Paul Krugman writes: "It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn't over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will."
Portrait, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, 06/15/09. (photo: Fred R. Conrad/NYT)
The President Surrenders
01 August 11
A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong.
For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America's long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.
Start with the economics. We currently have a deeply depressed economy. We will almost certainly continue to have a depressed economy all through next year. And we will probably have a depressed economy through 2013 as well, if not beyond.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
It is the mass media which is to blame. Boehner and Obama just did what they are paid to do (i.e., the work of the banksters and billionaires). Americans had no one to presents reasonable alternatives. The mass media failed -- once again.
But it is a shame that President Obama did not take on the Republican corruption when he first got into office, as we hoped and believed he would. Now, they're still pulling their tricks, and the president all the time is working for a bi-partisan solution to show that he is trying to do government as it should be worked under its democracy.
Too late. Too little held accountable for egregious acts of corruption. So the Republicans got their big toe in the House power door in 2010, beat their new and ugly "tea-bag party" drums, and cranked up their old and saggy propaganda machine that always works on the dumbest people in America.
And now, President Obama is trying to play his ball game the way he learned was correct, and he's found out, well, that's just not how it's played.
It's smoke-and-mirro rs at both ends of the court, and nothing would have ever been a slam dunk, except if President Obama had shut them all up, told them to "get back to him" AFTER he raised the debt ceiling himself as so many presidents before him have.
A 3-pointer lost...too bad, because America will continue to suffer, on and on and on, no matter how many cheerleaders.
Beer anyone?
N.
Please visit this link:
http://vimeo.com/27146076
On Saturday, July 30, 2011, the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party passed a resolution that encourages Democratic Party members to seek a primary challenger to President Obama in the 2012 election.
Obama's collapse comes as no surprise. He is not a strong President and knows it. And knows everyone knows it. I predict he is biding his time and will step down.
Medicare slashes will create the biggest backfire, as they will hurt the medical community more than the patients. Many medical practices (most in several areas of Florida) are highly dependent on continuing Medicare payments. They will be savaged.
Environmentally , it would be a genuine catastrophe. Economically, it would be a continuing disaster. Ethically, it would become a cruel joke.
On the other hand, hard as it is, forget the White House and concentrate on restoring the Democratic Party - from the bottom up!
Sad. I sure did love him for who I thought he COULD be. I thought he COULD be a fighter for democracy and common people.
I feel REALLY badly about Medicare, especially as I and many friends and family are either in "that zone" or getting close. But I feel the worst about Medicaid for those of who are on disability, too old and poor to pay, and/or jobless because of a corrupt system put in place by "the switch-blad shrub," Bush, and his cronies.
I actually feel nauseous...damn ...this should have been a good four-year run, touting the progressive line and making and upholding laws FOR the people, not for corporations.
I hope the Congress has a bad sleep tonight and every night they stay in office. I hope that President Obama can look himself square in the mirror and say, "This ain't my game. Time to go." But I equally hope we do not go the way of Gingrich or Romney or Palin or GOD FORBID, PLEASE NOT, Michelle pray-away-the-g ay Bachmann.
Let's pound the progressive weeds for a solid Democrat to run.
I'm on the phone...
N.
That is very unlikely to happen. I have given this man more slack than any politician deserves, and then even I gave just a little bit more.
When I was young, wise and naive I never voted for mainstream candidates for President or Governer. The notable exception was my vote for George McGovern.
Obama may have been the perfect man to succeed the winner of the 2000 election. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court decided otherwise. The man who took the oath in January 2001 managed to leave a horrible mess and instead of cleaning it up, Obama wants to sweep it all under the carpet and pretend it never happened.
The mess is still here, the piles of garbage conitinue to pile up. We need an enforcer. Someone that tells the mess makers not only to clean up their mess, but also how to clean it up.
...in your dreams!!! He is bought and paid for.....
My point; the dream that you infer I am having has ended.
Who will be the most to pay?
Sellabrate this stellar Day
While the politicians amass and PLAY
The pundits band to shout, "hurray"!
Our leaders, all hypocrits on display,
While voters ponder the next Bastille Day!
And what better way than to ruin the economy (as, of course, their fortunes increase), and have, their nearly enslaved serfs, distracted with mere survival?
Oh Bomb Ah's caving into the villainaire rulers - it's been going on since his taking office. But, not all we the sheeple are dumb and readily MSD'ed. We get it. It's a coup d'etat, with democracy, the right to vote and have that vote honestly counted, rule of law, basic rights of free speech, etc. etc. etc., in the toilet.
So...who knows what it is that will finally tip the scale and put us into American Revolution II? Maybe the fear coming from this latest karlroved, Kochsucking debacle? Who knows.
American Revolution ll, it's a comin', and it won't be pretty.
$4 Trillion in revenue to Treasury
some of us seeing a pattern here are pissed
his actions do not match his promises - not taking public funding for his campaign as he had pledged was the first time I noticed this behavior - now I see it in every hard decision
once knew a guy who could take a straight deal and make it crooked
However, I am grateful that the headline today does NOT read: "Obama Adm. Failed to Reach a Compromise, World Economy in total Collapse".
But not to fret, boys and girls: I STILL would not touch the F'n RabidRepublican Party with a ten-foot pole.
Thank you, Paul Krugman, for consistently exposing this maggot.
I seriously doubt that you were ever an Obama supporter in the first place. You must be that chameleon republibagger that keeps showing up under different names.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am a small business owner. Most years, I make over 250,000 dollars a year. And you know, Republicans keep on saying they can‘t tax the wealthy. They‘re the job creators. Ed, they‘re wrong.
As a small business owner, I am not a job creator. The middle class in this country are the real job creators. Those people making 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 a year. Ed, you know, two thirds of our economy is driven by consumption.
That consumption is not being done by the top two percent. It‘s the vast middle class. People listening have to understand that businesses exist to create a profit. You have to make businesses hire by creating demand for their goods and services.
We have a demand problem in our economy, not a cash problem for businesses. Business owners, wealthy people, they don‘t need more cash." This is a great explanation for real job creation and taxes. The American people need to hear this over and over to reverse the Republican lies. Make this an ad! The Democrats must start to fight back!
Send it to the Democratic Party headquarters.
Or make a video yourself with it and send it.
Great idea. Right on, straight talk!
N.
You're right, of course, that having President Obama is better than having Sarah-bin-Palin a weak heartbeat from the Oval Office. And you're also right that right-wing Democrats are as dysfunctional in the effort to make sense as Tea Party Wing Nuts.
But - and it's a very big "but" - on the major issues of war and peace, health insurance, Wall Street and the hideously neglected matter of environmental degradation, Mr. Obama has failed to fulfill expectations (not so much promises, since he made very few). And, for anyone on even the mild-mannered left, his performance has been mediocre at best.
The shame is that so many people took this center-right political fixer and attributed to him qualities of statecraft and progressive ideals when he was a self-declared "free market kind of guy all along.
What's needed? Abandon the cult of celebrity and stardom. Get women, multicultural communities, anti-poverty activists, environmentalis ts, consumers and what's left of the once vibrant trade union movement and the bits and shards of the peace movement together and TAKE BACK THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
The only hope we can believe in is the hope that we make for ourselves.
Here's my beef! Why walk about America becoming a "banana republic"?
The phrase is like the "N-word." It demeans people and justifies their oppression.
It conjures notions of military dictatorships which depend on the exploitation of the peasantry by international fruit companies and permit corrupt local elites to share in the profits in exchance for the brutal suppression of dissent.
But who created them? It was the United States of America! From the "Monroe Doctrine through CIA "covert actions" as recently as in Honduras in 2010, US multinational enterprises (e.g., the former United Fruit Company), right-wing zealots and members of the far-famed "military-indus trual complex" have carried on an economic, military and propaganda war against the people of Latin America.
Only because oil and Islam are the current rationales for military adventurism have the people of Central and South America been increasingly successful in gaining a measure of liberty and prosperity.
Meanwhile, retaining contemptuous and outdated stereotypes at the heart of the Empire that helped repress countries from Mexico to Chile is not the mark of a progressive, not matter how astute the assessment of Obama.
I agree on all but 1 point. I doubt that Obama is a closet Republican. I think he has no guiding ideology. His only compass is to find a solution. He is incapable of telling people that wrong that they are, in fact, wrong. He always thinks there is a preferable middle ground. Under that standard, this agreement is a huge win.
The problem is that ever since Reagan we have drifted further and further right. The middle no longer exists. Obama takes the current situation and stakes out a middle position relative to a middle of the road (read Blue Dog) Dem and a Fox lovin' right winger.
Barak Obama is not the right President for America today. His victories are wins for the Right Wings middle (read Boehner).
What happened to the poorly named People's Budget?
Dale Johnson
I'm beginning to think you're all Republican stooges, trolls. Did you fall for the Republican drivel? Are you closet birthers, Islamophobics, racists? Did you think Obama could unilaterally change everything you wanted by kingly fiat? Did you all flunk high school Civics? Have you forgotten Obama's many accomplishments in the face of the worst obstructionism in history?
In 2012, this silly, destructive division in our ranks will prove more effective than the Tea Party to reach Republican goals of destroying Obama, the working and middle classes, and writ large the country.
The Republicans, the rich, and the ruling corporations all heartily thank you.
http://stpeteforpeace.org/obama.html
Gore LOSES Florida to Bush by 45K votes that went to NADER and Bush wins/is appointed…
Under Bush:
Housing market collapse
Labor market collapse
Banking system is dysfunction
Obama elected:
Fair Pay act-Equal pay for equal work
Restored scientific integrity in government
Ended Bush restrictions on embryonic stem cell research
Ended don't ask don't tell
Children's Health care-insured 11 million
Phase out unneeded F-22 fighter
Funding for science research
Save US auto industry
Restarts nuclear nonproliferatio n talks
Sotomayor and Kagan to Supreme Court
Funding for student loans and pell grants
Tax credit for 95%
Hate crimes for sexual orientation made Federal crime
Extended unemployment benefits (had to extend Bush tax cuts to get it passed)
Etc,etc,etc.....So let's think about what you all are saying... Repugs have almost DESTROYED this democratic republic...
Vote Obama and Democratic in 2012 or lose it all....
"Mr. President, Where can I find a job?"
Obama has not fixed or fought to fix the items you list as caused by Bush. He has indeed done many good things, but you fail to list what he has not done, like propose a job creation plan. I am not even going to get into the wars.
http://stpeteforpeace.org/obama.html
Quoting SoCalJohnie:
Excellent quote and presentation of the truth, SoCal Johnnie. I think the "Hurricane Murdoch" and "News Corp." tsunami will wipe out these degenerates.... VERY SOON!!
http://stpeteforpeace.org/obama.html
The Tea Party wingnuts in no way support women. Nor do they bring anything positive to the female gender. Palin, Bachman and the others are an insult to our gender. They encourage women to be submissive to men while simultaneously promoting bigotry, guns, and hatred of others. They demonstrate their ignorance every time they speak or go on national television. Then the media calls them on it and they shrill "Gender inequality. I'm a feminist! I'm being criticized because I'm a woman!"
bachman
My own predilection is to go with Engels' "Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State," but I'm more attracted to Anthropology than Current Affairs.
Here's my quibble: Male domination for 5000 years? Really? Now, I'm as willing as anyone to seek out matriarchies in recorded history and pre-history, but I find remarkably few. So, let's push that number back at least several millennia to the first surplus societies and the first division of labour (and rewards).
Not that it matters much as a practical issue, but there are implications. So, empower girls and women by all means - the more and the faster the better! But be careful if empowerment means "only" equal representation in business and government that plays the same games by the same rules.
Abolish all discrimination by class, race and gender - but don't be satisfied with a "rat race" that treats all the rats equally. Stop the race! Share the cheese!
How about creating NAFTA without controls that would have uplifted standards in all the countries that are members, rather than lowering the standards overall (e.g. environmental controls, right to unionize etc.)?
WMD Lobby at work for the distruction of AMerikka & mankind in general..
What I read on two others istes, Medicare and SS was not mentioned..mili tary was.
So I am wonering why these short blurbs if they are not the truth and so far in a week there has been much counter information so I guess better Media is still needed.
Only if Obama wins control of the house and a fillibuster proof senate. And that will probably result in no move forward or backward in a social agenda. Anything else will result in the Republicans calling the shots, dismantling the safety net and a Democrat President taking the blame for it. Today, I am believing that if Republicans really want to advance their agenda and leave personal interests aside, they will aim to mantain the status quo, control of the house, 40+ sentators and Obama in the White House. Think about it, this is still a 2 party system, who will pay for taking this country back more than 80 years? President or Congress? You hear left and right that Obama has control of the senate... in your dreams! The senate was a cementery were almost every bill went to die becasue Republican fillibuster everything in sight.
You have a point.
Here is our point.
We are sick and tired of settling. We are sick and tired of seeing our savings stolen away from us while the theives go free. We are sick and tired of saying we avoided a catastrophe. We are sick and tired of sticking our fingers in the dike and being blamed for the leaks. We are sick and tired of hearing that there are no jobs and less and less free public education.
We are sick and tired of settling. President Obama had the high ground, he could have gone in for the kill. The people were behind him and he mooned us.
If this compromise is looked at in a vacuum then its not too bad. Nature abhors a vacuum and so do most people. The whole is way, way worse than the sum of its parts.
Thats why we are pissed, and I didn't even mention the wars.
He cannot even defend his legacy. What a Pyrrhic victory! Passing a water-down health care reform to see the country full speed toward the end of Medicare and SS as we know it.
Obama surrendered all his artillery. If he cannot deal with impeachment for defending the poor and the middle class, when will he stand up against insanity? Do you want to make SS disappear, here is how you do it under Obama (2012-2016). 1) Wait until the next made up debt ceiling crisis and let the economy reflect the full effect of today’s debt ceiling compromise. 2) With an economy in a double dip recesion, claim that we cannot afford the level of spending and, since discretionary spending has been cut since 2011, there is nothing left to cut there. 3) Remember everybody that in a recession tax cuts are off the table. 3) Acknowledge that you are willing to compromise and accept half of the cuts in Medicare and Half in Social Security. 4) Let Obama convince everybody that is the best option considering that the alternative is the collapse of the world economy.
Good night and Good luck.
obama/clinton. that was the deal that got her to stop her campaign in 2008. all smiles for her new candidate after that . bill was all over him until that deal was made. i would bet on it. any takers? and before you bet me, understand that i made a lot of money on the government option health care deal. no way he gets it. that is why he capitulated early ladies and gentlemen. the health care deal. he needed a victory and he got, crap, but something for a lot of people and it was a start. but i bet he couldn't swing a single payer or public option and i won a lot of cash. obama/clinton 2012. it is an easy call.....
watch movies: lord of war, catch 22, and no end in sight. and know that the bible caused all our problems.
slavery. (the word of god said slavery ok. see abraham and hagar. that gave us the civil war, and racial problems since.)
gay issues: an abomination in the bible
and tons more.
they still rape and kill women in the middle east for adultery. or stone them which comes from the old testament.
so yeah, liberals scare the crap out of rednecks. don't let the facts confuse you, and the door not hit you in the butt on the way out.
Our political situation today is not completely different from that of Germany's Weimar Republic which produced Hitler & Nazi fascism. Our finances are not far behind. History suggests that if Congress & the President cannot get our festering banking, debt & deficit problems under control constitutionall y. then the currently whispered talk of a different, "more effective" style of government will be heard out loud. . . and that unpredictable ball bounces without conscience - both left & right.
So far we have no strong unifying voice or egregious incident to rally about, but just as surely as "all bleeding stops - eventually", in times of great discontent the faces & voices of rabble-rousers, convincing charlatans & snake-oil peddlers, inevitably emerge from the muck to sell their attractive, easy-palliative s-for-complex-p roblems to a troubled/desper ate audience. .
For those who say "it can't happen here": History is replete with the chronicles of governments felled by internal greed, corruption. arrogance & ego . . , but Beloved, trust me! There is always room for one more.
First of all one never negotiates things that have already been won: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These have been the law since the '30s for SS and since '65 for the medical programs. I have negotiated union contracts and I know of what I speak. We never put on the table things we had already achieved --- why would one give up things one already has to placate the other side?
The Reagan and Bush II tax breaks to the wealthy having been passed on into the national debt, for like of revenues, will be paid for by the working people. Why? Reagan signed onto all those loopholes, for the wealthy, to create jobs. The continuing and deeper tax breaks that will be given to the wealthy at the next round of negotiations, to create even more jobs, will be paid for by Social Security and Medicare recipients.
Meanwhile, Wall Street, you remember the ones that Bush/Cheney and friends handed all that tarp money to, to keep the nation from defaulting; will rake billions of interest money for their portion of the national debt. And all is well in the land of OZ.
Unfortunately, buying outsourced materials means that Americans are self-destructin g their own job possibilities and buying themselves out of potential jobs. Buy American if you can find products that are made here.
If Obama isn't tricking us.
Then he is demonstrating how to strengthen the enemy and unite there force maximally.
Are spectators of our own demise?
RSS feed for comments to this post