Liberals may be working hard for President Barack Obama’s re-election, but they’re worried he’ll opt for a “Grand Bargain” – spending cuts and tax increases -- with Republicans if he wins.
And they’re prepared to take him to the woodshed if he does so,
Politico reports. The concern is that Obama will approve spending cuts that hurt the poor and disadvantaged.
“The base is not going to be happy with ham-and-egg justice” that requires disproportionate sacrifice from all but the wealthy, Van Jones, Obama’s former green jobs czar and founder of Rebuild the Dream, a progressive advocacy group, told Politico.
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“It is a fiscal showdown. We’re not going to blink. There is no reason in the world why the pillars of middle-class security, the earned benefits that our parents fought for, should be on the chopping block.”
If Obama is re-elected he will be sandwiched on both the right and the left as Republicans, who almost certainly will maintain control of the House, demand entitlement reform and the continuation of 2001-03 tax cuts for all income levels.
As for the president himself, “If I’ve won, then I believe that’s a mandate for doing it in a balanced way,” Obama told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this week. “We’ve already made $1 trillion worth of cuts. We can do some more cuts.
“We can look at how we deal with the healthcare costs in particular under Medicare and Medicaid in a serious way.,” Obama said. But we are also going to need some revenue.”
Obama and Congress will have to act fast. The government will hit its $16.2 trillion debt limit between the election and the Jan. 20 inauguration.
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