Wednesday, December 08, 2010

This is why he's (fondly) known to liberals as "the shrill one"

Paul Krugman debated the Obama billionaires-tax-subsidy deal Tuesday with a Republican mouthpiece on the PBS Newshour. Obama's rant against the Democratic base begins around 3:25 in the video, following by the segment with Krugman:



He didn't mention the fact that the payroll tax holiday is the first concrete policy measure President Obama has embraced that is part of Social Security Phaseout. But in that appearance, he was talking more specifically about the potential stimulative effect on the economy. And the payroll tax holiday will be more stimulative than the tax subsidy for billionaires.

In his blog, he was also "shrill" (The Sorrow And The Self-Pity 12/08/2010):

Let me add that Obama has never, as far as I can recall, pointed out that these horrible tax increases on the rich the GOP warns about would bring rates back to what they were under Bill Clinton — a time of enormous prosperity. But then, Obama has always had a weirdly hard time making the case that the Clinton economy refuted Reaganism.

Add in the White House's repeated validations of the right-wing position on the evils of public spending, from the spending freeze to the pay freeze, the appointment of a conservative Democrat and a paleo-conservative Republican to head the debt commission, etc. — and now Obama expects trust and praise from progressives?

What’s particularly striking is that Obama seems passionate about denouncing his progressive critics, even as he has nice words for the people who have spent two years trying to destroy him. [my emphasis]
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