"Standing up to hostage-taking is the right
thing to do for the health of America's political system. So stand your ground,
Mr. President, and don't give in to threats."1 -Paul Krugman
Democrats just won big at the ballot box, with
President Obama crushing Mitt Romney and Democrats winning more seats in the
Senate.
But Congress is still headed for a major showdown
over federal spending before the end of the year.
And as Paul Krugman noted last weekend, once again
Republicans are "threatening to tank the economy unless their demands are
met."2
We need President Obama to stand up and draw a
line in the sand to reject any deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare or
Medicaid benefits, or cuts taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
Let's be clear, there are any number of crises that
demand urgent action by Congress — the foreclosure crisis, the unemployment
crisis, the climate crisis to name just a few — but reducing the deficit isn't
one of them.
Furthermore, while politicians and the punditocracy
in Washington are issuing dire warnings in an effort to generate a crisis
atmosphere, the only concrete thing they can point to in order to support their
Chicken Little routine is the so-called "fiscal cliff," the automatic cuts and
tax increases that go into effect in the beginning of the year.
But these cuts and tax increases are themselves the
result of pre-emptive caving by President Obama and others to the Republicans'
earlier (successful) attempts at hostage-taking.
And if you take the danger of spending cuts to heart,
the policy prescription should be stimulus spending, not cutting Medicare or
Social Security benefits or giving away unneeded tax cuts to the
wealthiest.3
As Krugman aptly points out:
"Contrary to the way it's often portrayed, the
looming prospect of spending cuts and tax increases isn't a fiscal crisis. It
is, instead, a political crisis brought on by the G.O.P.'s attempt to take the
economy hostage. And just to be clear, the danger for next year is not that the
deficit will be too large but that it will be too small, and hence plunge
America back into recession."4
The best thing President Obama can do is stay
strong.
It's hard to imagine that President Obama could cut a
better deal in the lame duck than what he could accomplish in the next Congress,
with more Democrats in the House and the Senate.
But there are deeply worrying signs that President
Obama, after overwhelmingly beating Mitt Romney, is intent on cutting a deal
with Republicans before the end of the year.
We can't afford to take anything for granted.
It has been widely reported that President Obama
has offered up benefit cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in
previous deficit negotiations. And while President Obama has said he'd veto any
extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, he has caved on important issues
in the past.
So we need to keep pushing and tell President
Obama to draw a line in the sand. Click the link below to automatically sign the
petition:
Thank you for speaking out.
"Democracy...is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to
have for lunch"!
Liberty...is a well-armed lamb contesting the
vote.
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