Krugman: Obama and the One Percent

[hfojvt]

72. I love it when Obama supporters

agree with Bush supporters.

Classic ODS - Obama defense syndrome.

Suddenly it is "class warfare" to be against policies that favor the top 20% over the bottom 60%.

The bottom line is - Obama did not HAVE to make most of the Bush tax cuts permanent - he CHOSE to.

He also did not have to tell a bunch of lies about it either.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/fiscal-cliff-obama_n_2398544.html

Obama: "An essential premise of my campaign was to change the tax code that was too skewed towards the wealthy, at the expense of working, middle class Americans...."

Obama (continuing):Tonight, we have done that (by passing ATRA).

Except that an honest assessment of what ATRA does, is that it took the Bush tax cuts, which were too skewed to the rich, and it made most of them permanent. And the people who get most of the benefits by making that law, which Obama both negotiated, praised, and signed - the rich.

So he took tax breaks for the rich which were set to expire and instead of letting that happen, he made most of them permanent.

Yes it is my Rubicon, and I don't really care what Obama promised. Back when I was trying to defend him against daily attacks here, his detractors would say "you will defend him no matter what he does." I said, no, I have a line in the sand, and if he crosses it, then I am done with him.

Now was this Rubicon entirely my invention, or did I perhaps in 2011 get a bunch of letters from Michelle Obama, with picture postcards of the Obama family, and the letters said "Barack has spent every day, fighting for YOU and we need you to send money so we can keep fighting." (a paraphrase, not a quote, it's not like I kept the letters).

Maybe that wasn't a lie. Maybe Michelle just figured that, as a former donor, I was also a member of the top 20%, and thus Obama really was fighting for me.