Where Was That Cliff Again?

So it took about three days after the election before something shiny appeared to distract us from the task at hand. The scandal involving David Patreaus, another general, his biographer, and evidently many others only deepens and frankly gets weirder and weirder. Shirtless and suspended FBI Agents, protocols of Congressional notification not being followed and on and on it goes.

Frankly I could care less. The General could not be as good as he was made out to be and it has been proven. When I look at the pictures of his wife, all grandmotherly looking and you know she just loved to make cookies and one gets the sense that the General deserves just a bit of the discomfort he is feeling. Do I think all of the resources of the government and the media should be looking at this with all the important things going on? No I do not.

We have all been told about the fiscal cliff that will hit on Jan 1 without some sort of agreement. What happens in this instance will show much of how the next four years, or at least the next twelve months are going to go. Frankly it will show if the President plans to govern with a little more force than he has before.

The first thing to understand about this cliff is that Obama, at this time, holds all the cards. He does not need to be reelected, the debt ceiling fight is not going to take place until spring and if he does nothing at all the Bush tax cuts expire.

It would seem to this naive observer that the smart thing is to let the cuts expire and then to bring legislation to reinstate them for incomes of less than 250,000. Even should the Republicans play ball on this we again will know what kind of President Obama plans to be. He should press for more. He should press for the Buffet rule. When you have power you must use power and if he accepts a small tribute from the right than he will never get as much done as he should.

A grand bargain is talked about and I personally hope that entitlements, taxes, and all the other issues that have been kicked down the road are dealt with. The President must understand that first and foremost, the best way to start is to increase revenue by losing the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy. This must not be made part of any deal, any time buying exercise of even a couple of months will allow the President's power to slip away. He will never be as strong as he is right now.

He must hold the Republicans feet to the fire. I am sad to say that I am not sure he has it in him. The truth is that if he thinks he will lose power to the right if he messes up here he need consider this. There is nothing more ineffective than a Democrat that loses the respect of his own party. If the President does not stand up to the Republicans in the first six months of his second term and use his power he will become a lame duck before the year is out, but because of his own party. Too many promises and too many dreams are tied up in his two election victories. He has the power to make the right angry but he has the power to disappoint the left just one more time. If he does, he will be effectively done.

I sincerely want this country to succeed and make progress on all of these issues that are holding us back. Compromise is not a dirty word. For either side. Elections however do matter, as divided as the country is, the people have spoken, they agree with the President's tax plan and he must enact it and his grand bargain very soon.