Two Cents Worth, For A Speech

Well, I've used it in reference to teabaggers, so I guess I should use it about our president: the definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing while expecting a different outcome. In the former case, it's the idea that cutting taxes and regulations makes the economy soar like an eagle. With respect to President Obama, it's continuing to think there's a way to negotiate with Congressional Rs. My god, man, they've said their number one priority is to obstruct, dismantle, teabag and sandbag you until you'll be a one-termer.

So his news conference after the election was among the disappointments he's given me, even as I remain staunchly on his side. Here's the speech I'd have written for him, had he asked:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Well, now maybe we'll find out. After two years of obstructionism and cynical distortions, and after campaigns in which hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by unknown contributors, running highly dishonest ads, Congressional Republicans will now have to put up. Maybe now some of them will reveal what they're really up to. Maybe now, we'll see if any of them are serious about governing and solving the massive problems they left us the last time they were in charge. Maybe now -- and no one hopes so more than me -- we'll find out if they have ideas that make sense for our people, or if they will continue only with their cynical ploys.

Some will remember -- perhaps even some in Congress -- how I tried to reach out to them after my election. Some will recall the seemingly endless months we gave them to pitch in on health care reform, the gang of six as it was called, striving to incorporate Republican ideas into the bill (which was done) in order to get some to support it (which they didn't.) Some might even remember that when President Bush, a Republican as I recall, proposed the bank bailouts, Democrats like myself joined him to do something very difficult, but necessary, regardless of the political consequences. On that he got, we should remember, more help from our side, than from his own.

In tough times, tough decisions are required, ones that rise above petty partisanship. Now we'll find out if the Republicans in charge of the House of Representatives are up to the task of governance. We'll see if they're as good at moving forward as they've been at holding back.

The very first test is nearly at hand, and will signal what they'll do when they have their majority. At the end of this year, the Bush tax cuts will expire; the Bush tax cuts which have been largely responsible for turning the surpluses of the Clinton era into the deficits that followed. If nothing is done, tax rates will return to those of the greatest economic expansion in recent history, and the first and only balanced budget in modern times.

Republicans, evidently oblivious to the deficits those cuts created but unwilling to state how they'd pay for extending them (in fact, they've clearly stated they neither want nor need to pay for them), have demanded a no-compromise approach: extend the cuts for everyone, forever. I've offered a compromise which will retain the cuts for ninety-five percent of Americans, while returning rates on the most wealthy to the time when the most wealthy were still doing very well indeed. They'll be fine, as they always have, and our deficits will fall by hundreds of billions of dollars, helping us immeasurably to regain our financial footing.

So let's see where they stand. On the one hand is continuation of the budget busting status quo, and on the other, as written into the law by George Bush's own team, is the expiration of those cuts and raising of current rates on everyone. In between is where I stand. In between inaction and indefensible. So let's find out. They can do nothing, which has been their style for the past two years, and the rates will expire as the law now requires. Or they can vote to extend all the cuts, to the detriment of our future. If that's the perilous path they choose, I will veto it, faster than you can say "subpoena power."

Or, they can accept reasonable compromise by extending the cuts to those that need them, and eliminating them for those that don't. Because that's the path best for our country. So, let's see what they've got. Let's see if their on the side of meaningful cooperation for the common good, or on the side of the politics of cynicism and personal power above all.

It'll be a good window into our future. People will be watching. And in two years, they'll be voting again.

Sadly, such in-your-facetude is not Barack Obama's style. He's exactly what he said he was during his campaign; and, despite all the evidence to the contrary, he continues to think he can do business with the likes of John Boner (one of the signs at the rally said "Republican majority gives me a Boehner") and Mitch McConnell, who have pledged, strenuously and smugly, not to.

Imagine what those boys'd hear from Fox "news" and the RWS™ if they did try, in the interest of our beloved country, to work together, actually addressing problems over politics.

Imagine. Because we'll never know.

[Update, 11/6: Well, he sort of made the speech.]