Posted: 8/6/2009 4:54:04 AM EDT
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Wall Street Journal A very long time ago, it was January. Barack Obama stood at the mountain top, bathed in the new light of a historic presidency and gazing down on a congressional lake afloat with contented Democrats. Those who spoke against him were vilified for not wanting this smart, vibrant president to “succeed.” How could he fail? Eight months into his presidency, Mr. Obama may do just that—fail. Back then, few would have argued persuasively that at the August recess the Obama plan to redraw the American health-care landscape could be at risk of failure, with Democratic Members of Congress going home to halls full of raving constituents. Why is this happening now? Mr. Obama was clear during the campaign about his plans for health care. He described the public insurance option. He spoke of the need for “sacrifice,” meaning the wealthy would pay higher taxes for his agenda. If after all this Mr. Obama gets half a loaf or less on health care, look for the reasons among the hopeful, admiring people who voted for him. That is where his support is leaking. Set to one side the progressive left, Congress’s liberal war horses, and the unions. For them, the Obama presidency is their last best hope, and no one will be dropping out. Not so non-movement Democrats, centrists and independents. Start with taxes because conventional wisdom has held for years that federal taxes must rise. Reality check No. 1: This much??!!! I think many of Mr. Obama’s supporters in the upper brackets of politics, who were expected to bear the burden of his “sacrifice” by meekly mailing in higher federal tax payments, are shocked at how high their top marginal rates could go. This is especially true in high-tax Democratic utopias such as New York City, the famous ATM of Clinton-era fundraising, where the top marginal rate for all taxes could hit 60% if the health surtax is imposed. Mayor Mike Bloomberg is competing with Mr. Obama to pull tax revenue out of the same base of taxpayers, and Sen. Chuck Schumer wants to tap them for campaign contributions. Ask these two politicians what they’re hearing from this high-value swath of the Democratic base. Even the fattest cats in time discover the fairness issue. Taxpayers in New York, California and other states at the fiscal brink are asking whether they’d rather pay a jacked-up marginal rate unto death for another federal health-care program or pay taxes to support the quality of life where they live. The newly arrived inhabitants of the Obama White House, who this week floated the possibility of middle-class taxes to pay for their deficit, talk as if the states don’t exist. Factoring in the “millionaire” health surtax, the Tax Foundation’s recent analysis puts the top marginal rate over 50% in 39 states. This is nuts. Even if they back off on the surtax, the health-care debate has made clear the needs and compulsions of this White House, and some loyal Democratic “givers” are backing off (or asking friends about no-tax Tennessee). They say there’s confusion in the land about the health-care bill. Here is the biggest confusion, and for many Obama voters it’s reality check No. 2: For years, Democratic politicians said the health-care problem was about “47 million uninsured Americans.” Whatever the merits, many people were willing to do something for those with no health insurance. Suddenly, these voters discovered that ObamaCare is about them. When did that happen? Every policy wonk in America may have known this was always an everybody-into-the-pool proposal, and Mr. Obama has talked himself blue saying people could stay with the insurance they’ve got or the doctor they’ve got, “if you’re happy with that” and don’t like the public option. A lot of people simply don’t believe this. How come? White House adviser David Axelrod said this week, “Our job is to help folks understand how this will help them.” It could be they’ve already thought about that. For many people, the first six Obama months already have been an unsettling Dantesque tour through levels of government “help” they never knew existed. Normally government activity flows by like unnoticed sludge, but Obama’s celebrity got everyone watching. What people have seen is: an $800 billion stimulus package designed by Congress, a $4 trillion budget, massive outlays by an alphabet soup of Treasury and Federal Reserve programs, Barney Frank the symbol of Democratic goals, and then the federal absorption of GM, an American icon. After all this, ObamaCare looks like a bridge too far. They are proposing the biggest federal social program in a generation, which no one can understand (or explain), and which requires permanent federal tax increases starting with the wealthiest but threatening to engulf the middle class. The harder the White House and Democrats push this idea, the worse it could get for them. Americans may have arrived at the limit of how much government they want or will pay for. If Barack Obama can’t sell more of it, no one can. Obama is gaining speed and losing altitude - it will be quite the spectacular crash. But what else should we expect from the ultimate poseur for all seasons. |
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Normally government activity flows by like unnoticed sludge, but Obama’s celebrity got everyone watching. Spot on. People who voted for "the first black president" and never paid attention to politics before in their lives have been watching closely this time around, and are shocked to discover how government actually works. |
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Quoted:
fuck Obama. I hope the crash to reality is slow, brutally painful, and leaves permanent damage If he can't get his health care plan passed, stick a fork in him, he is done but part of me also wonders, is this a sacrificial lamb? what if democrats are staging this to be defeated to help them win over midterms? |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
fuck Obama. I hope the crash to reality is slow, brutally painful, and leaves permanent damage If he can't get his health care plan passed, stick a fork in him, he is done but part of me also wonders, is this a sacrificial lamb? what if democrats are staging this to be defeated to help them win over midterms? Those town hall meetings show quite plainly that if it's their plan, it's backfiring. |
Why he "may" fail?!?!
He's failing miserably as it is......in an epic way. Fuck him........his followers......his cronies.....his staff......his supporters.....his contributors.....fuck his entire administration. All of them can suck farts outa my white, yankee ass. 
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The irony here is that the Republicans will return to power, not because they DESERVE it with a vision, a plan, and a mission, which they DON'T have, but because the democrats are simply showing how bad they really are with their own vision, plan, and mission, which is to destroy every last good thing about America. CJ |
I sent it to the new White House snitch line [email protected] 
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For many people, the first six Obama months already have been an unsettling Dantesque tour through levels of government “help” they never knew existed.
What an incredibly vivid and accurate way to describe it. BRILLIANTLY put! Americans may have arrived at the limit of how much government they want or will pay for. If Barack Obama can’t sell more of it, no one can.
Let's hope. 
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CRASH= A person being ejected from the aircraft with a broken back on fire burning with Jet-A unable to move. This person then notices a bulldozer coming directly at him. He screams but is unheard by the operator. Even when the operator backs up again after feeling a mild bump. 
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Quoted:
Why he "may" fail?!?!
He's failing miserably as it is......in an epic way. Fuck him........his followers......his cronies.....his staff......his supporters.....his contributors.....fuck his entire administration. All of them can suck farts outa my white, yankee Southern ass. amen |
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Quoted:
For many people, the first six Obama months already have been an unsettling Dantesque tour through levels of government “help” they never knew existed.
What an incredibly vivid and accurate way to describe it. BRILLIANTLY put! Americans may have arrived at the limit of how much government they want or will pay for. If Barack Obama can’t sell more of it, no one can.
Let's hope. For a change... |
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I have personally had three white, middle class, acquaintances call me to apologize for voting for Obama/Biden. They all got caught up in Hope and Change™ and didn't see the real threat until it was too late. Quoted: Normally government activity flows by like unnoticed sludge, but Obama’s celebrity got everyone watching. Spot on. People who voted for "the first black president" and never paid attention to politics before in their lives have been watching closely this time around, and are shocked to discover how government actually works. |
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Good summary from Victor Davis Hanson on Obama's Problem.
Public is Resisting Obama's Liberal Agenda
Why does President Obama want to implement all at once radical changes in American foreign policy, environmental policy, education, health care and the tax code? The answer is easy: If he does not achieve these initiatives soon, he never will. Almost none of Obama's proposed policies any longer enjoy majority support among voters –– and many of them were not clearly outlined to voters during the campaign. Current polls show more Americans are against than in favor of his version of health-care reform. Nearly seven in 10 are wary of government takeovers of the economy, like the bank and car bailouts. Over half do not want more borrowing and higher deficits. In response, Obama and the technocrats around him insist they know better than the average voter what is in America's long-term environmental, health, educational and financial interests. So they're rushing to save us from ourselves by planning all sorts of legislation that would change our lifestyles. Even without popular support for individual policy changes, a still-personally-popular Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress hope to ram these policies through based on the president's charisma and their legislative majorities. White House politicos hold up Franklin Delano Roosevelt as their model. He likewise came into office after economic upheaval and spoke with eloquence –– and used both to permanently move American society markedly to the left in ways undreamed of a few years earlier. Unfortunately for Obama, there is some indication that, despite his constant TV appearances and nonstop interviews, time is running out –– and he may not remain popular long enough to push through his liberal agenda. Why is he winded? One, he ran on a promise not to raise taxes on 95 percent of American households. But even with his proposed new income, payroll and surcharge taxes on the so-called wealthy, his administration will run a $2 trillion annual deficit. Even members of the Obama administration, like Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary, are now not ruling out some sort of new tax on everyone. Second, Obama billed himself as a novel, transcendent candidate above partisanship, racial politics and the usual Washington sleaze. But he has earned almost no bipartisan support for his proposed legislation. After six months in office, he still blames George Bush for much of the country's problems. When Attorney General Eric Holder called Americans "cowards" for not discussing race honestly, when Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor claimed Latina judges would make wiser decisions than white male judges in some cases, and when the president himself said police had "stupidly" arrested his friend Henry Louis Gates, the public saw more of the old tired identity politics. And despite promises of a new ethics in Washington, there are still tax avoiders and revolving-door lobbyists in the Obama administration just like in any other past presidency. Third, there is a vague sense of foreboding about the future and the direction the country is going. The amount of money George Bush proposed the government borrow at the end of his presidency now looks small. "Trillion" has replaced "billion" as the common referent for deficits. If things are tough now, what will we do when interest rates rise from their present historic lows and we must pay back the borrowing at much higher rates? There are plenty more questions. Will gas prices climb when the economy improves? And if so, why aren't we talking more about developing more domestic oil, gas, shale, tar sands, and nuclear energy, in addition to wind and solar power? Is it wise to alienate democratic Israel while making overtures with Iran? If apologizing abroad wins applause in the short-term, will such contrition only earn contempt and invite some hostile countries to try things they otherwise would not? So, will Obama race through his agenda before his approval ratings drop further, and he becomes personally as unpopular as his radical initiatives? If in the next few months, the economy surges back, if Obama and his advisers avoid any more divisive racial sermonizing, if the world abroad remains quiet, if the opposition fails to offer constructive alternatives, and if Obama does not renege on more past promises, then he may yet win his race to change America. But right now that's a lot of ifs. |
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Quoted: The irony here is that the Republicans will return to power, not because they DESERVE it with a vision, a plan, and a mission, which they DON'T have, but because the democrats are simply showing how bad they really are with their own vision, plan, and mission, which is to destroy every last good thing about America. CJ Contemplate this on the tree of woe.  |