Do Obama supporters realize this was the perfect opportunity to take the rich hostage.

[SharksBreath]

Obama has a veto pen.

This could have been about the largest tax hike in American history on the rich.

All he had to do was tell the GOP what he would sign for a clean debt bill.

Then hold the rich hostage.

Let the GOP blow the economy up if they want to.

You tell the GOP to give me a clean bill with the Bush tax cuts for the rich coming to an end and all these loopholes I want closed or I will VETO anything that comes before me.


End of discussion.

Either the rich get it or the rich get it.

66% of the country wants higher taxes on the rich.

Then dare the GOP to blow up the country protecting them.



This was like getting robbed by two guys. One with an index finger pointed under his shirt and the other has a butter knife.

While you have a 44 automatic and refuse to pull it.

[gateley]

1. It's not that easy when you're sitting in the Oval Office, I'd venture

to say.

[dennis4868]

4. exactly....

when you are prez u don't have the luxury of risking having a international financial disaster...you have to be responsible...congressman can go on TV and shout what should be done but then they never explain how they will actually do it and get repubs to go along with them...

[TheMadMonk]

10. When you are the president of the United States...

...you have exactly the luxury of speaking one's thoughts when it comes to the sort of BS that has been going down.

That he has not spoken the thoughts which got him elected since the moment he was elected, says every single thing which needs to be known.

[dennis4868]

15. huh?

can you explain what u said in english?

[SharksBreath]

34. You do realize the republcians just held the country hostage

for a bill that could cost 1.8 million people their job.

Yet your not willing to take the rich hostage.

Where is the argument for a war tax so we could pay off 3 trillion of Bush's debt.

It's called controlling the message.

Which Democrats refuse to do because you can't be a coward to do it.

[indepat]

21. That's why the 14th Amendment rendered hostage-taking null and void unless, of course, the

hostage wants to be taken. :patriot:

[SharksBreath]

32. I guess Democrats have forgotten the Bush years also.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[The Magistrate]

2. Takes A Man With Dead Eyes To Put That One Over, Sir....

People have to believe....

[napi21]

3. Yea he COULD have done that, but that would have meant the destruction of the World economy.

Obama wasn't willing to do that to the Country or the World! As of this last week, he did the right thing. I can think of some creative things he could have done in the past, but today he had no other rational choice.

[dennis4868]

5. that's right...

and at least he protected SS and medicate, got cuts to defense and the Bush tax cuts can still expire!

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[killbotfactory]

8. I also like to advocate risky courses of action when I can't be held responsible for the results. nt

[Solomon]

17. LOL

He shoots, he scores!!!

[SpartanDem]

9. Let's blow up world economy, fuck the rich

if some middle class family gets their 401k wiped out we can sit around and dance how screwed the rich :eyes:

[fivepennies]

23. Sooner or later that middle class family

will lose the 401k anyway and the world economy will blow up regardless of how long the can keeps getting kicked down the road. Interest payments backed by nothing piled on more interest payments backed by nothing are like that. But you can kiss your collateral bye bye.

"Sit around and dance"? Is that like when your broker demands a lap dance?

[AndyTiedye]

11. It's Not the Rich Who Were Being Held Hostage

It's not the rich who have to borrow money.
It is not the rich who suffer the most if the economy crashes.

Obama does not have any way to hold the rich hostage. Nobody does.

[baldguy]

12. Obama and the Dem leadership have to turn the present paradigm on it's head.

Invoking the 14th amendment would allow the administration to determine which bills will be paid and which will not. Obama could choke off Teabagger districts entirely, but with a massive media campaign in that district putting all the blame squarely on their Representative.

Or Obama could have challenged the Constitutionality of the debt ceiling entirely.

Using Coin Seigniorage - from a Republican-passed bill - the President could have the US Mint punch out a hand-full of $1 Trillion and $5 Trillion platinum coins to keep in his desk drawer. When he hands one over to the US Treasury, they enter it in their books as a deposit at face value. No debt is incurred, no taxes are raised - and the Teahadists wouldn't be able to hold the country hostage either.

But then I'm just a dumb prole. What do I know?

[PufPuf23]

13. POTUS Obama got what he wanted and wasted must time, and attention,

etc. for this most recent farce.

The Democratic Party for the People is best to purge neoliberal ideologues.

[emulatorloo]

14. Rich would come out ok under a default. The rest of us would not.

[Solomon]

18. They would come out BETTER under a default as they would buy

up everything at depressed value and get even richer.

[stklurker]

16. veto

He would have been blamed for crashing the economy of not only the US, but internationally. The Repubs could have said they gave him a debt bill to sign and he blew it, and there would have been hell to pay in 2012 not only for POTUS, but for Congress. Oh, and after the fallout the so called 'entitlements' would have been slashed to the core. I dont like it, but to steal a poker reference... after the flop thats the cards we had.

[FiveGoodMen]

27. So then, they can simply do this every time.

One party rule.

[stklurker]

28. Debt ceiling

Not every bill has 1 day till we default and has already passed the house and senate. Btw, Reid already tabled 2 so it's not as clear cut as 'one party rule' in this case

[FiveGoodMen]

30. We'll see.

They are pretty good at manufacturing crises.

[tinrobot]

19. Sounds like a Tarantino movie

The scene where everyone has a gun out and is pointing it at the others. If one person starts shooting, a firefight erupts and everyone takes a bullet. Adding fuel to the fire, everyone is batshit crazy and willing to do it except for the one sane person in the room.

We got the sane person.

[jpak]

20. Yeah - and blow up the economy

Obama is president and has to protect the nation from disaster

which he did

yup

[Mr Dixon]

22. not so easy

Sounds way to easy to actually work, we on the outside really have no idea of how the politics work; we just get the media version. If this statement came from a WH insider than maybe it would help. The POTUS gets blamed for everything that everybody wants, that is part of the job. But realistically nobody get everything they want, except maybe rich people.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BlueIris]

25. Kick.

Because sometimes I wonder.

[FiveGoodMen]

26. The rich are very lucky that Obama was elected.

Or maybe luck isn't the right word.

[GSLevel9]

29. key word "WAS" nt

[SharksBreath]

31. Who say's you have to default.

Obama has tools. He chose not to use them.

It's called taking them hostage.

I didn't say you have to shoot the hostage.

But you make the Republicans choose the richest people's taxes over the country.

[dmosh42]

33. Sorry, Obama IS the messenger for the rich, just like Bush! n/t