Thursday, August 4, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday you called the disastrous debt ceiling bill a “compromise.” This bill was no compromise. It was a total capitulation to the rightwingnut Republican ideologues. It was what they demanded and what you agreed to behind closed doors, no Democrats allowed. While the rich are celebrating, flying their kids to summer camp in private jets, buying $1,500 shoes at Bergdorf-Goodman and $9,000 dresses at Nordstrom’s, the pensioners of Prichard, Alabama lost everything when their town went broke, the people of Central Falls, Rhode Island had their pensions cut in half so bondholders–more rich folks–could be paid off, and the rest of us are trying to figure out if we have a future or not and how to pay the bills right now. That “Select Commission” that’s going to come up with a plan for another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction? A sham. Twelve members, equally divided between Republicans who have vowed, “not a penny in increased taxes,” and Democrats who have shown no spine or inclination to fight for the not-rich, doesn’t have a hope in hell of agreeing on anything and the automatic cuts that will result guarantee that the notrich will get the shaft while the rich continue to fly around in their tax-exempt jets and buy luxury goods from Nieman-Marcus and Bergdorf-Goodman. You were right about one thing, though, Mr. President: The whole debt-ceiling-budget-cutting crisis was manufactured. But while you laid the blame at the Republicans’ doorstep, you were equally complicit. Remember the Bush tax cuts you extended last December? Republicans wouldn’t have had an opportunity to manufacture this current crisis if you’d done the right thing and vetoed that bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that letting those unjustified and immoral Bush tax cuts expire would raise $3.6 trillion over ten years. No cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. $3.6 trillion! That’s $1.5 trillion more than the slash-and-burn Republicans are demanding. That’s almost as much as you proposed in your “Grand Vision.” You could have refused to extend the Bush tax cuts, you could have fought for We the People and fairness and equality and democracy but you didn’t. Instead, you not only capitulated, you gave them more than they asked for. Welcome to Obamamerika, land of the haves and the have-nots, land of equality, justice, and freedom for the rich. Who are you Mr. President? A lot of us would like to know. You’re sure not who you claim to be.