●Krauthammer: Obamas Scapegoat Strategy_自考|成考|专升本|高升专|高升本|在职研究生-学历教育网

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Received: by 10.68.31.73 with SMTP id y9mr12669506pbh.0.1319142377037; Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:26:17 -0700 (PDT) Path: d5ni36988pbc.0!nntp.google.com!news1.google.com!postnews.google.com!f36g2000vbm.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: Koran Studies With Obama <burtonu...@gmail.com> Newsgroups: alt.politics Subject: Krauthammer: Obama's "Scapegoat Strategy" Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:26:16 -0700 (PDT) Organization: Lines: 104 Message-ID: <4869ffa7-7546-443d-a545-7d34d2e535e4@f36g2000vbm.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 50.15.100.215 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Trace: posting.google.com 1319142376 27879 127.0.0.1 (20 Oct 2011 20:26:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:26:16 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: f36g2000vbm.googlegroups.com; posting-host=50.15.100.215; posting-account=hfHP9woAAABpvd-hfuupL2uwUZPGtmbX User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; Comcast Install 1.0; BTRS26718; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618),gzip(gfe) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-scapegoat-strategy/2011/10/13/gI= QArNWViL_story.html What do you do if you can=92t run on your record =97 on 9 percent unemployment, stagnant growth and ruinous deficits as far as the eye can see? How to run when you are asked whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago and you are compelled to answer no? Play the outsider. Declare yourself the underdog. Denounce Washington as if the electorate hasn=92t noticed that you=92ve been in charge of it for nearly three years. But above all: Find villains. President Obama first tried finding excuses, blaming America=92s dismal condition on Japanese supply-chain interruptions, the Arab Spring, European debt and various acts of God. Didn=92t work. Sounds plaintive, defensive. Lacks fight, which is what Obama=92s base lusts for above all. Hence Obama=92s new strategy: Don=92t whine, blame. Attack. Indict. Accuse. Who? The rich =97 and their Republican protectors =97 for wrecking America. In Obama=92s telling, it=92s the refusal of the rich to =93pay their fair share=94 that jeopardizes Medicare. If millionaires don=92t pony up, schools will crumble. Oil-drilling tax breaks are costing teachers their jobs. Corporate loopholes will gut medical research. It=92s crude. It=92s Manichaean. And the left loves it. As a matter of math and logic, however, it=92s ridiculous. Obama=92s most coveted tax hike =97 an extra 3 to 4.6 percent for millionaires and billionaires (weirdly defined as individuals making more than $200,000) =97 would have reduced last year=92s deficit (at the very most) from $1.29 trillion to $1.21 trillion. Nearly a rounding error. The oil-drilling breaks cover less than half a day=92s federal spending. You could collect Obama=92s favorite tax loophole =97 depreciation for corporate jets =97 for 100 years and it wouldn=92t cover one month of Medicare, whose insolvency is a function of increased longevity, expensive new technology and wasteful defensive medicine caused by an insane malpractice system. After three years, Obama=92s self-proclaimed transformative social policies have yielded a desperately weak economy. What to do? Take the low road: Plutocrats are bleeding the country, and I shall rescue you from them. Problem is, this kind of populist demagoguery is more than intellectually dishonest. It=92s dangerous. Obama is opening a Pandora=92s box. Popular resentment, easily stoked, is less easily controlled, especially when the basest of instincts are granted legitimacy by the nation=92s leader. Exhibit A. On Tuesday, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed punitive legislation over China=92s currency. If not stopped by House Speaker John Boehner, it might have led to a trade war =97 a 21st- century Smoot-Hawley. Obama knows this. He has shown no appetite for a reckless tariff war. But he set the tone. Once you start hunting for villains, they can be found anywhere, particularly if they are conveniently foreign. Exhibit B. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin rails against Bank of America for announcing a $5-a-month debit card fee. Obama echoes the opprobrium with fine denunciations of banks and their hidden fees =97 except that this $5 fee is not hidden. It=92s perfectly transparent. Yet here is a leading Democratic senator advocating a run on a major (and troubled) bank =97 after two presidents and two Congresses sunk billions of taxpayer dollars to save failing banks. Not because they were deserving or virtuous but because they are necessary. Without banks, there is no lending. Without lending, there is no business. Without business, there are no jobs. Exhibit C. To the villainy-of-the-rich theme emanating from Washington, a child is born: Occupy Wall Street. Starbucks-sipping, Levi=92s-clad, iPhone-clutching protesters denounce corporate America even as they weep for Steve Jobs, corporate titan, billionaire eight times over. These indignant indolents saddled with their $50,000 student loans and English degrees have decided that their lack of gainful employment is rooted in the malice of the millionaires on whose homes they are now marching =97 to the applause of Democrats suffering acute Tea Party envy and now salivating at the energy these big-government anarchists will presumably give their cause. Except that the real Tea Party actually had a program =97 less government, less regulation, less taxation, less debt. What=92s the Occupy Wall Street program? Eat the rich. And then what? Haven=92t gotten that far. No postprandial plans. But no matter. After all, this is not about programs or policies. This is about scapegoating, a failed administration trying to save itself by blaming our troubles =97 and its failures =97 on class enemies, turning general discontent into rage against a malign few. From the Senate to the streets, it=92s working. Obama is too intelligent not to know what he started. But so long as it gives him a shot at reelection, he shows no sign of caring. 本科

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