The Bottom Line
There comes a time when ethical people have to take a stand, and this is one of them. Democrats must reject the premise behind these negotiations. If they don't, it raises serious questions about their party's values, future and social worth.
Today's deficits were caused by wild and reckless tax cuts for the wealthiest among us, along with the cost of two unnecessary wars and the consequences of bank greed and recklessness. It's a terrible mistake to ask the Americans who were wounded most by deficit-causing behavior to carry so much of the cost of fixing it. And to propose cuts to Medicare and Medicaid simply to preserve low tax rates for the wealthy is nothing less than a moral obscenity.
In these dark times, here are the President's and Congress's real and unshirkable responsibilities: To help 25 million un- or under-employed Americans get back on their feet. To stop Wall Street looters from making off with our nation's riches. To restore tax fairness and economic justice. To invest in our crumbling infrastructure. To create economic growth that will fix deficits in the long term. To ensure retirement security for all Americans. To ensure genuine access to health care for all. And to stem the growing tide of poverty.
Maybe these professional politicians are constitutionally hardwired to compromise and deal, and are therefore incapable of recognizing when doing so is to reinforce great wrongs. But if they can't see it, we'll have to show them -- with phone calls, emails and a very clear message about the consequences they'll face next November if they go through with this plan.
This proposal, along with the whole Super Committee process, is a dying gasp from the failed "bipartisan" economic consensus that brought us deregulation, the financial crisis, rampant banker criminality, and inequitable distribution of wealth. It must be discarded with all the other refuse of that cynical, tragical, failed experiment.
Politicians who don't understand that may wind up being discarded, too.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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