Walter PattersonI am always impressed by the brilliance of our founding fathers. When they wrote our Constitution, they established three branches of government which were designed to act as checks on the other. The Legislative Branch acts as a check on the Executive Branch, and vice versa, and the Supreme Court acts as a check on both. Likewise, the Executive Branch and the Legislative branch act as a check on the Supreme Court. It is simply ingenious.
Have you noticed what is going on in Washington these days? You may be a witness to the greatest crackup in American history, especially if you are watching the progressive Democrat Party.
The leftists in the Democrat Party are all in a tizzy fit because Mr. Obama cut a deal with the Republicans that extends present tax rates for two years. If you just arrived from another planet and turned on a TV and listened to the frenzied leftist politicians monopolizing the airways, you might conclude that the world was coming to an end.
What has happened was bound to happen. It finally occurred to Mr. Obama what happened on November 2. It was just a matter of time before he threw his socialist friends underneath the proverbial bus.
Nothing can be easier to explain. Mr. Obama wants to be re-elected in 2012. Consequently, it was easy to double-cross his loyal progressives in the House and Senate. It was even easier to double-cross his buddies in the mainstream press.
Obama no longer worries about saving other politicians’ skins. His skin is the important one, and he will do what it takes to save it even though it required that he make a deal with the “rich republicans” on tax cuts.
Speaking of the rich, I almost throw up every time I hear one of these whacko progressives ranting on MSNBC about “tax cuts for the rich.” According to IRS data, 38 percent of all income taxes are paid by 1 percent of the taxpayers. The top 6 percent pay 59 percent of all income taxes. A more disturbing statistic is that 47 percent of Americans pay no income taxes at all.
This is beyond scary. When that number reaches 51 percent, those who do not pay can vote themselves a raise at anytime they want it. They can literally take from those who are working and give the money to those who are not. This will ensure that the economy will collapse, and America will assume its place as a third world socialist country. Anyone who understands basic economics already knows this.
But back to the double-cross. Obama knows that he is in the driver’s seat. He knows that there is no other place for the progressives, the ones who are cursing him now, to go but to the Democrat Party.
All of this posturing by the far-left, if fact, is very satisfying to Obama. He has made a surgical move that may get him re-elected in 2012 and to heck with his progressive supporters. One other thing we know. With a new Congress coming in January, the double-crossing has only just begun.
As for the so-called compromise on the extension of the Bush tax rates, I hate to say it, but I think Obama got the best end of the deal. If I were a Republican lawmaker, I would vote against it. We could have done better, much better.
I can only hope that the new crop of Republicans are smarter than the old ones.
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Walter Patterson is a guest columnist for The Yazoo Herald. He can be reached by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .