The President's Backyard Discussion of the Economy (as It Could Be)

President Obama continues his economic tour today
(Wednesday) with stops in Des Moines, Iowa, and Richmond, Va. In Des
Moines he hosts a backyard discussion on the challenges currently facing
the middle class with approximately 70 neighbors from the area,
according to the White House. Here's an imagined version of that
discussion:

OBAMA: Thanks so much for joining me. I know many
of you are hurting and angry about the economy, and I don't blame you.
It's the worst economy since the Great Depression. When consumers can't
buy and businesses won't expand for lack of customers, government has to
be the purchaser and employer of last resort. We learned that in the
Great Depression, but Republicans obviously didn't -- and they've
blocked every jobs program I've offered.

NEIGHBOR: Why don't you have a showdown with them?
Let them filibuster a jobs bill and show which side you're on and which
side they're on?

OBAMA: That's just Washington at its worst. More
deadlock. I can't even get Republicans to agree to extend the Bush tax
cuts for 98 percent of Americans. They're threatening to block it unless
I agree to extend the tax cut for the top 2 percent. Can you believe
it? The top 2 percent got the lion's share of the Bush tax cuts in 2001
and 2003, and if we extended it just one more year for them they'd get a
windfall of $36 billion they never had any right to expect. Millionaire
families would get $31 billion next year. That's money I'd rather use
saving the jobs of teachers and fire fighters -- people who protect our
communities and who need the jobs and would spend the money rather than
just putting it away.

NEIGHBOR: Why don't you have a showdown with them?
Let them try to block the middle-class tax cut for 98 percent because
they want to give it to the top 2 percent, and show which side you're on
and they're on?

OBAMA: That's would be just more of the same old
Washington, and I promised to bring change to Washington. Let me tell
you, the underlying reason for the economic mess we're in has been
building for years. It's a fundamental imbalance in which the top 1
percent now gets almost a quarter of all national income. We haven't
seen income and wealth this concentrated since the late 1920s, and we
all know what happened then -- the Great Depression. We'll never really
get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession until we fix
this basic problem. Health care reform was a small step forward, but the
Republicans won't let me do anything else. I'd like to help struggling
homeowners who can't pay their mortgages, I'd like to invest in our
crumbling infrastructure, I'd like to reform the tax system so
multimillionaires can't pretend their earnings are capital gains and pay
at the rate of 15 percent. I'd like to exempt the first $20,000 of
income from the payroll tax and make it up by applying payroll taxes to
incomes over $250,000. I'd like to make public higher education free,
and pay for it with a small transfer tax on all financial transactions.
I'd like to do much more -- a new new deal for Americans. But Republicans
are blocking me at every point.

NEIGHBOR: Why don't you have a showdown with
them? Make restoring the broad middle and working class of American into
a national campaign. Let them try to block these reforms and show which
side you're on and which side they're on?

OBAMA: That's just Washington gridlock. I promised
change. In any event, I'm afraid it's too late. Congress is going home
soon. All we have left is the midterm elections and then a lame duck
session. Republicans may take over the House and take more seats in the
Senate in November, and then I won't be able to do much of anything.

NEIGHBOR: If they do make gains in the midterm, it
will be more important than ever for you to show which side you're on
and which side they're on. Then at least you have a fighting chance of
mobilizing Americans behind you. Otherwise this aftershock of a
recession will go on for years, demagogues will prey on the public's
anxiety to foment even more anger and resentment, you'll lose in 2012,
and we'll have an even more hateful politics.

OBAMA (blinking, momentarily unsteady, stuttering):
You ... You're ... right! You're ... absolutely right! I hadn't understood
until this very moment! Thank you! Thank you! (Everyone cheers.) We're
gonna fight! We're going to really take them on! That's the only way to
make real change! I finally get it! (More cheers.)

NEIGHBOR: Any while you're at it, read Robert Reich's latest book, AFTERSHOCK. It explains it all. Here's a copy.