NP - Sign Ant- Obama-GOP Tax Cut Petition

[David Morris]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/12/how_the_white_house_cut_the_de.html

My conversations with various progressives over the past 24 hours have
convinced me that the problem is less the specifics of the deal --
though liberals legitimately dislike the tax cuts for the rich, and
rightly point out that Obama swore to let them expire -- than the way
in which it was reached. Put simply, Obama and the Democrats didn't
fight for them. There were no veto threats or serious effort to take
the case to the public.

Instead, the White House disappeared into a closed room with the
Republicans and cut a deal that they'd made no effort to sell to
progressives. When the deal was cut, the president took an oblique
shot at their preferences, saying "the American people didn’t send us
here to wage symbolic battles or win symbolic victories." And this
came a mere week or two after the White House announced a federal pay
freeze. The pattern, for progressives, seems clear: The White House
uses them during elections, but doesn't listen to, or consult them,
while governing. In fact, it insults them, and then tells them to
quiet down, they got the best bargain possible, even if it wasn't the
one they'd asked for, or been promised.