As Ezra Klein says, the tax cut deal has something in it to annoy everyone. But seems to me that if there is one class of critters that has not earned the right to bellyache about it, it’s Senate Democrats.
Saturday the Senate blocked a vote on President Obama’s preferred plan. All the Republicans were joined by four Democrats and Joe Lieberman. That much I knew. But I looked it up today, and learned that the four Democrats were Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jim Webb of Virginia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.
Et tu, Russ?
Conventional wisdom said that the blocked vote proved the President had to cut a deal. I don’t know that was his only option, but that’s what the newspapers said about it. So, he cut a deal, and now some Senate Democrats appear to be dumbfounded.
Sen. Mary Landrieu said she was discouraged by the President, and asked, “But why the president thought he had to give in on this? Why he didn’t have the confidence in a Democratic Caucus to hold the line?â€
Because they didn’t hold the line Saturday, when Obama needed the line held? Just a guess.
Other stuff to read —
“How America will collapse (by 2025)” by Alfred McCoy. Worst-case scenarios, maybe, but McCoy is right that when empires collapse, they go fast, or “unravel with unholy speed,” as he puts it. He suggests also that we may witness a great shift in civilization itself that makes sovereign nations a thing of the past. Unnerving stuff.
For a look back at at the time before America went off the rails, see “Pearl Harbor day: How FDR reacted on December 7, 1941.”
I believe Russ didn’t want the Bush tax cuts extended at all, period, probably because using that money for UI or food stamps or whatever is more stimulative than tax cuts, even to lower-middle-class.
I did not doubt that Russ had some Greater Good in mind when he voted to block the vote, but the fact remains that his vote helped bring about something much worse than what he was voting on. This kind of ideological grandstanding is not something progressives can afford, although I’m sure it helps Russ feel better about himself.
Senator Landrieu, that’s the funniest line of the year, “But why the president thought he had to give in on this? Why he didn’t have the confidence in a Democratic Caucus to hold the line?â€
What, you think you’re “The Four+ Blocks of Granite,” “The Fearsome Foursome+,” “The Doomsday Defense,” or “The Purple People-eaters?”
The Democratic Caucus isn’t even a block liquid of Jello. Your “Caucus” isn’t some wall that can hold the line, you’re barely a mist that dampens the opposition as they roll through you, with a few of you patting them on the back as they roll by you.
Overall, I think the best we can hope for right now, is to do what Republicans always do to us, they do anything they can to piss of Liberals and Democrats. So, I suggest we thank the Republicans for going along with “The Second Stimulus,” watch the teabaggers hair go on fire as they light up the switchboard. Because, if there IS one positive out of this “compromise,” it’s that there’s anywhere from $300 to $900 Billion dollars that can be considered stimulative. There’s no cost or effect to SS. And some other things that aren’t at all as bad as I and many of us feared.
I await the Obamabot comments directed at me.
It was eerie yesterday driving around listening to both the fanatical right wing and the progressive AM radio station all saying how much they hated this. I realize that compromise is a part of politics, but some deals with the devil are better left undone.
I’m certainly disappointed…but through it all,I’m glad Obama took the political hit and sided with compassion to insure that million of American wouldn’t be denied a lifeline. I can’t adequately convey the effing disgust I feel for Boner and McConnell and the rest of those creeps who are so callous and heartless as to hold hostage the suffering of the American people. If you want an object lesson in what it means to be an American then look no further than how we care for one another as a nation
Yeah, it’s so easy to dismiss millions of people as deadbeats and freeloaders when you’ve never tasted of hardship or hard time. I hear McConnell’s bank account is in the 32 million dollar range and Boner’s is just squeaking by with a measly 20 + million. Yet these same scumbags don’t even think twice about cutting the lifeline from American families. It’s really sick, and it really builds the old patriotism!
God bless America because those scumbags in Washington certainly aren’t.
Listening to President Obama’s speech on the radio this afternoon, I was not happy, but I was simultaneously aware of the fact that the Senate has not been Obama’s friend. The Blue Dogs have been the key to failure all along, and the announced intentions of the Republicans have been known all along. Put those things together and you get what we have now.
Maybe he was justifying himself, but it made sense to me that votes will not get better later, and I don’t believe Democratic Senators who have run away from/against Obama/Pelosi/Reid are any more inclined to back him now. Like health care, it is what we can get and it bears the toothmarks of the Republicans in all the bad parts.
The fact that the nation elected more Republicans says much about Democratic failure to maintain the machine, Obama’s indirect, professorial mode of address, and an inconsistent messaging “mess”. I cannot call it an effort.
The spectre of deficit commission cuts didn’t help, either. It was Obama’s creation and it was never going to help him with the voters. It did not do anything about the problem people perceive as most egregious: the banksters. Not the same thing, I know, but it the minds of the general public I think it all rolls together.
At any rate, the Republicans have shown their true lack of concern about the deficit. But if they are planning on playing chicken with a shutdown of the government, which I do not put beyond them, things could get really nasty.
The bottom line is that, as long as the GOP Senators were going to march in lockstep, the lower bracket tax cuts (and much else) were going to be held hostage to the tax cuts for the rich. So a deal of some kind HAD to be made. The open question is, how well will the Ds use this over the next 20 months or so?
Thanks a lot maha, I read “How America Will Collapse (by 2025)” right before going to bed.
MISTAKE! I hope it’s not the “real ‘McCoy.'”
My qustion is, will it even take that long? If we elect one of the dwarves, or ShowSnookie White, as our next President, and with either or both Houses of Congress, they will continue and accelerate their anti-science movement. Pretty soon, it won’t take some sophisticated code virus from China or Russia to grind us to a halt, just a simple viral e-mailby a mischevous and horny kid somewhere. And when something happens, the morons that they’ll place as the heads of agencies will run around looking for someone to blame rather that how to figure out how to stop the madness. 2025 might actually turn out to be a pretty generous estimate.
I’ve been a student of history my whole life. I’ve read about the rise and fall of empires from Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, to China, to modern Britain and the USSR, but I never thought I’d have the “pleasure” of a front row seat. And sadly, there’s no way to leave this movie where I came in… Oh well, nothing to do but grab some popcorn and enjoy it,* as long as we can afford it. And then, eventually, I can utter the dying words that I preciently came up with in November of 1980, “I f*cking told you so!!!”
*Naturally, I’ll fight. Maybe if enough of us do, we can turn the tide of idiocy swamping this nation. Probably not. But at least we can feel like we tried to do something before the “End times” the “End Timers” brought to fruition. But, if it comes, I’ll bet my “I f*cking told you so” will trump theirs, because as I lay dying next to one of them, I can still say, “Either you ain’t one of the chosen, or you were wrong, Dumbass. ‘Cause I don’t see you rising to Heaven in your birthday suit!” Exit laughing…
I don’t either, but at this point the question isn’t whether the U.S. will implode and lose its global dominance, but how soon and how hard.
Just as a thought exercise, we could think about what would happen if on January 1 the Good Government Fairy waved a magic wand over Congress and turned the legislators into sane and responsible people, and all legislation going forward was actually what the American people needed. Would the implosion be stopped or just slowed down? I don’t know. But we already know the next Congress is going to be a clown show, so no, it won’t be stopped.
Gulag, if you’re an Obamabot, the rest of us are, too. This post and the comments made me quite a bit less angry; it’s important to remember that the president is out in the crossfire completely on his own, and generally has been since his inauguration.
That said, still angry. And sad, because Elizabeth Edwards passed away and it’s Lennon Assassination Day. Time for my pill.
Joan,
“Time for my pill.”
Sharing, is caring!
As for John Lennon’s death, I heard it from Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football – Dophins vs. Patriots. I’ll never forget that. His death sticks in my mind like JFK’s when I was a little boy, and MLK and RFK when I was a youngster in grade school.
I loved John. Just think about how the world would be a better place if we had listened to what John said after he became enlightened. “Imagine…”
maha,
All empires fall. It’s how they fall from grace that matters. Since we have been a pretty ‘graceless’ country for quite awhile now, it’ll be a hard fall. Having a government that actually cared about the people would, I think, make for a more graceful and slower exit. But, it ain’t gonna happen. So, ‘Brace yourselves. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!’
I believe Russ didn’t want the Bush tax cuts extended at all, period
And what was the second step in his Underpants Gnome theory of how that would be accomplished?
Oddly enough, it was Ezra Klein’s rather acute analysis — expressed yesterday in a discussion at “On Point” and later on posted at WaPo — that turned me from an angry to a hopeful “proggy.” That, and what I thought was a very good performance by the president in the press conference (of which admittedly I only heard snippets). What Klein does is to put the agreement in the context of Republicans’ outright lies about the deficit and who won/lost according to the numbers. The deficit just isn’t anywhere near their top priority, never was. As for the numbers, Klein quotes Bob Greenstein: “”Both sides gave more [than] expected and both sides got more than expected.” Klein adds: “The White House walked out of the negotiations with more stimulus than anyone had seen coming.”
In the “On Point” discussion, along with Klein, were Katrina vanden Heuvel and David Corn who echoed elegantly the point of view I held up until I heard them and heard the whine in their voices. I went from sympathy to embarrassment, realizing that I was exactly like them. I didn’t like it. Perhaps a difference between us could be how we heard Obama’s inauguration address. I seem to have heard a very different address than most. He appeared to straighten up, get sober after the heady post-election days, and say, “Wait a minute! I can’t do all the work. We’re going to have a tough time against tough odds. You need to do even more than stick with me; you have to work with me.”
Which we really haven’t. We’ve gone from cheering him on from the sidelines to nitpicking and, given the shocking state of the Senate since well before his election, unfairly blaming Obama for holding the hand we (and W and Clinton and the Reagan era) dealt him. Who needs Mitch McConnell and Darrel Issa when you have angry supporters trying to tear you down?
It’ll be hard, but I’m going to try to stop giving him a hard time… And hope the White House pulls up its socks up in its communications, at the very least.
PW,
“Who needs Mitch McConnell and Darrel Issa when you have angry supporters trying to tear you down?”
Let alone Senate “Democrats” like Nelson, Landrieu and Bayh to undercut your every move.
The House did its job for the last two years. Kudo’s to Pelosi.
The Senate pontificated and sat around bloviating for the last two years, and stroking one another, making deals for themselves, which is what they do best. And that’s an example of Harry’s “leadership.”
And Landrieu has the UNMITIGATED gal to wonder why the President didn’t feel that the Democratic Caucus in the Senate wouldn’t have his back? Because, Mare, you and the rest of the assholes stuck a shiv in it everytime he DID TURN his back to you, figuring he had some cover. So, stick THAT in your oil pipe, Mare!!!
Can’t argue with that.
I loved John.
Gulag, I’m currently reading Philip Norman’s Lennon bio, which is quite readable but sometimes a bit opinionated for my taste. I do know Yoko didn’t care for it.
As for 8 Dec 1980, I had the TV off and didn’t hear until the next morning. Got in the car to go to work, and wondered why all the radio stations were playing the Beatles. I lived in L.A. at the time, and there was one super-snarky DJ, Frazier Smith of KROQ, that I loved. He came on after a song and broke the news. He was completely somber, almost in tears actually, which I wouldn’t have believed possible. Even 30 years later it still seems like a bad dream.
I’ll save you some “calming” pills!
Joan,
Thanks. I need calming.
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