It’s late, but please see — Ezra Klein, “How you know the negotiations have truly failed” and Steve Benen, “Obama Puts GOP in a Box.”
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
It’s late, but please see — Ezra Klein, “How you know the negotiations have truly failed” and Steve Benen, “Obama Puts GOP in a Box.”
I have been waiting for the day I can beat CUND GULAG to the first post.
And I get to do it on a good-news day. Obama drew a line in the sand. As near as I can tell, Obama tried to cut a deal which would generate revenue by closing corporate loopholes. This could have provided cover for the GOP that taxes or tax rates were not raised. But revenue would have increased. Big win for the GOP, but paired with the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts, it’s a big step in the right direction.
I don’t see signs Obama tried ever considered throwing Medicare or SSN under the bus. The GOP has no cover there. There’s plenty of things not to like about James Carville as a political strategist, but he knows how to ride the issue what the voter will respond to. Medicare & SSN is it for 2012. The GOP will reframe the election on the gay agenda, Islamaphobia, whack-a-mex, and abortion.
And we will go for it. (We includes me.) The message we should project will be lost in the din of wedge issues.
Obama should make a preemptive good faith gesture and withhold anticipated funding cuts to Social Security and Medicare. He should put them in some sort of an escrow account to be dispersed to the final recipient pending the outcome of debt reduction negotiations. Such a gesture would be dual purposed..It would get the GOP deficit hawks a 2 month partial head start on reducing the deficit if negotiations are favorable to them, and it would get the attention of the American public ( real quick).
I know my little scenario is just a fantasy..But my point is that Obama has to play hardball and use the potential hardship and suffering that will occur to the less fortunate as leverage.. The stakes are real high and if Obama buckles we’re gonna have a very different America.
Again, I don’t want to get all Bibley..The central question posed in scriptures is ” Am I my brothers keeper”..It can have different meaning in different contexts, but essentially the question is… Do I have a responsibility in caring for my fellow man?..Unbridled capitalism says NO..Fuck you pal!… I got mine, and you can go drop dead. Is that the spirit of America?
If Obama is to energize the Progressive base (that is who does the work and makes the donations, IME), he needs to start hitting the Rethuglicans hard, fast, and frequently. Rachel Maddow’s segment (posted here June 28) on the Real agenda of the Rethuglicans is the essence of the situation. Let’s face facts and repudiate their false show of “negotiating” for what it is: red meat for the ignorant. Why Obama fails to regularly come up with a string of overwhelming facts/proof of Rethug disgustingness to throw in their faces I don’t know. Hell, if all they had was Fox news they could have an effective campaign advertising program. He does not get out front enough. I like him, but I’m increasingly ambivalent. I’ll still send the check. I’ve still got the bumper sticker on my car. I like that he comes across as the adult in the room. But sometimes Daddy has to be Daddy.
To start on a lighter note, I did love now Obama compared them to his daughters, 13 and 10, and how those two get their homework done the day before, and don’t have to pull all-nighters.
ZING!
OK – the end of levity.
What the Republicans are doing isn’t stupid, or ignorant. Stupid means they’re not intelligent enough to know the consecuences (and for some of them, that’s certainly true), and ignorant means that they’re not aware of the consequences.
No, this is mad – as in insane.
Republicans have been told what the potential consequences are, and are doing them despite the warnings.
In some respects, I can understand why they’re doing this. They expect the Democrats to fold – as usual, so they’re willing to take this to the limit. In the time that I’ve been an adult, the Democrats have a history of capitulating. They may be waiting to see what the Democrats are willing to give them at the last second. This is brinkmanship.
The Republicans hope the Democrats will see this as MAD (mutually assured destruction) and give them what they want. So, they have launched their missiles into orbit to see what the Democrats do to respond.
Now, no one really knows all of the consequences. But I don’t think anything good has been mentioned – except by the usual paid shills who earn their money by nodding their heads up and down in agreement with any and every Republican and Conservative utterance (I’m looking at you, conservative pundits).
Republicans are will to risk even the most dire of repercussions because, frankly, I think they’d prefer to win even if winning means that this country is a piss-poor smoking ruin, with nothing but starved carcasses to “people” it.
Like Satan, Repbulicans would rather rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
Lord, what fools these mortals be…
Doug – congrats! 🙂
But you can always beat me if maha posts after about 5 or 6 in the evening EST. I’m either watching Stewart and Colbert, or I’m reading a book.
I need to get a break from the political stupidity and madness that endlessly whirl around us like a miasmatic fart in a diving bell.
As Swami said, if they get their way, it will be “a very different America”. I am not an economist, but, it seems extraordinarily likely that a Randian, Ryanized America would have a much shorter life expectancy, higher rate of poverty, lower literacy rate and a higher bankruptcy rate than one in which the safety net and public services were left intact, or improved to European standards. I sometimes understand the term “grateful dead” a bit too literally and I have a bit of envy for people of my parents generation, who certainly faced hardship, but whose lives were made so much better by the “New Deal” and the “Great Society”, despite the fact that they supported the party that sought to destroy them. They lived long, dignified lives even though they were working class, a possibility that may soon be only a dim memory.
Maybe it’s the codgertude, but it is difficult not to feel a mixture of pride and regret in remembering the America of my younger days. It was an America that could always do better and whose people believed in the government that they created. Maybe we are in the midst of a revolution or a “cold civil war” as Naomi Klein called it. But, either way it was a wholly capitalist kind of revolution. Enterprising people with deep pockets began a relentless marketing campaign to sell the American people on a host of illusions. They sold them self destruction and called it “freedom”. The government “of the people” once the envy of the world, would be rebranded as the enemy and its destruction would be marketed to the very people whom it served. Public relations and propaganda involve the same techniques. The right wing may destroy what communism could not. What didn’t fall to bombs and guns, could still be bought and sold. All that’s required is plenty of fear and confusion, lots of cash and clever, relentless marketing.
As Woody Gutherie said, “Some rob with a six gun, some with a fountain pen.”
Well, at least we know how Mark Halperin feels about Obama’s performance yesterday.
That dick called Obama a “dick.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/mark-halperin-calls-obama-a-dick_n_887604.html
I don’t recall anyone saying that about Little Boots. Or even that dick, Dick Cheney.
Funny that… No?
Halperin said it with a smile, too.
He could have saved that little gem for Schmoe and Mika during a commercial – but no, he did it on the air – even asking permission for doing it, and making sure there was a 7-second delay.
And now, the narrative’s been set for the MSM, and he’s apologizing all over the place.
You see, now the talking point will that it’s Obama who’s being a dick about the debt ceiling talks, and NOT the Republicans.
I don’t think Halperin did it by accident. I stopped believing in these kinds of accidents a long, long, time ago.
Halperin needs to lose his job(s). Can you imagine if Krugman or Dionne, or Herbert had called Bush a “dick?” They’d have been forced to flee the country, leaving behind every one and every thing.
Update:
Halperin’s been suspended by MSNBC, and he says he agrees with the suspension.
Where, oh where, have you gone David Broder?
Did our last hints of civility and civil discourse die with you? *
*SNARK!!!
Obama has got the speak softly part down, but these comments had better just be the start of the big stick. He needs to rain down political hurt on the Republicans for refusing to take the deal he had offered them and for walking out on the negotiations. Until they learn that it hurts to jerk Obama around, they will do it at every opportunity.
In my fantasy world, the White House would now be rolling out a well-prepared, coordinated media campaign pounding on several, simple messages. The Republicans are spoiled rich brats. The Republicans are keeping things tough for ordinary folks, while making things even easier for the richy-riches. The number one crisis facing the country isn’t federal spending, it’s the lack of jobs and the weak economy, AND THE GOP IS IN THE WAY of fixing it.
I’d even support an outside organization creating completely over-the-top ads in support of the effort. Picture a GOP congressman, getting into a limo that splashes mud on a poor grandma as it zooms by, and then stops so the congresscritter can hop out and hand a check to a rich guy boarding his corporate jet.
Sadly, I have a rich fantasy life, and reality continues to disappoint.
But it is nice to at least hear something more confrontational from the President.
Maybe I missed it but I wanted some ‘numbers’ from Obama and I didn’t hear any. Fore instance, the tax burden on the richest 1% fell 36% compared to what they would have owed in ’77 while families in the very middle of the income ladder experienced a 7% increase in their tax burden. Rescinding the Bush tax cuts for the top 1% of earners would fund Social Security for the next 75 years.
What defense of their arguments on the budget could Republicans possibly mount given these ‘numbers?’
I’m starting to see some sharp use of rhetoric (finally). According to Benin:
Today the Republicans claim that the President is blaming the deficit on corporate jet owners.
Gah
“Today the Republicans claim that the President is blaming the deficit on corporate jet owners.”
How long before the Republicans call Obama “King ‘Lear'” when they talk about the corporate jet tax?
Or will it be “King ‘Lear’jet”?
Lynne, I’m with you – “Gah,” indeed…
OT, It’s Official: The Age of Palin has been replaced by The Age of Bachmann:
Sounds like her 15 minutes of fame was up a few hours ago.
That’s a shame that big numbers didn’t show up for Bristol’s book signing..I’m surprised book collectors passed up an opportunity to score a real treasure with a signed first edition of Bristol’s memoirs…especially since it contains a detailed account of how her virginity was “stolen”. If Bristol had been paying attention to her bible teaching..she’d know that Satan( Levi) will come like a thief in the night.
Since moonbat opened the door to Palin/Bachmann, I’ll take the opportunity to ‘explain’ my “seeing/hearing Bachmann is like seeing/hearing Hitler.” It was more particularly the multitudes of Germans lapping up Hitler’s every word – arms raised, the whole bit – and fast-forward to the Bachmann crowds of Americans so willing to believe her crap the same way the Germans bought Hitler’s crap. That’s what’s frightening.
As to the Palin bunch, Warhol’s description of himself, “I’m a deeply superficial person” is what Americans are finally coming to realize also describes the Palin bunch, ‘deeply superficial people.’
The thing is, the Democrats can’t fold at this point. They already did, basically. They offered a deal that included five dollars in spending cuts for every dollar of new revenue–a huge Republican victory under sane circumstances–and the Republicans said no.
The thing about a hostage strategy, you’re not going to get your demands unless you offer some plausible way of saving the hostage. Right now the choice the Republicans are offering the Democrats is to either gut the federal government or crash the economy, which amounts to saying they’re going to shoot the hostage in the head if the Democrats don’t agree to strangle the hostage.
If enough Republicans don’t come to their senses, all the Dems can really do at this point is try to make sure they don’t pay the political price for the catastrophe that’s coming. Because we are going to need some adults to clean up the mess.