Another Tax Battle Update

Not a ton has changed since the last update in terms of substance, but the pieces are moving fast now. Rather than give you a complete blow-by-blow of what's going on, I'll try to sum up.

Remember, two years ago he boldly stated that this was his economy, and he owned it. Can we say oops? Anyway, as the GOP appears to be sending mixed messages about whether or not they'll actually stand firm, the Democrats are being completely consistent. Rather than address the substance of the debate, they're howling about banning one of the top Republicans (who apparently is being quite effective about holding the line) from the debate. And they're scare-mongering. Lot of that going on.

The real question seems to be not how to correct the economy, but rather who will be blamed for failing to correct the economy, especially if this dreaded default comes into play. Interestingly, Americans are unhappy with Obama, and getting more so. And they still oppose raising the debt limit and taxes by almost 20%. But that's not stopping him from throwing himself a lavish birthday party ($35,000 a plate, naturally) the day after the so-called catastrophic default.

This begs the question: if default would be such a catastrophe, then why is Obama so opposed to a short-term compromise proposed by the GOP that would avert it? (hint: it wouldn't be, and his reasons appear to revolve around placing his re-election at a higher priority than the default of America) In reality, the Republicans are the only ones with any plans, with any ideas, and with any actionable proposals. The Democrats have clearly decided to sit out the policy creation phase and instead simply criticize whatever the GOP suggests. Will it work? Hard to say right now, but things should shake out soon enough.

Things like this certainly won't help Obama. While still pretending to be the only adult in the room, Obama has outed himself as a selfish, uncontrolled, raging little man-child. When things turned too ugly for him to handle, he threatened/begged the GOP not to call his bluff and then stormed out. No, I mean it...he literally stormed out:

The key message here: hold the line, Republicans! History will vindicate you. This man(-child) is desperate, he's panicking, and he knows he's got no leverage. It's not time to compromise or soften the stance...now is the time to close the vise.