In his blog post, Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day, Robert Reich explains the following:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s compromise on the debt ceiling is a win for the President disguised as a win for Republicans. But it really just kicks the can down the road past the 2012 election – which is what almost every sane politician in Washington wants to happen in any event.
I agree that it is a win for the President, with one proviso. The President needs to get out there and vigorously sell the American people on his economic plan. Although, in the final analysis, Robert Reich identifies the key to success.
Washington insiders will consider the McConnell compromise a win for Obama. But the rest of the country hasn’t been paying much attention and won’t consider it much of a win for either side. Their attention is riveted to the economy, particularly jobs and wages. If those don’t improve, Obama will be a one-term president regardless of how the GOP wants to paint him.
With the current divided government, can Obama do anything before 2012 to improve “the economy, particularly jobs and wages?”
Note The Big Lie being repeated as many times as the Republicans can, “Raising taxes on the rich is a job killer.” I just don’t know why the Democrats don’t spend as much time shooting down The Big Lie as the Republicans spend in spreading it. Instead we need to spread The Big Truth, “Raising taxes on the rich is a job creator.”
I am doing my part on this blog to try to refute The Big Lie. Ask yourself what you can do to counter The Big Lie. Why can’t the President and other Democrats do their part?
I hardly ever get to listen to NPR anymore, now that I don’t commute. However, yesterday I was returning from a meeting in Cambridge and I tuned into the same show.
I was actually disappointed that the non-Heritage Foundation speakers did not come out with an as explicit refutation of the big lie that I was hoping for.
Maybe they did after I turned off the radio in frustration.
Yesterday on my car radio I was able to hear the Diane Rehm show and the Heritage Foundation guy kept defending the Big Lie, whereas the other two (one from the National Journal) kept shooting it down. Several “small business” men callers also pointed out that taxes are of minimal concern to them in running their businesses.