The Deal And 'Shared Sacrifice'

From Big Tent Democrat here.

Atrios asks:

I wonder what Andrea Mitchell is sacrificing for the new austerity.

Here's the thing, the time to ask Andrea Mitchell and Alan Greenspan and rich people like them to sacrifice was when President Obama was striking The Deal. Everyone wants to pretend that what is happening now on the "New Austerity" has nothing to do with the The Deal that was struck in December. It has everything to do with it. When Ezra Klein was giving The Deal a standing ovation back in December, me and a few others were saying that it was a terrible mistake because the "New Austerity" was coming. If Obama had simply said No to The Deal, he could be negotiating tax rates right now, not just budget cuts. The Deal was a terrible mistake and anyone who was honest when thinking about it knew this.

Speaking for me only

"The Deal" of course is the "compromise" Obama struck that extended the tax cuts for the wealthy another two years rather than letting them expire at the end of last year. (That's when I removed myself from Obama's "Organizing for America" mailing list.) (But I did get an invitation to the events when Obama was here last week, although I did not attend.)

Last fall, after the Democrats' "shellacking" in the mid-term elections, I had emailed the President the following (to paraphrase): "Whatever you do between now and the end of the year, do NOT entertain any type of compromise that would prevent the tax cuts for the wealthy from expiring at the end of the year, as scheduled by law." (I think it was the next day or so that I heard a "compromise" was in the works. My heart sank.) Now look at the mess we're in. SUCKER!!