Thursday, December 20, 2012

Sadist in Chief


Poor Barack. He is all upset because the Slaughter of the Innocents has failed to achieve its disaster capitalism purpose -- inspiring his fellow politicians to bargain away the social safety net just when the national attention is conveniently focused on marathon funeral processions in Connecticut.  Those selfish Republicans have disobeyed a cardinal rule of the Shock Doctrine, which is that you never let a good crisis go to waste.The optimal time to pounce and ram through programs that hurt people is when people are already hurting too much to notice or care.

 Barack Obama actually mouthed that precept right out loud at his press conference yesterday:
But, goodness, if -- if this past week has done anything, it should just give us some perspective. If there’s one thing we should have after this week, it should be a sense of perspective about what’s important.... And when you think about what we’ve gone through over the last couple of months -- a devastating hurricane, and now one of the worst tragedies in our memory, the country deserves folks to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good and not tangle themselves up in a whole bunch of ideological positions that don’t make much sense. So I remain, not only open to conversations, but I remain eager to get something done. I’d like to get it done before Christmas.
 
This is what Obama's Nightmare before Christmas would look like: the sneaky “chained” Consumer Price Index would cut as much as $225 billion in spending over the next ten years, half of it from retirees collecting Social Security and the rest from the pensions of retired federal workers, and other undisclosed benefit payments. The expiration of the "Bush" tax cuts would now be extended to families earning above $400,000 a year, an increase from his previous $250,000 line in the quicksand. The partial payroll tax holiday will expire regardless of whether a deal is reached, thus adding a few thousand more in deductions from the average paycheck. The tax on wealthy investors' dividends would decrease from 39.6% to 20%.

The sound of Marley's ghost dragging his chains across the floor was the start of Ebenezer Scrooge's nightmare. But old people bound in chains and strangling on cat food seems to be fodder for an Obamian wet dream. While Scrooge was scared into developing a conscience, Obama will only evolve the semblance of one if it is politically expedient for him to do so.  

The only thing saving us from his grandiose bargain, for the time being anyway, is that John "Plan B" Boehner is still as crazy as he ever was. The frenemy of our imaginary friend is our friend.  




4 comments:

Pearl said...

There is only one way to take money out of the hands of the ruling classes.
Pass a law that no one can run for office for the presidency or choices for
cabinet members or advisors, or for Congress who has earned more than an
average wage, to be determined.
And of course, any funds for elections to come from a central fund divided
equally.

. One of the reasons that FDR was able to create so many meaningful projects
and decent legal restrictions was that wealth was not as available for
buying and selling lawmakers at that time and he was able to surround his administration
with people of truly good will and purpose. He was also able to fight the
mentality of corruption trying to topple him. But today the leadership and
power of wealth concentrated in a small proportion of hands, is another
story altogether.


"You see things; you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?"
? George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah

Outsida said...

Why has the chief of the executive branch, Caveman Obama, once again inserted himself into the legislative branch's negotiation process? And why is he complaining that the Republicans just can't say 'yes' to him and they should take him out of the equation?

I bet they'd like to take him out of the process. He can't even be trusted by his own party, so we can imagine how the opposing party must feel. Oh wait, which IS the opposing party?

The President needs to be the center of attention in public issues, and the hidden hand in selecting the latest victim of his targeted killings and other war crimes. Either way, it's a power trip and it's pathological.

Denis Neville said...

Rethugs were handed Social Security with Obama’s sword in it on a Christmas platter. This Christmas gift from the “Sadist in Chief” would have allowed them to blame Democrats for cutting Social Security. And they didn't take it!

Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp said it was “a victory for Republican principles.”

Hear the Chief Grinch’s wail from the White House, “I would've gotten away with it, if it hadn’t
been for you useless idiots!"

Will the Sadist publicly take his last offer off the table, saying that he’s returning to his initial position?

Cynical me cannot help but think that the Conciliator-in-Chief, with his frustratingly flexible spine, will step up and save Boehner.

Cutting Social Security is his plan and has always been his plan.
It is irresistible to Obama.

He strikes another Grand Betrayal deal with Boehner, who sacrifices the Tea Party purists, and Obama’s poodle, Nancy Pelosi, delivers the necessary DINO votes.

We’ll all be off the cliff like Wile E. Coyote, holding that acme anvil.

Jay–Ottawa said...

"The frenemy of our imaginary friend is our friend."

Two thumbs up from my Blackberry in salute for that line!

And yes, how amazing that the enemy camp went out of its way to save our social security bacon this time around, despite our champion's best effort to betray us.

Was there ever a chief executive so consistently duplicitous in just about every endeavour he turns to?

Our Janus-faced Lesser-of-Two-Evils will go on and on this way like the Energizer Bunny for the next four years.