Obama recognized the needs to stabilize the economy, to settle uncertainty. He also cleverly worked in some stimulative monies plus covering the unemployed for an extended period. Though raising the amount of debt is counter to one of our key priorities, his attempt at stimulative spending seems to be wise, as it is imperative that the economy grow and stabilize, so that there is a sufficiently large pie to make things work and to pay down the debt. Allowing the economy to go down is something we cannot afford. Hats off to Obama for this part.
However, calling the Republicans "hostage takers" (in a victimlike manner) and saying he will "fight" causes me, using the criteria for rating on a previous post, to lower his rating, as adversarial behavior is not productive (unless in actual war).
The Republicans, no matter how justified their position, needed to propose less than a $5 million dollar exemption for estate tax, at a 35% rate above that. Continuing it at the current exemption in 2010 might be reasonable, but to overextend beyond that is counterproductive - and it has resulted in extreme opposition.
The Dems might consider, however, that this is a very small portion of revenue involved and definitely not worth doing harm in a bigger way overall.
Most of the Dems appear to be violating all the criteria for rating of leaders (see rating post), reacting in anger and dug in heels, offended because they weren't include earlier (ego getting in the way of the greater good) - all behavior that is counterproductive. In caucus, they even went into a chant of "just say no" - productive adult behavior?
It's sad. We should be able to have a "grown up conversation" if we want to have a greater overall solution.
Is such behavior productive (which is our criteria)? Other suggestions? (Hopefully, all comments would be based on reasoning, facts, and productiveness and not anger and labeling or immediate prejudice and being closed.)
The Rational Problem Solver
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