Last night I spent some considerable time in viewing President's Obama's speech from the White House and the reply from House Speaker Boehner. What struck me was the complete disdain that the House Speaker had for the President of the United States. References were to "Obama". Not even President Obama. Not even The President. Boehner was in full mud slinging mode fully aware that any concessions that the Republicans made to the Democratic President would be leveraged into the next election. Every independent pundit tells us that trying to remedy the US deficit situation without even modest increases in taxes is folly.
To reduce the deficit by spending decreases is fanciful thinking. There are so many intrenched lobbyists in Washington that, in the end, Congress will continue building bridges to nowhere. The cuts to defence spending will be undercut by the military lobby. And so it goes. Democrats will not suffer any cuts to social spending entitlements and the President will lose on both sides. This also goes for "tax reform". For this read taking away subsidies and tax support for oil and gas, farmers, mortgage interest deductions etc. Not likely. The only real way to raise money is the old fashioned way: taxes. What is being proposed is reasonable: that is a tax on incomes over $250,000. About 90% of the taxpayers will not be affected and the President has promised a tax holiday on tax deductions at source. However, the lunatics in the Tea Party cannot countenance any taxes--no way, no how. If they did, they could not explain their position to their constituents and most, if not all, would become one term congressmen and women.
I had an interesting conversation with a thoughtful American friend and business associate. He is a right wing conservative and makes no apologies about it. However, he tells me that he is "ashamed" of his government and his country. He believes that politicians on both sides of Congress has brought shame on the country. He sees that taxes on the "rich" is a balanced approach to deficit reform. However, what he said next floored me: There is a general conception among conservatives that Obama has a "hidden agenda" that is socialist and that if he is allowed to continue he will drag the country farther to the left than take most left leaning liberal would countenance. America, he says, is headed for a single payer healthcare system that will bankrupt the country. Obama, he says, is "soft on Islam" and his position on Israel (my friend is not Jewish) is appalling. That is why the President has lost the respect of the nation. Or so my friend alleges. He vehemently hopes that Obama will be a one term President and will be remembered most for the fact that he is black.
Ahhhh, I said. There's the nub. I told my friend that the country--and particularly the conservatives, have not forgiven Obama his blackness. There is still a rankling that a black man made it to President before, say, a Hispanic or a Jew. What's more, is that he's a smart black man! An even greater offence against humanity. He must be devious and have a "hidden agenda". Of course my friend said that this was nonsense. Obama's blackness has nothing to do with it, he said. But when we spoke further about the birth issue and his hidden affinity for Islam (his father was a Muslim), he conceded that this worm has been firmly planted in the minds of conservatives as if it were an urban legend. There is very little of that kind of race mongering among liberals and independents. It's among the Tea Party and renecks that this legend persists.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. There is no doubt that a solution will be reached. No one wants the US to default on its debts. But the aftermath will have a considerable effect on US politics for some time to come.
Bernie.
No comments:
Post a Comment