What you often hear from conservatives is that President Obama is not a good leader. Whether it's Republican presidential candidates, members of congress or the talking heads on TV and Radio, conservatives try to point out every chance they can that President Obama is not getting the job done. With all of this rhetoric by Republicans it's kind of ironic to end 2011 the way it did.
The payroll tax cut was a major issue that President Obama made a top priority to close out the 2011 calendar year. If the payroll tax cut wasn't extended, 160 million Americans would see a tax hike in 2012 of $1,000. President Obama played his cards perfectly in this situation, using what Republicans normally love against them. Republicans always vote against whatever President Obama wants, so by President Obama pushing for a tax cut the Republicans were put in the corner. As the weeks went by and Republicans pushed back at the payroll tax cut, Americans started to see Republicans, not as the party of tax cuts, but a party of tax cuts for the wealthy. While President Obama wanted to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a small increase in taxes to pay for the payroll tax cut, the Republicans wanted no part of it. House Republicans, instead of asking the richest Americans to pay more, put in place a plan that would cut unemployment benefits and ask seniors to pay more for their Medicare. So while President Obama asked the wealthiest to help pay for the extension to help the middle class, Republicans wanted to take away from the poor. Coming down to the wire, on the morning of December 23rd, Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Republicans caved to the demands of President Obama and extended the payroll tax cut for two months.
Republicans like to pound their chest as the party who leads while looking down at the Democrats who they so often label as "soft". To end 2011, the Democrats and President Obama are the ones who are pounding their chest while Republicans walk into Christmas with their heads down.
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