressing that point, implicit in his call to pass the middle class cuts now.
You are either for tax cuts (for the middle class) or you choose to raise taxes on everyone. When taxes go up on the middle class, whose intransigence will people notice?
Posted by: samcdc | November 09, 2012 at 01:04 PM
I liked the "let's implement the one thing that we all agree on" bit concerning extending tax cuts for <$250000 income earners.
Posted by: Hsquared | November 09, 2012 at 01:28 PM
Now this is what political capital and earning a mandate looks like. The republicans are going to have to emerge from their bunker sooner or later and face reality, and hopefully free of the burden of facing reelection, Obama will give them a good healthy dose of it for the next four years.
Posted by: AnneJ | November 09, 2012 at 02:37 PM
I listened to the statement on the radio while driving and found myself calling out "Yeh! more than once, even took a hand off the steering wheel to slash "Line in the sand, baby!" at one point.
It was deeply satisfying to listen to our President's calmly delivered ass-kicking.
Posted by: janicket | November 09, 2012 at 04:59 PM