so, it looks like tax cuts are dead. on the other hand, MAYBE the dadt repeal will go through. no clue on the Dream Act yet, but i think the vote on that is wednesday.
first of all, the tax cuts. as expected, the House passed the middle class ones only, and the Senate GOP filibustered them. and all of them pledged to not let anything else come to a vote (by filibustering) until their rich people tax cuts are secure. sigh. of course that means they let unemployment benefits expire too, because they don't care about the jobless either.
ok, look. them being assholes and continuing to be assholes is not new, and it leaves the Dems with two options here. 1) stand up and fight for their position on this, forcing them to filibuster this vote until the end of the session. which they will. the consequence of that is pretty bad, because it will never pass. at the end of the year, taxes will go up on EVERYONE, and they never managed to get to anything else, like repealing dadt, extending UI, Dream, etc. so, i honestly think this option is out.
2) pass all the budget-busting unpaid-for tax cuts for 2 years, in return for an extension of unemployment benefits now (hopefully). and the chance to at least get to this other stuff they have to do, and only have a chance of doing before the republicans take over.
so, yeah, it's gonna be option 2. which sucks. it shows them they can effectively blackmail the president to get what they want, so we have more of that bullshit to look forward to. if taxes go up on everyone the republicans don't care, because they know they can blame the democrats and obama for it. and they just don't care about extending jobless benefits because they don't care about the jobless. they have nothing to lose. democrats do care about those things and don't WANT to let taxes go up on everyone, because they know they won't be able to blame republicans for it. i mean, yeah it would be their fault because they successfully held tax cuts for everyone hostage for the benefit of the rich- but no one will care because all they'll see is that taxes went up while the democrats were in charge.
the left has been especially unhappy lately because obama is REALLY falling into the image of a kind of weak, ineffectual leader who just does not stand up for what he believes in. he's not even actively tagging to the right, but is just seemingly drifting, not wanting to say anything or take any clear position- or if he does express an opinion, does NOT appear to fight for it. i don't know what's going on, he seems to be just beaten down by the election and doesn't quite know what to do. the truth is he's never been a big fighter, somebody who LIKES getting into it, fighting with the other side, etc. this has been said about him his whole career, that he's a guy who prefers to veer away from knockdown drag out political fights, always wanting to figure out a way he can actually get something done, get legislation passed, make the compromises to get there, all that stuff.
but the truth is, people respond to strength, no matter what they're actually saying. because most people aren't paying much attention to the issues, but they can tell if someone is standing up for what they believe in, and seems to be taking a clear position on SOMETHING, even if it's a thing they don't really understand. and this is something that i think republicans just get, to the core. they can take highly unpopular positions (tax cuts for the rich is not exactly popular) and they know if they just stand by them and don't let up, they appear to be taking a stand and they get support for doing that. people aren't in tune enough to figure out why they're doing it, they just appear to be doing something.
and the white house needs to wake up and realize that they have got to be perceived as standing up clearly for SOMETHING at some point.
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