Threats of Class Warfare are Hollow...finally

In the 90s calling the president's policies socialism, aka class warfare, would have worked.  Today, as we embark away from the many firsts of this presidency; the epic sliding away from conversations about glass ceilings; and the mediocre attractions of political labels just for the sake of politics, the threat of class warfare affecting our discourse is over.  Time has not been kind to the phrase.  Thankfully, time gave up.

The president today proved he'll take it head on.  You can argue the policy but I promise you, math will win.

This is not class warfare.  It’s math.  (Laughter.)  The money is going to have to come from someplace.  And if we’re not willing to ask those who've done extraordinarily well to help America close the deficit and we are trying to reach that same target of $4 trillion, then the logic, the math says everybody else has to do a whole lot more:  We’ve got to put the entire burden on the middle class and the poor.  We’ve got to scale back on the investments that have always helped our economy grow.  We’ve got to settle for second-rate roads and second-rate bridges and second-rate airports, and schools that are crumbling.

That’s unacceptable to me.  That’s unacceptable to the American people.  And it will not happen on my watch.  I will not support -- I will not support -- any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans.  And I will veto any bill that changes benefits for those who rely on Medicare but does not raise serious revenues by asking the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to pay their fair share.  We are not going to have a one-sided deal that hurts the folks who are most vulnerable.