Liberals are up in arms over President Obama's grudging compromise with congressional Republicans on extending the Bush-era tax rates.
Indeed, the level of recrimination and venom directed at Obama from his erstwhile base is quite stunning. Certainly Obama himself is stung, as witnessed by his petulant and preachy news conference in which he could barely contain his rage that his genius was somehow failing to elicit the appropriate awe from his acolytes in the White House media pit, to say nothing of the frothing uber-socialists at MSNBC.
Even his most loyal allies, the unions, are expressing contempt at his decision to at last -- two years into his presidency -- bow to political reality and negotiate with the opposition party.
Richard Trumka, the powerful president of the AFL-CIO (who is profiled, by the way, in an outstanding article by Philip Klein in the December issue of Labor Watch, published by the Capital Research Center) released a statement regarding the tax cut deal that read in part:
"Two years ago, working Americans had high hopes that we would ultimately emerge from the deep, punishing financial debacle with a sharp focus on a fundamentally stronger, fairer and more balanced economy.
"Today, that vision has dimmed. ... The tax cut deal rewards Republican obstructionism by giving the wealthy the tax breaks they demanded. It throws away precious resources needed for investments in jobs and our economy on upper income tax cuts. ..."
This statement is fascinating to parse, so revealing as it is of the true motives of union bosses like Trumka -- and indeed all of the vast armies of the left -- which is this: a deep hatred for accumulated wealth and the persons who have earned it.
Notice how Trumka cites that "working Americans" had hoped for a "fairer and more balanced economy" under an Obama administration. Fair and balanced may be the slogan of the Fox News Channel, but, when used by leftists like Trumka, it means one thing and one thing only -- some people have too much money, and thus deserve to be robbed (the government is, of course, the stickup artist) so the spoils can be divided up amongst those who did not earn it. This is "balance" in Marxist parlance.
Notice too, how Trumka contrasts "working Americans" with those dastardly wealthy who will now keep their precious tax cuts. Apparently, none of these rich people are "working Americans."
No small business owner -- many of whom file their business taxes as personal income returns and therefore on paper make over $250,000 annually no matter how empty their personal checking account is -- opens his shop or restaurant early, closes it late, or forgoes vacations to keep his struggling business afloat?
Nah, these obscenely rich people are not "working Americans." Apparently, to qualify as a working American, you have to belong to a union that can pick your pocket and give the cash to liberal politicians who will then give union bosses like Trumka more power. (Card check, anyone?)
According to Trumka, allowing people to keep the money they have earned "throws away precious resources." Throws away?! In other words -- what you make belongs to us. Has there ever been a more loathsome expression of totalitarian ideology?
Matt Patterson is senior editor at the Capital Research Center and a contributor to "Proud to Be Right: Voices of the Next Conservative Generation" (HarperCollins,).
