Occupy Wall Street: The Answer to Obama’s Prayers /
During the health care debate President Obama told left-wing Democrats that if they wanted a public option (health care provided by the United States) then they would have to make him fight for it. Many progressives found the president’s message arrogant and dismissive. But if we take into consideration the way in which our democracy works we realize that the president was right on with his assertion. No matter what president is in the White House they’ll never have a vote in Congress. Although the president alluded to the sexiness of having a public option during the 2008 campaign he knew it would have to be the American people who demanded it. When the President finally put his plan on the table, Congress did what it does best—ripped it apart. Nonetheless, Congress ended up passing sweeping health care legislation (minus a public option) that the President would later sign in to law. But during that debate we learned a great deal about the limits of executive power in our democracy. More importantly, we learned that as long as the “filibuster” remains a tool in Congress we are going to have to do more than kick and moan to get big things done in this country. Even with a feisty Congress on his hands, the President has managed to accomplish the majority of what he laid out in his now famous 2008 “yes we can” campaign, with the exception of one thing—raising taxes on our nation’s uber-rich. Be it a lack of political skill or an underhanded political trap, the President has tried and failed on many occasions to pass legislation that would eliminate tax loopholes for billionaires and raise taxes on our richest corporations. Millionaires like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Jay-Z, have spoken publicly about the economic injustices that are facilitated through our nation’s tax code. Buffet, a billionaire, decried our current tax system so loudly that the President created the Buffett rule—a rule that ensures that those making over $1 million a year pay higher income and payroll taxes than everyone else. Republicans roared back at the President, saying that his proposal was insinuating class warfare. But Obama kept it cool—he said, it isn’t class warfare “it’s math.”
Obama didn’t come roaring back at Republicans because it’s clearly not his style—but someone did … a lot of people did! In New York, people took to Wall Street in record numbers, holding up signs and screaming out chants like “banks got bailed out, we got sold out.” Suddenly, “occupy” protests started showing up all over the country—Denver, Oakland, Washington, D.C. It was as if working class people woke up and realized they had been asleep for the past three years. Soon enough, the President was out on the stomp slamming Republicans for protecting the rich at the expense of the middle class. Public opinion polls shifted to show an overwhelming majority of Americans empathizing with the Occupy Wall Street protestors. We probably will not get sizeable tax reform before next year’s election but we can assume that the President is somewhere watching the OWS coverage, uttering a quiet ‘thank you’—because if they can maintain steam, they will be the key to Obama’s re-election. By: Tim Harris, Political Editor
To the Wall Street protestors: History will thank you more than we ever could, but thank you!
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