I’m struck by the dissonance between the speeches today given by the president and by the leader of the opposition. Here’s Obama, shrewdly observed by Al Giordano:
I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families. I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries. I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this: ‘So am I.’
I concede I couldn’t make it through all of Limbaugh’s tirade (it was Castro-esque in its length, bombast and reception).
I’m actually sympathetic to the broad argument that government is usually not the solution to our problems, and I’m leery of the massive spending this president has proposed in a depression – just as I was leery of the massive spending the last presidentaccomplished in a bubble. But what I heard most of all from Limbaugh was the demonization of libruls, again and again and again. Limbaugh is attacking the motives and good faith of more than half the country – and of a president just elected in a landslide. Limbaugh takes us right back to the 1980s and 1990s – the old red-blue paradigm that has led to massive GOP losses. But Obama has reframed his opponents as the vested interests resisting reform. Who do you think will win on that battlefield?
The Dish 