How Did The Debate Over The Estate Tax Inform Obama's Current Problems With The Obstructionism He's Facing Now?

It's ironic to hear the media harping on how Obama should slow down and not try to accomplish so much so fast. What Obama is trying to do is avert the absolute catastrophe that the Bush Regime had the country well on the way to reaching when the nightmare of Republican misrule finally ended 2 months ago. Obama "slowing down" would almost be tantamount to inviting Bush and Cheney to come back and try again. And when you look at Obama and his team working diligently to reform the regulatory system the GOP wrecked and the social safely net they cut to ribbons and the tax system and the health care system and a dozen other high priority emergencies, you don't have to look back into ancient history to see the roots of the problems he's battling.

One glaring example was how Bush and the Republicans-- with help from reactionary Blue Dogs-- put so much of their early energy into skewering the tax system against the middle class. One of Bush's first initiatives after stealing the election bore fruit on April 4, 2001 when the House passed a bill to eliminate the inheritance tax on multimillionaire estates. All but three Republicans-- moderates Mike Castle (DE), Amo Houghton (NY) and Connie Morella (MD)-- voted for it. That is hardly surprising. What is more noteworthy is that of 208 Democrats voting, 58 crossed the aisle to vote for plutocracy and aristocracy instead of for their own constituents' interests.

Today President Obama is coping with this same attitude among some Democrats with identical attitudes. In fact, many of them are the exact same Democrats! Many of the Democrats who joined the GOP to approve the bill were Blue Dogs and "New Dems" who are still in Congress, still representing special interests instead of working families like Joe Baca (Blue Dog-CA), Shelley Berkley (NV), Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA), Leonard Boswell (Blue Dog-IA), Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL), Bob Etheridge (NC), Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN), Ralph Hall (then a Blue Dog, now a full fledged Republican-TX), Jane Harman (Blue Dog-CA), Steve Israel (NY), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), (Dennis Moore (Blue Dog-KS), Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR), Loretta Sanchez (Blue Dog-CA), Adam Schiff (Blue Dog-CA), John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN), and Mike Thompson (Blue Dog-CA). Dishonorable mentions for Harold Ford (TN), Ellen Tauscher (CA), Jim Traficant (OH), Nick Lampson (TX), Al Wynn (MD), William Jefferson (LA) and Gary Condit (CA), also aisle-crossers on this, and right-wing Democrats no longer in Congress but forever in the mind of the voters as pathetic hacks and shills.

When this came up in the Senate you may-- though you shouldn't-- be surprised to see many of the very same faces in the anti-Obama Bayh Bloc were the same ones who crossed the aisle to vote for the demise of the estate tax, like Mary Landrieu (LA), Ben Nelson (NE), Blanche Lincoln (AR), and Herb Kohl (WI). Gone from the august body, but not forgotten, are arch reactionaries who were always on the other side of the aisle like Zell Mill (GA) and John Breaux (LA). Needless to say, not a single Republican in the Senate opposed this economic coup d'etat.

Last night on 60 Minutes President Obama warned that a spectre of another Depression is very much a reality, although he's "optimistic about that not happening. Because I think we did learn lessons from the Great Depression.” It doesn't look like the Republican obstructionists learned anything at all though. In the midterms next general election following 4 years of obstructionism of FDR's program, the Republican Party was effectively wiped out as a national political force for decades. Obama didn't blame Republican for the economic catastrophe. Instead he said it was largely Wall Street's reckless, high-risk, high-reward culture, the so-called "best and the brightest." He didn't go into their symbiotic relationship with the country's political elite. But his interview with Steve Kroft was worth watching. If you missed it...