The United States of America is adrift, heading for a sea of icebergs, without effective leadership

Obama: It Became Necessary to Destroy the Economy to Save it
by Bob Burnett
August 5, 2011

We’ve now seen at least five examples where Obama had an opportunity to make a real difference and lost it by being overly accommodating: the amount of the original stimulus, whether or not to break up “too-big-to-fail” banks, health care, the federal budget crisis, and the debt crisis. (It’s probably true that the President caved to the military on Afghanistan, but we don’t know as much about that negotiation.) In the debt crisis negotiation, Republicans got what they wanted because the President was soft.

.... the economy continues to be in bad shape and – despite the Pollyannaish assurances of the Obama Administration – we’re likely to find ourselves in the dreaded “double dip” recession. The United States of America is adrift, heading for a sea of icebergs, without effective leadership.

It didn’t have to be like this. President Obama had two opportunities to call the Republicans’ bluff and chose not to. In December he could have refused to sign any budget deal that did not include ending the egregious tax cuts for millionaires and raising the debt ceiling. On August 2nd, he could have refused to sign a debt-limit agreement that did not include new revenues. In both cases he could have dared the Republicans to shut down the economy.

The bottom line for Liberals: we’re on our own. It’s naïve to expect help from President Obama. The economy will continue to spiral downward and Liberals will have to figure out how to save it.

Read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/05-10