“We’re not going to be able to do anything about any of these entitlements if what we do is characterize whatever proposals are put out there as, ‘Well, you know, that’s — the other party’s being irresponsible. The other party is trying to hurt our senior citizens. That the other party is doing X, Y, Z.” – Barack Obama, January 2010
“One vision has been championed by Republicans in the House of Representatives and embraced by several of their party’s presidential candidates…This is a vision that says up to 50 million Americans have to lose their health insurance in order for us to reduce the deficit. And who are those 50 million Americans? Many are someone’s grandparents who wouldn’t be able afford nursing home care without Medicaid. Many are poor children. Some are middle-class families who have children with autism or Down’s syndrome. Some are kids with disabilities so severe that they require 24-hour care. These are the Americans we’d be telling to fend for themselves.” – Barack Obama, April 2011
Hat tip to Jake Tapper for being first with the juxtaposition.
Mr. President, couldn’t you have done a better job with this? I mean, couldn’t you have worked in that Republicans, after shoving the old people and children into the street, would set them on fire? And that maybe the Tea Party would put them out with pitchforks?
I was going to say that the retreat to straight demagoguery was unfortunate, but that might carry a slight connotation of unexpectedness, and that would be inaccurate. It’s nothing if not straight out of the playbook.
Know what is unfortunate, though? When he had a substantial partisan majority in Congress, our esteemed president couldn’t be bothered with this discussion at all. When his “deficit commission” told him things he didn’t want to hear, he looked the other way.
And now that he’s been dragged kicking and screaming into entered the conversation, his big answer is a tax increase on the wealthy.
I believe we’ve been over that.
Today, our master orator—he has a gift, remember—took more than 5,000 words to tell us that Republicans are out to get old people and kids, and that rich people should pay their fair share.
Really? Really?
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