Just got this email from "David Plouffe, The White House." I thought he was a campaign person, but apparently he's a "senior advisor" to the president -- which means he's getting paid by US, the taxpayers, not by Obama campaign donors.
I think it's outrageously chutzpadik, given that his boss is going to take off any minute on a $4 Million Hawaiian Holiday, courtesy of the same folks who pay all their salaries and will pay all their pensions... for the rest of their or our lives (whichever ends first).
Now it's going around the innernut that Ronald Reagan spent Christmas at the White House in Washington DC so that his Secret Service agents and other aides could spend Christmas at home with their families. So said the Reagan Ranch Presidential Scholar for Young America's Foundation, Floyd Brown, in 2006. And this bit from the Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 23, 1988, confirms it:
PRESIDENT AND Mrs. Reagan will spend Christmas away from the White House for the first time in eight years. They are to leave today for the house in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles where they will live after Reagan's term ends Jan. 20....
So keep that - and the $4 Million vacay - in mind when you read this plouffe:
Hello --
We've been fighting for months to make sure taxes on the middle class don't go up on January 1st.
This weekend, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate came together, compromised, and took a giant step to avoid just that. In fact, 89 senators approved an extension of the payroll tax cut. And 39 of them were Republicans, including GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.
But now, a faction of Republicans in the House refuses to even vote on that compromise. And they're on the brink of allowing taxes to go up on 160 million Americans.
Here's part of the problem: A lot of people in Washington don't understand what these tax cuts mean. A typical family gets about $40 with each paycheck from this tax cut, and opponents look at that and argue it doesn't have an impact.
(Pardon the interruption, but I just want to point out that the "typical" $40 would be for paychecks written twice a month; if someone gets paid each week, it would be $20. This "transparent" White House is full of smoke and mirrors. -- Yael)
Just today, one House Republican referred to this debate as "high-stakes poker." He’s right about the high-stakes, but he's dead wrong about the poker. This is not a game.
We know better -- $40 has tangible benefits for millions of families. Can you help us prove that point?
What's missing here in Washington is your voice.
Too many just don't understand the perspective of a working family. They need to hear what it's like to be part of the middle class in this country.
Thankfully, there's still time to change the conversation. We have 11 days until taxes go up.
Send us your stories and we'll share them on Facebook and Twitter. We'll display what we received on WhiteHouse.gov. With your help, we'll put the middle class front and center.
Tell us what an extra $40 means to you and your family:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/40dollars
Thanks,
David Plouffe
Senior Advisor to the President
ARGH & GRRR.
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