The Cowardly Lion

Coward  --  1) noun: a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.

                    2) adjective: very fearful or timid

          Synonyms:  chicken heart, chicken liver, faint-of-heart, fraidy-cat,  gutless, jellyfish, lily liver, mouse, scaredy cat, shirker, skulker, sneak, weakling, wimp, yellow belly, yellow

Now that we got the definition out of the way, who could it be we're speaking of?

"President Barack Obama is asking Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to delay automatic spending cuts scheduled to kick in March 1."  (AP)

That's who.

Since Obama is the astrological sign of Leo, the title "Cowardly Lion" is apropos.

Now, let's go over the time chronology:

December 31, 2012:  The line-in-sand deadline that a fiscal cliff deal on tax increases and spending cuts had to be agreed upon...  In addition, if debt ceiling not raised by today, the US would be over its limit and in technical default on its obligations.

~  So what happened instead was there were some tax increases for the wealthy but the wrong wealthy- the productive wealthy.  Those wealthy who make their $$ playing the stock market were wrongly spared the financial pain they specifically (more than anyone else) deserved.

 Any discussion as to what cuts would be necessary to get the deficit under control was kicked back to March 1st.  The debt ceiling debate was also can-kicked to March 1st because the Treasury Secretary said he still had 3 months of funds via account shifting to keep paying on our debts.

Late January, 2013:  A short term fix bill was passed on the debt ceiling allowing it to be raised just enough to keep making payments until May as to avoid the distraction of dealing with that and fiscal cliff budget cuts (as was the rationale told to us).  Congress and the President would deal with it in mid-spring.

February 5th, 2013 (Today):  'Obama asks lawmakers for short-term sequester fix' - "Obama will ask for a targeted way to reduce the deficit in the short term, perhaps several months." (AP).

And by 'several months' we're guessing that's um..  May, which will once again bunch up fiscal cliff negotiations with debt ceiling vote and provoke another round of incessant can-kicking...

Or maybe push something back until summertime when most of Americans are not focused on anything Washington does, thus making it easier to sneak in vicious, painful cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare?

Disgraceful!

We're trying to think of the last time we had a President who wasn't such a coward and dealt with line-in-the-sand, inflexible deadlines as a Man would....

Hmm...

We're thinking JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis but then again, its not like he could have called Soviet Premier Kruschev and asked for a two-month continuance on hostilities so he could have more time to bang Marilyn Monroe or such...

Hmm..

It sincerely is difficult to think of a President who made the conscious decision to respect a deadline when dealing with something unpleasant or unpopular vs the alternative of can-kicking and delaying.

When its come to major decisions like war and budgets, either had decisions made for them (Pearl Harbor) or created their own 'deadlines' i.e. Both Bush 41 & 43's invasions of Iraq.

Funny what a President can get away with--

You try contacting your credit card or utility company and letting them know you need a few months extension.. Or telling a judge you need never-ending continuances on your upcoming trial..

We're sure they'll be most accommodating...

So what would a courageous President do?

Simple-- He'd work tirelessly, night and day.. minimal sleep if need be to hammer out an agreement with the opposition party to avoid greater economic pain and suffering for the nation had no deal been done.

No can kicking.. No date adjusting..  Simply face the moment.

Be strong.. Be resolute..  Compromise yet never concede...

And treat March 1st with the Respect it deserves..

An Inflexible, Immovable Deadline date!