This is HOW Pres Obama should deal the the GOP Bullies

[trueblue2007]

I feel President Obama should CALL THE GOP BLUFF. Just say NO to the tax cuts for the rich. I'm part of the AMERICAN MAJORITY who disagree with giving tax cuts to the rich!! The "trickle down" philosphy didn't work all of the Bush years and years of Obama's presidency. The tax cuts DO NOT WORK. Give tax cuts to Middle Class and Poor. Approve unemployment and BRING BACK JOBS to the USA


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/what-aspect-of-dealing-wi_b_793707.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=120810&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry&utm_term=Daily+Brief

Here are 3 of the most important paragraphs. Read the whole article at link above

Obama thinks he can "persuade" Senate Republicans who are "playing games" about tax cuts. Their strategic (non)negotiating position is that unless they get tax cuts for the top one percent no American will get tax cuts (or any other necessary legislation). They are holding 99% of Americans hostage to benefit the top one percent. Obama thinks that if the Republicans play games he is helpless to resist them no matter how harmful his capitulation will be to the nation.

David Cay Johnston spelled out the winning strategy for the nation in his recent column ("Call Their Bluff, Mr. President"). The Republicans' tax strategy was straight out of Blazing Saddles -- the part where the sheriff is surrounded and responds by taking out his gun, pointing it at his head, and telling the crowd not to move or "I'll shoot." The absurdity of the strategy and the idiocy of the crowd in falling for it is the gag. The Republicans tax strategy involved pointing a triple-barreled gun at their own heads. They were threatening to (1) vote to prevent a tax cut to over 100 million Americans (during a weak recovery from the Great Recession); (2) refuse (two weeks before Christmas) to extend unemployment benefits for millions of long-term unemployed; and, (3) and they were doing all this for the benefit of the wealthiest one percent (which all the polls showed was contrary to the will of Americans). The chances that the Republican Party would pull the trigger on the three-barreled gun they had aimed at their own head was minimal. Indeed, if the Republican leadership did pull the trigger they would be discredited and would have to rush to undo their tax and unemployment policies before the entire Republican Party became anathema to independents and middle and working class Americans. President Clinton, of course, called their bluff on shutting down the government, and turned around his Presidency. Obama, not so much.

White House flacks have had some success in generating columns in the New York Times and the Washington Post claiming that Obama deserves respect for obtaining more stimulus dollars by adopting the Republican proposals. Both of these columns are premised on the false assumption that Obama couldn't call the Republican bluff and produce far more effective stimulus legislation.