Atlantis Alumni

Sunday, April 10, 2011

No Leadership From Obama



Photo: A neat place in the "meat rack" in between Cherry Grove and The Pines

Arianna Huffington:

Memo to the president: You show leadership by producing a good economy, not hailing a compromise that will actually hobble the economy.


The frustration that many of us on the left feel with Obama has been exacerbated by his failure to exercise leadership in the recent battle over the budget. The president should be using the bully pulpit he has to argue forcefully for shared sacrifice. Cuts alone are not the answer. Tax cuts for millionaires must end. Tax rates for the wealthy class must go up. They have to pay their share. Obama knows this but he's rather focus on getting re-elected than exercising decisive leadership and pushing for traditional Democratic Party principles. When George W. Bush was president, he fought for the principles that his right wing base held dear. But Obama refuses to get into the fight, preferring instead to be seen as a mediator. This is why the Republicans won this round over the budget in spite of the fact that we have a Democratic Party controlled senate and a Democrat as President. We need leadership from Obama. Will we ever see it?

3 comments:

ed foley said...

They're all politicians. If you think there is a real difference between Bush and Obama, I'll buy your cow for a handful of magic beans. None are capable of honesty and they are never trustworthy. Left or right. They are not in politics to help you. Guess who they really want to help?
That aside, How have you been?
My cousin's wife is Swedish and they live close to Hamburg near the Danish border.
I did a contract legal translating job job near Christmas that took me on a G-5 from NY to Madrid to Nairobi and on to Turkey, St. Petersburg and Shannon before returning to NY and home to Fort Lauderdale.
While in St. Petersburg, I was told the Baltic Sea was actually fresh water that far east and only got salty by the bridge from Denmark to Sweden.
BTW check U-tube for the Swing Girls video. The bone players should bring back some good memories.
PS I found George McKenna living in Texas on facebook. I couldn't find you but I'm there as Ed Foley Pompano Beach, Florida. Darryl Petrarca is there as well, living in Seattle.
Ed Foley

ed foley said...

A thought to consider - several years ago when the Dems dominated the Florida legislature and the Governor's mansion. They decided to 'tax the rich' by taxing the hell out of the yacht manufacturing business in South Florida. The businesses moved to the Bahamas to escape the high taxes and thousands of working people were out of work. It was a fiscal slaughter of formerly middle class taxpayers.
Beware the effects of unintended consequences.
The state is working hard to lure those companies back to the mainland but once burned...
Consider Sen. John Kerry, a very wealthy lefty who won't dock his yacht in MA because of the high fees and taxes. Seriously, can anyone blame him?
Cut taxes across the board, business booms, tax revenues soar. Works every time its tried. Taxes are the headsman's axe of social engineering. Raise conglomerate taxes above 18% and the economy starts on a downward spiral.

Jim Kelly-Evans said...

High taxes - progressive taxation - are not economy killers. Just look at the Western European countries where taxation levels are all much higher than in the US. What is killing our economy and our country is the obscene disparity in wealth between the uber-wealthy and the rest of the population. A few smart wealthy people realize this and have spoken out about it (e.g., David Stockman, Warren Buffett.) There is no way we can survive as a leading world power if we engage in multiple wars, and maintain unnecessary military spending with bases all over the world (why do we need them?) and at the same time cut taxes on the wealthy. We jeopardize our future with cuts in education, and we are attacking the most vulnerable in out society by gutting social safety net programs. We're behaving like an end of empire country...eating our own while the most wealthy get wealthier. It's nothing less than shameful.