The Daily Kos Reaction To Obama Cutting A Deal On Taxes

This may shock some of you, but liberals are….unhappy. I know, I know. It’s stunning. How can it be that such cheerful, contented people have been so sour for…what is it now, like 600-700 straight days?

Of course, in all fairness, they do have a reason to be upset: Barack Obama has lied to them the same way he has been lying to the rest of America. Here’s the HuffPo describing why liberals are p.o.’d,

Over the past three months, Obama described the Bush-era program that he’s now adopting as his own as “tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires” no fewer than 50 times, according to a review of his stump speeches, weekly addresses, and comments to campaign donors and members of the news media.

The rhetoric was deliberate: Obama was trying to cast Republicans as the party of the wealthy while his fellow Democrats represented the middle class.

He used that rhetoric at campaign events across the country, from Los Angeles and Las Vegas to Des Moines, Iowa, and Richmond, Virginia.

During at least three pre-election rallies, Obama, playing to crowds filled with die-hard supporters, railed against the tax cuts for the wealthy, eliciting rounds of boos from the audience, according to White House transcripts.

Obama repeated the “millionaires and billionaires” line once again on Monday in announcing the deal, but with a slight twist: Rather than rejecting Republicans’ call for a full extension of the tax cuts, he simply expressed opposition to their demand of making it permanent.

Obama didn’t make that distinction on the campaign trail.

But in addition to the class-warfare rhetoric, Obama described the tax cuts as unaffordable and ultimately ineffective.

On Sept. 25, during his weekly radio address Obama referred to the initiative as “tax breaks we cannot afford.”

A few days later, during an event the White House billed as a “backyard discussion” at the home of a family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Obama said the nation would “have to borrow the $700 billion” — the estimated cost of the cuts over 10 years — “from China or the Saudis or whoever is buying our debt, and then we’d pass off on average [a] $100,000 check to people who are making a million dollars, up to more than a billion dollars.”

Obama wanted to make sure that his audience understood that either the U.S.’s main rival for decades to come would be financing the tax cut, or the nation that sells the U.S. most of its oil. He used the reference to China and Saudi Arabia a few times.

And while Republicans and some Democrats have claimed that no one — even the wealthy — should have their taxes raised during a recession because that could stunt the recovery, Obama cast aside those fears, arguing on Sept. 29 that “98 percent of Americans wouldn’t see any benefit from it.”

Now, me? I support the deal. You don’t raise taxes in a recession, tax cuts spur economic growth, it’s not the government’s money in the first place, and our budget deficit is out of control because we spend too much, not because we don’t tax enough.

All that being said, liberals have every reason to be upset…and they are.

How upset are they? Well, over at the Daily Kos, that loathsome little punk, Mike Stark, has up a recommend diary that asks people to unsubscribe to Obama’s Organizing for America mailing list over this decision. That thread has drawn more than 662 comments. Here’s a very representative sample of the what’s being said:

Barak Obama lost me (4+ / 0-)
before he even became president.

Never did I think that he would be actively defending war criminals, though.

For that — I will never forgive him.

Well, my motivation to do canvassing again… (16+ / 0-)
is gone.

Moderates are people who don’t care enough about party affiliation to really work a campaign.

Progressives, those of us who believe in progress, have passion for change.

So, in 2012, what will the Obama camp do without us?

WE worked hard for him n 2008 (0+ / 0-)
Never worked so actively in a campaign and I’m 67-years-old! Will not work for him in 2012.

So this is exactly what I wrote to OFA… (15+ / 0-)
Then I posted the whole mess to my Facebook Page. I AM DONE>

When I sent you over $1000 of my hard earned cash in 2008 and volunteered to get you elected this was NOT what I had in mind and I am NOT HAPPY nor are many of my friends and associates.

What won’t you compromise President Obama? It started with Health Care Reform and has run the gamut to this!

IF we had elected a Republican I would expect this but this is just one more example of you capitulating to these filthy…shameless Republicans.

Get a backbone…I think THIS compromise IS a failure and I am once again disappointed as are lot’s of me’s and without the millions of me’s I am not sure how you intend to get re-elected.

Can we not depend on you… to do the right thing? Can we not depend on you to articulate the truth to the American people? Can we not depend on you for CHANGE?

This is the same crap and I am plainly, painfully and deeply disappointed.

Thanks. Thought of that last night. Pretty much (19+ / 0-)
was this: What I once displayed proudly is now an embarassment.

I unsubscribed from the Whitehouse.gov earlier today, letting them know exactly why. I told them I’d lost count of how many times I’d heard Candidate Obama say he would get rid of the millionaire tax cuts – seeing as how I watched almost EVERY speech online.

Forget how I closed that note (though ludicrous and absurd were certainly in there!), but I do know my unsubscribe to OFA ended with “I no longer have any trust nor support for this administration.”

So does WD-40. (7+ / 0-)
Today was my bumper sticker removal day, too

I suspect that site rules may be (5+ / 0-)
changing Real Soon Now. There aren’t going to be enough Obama followers to make it necessary to care about either their feelings or their presence anymore.

That said, I disagree with BobJack.

I think Obama’s remaining loyalists are the equivalent of the Bush 22%… True Believers (from Eric Hoffer’s book) or more precisely, authoritarian followers.

They may sound like astroturfers, but they do this out of blind loyalty to a “Great Leader”, not because they’re on payroll. Like Apple or MS fanboys in an IT discussion where everyone else is laughing at them. Those people by and large aren’t getting paid to recite talking points, either.

The sane members of Obama’s political movement are doing what sane Republicans were doing during W’s terms in office… getting the hell out.

Looks like the Democratic Party is uniting again thanks to President Obama.

Against him.

A truly remarkable political accomplishment.

Done. (15+ / 0-)
Here’s the comment I left:

“I’m a fed up Progressive. Had I wanted a President that could work so well with the Republicans, I’d have voted for McCain. Compromise is one thing, capitulation quite another. I will never vote for Barack Obama again.”

I have been a stalwart Obama supporter (45+ / 0-)
since his election. I was complaining til I was blue in the face about how no one was giving him enough TIME, how we just didn’t have the VOTES, etc…even though he was crushing my heart. Like everyone else, I have a breaking point, and it has been reached.

I have 20 people who call me every election (21+ / 0-)
and ask me about the ballot initiatives, the candidates and issues. I advise them wisely.

I am the precinct committeeman in my neighborhood. A caucus state.

We are the activists and the party machine. I swung my precinct in 2008 and 2010 into an Obama and democratic majority. I was so proud and so was my precinct Captain and county chairwoman.

No more.

I resigned my position today in the party.

The Democrats can go f*ck themselves.

But gee, I thought liberals kept complaining that Republicans weren’t working with Obama? Now, here we have Obama and Republicans working hand-in-hand and suddenly Democrats are all upset about bipartisan compromise. Obama ran on unity, right? Well now, he’s unified with the Republicans on taxes. Rarely will I say this, but good for him.

PS: Are all these Kossacks REALLY criticizing Obama because they disagree with him on this issue or because they’re racists who hate black people? I know the answer they always give when Tea Partiers disagree with Obama on taxes, so shouldn’t that apply to liberals as well?

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