Word to the wise----"old guard" don't be stupid anymore
Let me put this in context. I am not that important. I am not a "Washington Insider", national pundit or spokesman. Most of the time the situation in Washington DC is always about power---except when it is not like at times of mortal national crisis. I am an unabashed Obama grassroots volunteer and local organizer who was a minor party officials that going back signed on in the spring of 2007, one of the true early birds in what became a critical battleground state. Today I am now a State and County Democrat Party leader recently elected to:
Why is this important? At our Central Committee Annual Meeting the discussion among many was the Congress's proposed Recovery Bill and WTF! Some of us had also got the early word that the Obama Campaign was beginning to make operational the post election volunteer network now called Organizing for America commencing their modus operandi of House Parties to sell the program. Many of us are very willing to sell but not happy with this package of garbage. Among those many conversations and subsequent personal discussions with serious party leaders, some who were serious candidates, I have come to agree is summed up as that the leaders in the Democratic House were, "Idiots, what were they thinking!". Yes the same words that Senator McCaskill characterized the Wall Street Bankers----
This Depression and that is what it is is akin not to the Great Depression but to the South's Secession during Lincoln's time. The "old guard", that political leadership just doesn't get it, meaning our party's leaders.
History is never actually linear but there are always similarities. Yes our society and its economic system was allowed to grow its debt ratio to GDP above the level of 1929 and naturally the markets reacted the same. Yes, this debt speculation, the mass psychology captured best by the cable TV show "Flip This House" where using debt to acquire securities was merely a means to pass the bag onto someone else with no intent of actually paying back the loan flipped this economy and banking system. It was the economic model throughout the entire corporate business community as well as in our households. in other words it was a giant ponzi scheme, that has now collapsed.
BUT IT IS AS IF THE LEADERS IN CONGRESS HAVEN'T RECOGNIZED THIS, no different than how the South failed to recognize that a slave society was no more accepted in the civilized world. This proposed Recovery Bill that passed the House was structured and littered with a continued idea that the "same old, same old" would perpetuate.
The simple fact is that I am unemployed, have been for over a year. A professional and former business class owner, I worked with senior executives in many industries including the banking industry. I feel fortunate that a non profit now wants to hire me for literally semi-skilled wages to help others find a job, not executives but regular middle class and professional class folks locked in a career death spiral. There is no economy to hire them, in their old jobs so we have to figure this out at the ground level. It is a Depression after all.
The simple fact is that the corrupt GOP is correct, this was not a stimulus bill, BUT NEITHER IS A GIANT investor class/corporate tax giveback that the GOP wants to employ either. We have done that for eight years and we have this economy to show. The simple fact that the Recovery Bill must do some simple things like: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS and deal with revamping and overhauling the entire residential housing finance system. Earn this permission to do other important things Congress like health care, energy and education, but fix this economy first!
Now Obama made the case yesterday that jobs, jobs, jobs was related to building a program to bring in energy conservation programs, renewable programs throughout the residential market-----GOOD, that is what we are talking about. You want to give the working and middle class a tax break use the FICA rates----lower personal rates under $50,000, lower new business contribution rates for new hires (2009 only) and increase the over $200,000 rates on individuals and take the cap off of it. Someone gets a million dollar bonus they then contribute $75,000 to social security. That will put real money into the market and do with a sunset where this break ends when the Depression is over.
In housing simply do this. Model the loans after the college loan program, cut the rates---guarantee them as long as people pay. As far as the banks---I know these guys (yes they are mostly male) and let them sink or swim on their own, the shareholders are at risk and so what. If we need to rebuild the banks than we do it. No more ever again merging Investment Banks with Commercial Banks-----banking is not rocket science and the only reason why those guys got the big bucks was they had a book of business and personal network to smooze and booze.....that network is dead now, so what is their value? The other guys are simply bookies, they determine the odds on risk----banking is that simple. They never understood my business, never took the time and told me so, they only understood my ability or not to repay and then pay fees.
Back to the Democratic Leadership. Get real. Fix this and do it as if the nation is in a Civil War. Obama act like Lincoln, start ferreting out the leaders like Lincoln did with his generals until you find generals who are willing to win the war. The Bill that the House proposed did not serve us and change directly. It served the constituencies that composed the "old guard" and they allowed the GOP to see political opportunity targets as they should and make political hay!
So we are down to the Senate to do the right thing and get this right. Get a bill that makes JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.....fixes and changes the fundamental US securities----residential housing-----and get money directly in the system from the bottom up------period. Don't make constituency political targets.
This is a word to the wise, this is not political games as they used to be. I am going to canvass our State delegation as a party leader and see what they are doing and what they did. Now as for Obama I know some close friends and he is someone who learns fast and is a counter puncher. I am confident he will move quickly to get this straight. As for the tax problems of the "old guard"-----my take is that you all were selfish in putting your name up---what were you thinking? Yes Tom you were an important player during the campaign but this was very bad leaving that tax exposure out there.
In the end, historically I look at the "old guard" of the Democratic Party in the same mind as General McClellan of the Civil War. Lot of show, lot of preparation but no substance for real battle. This is the same lack of courage, lack of initiation, lack of recognition that appears prevalent in the House. Democracy is a two-way street. You want us the party, the activists, the loyal base to sell and gain support for this---then produce something that is genuine.
I was one of many new, novice and previously displaced or inactive citizens who were swept up like others throughout the rest of the country (that means outside NY & DC). In our county (the second largest in our state), last Saturday we elected a new party chairperson who was previously a registered Independent (and as late as last autumn) who had joined the Obama Movement early on and also became a leader in the campaign. We we also elected a new Secretary who was another volunteer activist where in the same line the majority of our leaders were Obama activists. We are now called the "new guard" in replacing most of the "old guard". The local weakly newspaper will chronicle this tomorrow.
- State Executive Committee
- State Central Committee
- County Executive Committee
- And probably will be elected to other local leadership roles if I decide to step forward in the next few weeks.
Why is this important? At our Central Committee Annual Meeting the discussion among many was the Congress's proposed Recovery Bill and WTF! Some of us had also got the early word that the Obama Campaign was beginning to make operational the post election volunteer network now called Organizing for America commencing their modus operandi of House Parties to sell the program. Many of us are very willing to sell but not happy with this package of garbage. Among those many conversations and subsequent personal discussions with serious party leaders, some who were serious candidates, I have come to agree is summed up as that the leaders in the Democratic House were, "Idiots, what were they thinking!". Yes the same words that Senator McCaskill characterized the Wall Street Bankers----
This Depression and that is what it is is akin not to the Great Depression but to the South's Secession during Lincoln's time. The "old guard", that political leadership just doesn't get it, meaning our party's leaders.
History is never actually linear but there are always similarities. Yes our society and its economic system was allowed to grow its debt ratio to GDP above the level of 1929 and naturally the markets reacted the same. Yes, this debt speculation, the mass psychology captured best by the cable TV show "Flip This House" where using debt to acquire securities was merely a means to pass the bag onto someone else with no intent of actually paying back the loan flipped this economy and banking system. It was the economic model throughout the entire corporate business community as well as in our households. in other words it was a giant ponzi scheme, that has now collapsed.
BUT IT IS AS IF THE LEADERS IN CONGRESS HAVEN'T RECOGNIZED THIS, no different than how the South failed to recognize that a slave society was no more accepted in the civilized world. This proposed Recovery Bill that passed the House was structured and littered with a continued idea that the "same old, same old" would perpetuate.
The simple fact is that I am unemployed, have been for over a year. A professional and former business class owner, I worked with senior executives in many industries including the banking industry. I feel fortunate that a non profit now wants to hire me for literally semi-skilled wages to help others find a job, not executives but regular middle class and professional class folks locked in a career death spiral. There is no economy to hire them, in their old jobs so we have to figure this out at the ground level. It is a Depression after all.
The simple fact is that the corrupt GOP is correct, this was not a stimulus bill, BUT NEITHER IS A GIANT investor class/corporate tax giveback that the GOP wants to employ either. We have done that for eight years and we have this economy to show. The simple fact that the Recovery Bill must do some simple things like: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS and deal with revamping and overhauling the entire residential housing finance system. Earn this permission to do other important things Congress like health care, energy and education, but fix this economy first!
Now Obama made the case yesterday that jobs, jobs, jobs was related to building a program to bring in energy conservation programs, renewable programs throughout the residential market-----GOOD, that is what we are talking about. You want to give the working and middle class a tax break use the FICA rates----lower personal rates under $50,000, lower new business contribution rates for new hires (2009 only) and increase the over $200,000 rates on individuals and take the cap off of it. Someone gets a million dollar bonus they then contribute $75,000 to social security. That will put real money into the market and do with a sunset where this break ends when the Depression is over.
In housing simply do this. Model the loans after the college loan program, cut the rates---guarantee them as long as people pay. As far as the banks---I know these guys (yes they are mostly male) and let them sink or swim on their own, the shareholders are at risk and so what. If we need to rebuild the banks than we do it. No more ever again merging Investment Banks with Commercial Banks-----banking is not rocket science and the only reason why those guys got the big bucks was they had a book of business and personal network to smooze and booze.....that network is dead now, so what is their value? The other guys are simply bookies, they determine the odds on risk----banking is that simple. They never understood my business, never took the time and told me so, they only understood my ability or not to repay and then pay fees.
Back to the Democratic Leadership. Get real. Fix this and do it as if the nation is in a Civil War. Obama act like Lincoln, start ferreting out the leaders like Lincoln did with his generals until you find generals who are willing to win the war. The Bill that the House proposed did not serve us and change directly. It served the constituencies that composed the "old guard" and they allowed the GOP to see political opportunity targets as they should and make political hay!
So we are down to the Senate to do the right thing and get this right. Get a bill that makes JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.....fixes and changes the fundamental US securities----residential housing-----and get money directly in the system from the bottom up------period. Don't make constituency political targets.
This is a word to the wise, this is not political games as they used to be. I am going to canvass our State delegation as a party leader and see what they are doing and what they did. Now as for Obama I know some close friends and he is someone who learns fast and is a counter puncher. I am confident he will move quickly to get this straight. As for the tax problems of the "old guard"-----my take is that you all were selfish in putting your name up---what were you thinking? Yes Tom you were an important player during the campaign but this was very bad leaving that tax exposure out there.
In the end, historically I look at the "old guard" of the Democratic Party in the same mind as General McClellan of the Civil War. Lot of show, lot of preparation but no substance for real battle. This is the same lack of courage, lack of initiation, lack of recognition that appears prevalent in the House. Democracy is a two-way street. You want us the party, the activists, the loyal base to sell and gain support for this---then produce something that is genuine.
