Government shutdown? "So be it!"

The battle is now.

It had been brewing with every Tea party, every GOP fundraiser, and every billionaire backed think tank spin job that culminated in the Republicans’ fiction-fueled takeover of the House.

President Obama has stretched his politically sensitive neck rightward in conciliation. In swift order he deftly diverted any hint of blame for the Arizona massacre on right wing fervor, he wooed, even wowed, big business at the US Chamber of Commerce. He even went so far as to sacrifice the poor (proposing to cut $2.5 billion from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) on the altar of bi-partisan compromise.

All to no avail.

It is time for him to straighten up and fly left-- fast, hard and unyieldingly left, until we center our course in the manner of Dwight David Eisenhower, the last great Republican president, who heartily embraced government’s role in creating the vaunted--yet now quickly shrinking-- American middle class.

Job-killing Republicans have drawn a sophomoric line in the sand, calling for $60 billion in spending cuts over the next 7 months that would destroy 600,000 jobs, crush poor and middle class Americans and gut regulatory oversight. Not only would they defund protection of our air, land and water by thwarting the EPA, incredibly—but not surprisingly given that they are bought and paid for by Wall Street—they would cut the Security and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Commodity Future Trading Commission, the very agencies responsible for protecting us from the runaway greed and corruption that caused our recent economic collapse.

President Obama must not budge, not one nickel should be cut from programs for those most in need. Agencies that protect our welfare must be sufficiently funded. Job training, health care, housing, legal aid, global hunger relief, renewable energy, and National Public Radio must all be preserved, if not strengthened.

There can be no compromise on any of this. If this means a government shutdown—and no social security check for mom, or unemployment for cousin Bob, or tuition for sis, or surgery for Aunt Millie, or food for millions who depend on food stamps—then, in the words of Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, “so be it.”

It is time to bring this conflict to a head. Enough with Republicans’ bogus concern for deficits. They had not a whit of concern in running a Clinton surplus into a historic multi-trillion dollar deficit when Bush was president and they controlled both houses of Congress. The spending over the last two years was essential to prevent an even worse Depression after a collapse that had it roots in the corruption -laden policies of the Republicans while they were running up the deficit.

They may truly believe that their way—i.e. passive government, extreme wealth concentration at the top, anything goes for the powerful—is what is best for America. But history has utterly disproven that premise beginning with the 1929 crash and ensuing Depression and our recent turmoil, again brought on by Republican incentivized greed and corruption combined with government de-regulation.

That Americans not in the top tax brackets seem so willing to return power to Republicans, who crashed their economy, slashed their wealth and smashed their world standing, is a cry for leadership. Instead of aiding and abetting their fraud, President Obama must with every speech, every meeting and every appearance teach the fact-based truths of history. Better that we learn from our past, than suffer anew the retched realities of wayward Republicanism.

Richard Dawahare 2/25/11