Republicans are Undercutting National Economic Recovery -- and Dems Need to Say So 24/7
The same old story happens again and again. Dems in the House pass reasonable legislation, and Senate Dems dicker with centrists and Republicans over "compromises," weakening the legislation step by step over many weeks, only to find zero Republican support in the end.
The public has no idea what is going on, and just blames Democrats, who appear to be in charge in DC. Now it is happening gain with vital public spending for national economy recovery -- state aid, unemployment relief, and adjustments in taxes and Medicare payments. This legislation is not just important to this or that group. It matters for keeping any semblance of national economic growth going, for creating and saving hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The President, Congressional leaders, and Democrats of all stripes should be yelling day in, day out, that REPUBLICANS ARE SABOTAGING NATIONAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY. AND PREVENTING JOB GROWTH, JUST FOR POLITICAL ADVANTAGE. That should be the message all the time, led by the President. Stop the murky compromises and the whining about "helping the unemployed." Stop pretending this is about the deficit -- nothing will hurt the deficit more than delayed economic growth. Say what it happening in terms of the national interest.
Republicans are not "compassionate" toward the unemployed, complain Democrats and bloggers. Sorry, folks, that is not what is happening here.
Republicans have figured out that if they undercut economic recovery and increase unemployment rates, they will gain in the 2010 elections -- and probably have a much better shot in 2012. They want to repeat the old cycle: Republicans undercut the economy and run up debt to pay for reckless wars and upper class tax cuts, then hand the mess to Democrats just long enough for them to take a few small steps and get the blame, then Republicans get back in office as the economy recovers. Repeat same recipe after that. It works! So why should they stop doing it?
Democrats, led by the White House, are not handling this strategy well at all. Trying to pretend this is a reasonable argument about the deficit, or that it is about "compassion" for the unemployed, is nuts. Republicans may or may not care about unemployed people, most of whom will not vote for them anyway, but Republican leaders know what they are doing strategically: slow-walking economic growth until they get back into office.
President Obama and the Democrats need to seize the mantle of the national interest in ROBUST ECONOMIC GROWTH. Polls show the public wants more spending for jobs and growth, that people care a lot more about jobs than about deficits. Economic growth is the best way to shrink the deficit anyway. Boldy propose steps that would actually produce jobs and growth -- and proclaim loudly and all the time that Republicans are cynically obstructing the recovery for their own political gain. Spell it out, so that even the most casually engaged American understands what the Republicans are doing with their obstruction. And stop with the wimpy language of "compassion" and the murkey efforts at backrooms "compromises" with folks (like Snowe and Collins) that have no incentive whatsoever to make a deal, anyway. They are just playing a delaying game.
The failure of Democratic leaders to own the language of national economic recovery, to visibly propose and demand bold steps to deal with a genuine economic crisis involving prolonged job loss and slow growth, will go down as the big tragedy of the early 21st century.
It is past time for President Obama to pin the tail on the Republican obstructionist elephant -- and do it loud and clear all the way to election day. So what if a few conservaDems are part of the problem, too? The real issue is 41 Senate Republicans who will not help the nation's economy recover fast, because they want political advantage. Say so.
Would work better if the extremely conservative Democrats weren't playing along.
Stop playing electioneering and kick the butts of recalcitrant members of our own party.
June 24, 2010 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Extreme Conservative Democrats." So that's what the kids are calling those Republicans these days...
June 24, 2010 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is this comment intended to make sense! What are you trying to imply?
June 27, 2010 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
"extremely conservative Democrats "
- So how do you like the "50 state strategy" now?
June 24, 2010 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Most of these jerks were there already.
June 24, 2010 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gee, what a surprise - a right winger spewing ignorance.
The 50 state strategy was primarily about getting the president elected, kiddo - but hey: nothing you right wingers say is based on reality: just bitterness and envy. Oh - and whatever it is you gullibly swallow from Fox.
June 28, 2010 2:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
To repeat what Theda said:
"So what if a few conservaDems are part of the problem, too? The real issue is 41 Senate Republicans who will not help the nation's economy recover fast, because they want political advantage. Say so."
The way to fight this is to go after the Republicans who are exploiting economic pain for their own political gain. Not to go after other Democrats. If you can make Republicans pay a political price for their obstruction and make them back off, then the Blue Dogs will follow suit.
June 27, 2010 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's the "
so what if our team does it" which is destroying this nation. Both mobs are hell bent to do nothing but grab power... and their rooters seem to believe this is okay as long as it happens to be their own mob...
Problem with this thinking is that it is still helping this once great nation collapse.
I guess voters will be happy if their team happens to be in charge at the end of the ride...
Sad that if it continues everything of value will be destroyed before leaving the future to our children...
June 27, 2010 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama should immediately disband the bipartisan debt commission and replace it with an Emergency Commission On Employment, give it one month to work and then push its recommendations hard into the midterms. His eye is on the debt ball when it should be on the jobs ball.
June 24, 2010 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eisenhower doesn't have the vision.
June 24, 2010 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I like it...
June 24, 2010 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not convinced that Obama wants a recovery himself.
"It is past time for President Obama to pin the tail on the Republican obstructionist elephant"
"It is past time..." that means the President is already doing what he's going to be doing. Remember, he was put in office by Wall Street and Banksters to minimize the Democratic wave in 2008: Single Payer became Public Option during the campaign, and upon election Public Option was subsequently thrown under the bus.
Job done. Job being done.
June 26, 2010 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. This is a pretty bad comment. First, you say that Obama doesn't care about an economic recovery. Apparently you think he's a monster who doesn't care that people are suffering.
Next you claim that Wall Street and Bankers "put him in" as part of some sort of conspiracy to minimize a Democratic wave.
Tin Foil much?
June 27, 2010 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I dunno. It kinda makes sense to me. After all, Obama doesn't really care if Congress is controlled by Democrats or Republicans. Some of the things he has shown he really wants (e.g., cutting Social Security, permanent occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, continuing secret prisons, detention without charges) might be more easily achieved with a Republican Congress. Who did he campaign for this year? Lincoln and Specter. I mean, really, it's hard to figure what his motives really are from his actions.
June 28, 2010 2:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
The debt commission is a joke. Allen Simpson of all people- cut me a break.
June 25, 2010 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a word for what the Republicans are doing: Extortion.
"We will only work to help the country out of the Depression if we are given power. If not, then you can suffer, until hell freezes over."
This of course would have some leverage if it wasn't for the fact that Republican policies got us in this sh!t hole to begin with.
Give them the keys, and they'll have us right back in the ditch again - only deeper.
June 26, 2010 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Extortion;
that is the story in a nutshell, right down to the the unemployment numbers.
Is it an illegal conspiracy for Cult-Republican employers to agree not to hire new workers and give more work to fewer workers?
Wanna bet that at all the country clubs across the land, their smoke-filled rooms and the are full of that kind of talk?
June 27, 2010 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps you have not noticed, but he just threw thousands out of work in the oil patch. Zerobama does not seem to care much for private sector jobs.
June 24, 2010 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only slightly more than the private sector does.
June 24, 2010 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
yep.
June 24, 2010 11:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
So put them to work on something else.
June 24, 2010 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
So jobs at all cost? Even if it means destroying the planet?
Let's just legalize pot and prostitution. The employment opportunities are great, but I don't see the repubs jumping on either... (okay, well maybe they're jumping on the prostitutes, but it's still illegal!)
June 24, 2010 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm all in favor of legalizing drugs and prostitution, and freeing up a lot of jail space, eliminating a lot of useless police work in the process. Close down the DEA. Billions would be saved, and nothing disastrous will happen. The Dutch are doing OK.
June 25, 2010 7:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually those are both good ideas. Unfortunately, too many people have bought the lies that were used to create the War on Drugs, and too many people depend on it for their livelihoods. The arguments against prostitution are really religious (Yahweh didn't want his Chosen Ones to give their money to temple prostitutes), but too many people don't really understand why they're against it and so won't think about it.
June 28, 2010 2:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
(Disclaimer: I am not being sarcastic.)
Weird; I (not having researched it at all) have always thought that anti-prostitution laws were more to protect a woman (or, I guess man) from having to sell her dignity.
Then again, now that we have sexual harassment laws, I suppose the point is moot.
So, I think I'd have to agree, to a point. (Even as someone who has never used narcotics.)
Some drugs, I feel, are too dangerous (Heroin, for example), but why not treat the others the same way we treat alcohol and tobacco?
Granted, that's an armchair, unresearched, proposal. But I imagine the best way to unseat drug lords isn't to try and assassinate them, but provide people with legal, safe alternatives - and thus drain said drug lords' coffers.
Replace the DEA with a regulatory commission to ensure safety or some such - and bam, more tax income, less spending.
It seems silly to me that people think liberals want to overly regulate everything -> In my opinion, I think liberals just want to shift the focus of regulation. Look at the Prohibition, etc.
Ah well, governance by compromise and all of that. It's a shame that we all hate each other.
Sometimes I think change can only occur via cataclysm.
June 28, 2010 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's time to start pointing out that BP has thrown TENS of THOUSANDS out of work by not having ANY workable solution for their disaster.
Shutting down deep water drilling until these companies can provided a proven plan for containing future accidents is making sure that the oil companies don't destroy 100'S of thousands of jobs and destroy thousands of businesses.
June 24, 2010 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, for the days of yore, when King Bush created jobs with the flick of his manly wrist.
June 24, 2010 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
What you smokin' in that hubbly-bubbly pipe there?
What's a few thousand oil platform workers out of worker compared with the livelihood of millions of people and their businesses that have been shut down indefinitely due to oil industry negligence?
Oil workers can relocate, which they do like migrating birds, to other areas and still work. But a gulf coast shrimper can't. The same with recreation/resort areas that rely on the beaches along the gulf coast too - they end up laying off far more workers because of the lack of tourists because of the spill.
June 26, 2010 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
hate to burst your petulant bubble...
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Bikini-chart1.jpg
ps- is that a prison shirt you're wearing?
June 27, 2010 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
How many oil eruptions does it take to get your head from where the sun doesn't shine? I feel for the oil workers that may lose their jobs, but, I feel more for the people along the gulf whose home towns have become toxic waste sites. I guess if we pollute enough of the gulf we can just say, oh well , it's polluted anyway might as well go for more oil, right?
June 27, 2010 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
But the very serious people (you know, the ones with jobs guaranteed for 6 years, with a 90%+ chance of renewing for another 6 years after that) are very seriously concerned about the debt. All that debt might inconvenience them and their friends when we get around to paying the debt back and look around to see where all the money went.
June 24, 2010 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, look. She's right. Again.
We should probably elect her as our next Executive.
Hillary would make an excellent VP.
I'm serious like a heart attack.
June 24, 2010 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Compassionate liberals just spent a trillion dollars to stimulate the economy. Too bad they didn't spend it well and instead squandered it on things that produced few if any jobs. Remember all the talk of infrastructure spending? Only a tiny fraction went to that. Now we are left with a huge bill that has to be repaid by taking more money out of the economy. And you want another chance and another trillion?
June 24, 2010 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ya...it's only well spent if it goes directly into YOUR pocket book.
C
June 24, 2010 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or 2T if that's what it takes...I'd rather spend it on Americans than blowing up the Middle East.
June 24, 2010 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Spending money you don't have is the way to prosperity?
June 25, 2010 7:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, yes, it is. Federal spending now means more jobs and a stronger economy now, and in the future. You get out of recessions by spending. That is just basic economic fact.
June 25, 2010 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep! And the very idea that it is okay to spend money we don't have to blow people up, but it isn't okay to spend it to keep our people from living on the streets is just bizarre!
June 25, 2010 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, it is not a fact. It is a stupid theory by a discredited loon economist, Keynes.
June 26, 2010 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you have a rational argument for that, or are you just regurgitating the bullshit that someone fed to you?
June 26, 2010 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Do you have a rational argument for that,"
LOL707LOL707LOL707!!!
you must be new here...
Bulldog's not allowed to even use the word "rational" any more, those rolling-on-the-floor fits of laughter from all the TPM employees and interns sitting at their keyboards really diminishes the daily productivity quotient.
June 27, 2010 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
According to whom, might I ask?
June 27, 2010 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
The answer is yes, oh not so clever bulldog. If you got past grammar school, you would already understand the concept that people who are working pay taxes, while people who are not do not.
June 26, 2010 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you had a brain at all you would see that taking money from one person to 'pay' it to another for a government 'job' and then collecting taxes from them is not a net economic gain. Government spending on pretend jobs accomplishes nothing. Look at FDR's 'success' in the depression. His many programs accomplished nothing.
June 26, 2010 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still licking your balls in public I see.
June 26, 2010 9:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
You seem to be obsessed with licking my balls. Must be some fantasy of yours.
June 26, 2010 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Really?
Just off the top of my head:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_electrification
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Cor
June 26, 2010 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
They had no lasting effect on unemployment, which was little changed until WWII.
June 26, 2010 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, WWII, when the Federal government spent vast amounts of money it didn't have, far more than it did during the 1930s. Deficit spending produced an economic boom in the immediate post-war years.
What's your theory about why WWII brought us out of the Depression?
June 27, 2010 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Like I wrote below... Bull(sh*t) Dog isn't fooling anyone here. For those that need a reminder tho, FDR's New Deal was quite a success... w/ graphs from real historians and economists :)
June 27, 2010 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, the Hoover Dam was planned in 1922 started in 1931. It was finished in the Depression but it wasn't a WPA-type project. The original purpose was to control flooding downstream in the Colorado river, provide irrigation water and generate electricity. It's an example of well-spent public money with long-term benefits for the public.
June 27, 2010 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
"If you had a brain at all you would see that taking money from one person to 'pay' it to another for a government 'job' and then collecting taxes from them is not a net economic gain."
1. Person A earns X1 per year.
2. Person B is a deadbeat loser who earns zero (because he gets "entitlements").
3. X3 is transferred from Person A to Person B, preventing Person A from spending X4.
4. Person B pays X5 in taxes, preventing Person B from spending X6.
5. X1 = X2 = X3 = X4 = X5 = X6 because you cannot hold more than one quantity in your head at a time.
6. Profit!
June 26, 2010 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
"If you had a brain at all you would see that taking money from one person to 'pay' it to another for a government 'job' and then collecting taxes from them is not a net economic gain."
1. Person A earns X1 per year.
2. Person B is a deadbeat loser who earns zero (because he gets "entitlements").
3. X3 is transferred from Person A to Person B, preventing Person A from spending X4.
4. Person B pays X5 in taxes, preventing Person B from spending X6.
5. X1 = X2 = X3 = X4 = X5 = X6 because you cannot hold more than one quantity in your head at a time.
6. Profit!
June 26, 2010 11:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Read Benjamin Franklin Auto biography and understand.
June 27, 2010 2:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Read Benjamin Franklin Auto biography and understand.
June 27, 2010 2:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you had a brain at all you would see that taking money from one person to 'pay' it to another for a government 'job' and then collecting taxes from them is not a net economic gain.
1. Person A earns X1 per year.
2. Person B is a deadbeat loser who earns zero (because he gets "entitlements").
3. X3 is transferred from Person A to Person B, preventing Person A from spending X4.
4. Person B pays X5 in taxes, preventing Person B from spending X6.
5. X1 = X2 = X3 = X4 = X5 = X6 because you cannot hold more than one quantity in your head at a time.
6. Profit!
June 26, 2010 11:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Invalid request" means the comment got posted, apparently.
Moveable Type sucks.
June 26, 2010 11:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
As usual, you don't know what you're talking about. Except for 1938, when Roosevelt made the mistake of listening to Conservative Republican concerns about the deficit, Unemployment went down every year of Roosevelt's Administrations from 1933 to 1942:
http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20030124ar03p1.htm
June 27, 2010 3:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bull(sh*t) Dog isn't fooling anyone here. For those that need a reminder tho, FDR's New Deal was quite a success... w/ graphs from real historians and economists :)
June 27, 2010 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is spending money we don't have going to bring us prosperity?
If Joe Blow does it, no way. But, if the government spends wisely, then hell yes. Wealth does not come from money. It come from production. Investment in production is the basis of wealth. Money is an incidental enabler.
But, perhaps that's a little too Smithian for you to grasp, my conservative bull dog friend.
June 27, 2010 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paying all those teachers was a terrible idea.
June 24, 2010 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. First one wasn't big enough and wasn't targeted as well as it could have been.
June 25, 2010 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"as well as it could have"? It was purely a political payback to every liberal organization/cause in the last 50 years. Obama said if we didn't have the stimulus, unemployment would hit 8%. We should have listened to him and voted no, because with it it is at 10%.
June 26, 2010 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
In other words,instead of observing reality,you may as well simply say "whatever glen Beck says is 100% what I believe. Thinking for myself is just too hard".
June 28, 2010 2:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Very little of the stimulus money has even been spent. Most states and cities didn't have projects ready to start, and still don't, so the money just sits there waiting for them to act. We are a big nation, with big problems, requiring big solutions, none of which can be put in place in a couple of months. Remember it took Bush over two months just to get an invasion of Iraq underway.
June 26, 2010 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
$100 billion spent on our national infrastructure and transportation system. It was the largest investment in infrastructure since Ike.
$80 billion in clean energy investments. Also an historic investment. This includes: $11 billion for a smarter grid that will move renewable energy from the rural areas where it is produced to the cities where it is mostly used, $5 billion for low-income home weatherization projects, $4.5 billion to green federal buildings that cuts our energy bill, saving taxpayers billions of dollars. Also, $6.3 billion for state and local renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts, $600 million in green job training programs and $2 billion in competitive grants to develop the next generation of batteries to store energy.
June 26, 2010 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well said.
Also note that spending to repair crumbling infrastructure DOES NOT increase debt. It was previous administrations' failure to maintain infrastructure that increased debt -- while concealing the increase from the balance sheet and passing it on to future administrations.
June 27, 2010 12:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you Theda, you are exactly right and please treat yourself to a fun shopping spree and pamper yourself, you deserve it.
June 24, 2010 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're kinda schizo on this whole political thing seems to me Professor. Last week we were to support Obama despite his poor performance and get behind him all the way. This week you point out the fact that Democrats aren't blaming Republicans for all the crap they pull which is a direct result of our weak President's refusal to lead the charge against the enemy. No one on Capitol Hill is more quilty of dickering with Republicans to weaken legislation and get nothing in return for it than our President. Have ya not noticed that in the past 18 months?
June 24, 2010 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, she seems to get it a little more on this one though.
June 24, 2010 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
it's hard to take her seriously at this point
June 24, 2010 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Theda is now on my "will have to redeem herself when the catfood commission report is released list."
The first and most important question is "will Obama support Social Security benefit cuts?"
If he does, I'll be curious about what position Theda takes.
June 24, 2010 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
December, which is when I think the recommendations are supposed to be ready, is going to be interesting
June 24, 2010 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know damn well he will support cutting SS and Medicare. He will lie about it. He will say it isn't what it is, but he will be for cutting SS and Medicare as sure as shootin. How can he preside over the imperial defense and war budgets if all those old people are being taken care of? It isn't like they "earned" it or anything. I'm sure he has a hard time understanding why all those old people think they're entitled to a welfare check to begin with. In this case, as in the case in question the Prof. is highlighting in this post he agrees with the Republican position. That's why he never, ever attacks the Republicans. He rarely uses the words Democrat or Republican at all because he's lost in his fantasyworld of postpartisanship praying (like he's doing on the oil spill) for some answer to the problems we face as a result of Republican obstruction and profligacy.
June 24, 2010 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Even Bush new better than to mess with Social Security in his first term. If he goes along he's playing right into the Republican's hands.
June 24, 2010 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
And what would be surprising about that? That's precisely what he has done on every major issue since he was sworn in.
June 24, 2010 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't get your point. She advised that you support the president and is now saying that the Prez and Dems need to step up their attacks on the GOP. You can't wrap your mind around that? You think that one should withdraw total support because of a few things they don't agree with? Not surprised to see a few commentators getting a little giddy over her criticism as if to say "welcome to the dark side". Ha! Don't start the party yet.
Also, I can tell you that the WH and the Dems aren't the only ones lacking in their take down of the GOP. The Left sure as hell shouldn't throw stones. Just sayin'.
June 24, 2010 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Step up" their attacks? What attacks? They've done nothing but roll over for the Republicans since Obama was sworn in.
June 25, 2010 2:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
So Dems just helped gut derivatives reform, and Admiral Mullen weighs in on Deficits and Debt.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/adm-mike-mullen-national_n_624096.html
June 24, 2010 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lovely. So the Democrats remove the derivatives reform once the dirty work of securing Blanche Lincoln's nomination is done. F'ing losers.
June 24, 2010 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Should have said 'House Dems', but the White House wants only limited regs, so...Oh, there's probably just enough left re: transparency and whatnot, but that Barney Frank, I swear.
And Blanche can maybe live with Banks not spinning off their swaps if...their holdings are just under Arkansas' Walmart Bank ($15 billion?)and...so forth.
And no funds to undwind banks about to fail...
June 24, 2010 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not that it wasn't foreseeable.
June 24, 2010 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
foreseen
June 27, 2010 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only reason it stayed in as long as it did was due to the runoff election. There was never a chance in hell that would make it into law. Lincoln never intended it. Obama didn't. It was nothing but a stunt to fool a few voters and get her into the general election (where she's gonna get her ass kicked).
June 25, 2010 2:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
in the words of the honorable Mr. Arthur Fonzarelli, "Exactamundo!"
June 25, 2010 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
JMJ will not help with this nonsense.
June 24, 2010 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, no. It was more of an expletive than a prayer. It feels as though there is no hope. Most days.
June 24, 2010 6:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
This video right here is some of what we need. DNC should run this nationally. For real. Plenty of moments like this over the last 2 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcyxAzdMAn8
June 24, 2010 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great ad. Thanks for the link.
And you're right. More and more of that.
June 25, 2010 1:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
The public has no idea what is going on...
That should be the message all the time, led by the President.
Thank you, Theda Skocpol. But be careful; someone might think you are implicitly criticizing the President, given that it is the President who is chiefly responsible for telling the public what is going on.
June 24, 2010 6:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
The president should be manipulating information far more than he does. It's absolutely valid criticism. But we also need more of what we see if you follow the link Viva America provides above.
Advertising, well, it can buy you to buy total crap no one in the world really needs.
And it can change minds.
June 25, 2010 1:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
As I see it, the problem is not the Democrats, the Republicans, or the President, but the filibuster. However, it seems that the Republicsns' main objection is to increasing the deficit. Would it be possible to make the bill deficit neutral by raising some additional taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and then pass the measure by reconciliation? I believe they have the votes.
June 24, 2010 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I look to see the filibuster rules change in the next congress. The dems under estimated the repugs in the beginning of this congress and miss their chance to change it. They should hang on to their control in this election. MSM is slow to see the retreat of the support for the far right. The crazies make good sound bits and material for blogs so MSM isn't willing to let go of their predictions of lots of wins for the crazies.
June 25, 2010 5:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, the story I got is the Republicans and six Democrats couldn't see sustaining state employees' high wage and benefit packages in this recessionary era with deficit dollars, while the Democrats were holding the extention of unemployment benefits hostage to the bill's passage.
Immediately after the failed vote on the National Economic Recovery bill, the Republicans called for a vote to extend unemployment benefits but were defeated by the Democrats. Is this not how it went down?
ex animo
davidfarrar
June 25, 2010 7:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Huh?
June 25, 2010 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. Click here to read about Sen. Olympia Snowe's letter to Harry Reid, urging a stand-alone jobless aid bill, and what Sen. Reid suggested she could do with her letter.
ex animo
davidfarrar
June 26, 2010 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
June 26, 2010 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
As they say, action speaks louder than words.
Just think how foolish Republicans would have looked if the Democrats would have done the smart thing and immediately called Snowe's bluff. The fact that they didn't tell us Senate Democrats had more than enough "evidence" that Republicans would support Snowe's proposal.
ex animo
davidfarrar
June 26, 2010 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Today's (June 26) PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER has an article saying that the Dems are getting ready a stand alone unemployment extension bill.
June 26, 2010 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh thank the gods.
*LisB sighs with relief*
June 26, 2010 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn! Where's your link?
ex animo
davidfarrar
June 27, 2010 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, I got it. "Democrats mull making jobless aid a separate bill".
Click here for article.
I think we are talking apples and oranges here, as in House and Senate. The House Democrats seem okay with the idea. But I see nothing but obstruction from Senate Democrats to the idea.
ex animo
davidfarrar
June 27, 2010 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, I got it. "Democrats mull making jobless aid a separate bill.
Click here for article.
I think we are talking apples and oranges here, as in House and Senate. The House Democrats seem okay with the idea. But I see nothing but obstruction from Senate Democrats to the idea.
ex animo
davidfarrar
June 27, 2010 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently, Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.) wants to pass his meaningless Wall Street reform bill next week rather than address any stand-alone jobless bill. Go figure.
ex animo
davidfarrar
June 27, 2010 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/97214619.html
June 27, 2010 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
it's time for VP Biden to take up his place as president of the senate and kill the filibuster.
June 26, 2010 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Prof. Skocpol is precisely on target, as usual.
June 26, 2010 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
What programs would Democrats propose be cut in order to make the Unemployment Insurance viable?
If the Tea party is going to keep insisting, the government needs to stop spending money it doesn't have.
You can't keep taxing those who are working in order to support those who aren't; or all of us will be slaves to debt.
Maybe the plan is, to make us all slaves?
There really is no free lunch.
It’s time for priorities; the World financial picture is about to collapse.
Do the Democrats want Unemployment Insurance, or do they want to know the affect of cow manure on the atmosphere? Shouldn’t we really be putting the priority on the safety net issues, rather than whether Mars has water?
Maybe the money spent in space would have served us better on how to manage our current energy needs, or how to drill safely in deep water rather than trying to figure out how to live in deep space?
Again what programs would Democrats propose be cut, in order to make the necessary unemployment Insurance, viable?
Keep taxing the rich and they'll leave the country, just as they're leaving California.
Then where will the Democrats find they're next revenue source, the middle class?
Of course the Government can always just print more money?
What effects will that have on working class Americans, or the unemployed?
Just asking
June 26, 2010 10:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Keep taxing the rich and they'll leave the country, just as they're leaving California." Wow! Please let me know when that happens, so I ca be at the bon voyage party. Maybe if we take a collection we can underwrite their tickets to encourage them.
Seriously, they aren't leaving, taxes or no taxes. Do you really have such a low opinion of this nation that you see no benefit to living here?
June 26, 2010 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know where you've been Rip Van Winkle, but a lot of Californians moved to Arizona and Washington State already.
California is broke and they sure as heck can't get the poor to pay the taxes.
Guess which chumps the State is coming for to pick up the tab.
June 27, 2010 4:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, and Ron Artest moved from my neighborhood to Houston....before he moved back to California. Believe me, the super wealthy who got all of the tax breaks from the Repubs, will not move away. Look who the Repubs dug up to run for the Senate and for Governor. Do you think they are moving out of state?
June 27, 2010 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Keep taxing the rich and they'll leave the country, just as they're leaving California.
Like they did under the Clinton and Reagan Administrations when they raised taxes? Oh wait.
You live in a dream world inhabited by right wing fact-free morons.
June 27, 2010 3:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh you mean before NAFTA; when we had a tax base?
June 27, 2010 5:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
NAFTA was passed in late 1993. The balanced budgets, that Clinton achieved in part due to the increased tax revenues, came much later.
Yet another fact-free comment.
June 27, 2010 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I see you've been drinking the Democratic koolaid.
June 27, 2010 11:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, even if Republicans are the bad guys, I'm not sure that Democrats are the good guys, or that they care either.
How many Democrats are calling for spending cuts to the war machine? How many critique the national security state, or the global empire? How many support policies that are even remotely socialist?
The gist of this post is that we need to adjust the mirrors so the smoke works better.
June 26, 2010 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign.
Trying to label Republicans as "The bad guys" is pointless.
The American People gave the democrats huge majorities in Congress and the Presidency with the expectation of results.
There is nowhere to hide from their failure to meet expectations.
It's not the fault of the Republicans. They are just trying to survive.
If the Democrats had moved forward and destroyed the filibuster when they had the chance, and passed everything in the first 6 months, we wouldn't even be talking about any of this.
But the Party is so conservative and corrupt now, none of that was possible.
So, here we are.
June 27, 2010 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's kind of obvious.
June 26, 2010 11:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Democrats do being silence very well while being the republicans bitches. They never call out the republicans bullshit and let the American people know what is going on. Its simple salesmanship 101 which the republicans are masters at and the democrats are spineless cowards
June 27, 2010 12:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Democrats do being silence very well while being the republicans bitches. They never call out the republicans bullshit and let the American people know what is going on. Its simple salesmanship 101 which the republicans are masters at and the democrats are spineless cowards
June 27, 2010 12:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I'd do far worse.
The dems and Obama missed their chance to hang the meltdown on conservatism when they took over in Jan 2009. They should have demonized conservatism so much that it drove people to violence.
Wall Street should have been torched, the wealthy left cowering under their beds for fear of what would happen to them should they peek out.
Too bad we have so many safeguards that keep people from getting ugly. It would have been fun seeing republicans heads on stakes outside the Capitol.
Give the republicans control again and maybe they'll shred the safety net just enough to get themselves the punishment they so richly deserve.
Subhuman garbage deserves no less.
June 27, 2010 3:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Finally! The question I've been asking all along, what if the President had done nothing? The Republicans, should be shame of themselves, and the shame should carry right over to the Tea-Baggers, who only want government spending when it helps a few, or when they can see no sensible way around it (ie: the gulf spill) All of them have never been about America First, just Me First Second and Last!
And don't think it will change when we don't get out and vote and the win more seats in November, that will truly be Obama's Waterloo. Because they will have the fire power they need to make the economy sink. and make it just what they want: Never Again Well a African American hold this power.
Please get out and vote FOR AMERICA with your heart not your party.
June 27, 2010 9:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
“who only want government spending when it helps a few, or when they can see no sensible way around it.”
You could have just as easily said a democrat wants government spending when it helps them.
Therein lies the problem, Everyone has a group; a program they like and it's much easier to keep adding programs, rather than gore someone else’s favorite program.
WE ARE BROKE, GET IT
America used to be the greatest creditor Nation we are now one of the largest debtor Nations.
We have become mooches, "for a hamburger today we'll gladly pay you Tuesday.
We want instant gratification, wanting it NOW, but avoiding the realization, we can never pay back the loan.
We were warned; now were up to our eyeballs in debt, the bond traders will want more interest on whatever money, they'll consider loaning, to an out of control spender.
You've heard the “wages of sin is death”, well the wages of out of control spending is INFLATION.
Under the control of inflation, the working class will be enslaved.
The jobs will still be overseas, so the American peasant will just have to work longer, to pay the taxes, so the government can still bring everyone, the pet projects they desire.
Which programs do the Democrats intend to cut, in order to bring relief to the thousands of displaced, unemployed American workers?
I wonder how long before the working class figures it out; 20 million illegal immigrants need to go back home.
America is broke, unless of course the Democrats have another program they would consider cutting, in order to keep the immigrants here working, undercutting the American workers wages?
WE ARE BROKE, it is time to cut programs, it is time to prioritize our expenditures; it is time to stop the bleeding before we die.
June 27, 2010 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree heartily. After all, it worked so well for Hoover.
June 27, 2010 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
What an ignorant uninformed reaction to the spending and borrowing of Republicans. I agree we could not afford the massive tax giveaways of Bush. He borrowed money from the Chinese to give to American millionaires and billionaires while he borrowed MORE from the Chinese to pay for the horrible stupid war in Iraq. The war Bush's advisors said would pay for itself is now in excess of ONE TRILLION DOLLARS ..... all borrowed because Republicans do not have the political balls to pay for their fucking wars! The are too busy lowering tax rates on rich people to worry. But now they are the masters of penny pinching? After they have raped and gutted everything and engorged themselves on every free lunch they can swallow down? There is plenty of money to use for investments and stimulus AND IT IS IN THE HANDS OF THE RICH AND SUPER RICH WHO ACCUMULATED THE ENTIRE GROWTH OF THE ECONOMY FOR A DECADE while the working and middle class stood still and/or sand like rocks.
I suggest we raise the tax rates back to what fucking Reagan had and invest the money in the future of the American economy.
June 27, 2010 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
You wrote "What an ignorant uninformed reaction to the spending and borrowing of Republicans."
I almost agree with you; when it comes to uninformed and ignorant you ARE quite the expert.
You can tell me all the reasons why, all I have pointed out is the reality, the results of Republican AND DEMOCRAT.
So I guess your suggesting, if the Republicans can destoy America, the Democrats should have their turn too?
June 27, 2010 11:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Should..should...should.... It's past time to leave the comforts of the deontic modality, no matter how good it feels.
We understand the others perfectly well; it's the Democrats whose behavior we can't interpret. Are they goodhearted but laggardly souls, who will come their senses after a sharp chiding?
Maybe not. Could they be what by their actions they seem to be?
June 27, 2010 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Skocpol is right, and a great many of the anti-Obama comments here make little sense.
June 27, 2010 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yikes:
As opposed to:
1. The USA committing itself to its empire despite the warning given on 9.11.2001.
2. The rapid succession of financial crises.
3. The globalization of the American financial disease.
4. The Patriot Act.
5. The GWOT which turned the globe into a battlefield.
6. President Obama giving himself (as President) the power to assassinate American citizens.
7. The acceleration of global warming trends without the implementation of serious policies meant to slowdown and reverse this trend.
etc.
I admit that the Obama administration erred when it preferred a conservative approach to resolving America's economic crisis. But I doubt that Obama's mistake was a simple blunder. It expressed his deep commitments to the institutions, policies, goals and cultures of contemporary American politics. He's a crisis manager and a system politician. He's not a reformer.
June 27, 2010 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
I talk about this very point, from a personal perspective, on my blog.
http://open.salon.com/blog/stonermom/2010/06/27/the_unemployed_pawns_of_political_paralysis_1
June 27, 2010 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
@MyMy
Didn't you know, everything is Obama's fault? That's the rule here.
I'm not saying he's perfect because he's far from it. But the conspiracy theories like that he was put in office by Wall Street is as ridiculous as the theory by a comedian that the Republicans let Obama win so he'd get all the blame.
Obama has been more populist lately but partisan politics isn't really his style. And he has to work so fricking hard to not appear as the "Angry Black Man" though that narrative is starting already. He doesn't get to show emotion.
I don't see the Democratic party itself rushing to be any better. They're not writing the bills - as it's the job of the Congress to do - not the President. The Democratic Party media isn't running ads about how the Republicans' "play dead" strategy affects THEM. Affecting poor people won't move them. Affecting themselves? They'll listen to that.
I read somewhere that what makes the Republicans' narrative more powerful than the Democrats' is that Republicans talk in emotion and Democrats talk in facts, thinking that if people knew the truth, they'd be angry. Emotions reach in a simple yet effective way. The Democrats need to speak in emotion or they've lost.
June 27, 2010 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
As much as I am always amazed that explaining FACTS to people does not help them understand anything I take your point very well that the Dems need to ramp up the emotion FAST! If people are so mindlessly led around by Beck and company well then let's have at it !!! Lead them around to a place where they actually benefit and we all benefit instead of preaching FACTS that go right over their heads and into the garbage.
June 27, 2010 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's the one thing I'll say about Olbermann. He's over the top, as bad as Beck in that regard but when he's on his game, the emotion he speaks in touches the heart. Obama won election because he has passion and had good intentions, regardless of what the Obama haters seem to think. I think his biggest crime was being naive enough to think that his race wouldn't matter. And that the compromise he was able to do in the past would never be possible. Most of all, that very non-partisanism he was elected for would become his biggest weakness. Obama will probably be a one termer but he'll be a President who accomplished great things. Unfortunately, he will be the last black Democratic President.
June 27, 2010 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
REPUBLICANS ARE SABOTAGING NATIONAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY. AND PREVENTING JOB GROWTH, JUST FOR POLITICAL ADVANTAGE.
.
And, again:
REPUBLICANS ARE SABOTAGING NATIONAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY. AND PREVENTING JOB GROWTH, JUST FOR POLITICAL ADVANTAGE.
And, again:
REPUBLICANS ARE SABOTAGING NATIONAL ECONOMIC RECOVERY. AND PREVENTING JOB GROWTH, JUST FOR POLITICAL ADVANTAGE.
June 28, 2010 1:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
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January 25, 2011 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink