Once again, Peter Morici of the University of Maryland gets it exactly right, here:
"The president, by being so persistent that it's my way or the highway, no spending cuts, taxes on folks over $250,000 or nothing, has basically put a pistol to the head of the middle class. It's threatened them with financial extortion if he doesn't get his way to satisfy the populist wing of the Democratic Party."
Translation: Obama is a gangster who threatens to take everyone's money if we don't give him rich people's money.
Somebody should call the cops.
