Last night Rachel laid out, in the plainest of terms, why it's wrong to think the political problems that led to the credit downgrade of U.S. debt by Standard and Poor's is the result of "both sides" of the aisle having act more responsibly.
In examples like Congressman Jason Chaffetz we saw a perfect willingness on the part of Republicans to allow a default on the debt:
Chaffetz, who voted against both Boehner’s first proposal and the final bill, said he was well aware of how the leadership had used his and others’ willingness to let a default happen as a negotiating chip, and said he didn’t mind at all. “We weren’t kidding around, either,” he said. “We would have taken it down.”
There is no "other side" to this attitude.
The S&P report itself (pdf) explains in terms that could be confused with liberal talking points that the Republican tactic of brinksmanship is what undercut confidence in America's ability to ensure payment of its debt:
The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective,and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debtceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.
And lest there be any further question, representatives of S&P in subsequent interviews reiterated their problem with the Republican strategy of treating debt as a hostage:
The firm's conclusion "was pretty much motivated by all of the debate about the raising of the debt ceiling," John Chambers, chairman of S&P's sovereign ratings committee, said in an interview. "It involved a level of brinksmanship greater than what we had expected earlier in the year."
What actually remains for the Democratic "other side" is not stepping back from an extremist position like Republicans, but the challenge of circumnavigating their irresponsible counterparts in order to help drag the nation out of its economic trouble. As Rachel explained:
And the other side is left to figure out not only how to stop them from doing that, how to defeat and marginalize that radical fraction in the Republican Party that is trying to do that, but also how to find enough non-arsonists on that side of the aisle to actually participate in building something that will work for the country -- right now, and fast.
Leave a Comment:
I got 98% of what I wanted, I am Happy JB
It`s a Hostage wort taken and ransoming! MM
and just to play into what the S&P means by Brinkmanship.
we will resit any new tax or revenue increases EC
its a REPUBLICAN DOWNGRADE AND CRASH!!!!!
As I see it, the "hostage taking" braggadocio by Mitch McConnell indicates that he is happy to engage in a criminal offense, as defined by 18 USC 1203: Hostage Taking Act.
"@!$%# the country" should be the phrase EVERY Republican should run under in 2012.
They do you just have to read their slogans threw a 180 degree BS Filter.
Patriotic American == @!$%# the country!
Executive Experience == Fool then @!$%# the country again!
etc...
More for the filter:
We the People = Us NOT you!
It was both sides of the aisle in the same way a bully beating up a third-grader counts as "a fight."
How do we prevent them from taking down our collective, gigantic ship while theirs sinks at their own menace? Because of their own failures, and hoary attitudes, they want everyone to suffer the consequences of their design. Who tells Eric Cantor double dumb down?
Rachel got it wrong last night - the debt downgrade wasn't all due to the republicans. There is plenty of blame to go around:
Democrats
1. In 2010, when controlling both houses of congress, abdicated their responsibility of coming up with a budget for 2011.
2. Then attacking and demonizing Ryan's budget which reduces the growth in spending by $4 trillion.
3. Refusing to acknowledge and accept any entitlement cuts let alone reform and insisting on expiration of the Bush tax cuts which Obama extended in December because he said its not appropriate to raise taxes during a recession.
Obama
1. Ignores his own Simpson - Bowles commission which coincidentally also results in a $4 trillion reduction in the growth of the deficit.
2. Proposes his own joke budget which only reduces the growth of spending by $900 billion and gets no Senate votes - none!
3. Doesn't get seriously involved in the debt ceiling discussions until after July 4th even though his own Treasury secretary has stated since the beginning of the year that Aug 2 was the "hard" deadline.
S&P telegraphed the downgrade weeks ago when they said that unless there is a plan to reduce the Increase in the growth of the debt by $4 trillion, that it was likely that they would downgrade the US debt. So the power brokers on both sides forge a weak 2 part agreement which only reduces the increase in debt by $900 billion now and $1.7 trillion TBD by a yet unnamed Super Committee. The government punted and did not make any hard decisions. Of course S&P followed up with their downgrade. The above $2.6 trillion reduction in the INCREASE of the debt is less than $4 trillion.
Obama should call back Congress back into recession and come up with hard decisions on entitlement and tax reform to come up with a reduction in the INCREASE of the debt by greater than $4 trillion and start working on actually paying down the debt, not just slowing down the growth of the debt.
Hank, what is the point of calling Congress back into session? Repubs have already said this week that they will not even consider any tax increases, and they refused to close any tax loopholes in the budget deal. Do we really need an extra few weeks of angry fingerpointing? At this point, I'm ready to say to hell with them, and let the automatic cuts take place when the "Super Congress" fails miserably to come up with anything, as is almost certain to happen. Sure, entitlements will get a big cut, but that's going to happen anyway if repubs get their way, so let it happen, and let the Pentagon get a major slash too for a change. I am totally sick of repubs getting 100% of what they want without having to give an inch. If they truly believe in shared sacrifice, it's time for them to experience what that really means. So far, they haven't had to give up a thing. Maybe when people finally see the kind of destruction that repub-supported cuts to social programs really means in their everyday lives, they'll get mad enough to throw the lying scoundrels out of office for good!
Hank, you make some very excellent points but all I've seen from the other side is blame, not solutions or anything on paper that works toward solving the problem.
What I found hilarious about TRMS last night and other Left leaning pundits was they all criticized S&P for their math, track record, and for doing a poor job at what they do...BUT the all said they sure did agree with S&P political analysis!
That's like saying the plumber sure does a poor job with my pipes but I sure trust what he says about my electrical problems!
The Dems didn't "abdicate(d) their responsibility of coming up with a budget for 2011." Senate Republicans made it clear that they would filibuster any attempt to complete this task.
Responsibility for that one, and the rest of them, belongs to the Repubs. Rachel is one of the few members of the media who doesn't fall for the "false equivalency" line.
OK, Rob, dems will take the blame for all the things you want...dems started the two wars we are in, dems created and passed the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, dems allowed 9-11 to happen, dems failed to kill OBL, dems weren't the ones who had a budget surplus for 1999 and 2000. Why on earth can't repubs take responsibility for one single thing, insisting like a naughty five-year old that it was someone else who did it?
Why is it necessary to assign blame for our economic situation? Because, if we don't acknowledge why it happened, there is absolutely no way to prevent it from getting worse, no way to fix it, no way to keep it from happening again. The argument you are making, that all dems are doing is blame, is like an airline claiming that all the survivors of an air crash want to do is blame. If you don't find the cause of the crash, it will happen again.
The CBO reported that the number one cause of our deficit was the Bush tax cuts, and that if they were repealed today, the budget would be balanced by 2016, even if no other measures were taken. The second biggest cause was the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's hard to see either of them as anything but massive disasters in every way, shape and form.
So, why assign blame? Because now repubs are proposing to do exactly the same things that caused the problem in the first place. Why on earth would we try to fix our problems by knowingly doing the very things that caused them in the first place? That is beyond stupid, and more like criminally insane.
Boehner said he got 98% of what he wanted in the deal, and that he was happy, so how is it that a deal that gave repubs basically everything they want NOT the cause of what happened to the markets in the past few days?
And now we have massive budget cuts on the way, with more to come. Hundreds of thousands of more people will lose their jobs, at the same time that many parts of the social safety net are being cut or dismantled. Of course, who cares if a lot of them are government workers, right? Even Boehner said that if the cuts cost a few hundred thousand jobs, "so be it". Remember, repubs have educated us, letting us know that government workers are overpaid, lazy leeches, incompetent and unworthy of anything better than a job flipping burgers. And of course, anyone in a union is some kind of communist that is out to destroy American companies and jobs.
Frankly, I am sick and tired of the contrarian, ignorant rants from the far right. They have successfully made their point that they will bring this country down if that's what it takes to get their way. In other words, they are traitors, committing treason against our country in order to grab power. I'd call them terrorists, but it would be an insult to terrorists around the world.
It doesn't help that we refer to social security and medicare as entitlements. I have worked and payed social security and medicare insurance since 1978. How is it an entitlement?
If anything it has entitled the government to act frivolously with my money.
"1. In 2010, when controlling both houses of congress, abdicated their responsibility of coming up with a budget for 2011." The filibuster threat should have been met with "So? Do it then. I dare you." That would have put everything out in the open.
After this, your post turned into idiotic drivel, and I quit reading it because there was no point in wasting time with it.
I see S&P has their minions out hitting the blogs today. Where in S&P do you work Hank?
If we had only done as S&P commanded we wouldn't be in this mess... Yah, right! Bwahahahaha!
Also the Reps pretty much came out saying that they would do anything to make President Obama fail.
lest you forgot, when the democrats controlled the presidency & the house; the senate needed a 60 vote majority or the minority republicans could fillabuster any action that the majority might approve. you need all three bodies to get the job done.
Uffdaguy, I agree assigning blame is useful to fixing the problem. I assigned blame in a previous comment on another posting:
Because it works.
The Senate did have a filibuster proof majority with 2 independents until Teddy's seat went to Scott Brown. They could have passed a budget before that election, but they couldn't fathom Ted's seat going Republican. Actually the reason Pelosi and Reid didn't want to even bring a budget is that they wanted to keep spending at the 2010 levels through continuing resolutions and didn't want to be criticized during the mid-terms for deficit spending.
Look the point I am trying to make is that their is enough blame to go around among both parties which resulted in the debt downgrade contrary to Rachel's statement that it was solely Republicans fault. We have known for years that as baby boomers age and retire, there are not enough younger workers (many are unemployed) paying in medicare and social security taxes to cover the benefits of the swelling retirees. The pyramid scheme of both Social Security and Medicare when established worked because there were much more younger workers than retirees. When Roosevelt started this in 1935, the average life span was 63 years when benefits don't start until 65 - what a brilliant plan??!!
With medical breakthroughs, anti-biotics, education, the american life expectancy is in the high 70's. The much smaller amounts paid in to Social Security and Medicare 45 years ago by current retirees pales in comparison to the amounts paid out today due to cost of living and medical cost inflation. Now the pyramid is inverted with fewer younger workers paying benefits for the larger group of retiring baby boomers. Its just demographics - we simply can't continue paying out in the same manner that we have been. We all have known this to be a fact, but each successive congress and administration have chosen to ignore this because no one wanted to be a wet blanket and all wanted to be reelected. Thus the can was kicked down the road by both Dems and Repubs for decades - equal blame for both sides. Now that the Tea Party has shined this spotlight on this because they don't care about getting reelected, we are now just starting to address this looming issue which has been ignored for too long by both parties.
Lift the cap on earnings subject to OASDI contributions and watch the Benjamins roll in.
Doing so would fund Social Security at 97% liability. Why should I pay just as much into Social Security as Warren Buffett, and yet get far less in Social Security payments when I retire? Is each dollar he puts in intrinsically worth more than each dollar I put in?
Uffdaguy, you are forgetting that it was a failed Republican administration that dishonestly got us into TWO wars that cannot be "won"--the Brits tried 3 times, failed three times, and we still failed to learn ANYTHING about the region. Clinton balanced the budget, but the Republicans are responsible for the debt!
Believe me, I haven't forgotten a single bit of that! Repubs drove this country off the cliff, and now want the opportunity to set fire to the wreckage at the bottom of the cliff, because the crash apparently wasn't spectacular enough to suit their tastes.
set fire to the wreckage at the bottom of the cliff
sounds like a JOB for Issa.
Well, he WAS a used car salesman! LOL
Flex and friends: here's how...you vote. You go out there between now and the 2012 elections and you volunteer, register new voters and get every dang Democrat in the country out to the polls on Election Day! Much of what was "agreed to" by Speaker Boehner and Leader Reid can be undone by the next Congress if it has some gumption and some vision (now, DON'T tell me that Speaker Pelosi had a majority in the 111th Congress and did NOTHING...she did a LOT. The Republicans filibustered everything in the Senate and kept most of it from passage into law, there). There will be some damage but the ship of state moves slowly; don't let the Wall Street lemmings infect you with their panic. We can repair this and we will - if we vote out the ilk who sabotaged the ship in the first place.
VOTE THEM OUT
RECALL the ones not up for re-election.
Unions, threaten a General Strike if anti-worker policies are not amended. If they are not amended, bring the country to a complete stop. That is one of the things unions were created for. Union dues include monies for paying workers whilst on strike. Unless, of course, the unions have done what politicians have done with Social services contributions, stolen them.
If America IS a democracy use the tools that it gives the people.
The alternative, to paraphrase Confucius, If rape is inevitable, lay back and enjoy it.
Here is an idea. Let is back this constitutional amendment.
Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into theSocial Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. (Or the mean average of income for their constituency)
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.
LET'S FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
I am so with you, but I would change that 6 years in office to 4 period - then go get a real job and not the revolving Lobby-type job that so many in congress tend to go after!!
Actually.. number 5... let's tie those cost of living increases to the same index being used for Social Security at the time, since there's a movement afoot to start switching that around so they can avoid a few year's increases that way while saying they haven't CUT anything.
At a site named after a woman with a PhD in social sciences, can we at least here, if nowhere else, PLEASE distinguish properly between "mean" and "median?"
I really, really don't think you would want the consequences of paying Congress based on mean income rather than median income.
What D. C. said. You got to it before I did.
Dutchie, it's really simple. My social-scientist daughter has become hypersensitive on the subject thanks to students, and I have gotten twitchy about it by transference. I barely even need to think about it any more, the fingers take over by spinal reflex.
There should also be strict rules about where former legislators can work once their service has ended (for example, NOT as lobbyists or as government appointees).
Writing in the NYT today, Joe Nocera puts the blame on the Bush Administration, specifically the Bush Tax Cuts, for the budget deficit. Oh, and he's no big fan of the President's speech yesterday.
nytimes.com/2011/08/09/opinion/nocera-while-the-markets-swoon.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212
"We would have taken it down" is indicative of the idiocy that passes for conservatism these days. A willingness to wreak havoc with the entire global economy in a severely misguided attempt to try to achieve a political end really isn't much different than a willingness to blow up an airport and kill innocent people in a dumb, misguided attempt to achieve a political end.
Except blowing something up wouldn't directly affect as many people as blowing up the entire economy for no other reason than because you and a handful of right wing moonbats decided that Medicare was Evil Incarnate.
At a Tea Party town hall in TX, a congressman stated that Congress should look into impeaching Obama. Not that he had any grounds to do so, but he said it should be done to tie Obama up so he can't pass any legislation. In other words, screw around with the Constitution again in order to grab power.
At this point, I hope a repub wins in 2012, and dems take Congress. Then I want to see impeachment of the new repub pres in the first weeks of their term, (not because of any real grounds to do so, but just so he can be tied up). And of course, hold the country hostage at any and every turn until we get what we want, single payer healthcare, finance reform, election reform....anything and everything.
Wanna play with fire, scarecrow? We can arrange that!
it's all about money and the manipulationof it. wall street is and always will be for the fat cats. the little guy does not have the power to avail themselves to all the tricks of the trade. in most cases they don't and cannot control their 401ks if it is througha company. what stocks they want and don't want.
notice how there was a 500 point drop just before s&p gave notice. that notice being too late for the little guy to do anything about? insiders have the stroke. what's worse is our politicians are not tied to the same trader laws the little guy is.
for any republican who is counting on social security or looking forward to it had better wake up and stop supporting republicans. they represent those hedge fund guys people. you know, the ones that can manipulate the market and your private retirement fund.
you lose every time you middle class republicans put another fat cat supporter in office repubs. are you rich? do you plan to be rich soon or in the future? or are you like most us scrapping by trying to save a dime for your kids education and a small retirement and that dime is all you have that the fat cats want?
oh yeaaaa, I can just see s&p rating those wall street guys who will handle the social security account. that so called 2.5 trillion is just bursting to be raped again.
Great Abe Lincoln quote on the Daily Beast this morning:
"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/08/tea-party-downgrade-courtesy-of-the-rule-or-ruin-republicans.html
Only one party talked of Ruin during the dispute.
Great find, Pat. It truly describes the far right these days.
My 2yr. old grand-daughter is at the stage where she believes the world is hers, to do with as she pleases,and anyone or thing not sharing that view is worthy not only of her scorn but possibly a dramatic tantrum complete with wailing,tears and any other ghoulish sound she can bring to lip.
It strikes me as EXACTLY the behavior we have seen from our House and Senate over this recent "Debt Ceiling" thing!
Unless some harm is imminent we ignore the childs tantrums...She will figure out that the behavior isn't working and give it up.
That tactic,unfortunatly, will not work on the (supposed) adults in Congress!
Perhaps,like recalcitrant teenagers, they require a firmer hand.
Smacking them naked and hiding thier clothes might work on a few of them but the most effective lesson might be to recall them from thier position...Fire the faptards!!
This won't make the problems go away or undo the damage done but it might mitigate some of the damage to come.
Maybe dumping "earmarks" would help?
Addressing the real problems of jobs and infrastructure is enormously more important the this last dramafest...Lets hire some people who will do that...It's what "The People"seem to want!!
This current stock market debacle is a direct result of almost defaulting on the debt ceiling...and for no good reason!!
It didn't HAVE to go down that way!
We may not be able to repair this damage but I think it only prudent to get rid of the idiots who caused it!
Stop the wars!
Tax the rich!
Feed the poor!
Educate the children!
Vote!!!
Write/e-mail your elected officials...Give 'em hell...They earned it!!
I must say that anyone that states "TAX THE RICH MORE", is either trying to play class warfare, or so uneducated that they believe the person that is spreading class warfare.
You can only tax income. You can't take money they already have, so if you say lets take 99% of the income of rich people they just won't work, then just like the lazy people 99% of 0 is 0. Rich people don't have to work. if we took everything that the rich in this country have, not just their income, at our current spending rate would be back to borrowing money in the third year. At that point there would be no more rich to steel from. Look up "eat the rich" on you tube.
You say this like it's a prove fact -- but it's far from obvious.
And, yes, I'm a bit of a crank on the subject of a wealth tax. I won't belabor the point today.
As far as I'm concerned, capital gains is income. Is it money coming in? It's income.
I agree with "Bear". I've always said that money you can earn while sitting on a beach should be taxed at the same rate (or preferably at a higher rate) than money you earn working hour after hour by the sweat of your brow.
you do show your lack of knowledge, all of you, capital gain in many cases are taxes twice already. money invested in stocks are put into businesses where they CREAT JOBS the profits from that company are taxed at the corporate rate and then the net profit ( money left over) is sent back to the stock holders and they are again taxes. I don't have a problem with this tax either, the problem I have is how much should you take from them what % should they keep. lets make it equal. The government can take 50% of the net profits. most companies would get a tax brake it this was done.
You bring up a fundamental truth the conservatives refuse to accept.
Its IRRESPONSIBLE to cause economic strife during a time of national recovery. It makes no sense to cause problems when there is no reason to cause problems. Our debt issue (drop dead date) is a decade away.
I NEED A JOB NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not a decade from now.
I'm convinced some folks can weather the storm better than others. This is a moral decision every American has to face. Save myself and my family at the expense of others OR save as many people as possible at the expense of myself and my family.
Most of us will choose our own family. However, we need to be able to accept the consequences of that choice. If I saved my family only from a sinking ship then I need to be prepared to re-live all the faces I didn't save.
I refuse to accept that dichotomy. Maybe it's just because I grew up reading Enlightenment authors (including John Donne), but I don't want my grandchildren growing up in a world ruled by "Ball you, Jack, I've got mine."
I'm tolerably comfortable and in pretty good shape to weather the storm. My children are all grown and reasonably well educated, and I have a fair bit saved for retirement.
Sure, I've set a bit aside in trust for my hypothetical grandchildren, but the best thing I can imagine leaving them is the example of a grandfather who actually tried to live by Hillel's advice:
What kind of America do you want to live in?
What kind of America do you want your (grand) children to live in?
What are you doing about it?
Lot's of silly stuff on these blogs blaming one side or the other. I love it when either side tries to act all innocent about things they, themselves were heavily involved with.
Here's the Senate vote on a lot of things- Bush tax cuts 62-38 ; No Child Left Behind 91-8; Afghan war 98-0; Iraq war 77-23; Finance de-regulation (Gramm-Leach-Bliley) 90-8; NAFTA 61-38 (34R & 27D). Kind of appears that the two parties got us into two wars in the early 2001 decade, did some school improvement legislation in the same decade, passed some bipartisan deregulation and free trade stuff in the 90's.
And who precisely wants to get us out of this mess? Apparently not the right, which absolutely refuses to accept anything except more tax cuts and budget cuts, both of which either got us into this into the first place, or will make the situation immeasurably worse.
Where's the jobs, Mr. Boehner, Mr. Cantor, Mr. McConnell? That's right, when you said your first priority was "jobs, jobs, jobs", you really meant you wanted to eliminate "jobs, jobs, jobs". When asked shortly after he took office in January about the possibility that his proposals could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, Boehner replied, "so be it". CBO reports that the single biggest contributor to the deficit is the Bush tax cuts, but they are so sacrosanct to the right at this point that they want to make them permanent. Yep, that's sure a great way to deal with the deficit: make permanent the very legislation that is the biggest contributor to the debt. In repub bizzaroworld, you can get out of a deep hole by digging deeper!
At this point, repubs have screwed up this country so badly, they have infected the rest of the world, and the hole is so deep that no one can get us out unless they start acting like adults. There haven't been any adults in the repub party for far too long now. That's why I left them years ago.
LOL thanks for the afternoon laugh.
now if you can only get it together and not relied on people sending over your thoughts.
speak to the topic or go away.
I really didn't expect a substantive response. I find Leftwing bloggers excel at name calling and shallow arguments, yet only show the ability to use framed arguments.
In other words, you are accusing us of acting like the folks on clownhall? Not hardly.
Actually- Uff- I'm not for sure where "Clownhall" is. I am assuming it is a name you Left Wingers have created to denigrate someone or something.
Thanks for making my point.
ps- it is at this time that you are suppose to come back and call me a facist Hitler-like Nazi Tea Bagger. Not to mention that I disagree with Obama on many issues- so you had just as well throw racist in there as well.
Clownhall is what we call Townhall.
I didn't call you any names, so please stop trying to put words in my mouth. If I wanted to stoop to the level that most rightwingers do, I would have eviscerated you in seconds.
Maybe I shouldn't retreat, I should reload?
Now that's what I'm talking about. Keep making the points for me.
I made the point that I didn't call you names, so how does that make your point for you?
Apparently, many Americans side with Rachel in saying this is not a both sides kind of thing:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/09/cnn-poll-time-to-clean-house-in-congress/?hpt=hp_t2
The polls show a steep drop in repub approval, and a corresponding rise in disapproval, in the aftermath of the debt ceiling hostage taking, while dems numbers are essentially unchanged, (and significantly higher in approval than repubs). That disapproval has also extended to Boehner, McConnell, and the Tea Party. I guess most Americans don't like the idea of being held hostage by treasonous terrorists from the right.
Don't forget the lowest approval ratings for Obama. He doesn't get a free pass. Even democrats are saying that Obama lacks leadership. He is "leading from the rear". He is too cool to make a stand or communicate what he wants. As he demonstrated with healthcare bill and the debt ceiling debate, he left it to congress to come up with bills and said that he would sign whatever comes across his desk - thats not leading. His lack of decisiveness was shown in how he reacted to Eygpt, Libya and now Syria. Obama needs to come up with his own plan for how to fix the structural issues of entitlement growth, getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan, closing loopholes so that we can lower corporate tax rates to direct those savings to domestic investment in infrastructure - thats where the jobs will come. That sort of leadership is what this country and developed world is craving for from Obama. That would give confidence to the markets and diminish the uncertainty of his directionless policies.
Jane Harmon was on MSNBC and as congresswoman from SoCal I was unimpressed with her lack of achievement during her tenure. But she did call out Obama as not having relationships with the political center of congress because he was a senator for only a couple of years. She said that he needs to reach out to the middle- the same group of the house that voted for debt ceiling - both dems and repubs. That group is who will work with him to get a Grand Bargain on entitlement and tax reform and allow him to pursue better policies. We need an energy policy which encourages the growth of natural gas development and conversion of diesel trucks to natural gas through tax credits. He needs the policy to continue the section 1603 treasury grants for renewable energy projects which is set to expire at the end of this year. He needs to change immigration policy so that we can keep educated immigrants in this country after they graduate so that they can start businesses in our country. He needs to call in Dodd and Frank and tell them to temper down their language and finish writing the regulations which is keeping a cloud over financial stocks.
He can do all of the above by calling congress back from recess and get to work while he cancels his Martha Vineyard vacation. The real unemployment rate is 20% and we have the people's elected officials not working. Lets put them back to work and have Obama work not with the Tea Party nor Pelosi, but with the silent center.
Hank, what exactly will Congress accomplish by being called back into session now? It strikes me as nothing more than a political move akin to McCain coming off the campaign trail for a few days during the crisis in 2008, despite the fact he didn't take part in any of the discussions at the time. You say Obama needs to reach out to the middle, the group that worked with him on the Grand Bargain. Why did it fail? Because Cantor and the Tea Party chopped Boehner's legs out from under him, telling him that they would not accept any deal that had revenue increases. The problem is NOT that Obama hasn't tried to work with the opposition; on the contrary, he has often appeared to be far more willing to work with the opposition, (i.e., caving into to their demands while getting nothing in return), than he has in working with members of his own party.
As for the foreign policy aspects....he is in a no-win situation there. Repubs slammed him for not acting against Libya, and then when he did, they complained that he took action. When the US was leading the initial strikes, repubs complained that we were leading instead of NATO. Then, when he turned over the lead to NATO, he was slammed because we weren't leading, and there were threats to cut off funding. Anyone who listens to the disparate voices coming from the repub party at this point will go batty trying to do contradictory things at the same time. It's obvious that repubs have absolutely no desire to do anything constructive with Obama, and at this point, I could care less. It is what it is, and polls show that no matter how low Obama's approval rating is, it is still higher than that of Congress as a whole, or Boehner and McConnell individually. In fact, both of those repubs now have approval/disapproval ratings that are nearly identical to those of Pelosi, whom repubs say was extremely unpopular because she didn't represent "real" Americans.
Absolutely nothing of any great import is likely to happen until after next year's election, as both parties will be afraid to do anything that could cost them potential votes. They don't give a damn because THEY are not the ones that have been unemployed for so long that they have used up their unemployment benefits, THEY haven't lost their homes due to foreclosure, THEY haven't had to deal with untreated health issues because they have no insurance, THEY aren't one paycheck away from a homeless shelter.
I'm not even concentrating on Obama any more, because I realize he isn't the real power at this point. Congress is the true battlefield at this point, and so it is incumbent upon us as voters to toss out the intransigent fringe, and elect people who will reflect " the silent center", as you term it.
I agree with your throw the bums out attitude and feel that we should have term limits for congress. Look, I didn't vote for Obama, but thats because I don't agree with his policies and I contend that his policies haven't worked. But I don't want to see him fail because if he fails, the country fails, our stock market fails, the value of my home continues to decline. Thats the fallacy of those on this board who exclaim that Republicans want Obama to fail. I agree that a minority of repubs may take that militant stance, but most repubs and voters do not feel that way and want to cut their nose off to spite their face. We all are Americans first and want America to succeed.
I'd like to see Obama acknowledge that his policies have not worked and try some new ideas. He paraphrased Einstein during the campaign that if something isn't working, doing the same thing over and over again will not change the results. Lets see some bold ideas come from him. He can work with Boehner and Reid and get policies passed by reaching out to the same members who voted for the debt ceiling and ignoring the 45 republicans who did not.
You can only work with the opposition if the opposition can control its members. It is blindingly obvious that repubs are scared to death of the Tea Party, with even relatively moderate members like Orrin Hatch lurching farther to the right than ever, due to fear they will be primaried by Tea Party candidates. Boehner was so afraid of them that he scuttled the Grand Bargain because the Tea Partiers wouldn't vote for it. No, while I agree that Obama can work with Boehner, and has so far, it does no good if Boehner and other repubs are too afraid of the radicals to make any deals that they won't vote for.
Obama could come up with bold ideas from now until the cows come home, and we both know what the result will be: complete rejection by repubs. If he can't even get a Nobel Laureate to be confirmed for a position in his administration, then what chance does anything else have? The only solution is to vote out the obstructionist fringe that has brought us the debt ceiling fight and shutdown of the FAA, as well as the credit downgrade and associated chaos in world markets. You can't make deals and compromises as long as there is a small group tossing Molotov cocktails from the back of the theater.
Both parties were elected to serve their constituents. The Republican party seems determined to destroy the economy so they can blame Obama and the Democrats and win the next election. I hope most people are smart enough to see that they are willing to sellout their country and their constituents for strictly partisan reasons. They should be ashamed and voted out of office. Paul Ryan exemplifies everything that is wrong with the Republican party. He is a grandstanding, self-serving moron.
favorite observation via instaputz
The best thing yet said about the S&P downgrade.
get 2 scooby snacks.
smiling.
Bill Walton? Well, whatta you know...
In a big selloff in the market we always hear about the stocks being sold, but someone buys everything sold. Without buyers there can be no sellers in the market. Buyers bought low & will sell again when the market begins to recover. The market is nothing more than a giant casino, everytime someone loses someone else wins.
It's a Casino alright, but when the rich lose the governent bails them out.
All the other poor suckers just lose.
1. S & P knew before the fight in Congress that they would downgrade the US. The only reason they waited was to keep pressure on the Tea Party. If S & P had downgraded before the fight, the Tea Party would have been more strident and Dems would have been under intense pressure to cave.
2. The average person will not read the S & P report because most have already made up their minds about which side they are on.
3. As noted in an above post, the public opinion has already gone against the Republicans. Statements by TP members that they were ready to burn down the house provides good fodder for Dems. These statements have secured independent voters opinions against the TP and their favorable rating is going to crash the TP and the Republicans in a lot of swing districts. Most likely the TP will not survive 2012 elections.
the DNC and DCCC should go and use what Chris Matthews was saying go to every republican house member who voted no, and fine every bridge road, etc.. needing repair and run it against them.
there are so many good add that can be made.
@Pilotshark
The Dems would do well to use that strategy and challenge every Republican in Congress including safe districts. Between the TP and Ryan's budget, the Republicans will have to spend a lot of their money defending safe seats. I believe the Republicans are looking at a major defeat in the House in 2012. That may carry over to the Senate races. Bachmann or Perry on the Republican ticket will turn the election into a rout.
Only if they hear it -- which they won't if they live in the echo chamber.
That's what makes a safe seat safe.
The Fox News echo chamber is not that large. When Ryan unveiled his budget, the older people heard SS and Medicare cuts and nothing else. That budget makes Republicans in safe districts vulnerable just like the NY district.
I live in Utah and the stupidity of Jason Chaffetz and his followers is never in doubt.
It seems to me to be pointless continuing to place blame on one side or the other. I understand it may make one feel better to blame the other, but that resolves nothing. The only time to look back is if you're writing history 50 years from now, or to see how proposals have fared in the past.
At this juncture, we should only look to direct our attention to resolving the country's problems. We've tried Keynes - that didn't work. We've tried monetary policy - that didn't work. We've tried givaways - cash for clunkers, etc. - they didn't work. We had a commission and ignored it. We've tried green = that didn't workThe list goes on.
I believe our probems are structural and will require many years to correct. Until we recognize this, no amount of taxing and cutting will get us out. That will on;y address a debt problem, which we must.
We have not tried Keynesian economics. Every economist advising the President told him the stimulas needed to be twice as much as he decided on. But the President wanted to be bipartisan so he cut the stimulas in half and added tax cuts for the Repubicans. If he had listened to his economic advisers we wouldn't be in this mess. Blame needs to pointed straight at the Young Guns in the Republican party. Their Randian philosophy is going to destroy our country if they are not stopped. This whole deal with the debt ceiling was right out of Rand's The Fountainhead. If you don't get everything you want blow the building up.
Interesting that Ayn Rand ended up benefiting from Social Security and Medicare when she developed lung cancer. Parasite. Looter. Moocher.
The Democrats compromised on the stimulus and it got watered down.
This is what the GOP did, from Abe Lincoln.
The two things are not comparable.
We DIDN'T try Keynes, and saying so is just plain wrong. If we had tried Keynes, there would not have been 50% unstimulative tax cuts used as a bribe to repubs to pass the rest of the stimulus package. At the time, some economists were concerned the package was too small, and subsequent results and recent re-examination of the data prove them correct. CHINA passed a stimulus package that was as big as ours, and they have a smaller economy than us, so how can it possibly be argued that we tried Keynes and it failed? If we wanted to do things properly, we would have had longer term programs like the WPA and CCC in operation, rather than a concentration on "shovel-ready" projects, which under the criteria used, basically allowed street repaving and some simple highway projects, not longer term projects that would have had greater and more lasting impact.
Adding my voice to those above - we have not tried Keynes for the current economic recession. We took some smallish actions to stimulate the economy with partially expansionary policies and then turned right around and retrenched and capitulated to those who incorrectly believe the federal government's finances should be run like a family's checkbook, or a grocery store's balance sheet.
I've got my grandfather's WPA saw, and I'm not afraid to use it.
Michelle Bachman said that she would vote against the debt ceiling thing. That there was nothing to worry about. That it was just democrate fear mongering. Who wants a president who will take such a stand. That is not leadership. Yet she and other repubs complain about Obama's lack of leadership.
S&P has been dancing around the "why". Fact is media circus was over debt ceiling debate - S&P did mention a little thing called debt to GDP ratio (check out other countries). Debt is the problem. Revenue and spending cuts are the solution. We need Rachel, and others to crack open the story of economic denial that has everyone believing our way of living is going to continue.
Challenge every member of Congress to use that NYT interactive "balance the deficit" tool and go from there. It was easy - take back Bush tax cuts, take away SSI from the rich, reduce defense. Some tough ones on foreign aid, etc. But if we continue on this path we're going into a ten year depression.
The blame game on both sides is only making our problems worse.
The Republicans and TP are going to keep repeating the big lie that our taxes, individual and corporate, are too high. That is the message the Dems have to defeat. The way to stop that message is to keep pointing to companies that pay no taxes, the hedge fund managers and various corporate subsidies, and keep telling the people that there is a war on the middle class.