Obama is just another politician
While Obama ran his campaign claiming he would tax the wealthy...
Obama said he would pay for this tax plan by closing corporate loopholes, cracking down on international tax havens and increasing the dividends and capital gains rate for the wealthiest Americans.
...now it appears that he has changed gears.
Mr. Obama pledged Wednesday to attack surging spending on entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, and he promised to lay out specific federal programs to cut when he unveils his first budget blueprint next month.
He further stated:
President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be "a central part" of his administration’s efforts to contain federal spending, signaling for the first time that he would wade into the thorny politics of entitlement programs.
Cutting Social Security and Medicare? This is change?
As Mark Weisbrot pointed out in 2007, Social Security is fine and should be left alone.
...there is not the least bit of urgency regarding Social Security, and it would be best to take the issue off the table entirely until we have at least a few years of public education....
...In fact, the first cohort of baby boomers (those born in 1946) will begin retiring in just a couple of months, since many people take their Social Security at age 62 (with a correspondingly reduced benefit). Our Y2K moment is upon us, and nothing will happen - because the baby boomers' retirement has already been financed.
Back in 1983, when Social Security really was running out of money, with just a few months of payments on hand, Congress raised the payroll tax substantially. This was done deliberately in order to pile up a surplus to finance the baby boomers' retirement. And so it did: that accumulated surplus stands at more than two trillion dollars today, and is increasing at a rate of $190 billion annually.
Overlooking the fact that Social Security is doing just fine, what happened to taxing the wealthy to pay for his plans? Why instead has he decided to screw the poor, elderly, and the handicapped?
While Obama has already announced that he won't reverse the Bush tax-cuts to the wealthy, this is taking it a step further.
The man who was supposed to bring "change" is, unfortunately, looking more and more like just another politician.
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JD,
I am mystified by the recent comments from the Obama camp. I, for one, do not believe that the Obama administration will keep the tax cuts to the wealthy intact. It was just too front and center during the campaign. To back track on that issue will cause a major backlash... (and a liberal blogger's call to arms). I am wondering if we may be just a bit too anxious to see "change" or could this be Obama's "read my lips" moment?
Thoughts?
Great piece.
LPL
Generally, I don't trust someone who wants the Presidency as badly as Obama clearly did. It is a difficult job in the best of times and something that most people wouldn't want to be saddled with. So I am not blown away by his turn away from the campaign promises.
Unfortunately, I truly do think he is just a politician. I think his platform for his campaign was whatever the people would vote for. As the President, I think he will do what a man who wants to be reelected in four years will do...run to the middle and work from there.
JD,
You said it in your last line... "run to the middle and work from there." If I recall correctly, GWB ran as the "uniter" and on a platform of "compassionate conservatism" and we all know how that turned out. He scored major centrist points with independents and some Dems at the time but soon thereafter unleashed the neoconservative monster that has ruined this country. That being said, I am not implying that Obama is being stealthy, but I think that patience, especially from the left may be the best tack. I can assure you, the moment he proposes "republicanesque" legislation or signs a compromise bill to placate the "right", I will be the first in line to call him out!
Here is an article written by someone who appears to have great faith in Obama...and even he believes that Obama needs to be pushed.
A good quote from the article:
Franklin Roosevelt's example is useful here. After his election in 1932, FDR met with Sidney Hillman and other labor leaders, many of them active Socialists with whom he had worked over the past decade or more. Hillman and his allies arrived with plans they wanted the new President to implement. Roosevelt told them: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."
Even if Obama is truly liberal/progressive (which ever term you want to use) I think his actions must be commented on. He must be pushed to make sure he keeps his promises. The people who elected him deserve the man they elected.
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