Robert Reich: The Sequester and the Tea Party Plot

[highplainsdem]

http://robertreich.org/post/44259531689

Imagine a plot to undermine the government of the United States, to destroy much of its capacity to do the public’s business, and to sow distrust among the population.

Imagine further that the plotters infiltrate Congress and state governments, reshape their districts to give them disproportionate influence in Washington, and use the media to spread big lies about the government.

Finally, imagine they not only paralyze the government but are on the verge of dismantling pieces of it.

Far-fetched? Perhaps. But take a look at what’s been happening in Washington and many state capitals since Tea Party fanatics gained effective control of the Republican Party, and you’d be forgiven if you see parallels.

-snip-

I suggest the President forget about a “grand bargain.” In fact, he should stop talking about the budget deficit and start talking about jobs and wages, and widening inequality – as he did in the campaign. And he should give up all hope of making a deal with the Tea Partiers who now run the Republican Party.

Instead, the President should let the public see the Tea Partiers for who they are — a small, radical minority intent on dismantling the government of the United States. As long as they are allowed to dictate the terms of public debate they will continue to hold the rest of us hostage to their extremism.

[pipoman]

1. Robert Reich, traitor to US labor

feigning disbelief once again over his failure to labor as labor secretary who played the hand of multi-national corps over the interests of US labor when he had a chance..

Apparently, some people think it's big news that Robert Reich has decided to publicly endorse Barack Obama. We shouldn't be surprised. For months now, Reich has been criticizing Hillary Clinton on his blog and elsewhere, distorting her policies and her positions. He's criticized Senator Clinton's solutions on the foreclosure crisis, on health care and trade. He's been in the Obama camp for some time.

Despite his reputation as a liberal and a friend of working men and women, Reich knows how to walk both sides of the street. I recall that he rarely, if ever, mentioned unions during his four years as Secretary of Labor. He has no problem backing proposals that cheer business more than labor, like ending the corporate income tax. If you read his recent book, Supercapitalism, you would think Steve Forbes was the writer. But no, it's the former Secretary of Labor calling for eliminating a tax that helps keep down the tax burden on working men and women across this nation. Does Senator Obama support that Reich idea? Is eliminating the corporate income tax going to be part of the "change we can believe in"?

Reich says that corporate responsibility is counterproductive. He thinks it's a distraction. That's beautiful. Here we have a former Secretary of Labor, someone who should know better, taking the GOP line that corporations need to focus on making money and forget about everything else. The movement for social responsibility has promoted ethical decision-making in business, community development programs, day-care centers, HIV-AIDS training, family-friendly workplaces, and more. To suggest that those developments are a distraction from the responsibility of corporations to amass profits for shareholders, as Secretary Reich does in his book, is shameful.

So is his support for NAFTA. Reich says unfair trade pacts bear no responsibility for the decline in manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Two months ago, Reich wrote that "it's a shame the Democratic candidates for president feel they have to make trade - specifically NAFTA - the enemy of blue-collar workers and the putative cause of their difficulties. NAFTA is not to blame." He's wrong on NAFTA, just as Obama's chief economic advisor Professor Goolsbee was wrong on NAFTA.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-mcentee/robert-reichs-endorsement_b_97450.html

[pampango]

3. The obligatory Reich blast anytime an OP quotes him. Any thoughts on the Tea Party plot

to undermine the government of the United States, to destroy much of its capacity to do the public’s business, and to sow distrust among the population.

I suggest the President forget about a “grand bargain.” In fact, he should stop talking about the budget deficit and start talking about jobs and wages, and widening inequality – as he did in the campaign. And he should give up all hope of making a deal with the Tea Partiers who now run the Republican Party.

Do you not agree with (and I know this hurts) Reich that the president should "forget about a 'grand bargain'." That the president should instead focus on "jobs, wages and widening inequality." (I do.)

Or do you not comment on (much less agree with) even the most liberal opinions of 'traitors'?

[pipoman]

4. The teabaggers go without saying..

I object to Democratic posers who refuse to acknowledge their own role in the state of US "jobs and wages, and widening inequality".

[closeupready]

5. Yup. He can't unring that bell by ignoring it.

Too many of us remember how he sold labor out.

[pipoman]

6. I could easily leave it alone

if he wasn't always acting like it is everyone's problem but his. He pretends his decisions were and still are just great. He plays both sides of the issue. He is a traitor to labor...(US labor that is, he is a hero of 3rd world multi-national opportunists..

[closeupready]

8. He's like the geeky 90-lb. weakling on the beach, hoping

that if he cheers on sexual harassment by the beefy guys when they wolf whistle and pinch the girls, they won't pick on him.

I know he's very, very short, so even though I'm speaking in similes, there is a real basis for thinking he fits the stereotype.

[Protalker]

2. He forgot the racial entitlement judiciary

Hillary called it the right wing conspiracy. Bush selling off shoring tax havens, Romney paying 14% income tax. Have these people no shame.
.

[malaise]

7. Yep that is what it is

Fugging treason!!