To the Editor:
Re “The World as He Finds It” (column, Nov. 15):
Paul Krugman has summarized what I and a lot of other Democrats have been feeling about President Obama. After all the big disappointments—inadequate stimulus, Republican-style health care reform, wimpy Wall Street regulation—I have tried hard not to blame Mr. Obama, feeling that there must be pressures that he could not overcome.
But the tax cuts for the wealthy will finally show the true story. This issue is an absolute no-excuse, no-brainer for Democrats; Mr. Obama can simply veto any extension for the wealthy.
He has the power, and he has the economic arguments. If the Republicans block an extension for 98 percent of the population, Democrats will have a powerful issue with which to blast them for years to come.
If he caves in once more and allows the tax cuts for the wealthy to be extended, even temporarily, I will give up. After 50 years of voting Democratic in every national election, I will just stay home in 2012.
If the country is going to deteriorate as a result of bad government policy, I would rather let the Republicans take the whole blame and look for another Democratic leader, one with enough backbone to defend important principles.
Patrick Cassidy
Plainfield, N.J., Nov. 15, 2010
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 