Village leaders complain that the president isn’t more enthusiastic about making people suffer
by digby
So, according to the Village media leaders at the Washington Post editorial board, the Republicans have been irresponsible in their budget negotiations but the real problem is that the President hasn’t been working hard enough to rally the country to the Republicans’ position:
The Republicans are right when they say that the sequester was Mr. Obama’s idea, in the summer of 2011, and that he agreed to a deal that was all spending cuts, no tax hikes. He is correct that he hoped the sequester would never go into effect but would be replaced by a 10-year bargain that would raise revenue and slow the growth of entitlement costs. He is correct, too, on the larger point: Such a deal is what’s needed, and the Republicans are wrong to resist further revenue hikes.
But if that’s what’s needed, why is Mr. Obama not leading the way to a solution? From the start, and increasingly in his second term, Mr. Obama has presented entitlement reform as something he would do grudgingly, as a favor to the opposition, when he should be explaining to the American people — and to his party — why it is an urgent national need.
They also say that it’s the congressional Democrats’ fault for saying they are against these “entitlement” cuts in the negotiations. Because everyone knows that the only thing that really matters is cutting the hell out them. That should be obvious to any Very Serious Person. And while the President has obviously offered many cuts to these entitlements and pledged his intentions since before he was elected, he hasn’t done it with the relish and enthusiasm that’s required to satisfy these ghouls. After all, if you can’t enjoy blaming the middle class and working people for all the nation’s ills — and then gleefully telling them must suffer for it when they get old and sick — you really aren’t much of a leader.
You know, I have no idea how much the editorial board of the Washington Post makes. But this fascinating article about media paychecks from 2005 still haunts me whenever I see something like this. At that time Bill Keller of the New York Times was taking home 650k a year. That was eight years ago. And perhaps the WaPo never paid that much and still doesn’t. But I’m going to guess that the people who wrote that editorial are doing vastly better than more than 90% of the nation and will never have to worry about whether they’ll have enough money for food and medicine.
Chris Hayes’ theory about social distance is more relevant than ever as we watch the entire establishment elite of this nation scream bloody murder at the idea their taxes might rise a very tiny bit even as they insist that it’s no problem to cut the already shamefully meager monthly stipend for the elderly because they can buy cheaper food. That’s basically what they want the president to enthusiastically go forth and sell to the people. Shocking that he’s not excited about doing that, although I have to say they aren’t giving him enough credit for doing the very best he can.
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