Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, like all his Congressional GOP colleagues who have been quoted, don't think much of President Obama's$3 trillion plan announced on Monday to trim the deficit, which most notably includes a proposed higher tax on households that earn more than $1 million.
The freshman from Miami told an Orlando radio station that he didn't want to sound like the cliched Republican bashing the President, but then did so.
Although GOP political consultant Mike Murphy agreed, saying the president erred by appealing more to his base than to independents, perhaps a news alert should be sent to the Los Angeles based strategist to check out the polls- Obama's summer long appeal to independents hasn't moved the meter much – while concurrently, he's taken the air out of liberals who naturally support him but not what they see is kowtowing to the GOP.
Based strictly on the reaction 24 hours after his speech, much of that base is energized for the first time in months – and not just the base; Gallup finds that a majority of Republican respondents — who disapprove of Obama by a four-to-one margin — favor four of six ideas proposed by Obama over the last few weeks: Closing some corporate loopholes and raising taxes on big businesses, using federal money to avert public employee layoffs, infrastructure spending and payroll tax cuts.
Yes, the battle is over taxes, historically one that has not been kind to Democrats (re: Fritz Mondale in 1984). But the country is in crises, and asking for millionaires – not just those who make over $250,000 to pay their "fair share" is turning on the base, and others, according to public opinion surveys.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2011.