To the winner go the spoils. The spoiled political system. The spoiled economy. The spoiled machinations of a spoilt Congress.Yet we elect our president to do things, to produce silk purses from sows’ ears, and President Barack Obama intends to add to his legacy and make history in his final term.Sources knowledgeable with Obama’s 2013 legislative agenda paint the picture of a man emboldened by his recent success at the polls, freed from the need for reelection and convinced he must take a more activist role in the shaping and passage of legislation.
and therein lies his speed bumps the republicans need to deny him his rightful place in history, especially since it is one worthy of the 5th place on Rushmore so far.
we should not reward selfish destructive behavior by those who oppose for our super rich, Reagan proved that it does not trickle down what does is the right wing peeing on the rest of us. 2 years remaining in their tyrannical rule of the house, p to "we the people" if it continues to retard our growth and fertilizes the rich.
First, the raising of tax rates on the wealthy is very much on the table. Obama campaigned on raising taxes “on the wealthiest Americans” and feels his reelection gave him a clear mandate to produce that.
If that is part of a Grand Bargain, fine. But he wants it either way. The Grand Bargain would change the Tax Code to raise rates on the wealthy coupled with “reforms” to Medicare and Social Security. The former will lead to howls from the right, and the latter to howls from the left.
Maybe the howls will cancel each other out, maybe not. The president intends to go forward anyway. He isn’t running for anything again.
Reforming Medicare and Social Security needs to be sold to the left wing of his party not as a way to reduce the debt — no balancing the books on the backs of the elderly — but as a way to ensure the solvency of those programs, especially Medicare, which is unsustainably expensive.
A Grand Bargain is not expected to be accomplished by the current, lame-duck 112th Congress. The kind of legislative wrangling necessary, plus the dotting of the i’s and the crossing of the t’s would take most, if not all, of 2013.
there is a way to stop the deadlock, it starts now and culminates in 2014.
