The first topic posed to today's round table, as expected, concerned this week's episode of the misrepresented video of Ms. Shirley Sherrod by Breitbart and the fall out of the media and, stupidly, the Administration's knee-jerk reactions.
But with regard to today's Meet The Press - it's first guest, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and the panel, Ms. Sherrod had it absolutely correct, if you watched the entire video of the story she told. It's not about black and white, it's about the poor, the haves and have-nots.
Sec. Geithner most important message is that the Administration feels it is good policy to let the Bush Tax Cuts expire for the top two economic percent of the population. As part of these tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year, middle class Americans also enjoy some relief, but it is nothing in comparison to what the wealth reap in relief. As we've stated before in this column, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest of this nation is at its highest level in over 80 years. If that disparity doesn't shrink, it will eventually lead to the destruction of the American capitalist society. We say this thinking about the myth of the former Soviet Union, where before its end, it appeared powerful and in tact, but in reality it was just a fresh coat of paint over a rusted out infrastructure.
We digress, but the point is that what Geithner is saying is that someone has to pay for something, it can no longer be put on the credit card. Capital needs to be self-generated and Mr. Gregory, who brought it up again today, asked what hard choices are going to be made so that for every dollar the government spends, it doesn't have to borrow forty-one cents of it (from China). Letting the Bush Tax Cuts expire is a necessary step to generate tax revenue and understandably, it difficult to get people to go backward on their income, no matter how much they make. But politically, the Administration will again fail to communicate clearly that when the tax cuts expire, the result will not affect the middle class.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A trite cliche, yes, but cliches are what they are because they are true. There's no confidence in the economic chain of this country, there are simply too many weak links and as Mr. Gregory rightfully reiterates, difficult choices need to be made.
Mr. Dionne distilled the Shirley Sherrod saga accurately, saying that it was using race for political gain. Mr. Santelli - the spark plug for the Tea Party movement - equates this usage of race to spending and it's ripple effect on entitlements. But his spending-based assessment implies that entitlements are synonymous with minorities. They are synonymous with the poor.
The meta-narrative, that Ms. Dunn referred to, is that it is in fact President Obama who is the cause of problematic race relations according to the right. But the question that posed was that shouldn't they be getting better with the election of the nation's first black president. Vindictiveness is a powerful motivation, and there is an element... of the Tea Party Movement... let's not pretend that are white and feel like they have been cheated somehow and are now going to have what they have taken away from them. It seems naive when you write it in the context of a piece, but it is spurred by fear. This, coupled with the economic uncertainty we face, and its not surprising that the side that is out of power would use the sharpest bone from our skeletal past to cut the other anew. What makes this episode of Ms. Sherrod's misfortune particularly unseemly is Mr. Breitbart's statements after the full story was reveled. He said the NAACP was racist for essentially denouncing certain elements of the Tea Party - subtly burrowing deeper into the reverse-racist argument And what he didn't offer was an apology, and no recognition of the ripple effect his actions will have down the road.
Roundtable
The New York Times' David Brooks; The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne; Former Obama White House Communications Director Anita Dunn; National Urban League President Marc Morial and a man often credited with helping to spark the tea party movement, CNBC's Rick Santelli.
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