Did President Obama Switch Political Parties Over The Weekend?

President Obama’s latest “fiscal cliff” offer throws the middle class and senior citizens under the bus – with a huge tax increase on workers and a long-term cut to Social Security. The plan also gives a tax break to the rich. According to the latest proposal, the President is willing to raise the bar at which wealthy Americans will see their taxes go up, from $200,000 a year to $400,000 a year. In return – the President will allow the payroll tax cut for working American to expire, meaning working people's tax bills will go up a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars a year. Also, the President is willing to cut benefits for Social Security and Medicare, and then agree to hundreds of billions in unspecified spending cuts, which Republicans want to target social welfare programs. This is not a balanced deal – and the American people, who, in poll after poll, have opposed cuts to insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security, shouldn't accept it. Even Senate Majority Harry Reid will likely not accept it, telling reporters, “I am not going to be part of having Social Security included as part of these talks relating to this deficit.” So far, this is not what Democrats, who gave the president the benefit of the doubt in his first-term, had in mind for a second Obama term.