Third Way's Jon Cowan. "The left's four fiscal fantasies"

[madfloridian]

Another View - Jon Cowan: The left's four fiscal fantasies

Sneaking in more ways to cut safety nets. He just can't resist it.

Fantasy No. 1 is that taxing the rich solves our problems
Fantasy No. 2 is that "we can have it all" — a bigger safety net and more investments that spur growth and opportunity. Events of the past 50 years say the opposite.

In the mid-1960s, the federal government spent $3 on public investments for every $1 on the major entitlement programs. By the early 1970s, the ratio was one to one. Last year, it flipped. The federal government spent $3 on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for every $1 on federal investments, according to our analysis of data from the Office of Management and Budget. By 2022, the ratio will be one to five. In other words, entitlement programs are drowning out public investments just as international competition and technology demand that we need these investments the most.

That is a 50-year trend, but what is most mind-boggling is that some on the left still cling to a belief — bordering on faith — that if a spending program is worthy, voters will support it without trade-offs

Fantasy No. 3 is that a delay on entitlement fixes is benign for the middle class. As evidence, some liberals point to this year's Medicare trustee report, in which the program's fiscal outlook — mercifully — improved. In truth, it improved from horrid to awful. We can't make even that boast about Social Security, where the outlook is plain wretched. Over the past 10 years, the Social Security insolvency date had leapt forward from 2042 to 2033. The hope was that an improving economy would push the date farther out. It did not, and every indicator of Social Security health worsened between the 2012 and 2013 trustee reports.

Fantasy No. 4 is that the politics to fix entitlements will get better. His meaning of the word "fix" means cut, I fear.

[tsuki]

1. Fantasy No. 5 is that the Turd Way is

anything other than LaCorporateNostra.

[Enthusiast]

41. +1 a shit load!

[demwing]

43. Ahh...now this shit is starting to make sense!

You're right. We are, both, quite familiar with this shit.

[Rex]

2. Like anyone would expect a Third Way mouthpiece to talk ill of the 1%.

Almost as bad as Republicans.

[djean111]

3. Looks like a plan to me........this, IMO, is what Hillary and Obama are all about.

I absolutely adore how "the left' has become an outcast - from the Democratic Third Way Party.

Of course, nothing is said of the hideous amount we spend on the MIC.

[Lint Head]

4. The fantasy is that "no one" is saying that any of these things solve anything.

Corporate bull shit has always been corporate bull shit. It stinks and always has.

[neverforget]

5. Hippy punching is in vogue with the Third Way

along with protecting the 1%. Shocking!

[JaneyVee]

6. Funny how he never mentions defense spending.

We want tax hikes on the rich in combination with ending many other costly policies like massive defense spending & corporate welfare, etc

[think]

8. Yep. Kind of glosses right over that

Like it's not even an option......

[Hoyt]

10. Defense should be a big target. But, assuming his deficit numbers are anywhere close to

correct, we'd still be looking at a huge annual deficit if we cut defense in half (which likely won't happen any time soon). Austerity is risky and hurts lots of people, but so will just kicking the can down the road another 10 or 20 years put a lot of folks at risk.

[madfloridian]

12. Ha..he started a group called "The Can Kicks Back"

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/The_Can_Kicks_Back

If austerity continues to take hold, fewer are working, salaries are lower....then we will be in trouble anyway.

I have heard that kicking the can phrase too long... starting to think of it as some spin. No offense, just think austerity moves right are way too dangerous.

They need to leave the safety nets alone. Bottom line.

[Hoyt]

16. Tell that to SS beneficiaries when their benefits are automatically cut by one-third, or

more. Increased taxes and defense cuts alone aren't going tl solve our issues. Do the math, increase taxes another 10 percentage points and we still have a problem. No offense, but if you want to preserve the safety net, it will take more than platitudes.

[madfloridian]

18. No offense taken, we simply disagree.

We can start by getting the top income brackets to pay their fair share....then we don't have to cut the poor, elderly, and needy by using such terms as Chained CPI. Then pretending it is saving SS when in reality it is a cut in benefits.

[Hoyt]

19. I agree. But, I don't think the needed big tax increase solves the problem. Good start,

but doesn't solve the problem. Believe me, I don't want a cut in SS, cuts in money to help the young (who will pay my SS), expanded unemployment benefits, and more. But, somethings need to be done pretty quickly. Heck, let's get that big tax increase done, I'm for it even if it reaches way down to my level. But, it ain't happening any time soon.

[sendero]

28. Let's do the easy things first...

.. returning to the tax rates of the 70s is easy.

Is that going to fix everything? No, but any comprehensive solution requires it so lets get on with it.

[Revanchist]

44. Does that include reinstating all the tax loopholes of the 70s?

I doubt many people paid the rates for their income brackets back then because of all of the write-offs they used to have that no longer exist.

[sendero]

58. I'd be EXTREMELY surprised..

...if you can prove that rich people had more write-offs in the 70s than they do now. In fact I'm thinking the opposite.

About the only thing I can think of offhand is interest on consumer debt, not a big factor in anyone's taxes, certainly not the rich. Which grand write offs are you alluding to?

[Enthusiast]

33. Speaking of "defense" spending is clearly verboten.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. He should take another crack at Elizabeth Warren

And have his other ass cheek handed to him on a platter.

[madfloridian]

9. Oh, I would love to see that.

He's an arrogant SOB.

[Enthusiast]

34. He's a Republican masquerading as a Democrat.

I guess I'm a purist. I do not believe in catering to Third Way(far right wing "Democrats&quot .

[diane in sf]

11. Republican-in-hiding bullshit.

[The Magistrate]

13. What We Have Here, Ma'am, Is A Serious Ultra-Maroon

[madfloridian]

14. ......

[Segami]

15. Yup.

[PowerToThePeople]

17. eat my poo, goper.

[jtuck004]

20. I don't know this person, but he sounds like a Koch brother. Is he perhaps

with the East German wing of their party?

He talks of "fixing" things and it brings to mind this 'toon. Gotta watch what people are telling you. They may mean something else...



Here.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. LOL!!! Cut building stuff and then MARVEL that ratios change....

Here's a thought....

Create a plan to make America look like this:



And tax the rich to pay for it since they refuse to do ANYTHING without being forced.

BTW: That particular station is in EGYPT. Seems they get to have nice stuff even with their politics screwed up.

[nikto]

22. Well, I've got a fucking fantasy for you, bigtime...

FANTASY:
We can sustain the USA as a viable nation without cutting our military by around 50%.

[Promethean]

23. No mention about increased wages for workers

or if he will only respond to corporate speak the Value Creators.

[Jack Rabbit]

24. Cowan is full of baloney

If the last fifty years demonstrate anything, it is that the third way program is a failure. Deregulation, austerity and a government catering to the whims of the rich, to include tax cuts, brought on the world wide economic collapse of 2008, from which we are still suffering mainly because the trends of Reagan/Bush/Clintion/Frat Boy have not been adequately reversed.

First, we must revoke the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy. They don't need the extra cash and, after mismanaging the world economy, they certainly don't deserve it. Whoever said these people are rich because they're smarter than the rest of us must be one of their paid stooges. It is difficult to believe that if the common autoworker was asked to design a car that he would like to drive to work that it wouldn't look anything like an SUV. But that is what they auto executives foisted on the American consumer. Instead of Henry Ford's "America can have any color car it wants, as long as it's black," the auto executives of the late twentieth century proclaimed that America could have any kind of car it wanted, as long as it guzzled gas. Then they wondered why we fell in love with Japanese cars. It shouldn't have taken an Ivy League-educated scion of America's best families to figure out what was going on, but they were the only ones couldn't figure it out. We should get our money back. Tax 'em. Get the money out of their pockets and put it to better use, like building schools and roads like we used to do. That's better than bribing politicians or putting billions into public relations to convince Americans that climate change is a hoax.

Second, we need to phase out fossil fuels and replace them with renewable energy. Let the oil executives and the coal barons whine. They've had their way long enough, and all we have to show for it is dirty air and undrinkable water. Pretty soon, we'll have even more undrinkable water, right after the polar ice caps melt.

Third, we need to re-regulate industry and the financial markets. We've had decades of deregulation and the only thing it's proved is that there is no such thing self-policing markets. All the bankers and industrialists want is more freedom to steal our savings, cut our wages and pollute the environment. I don't know who they think is going to buy their useless, tacky products after they've reduced the human race to serfdom. Am I the only one who thinks there's something wrong with not paying workers adequate wages, getting them to go on public assistance to make ends meet and then electing politicians who will cut or eliminate that same public assistance, like Mr. Cowan suggests?

Let's look at some realities that Mr. Cowan doesn't see. We don't have too big to fail banks and industries; what we have is billionaires too big for their breeches. We don't have a problem with funding the social safety net, we have a problem subsidizing unsustainable businesses.

Finally, I see no reason to raise a white flag and meekly approve the TPP/TTIP. This is no time to give up on democracy. Why? Because the common man is one hell of a lot smarter than the common billionaire or a corporate shill like Mr. Cowan, that's why.

[Enthusiast]

35. I like the way you think!

You are exactly right on!

[thucythucy]

51. Excellent summation of what should be the Democratic platform.

All that's needed is a few lines on cutting back "defense" spending and an end to using the publicly funded military to defend private corporate interests overseas.

Why can't our "leaders" be this articulate? That's a more or less rhetorical question.

Anyway, thanks for this post.

[bemildred]

52. Bravo.

Nice to see you writing so well.

[madfloridian]

53. Yes, he is.

and full of more than that.

[jsr]

56. +1

[wocaonimabi]

25. BS like this from the Turd Way really makes me support Parity Purity even more

The Third Way is a cancer upon the Democratic Party and America and needs to be removed.

[bemildred]

26. 1.) Taxing the rich seems to work quite well overseas.

2.) We dont need more growth, we need stability and investment, the Wealthy can step up or we are going to take it out of their hands; and that will create opportunity, that investment.
3.) What is happening now is existential for the middle class, it's being destroyed. The status quo is not acceptable, and neither is more stalling.

[Enthusiast]

39. Another excellent post, bemildred!

You are racking them up!

[bemildred]

47. Thanks, I don't quite know what to make of it.

But I'm always more personable when I'm avoiding work.

[reformist2]

27. So why are these people Democrats??? I'm not buying their act anymore.

Their fiscal policies line up perfectly with the Repug agenda.

[Enthusiast]

38. The Repug agenda is precisely what it is.

[myrna minx]

48. The republicans fleeing the crazy party have to go somewhere. Well lookie here, they're trying to

take over the Demoratic Party with their right wing fiscal ideology and we rank and file Democrats are scolded if we speak up against it. We're told that we should just be grateful for the crumbs we're allowed because it could be worse. Much, much worse.

[KG]

29. might as well learn to love it, third way is the way of the dem party for the forseeable future

[madfloridian]

31. It is their "policy shop."

That's what Al From called his DLC until they closed because they had achieved their purpose. Now the Third Way sets policy. We are required to go along.

[demwing]

32. I've seen a lot of shit. What impresses me most

is all the shit I've seen! Endlessly changing shit...

Things change quickly in this new age. Populist Lefties are the voices of tomorrow.

[Enthusiast]

37. "Populist Lefties are the voices of tomorrow."

Either we will be the voices of tomorrow or life as we know it will come to a grinding halt. Like me, you appear to be an expert on shit. Good job.

[Laelth]

46. If you're right (and I hope you are not), then I need a new party. n/t

-Laelth

[JHB]

30. Speaking of fantasies of the left, here's his:

[Enthusiast]

36. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

Thank you, madfloridian! Excellent OP.

[madfloridian]

40. It won't.

That's not how it works here.

[JHB]

42. Third Way fantasy #1:

All the problems that "third wayers" (inside and outside of the organization using that name) claim to be concerned about can be solved without impacting investors and the wealthy. The only "serious" solutions involve strangling the middle class (not that they'd use such a crass and does-poorly-in-focus-groups term for it).

[Laelth]

45. What a load of crap!

Doesn't this alleged Democrat have something better to do than spew Republican talking points?



-Laelth

[AgingAmerican]

49. He is touting failed Republican ideology

FAIL

[woo me with science]

50. K&R Another reminder that labels don't mean what they used to.

America is learning to look at POLICIES rather than Team Color.

[madfloridian]

54. Cowan's words about public housing.

Third Way is the wrong way

From 2007

Blowing up public housing is not a progressive value

Recently, Third Way's President, Jon Cowan, made a presentation to the Democracy Alliance, a center-left organization that is attempting to build progressive political infrastructure. Cowan spent his speech shouting at the audience and half his time explaining that when he worked at the Housing and Urban Development Department under Andrew Cuomo, he worked to "blow up public housing" and replace it with two and three-story public housing. He characterized his work as "modernizing" progressive ideas.

What Cowan failed to explain, however, is that much of the public housing blown up was sitting on valuable urban land and was replaced, not by low-income housing, but by developments of mid and high-priced condominiums, while the poor were moved farther from cities, and that some of the blown up housing had been recently built and was in good condition. More significantly, Cowan failed to acknowledge that the number of replacement units did not match the number of housing units blown up and thousands of low-income tenants were left homeless by this "modernization." The next day, Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of Center for Community Change, an organization that works on behalf of low-income people, called this demolition of public housing, with the insufficient housing replacement, "immoral."

Blowing up public housing and leaving thousands homeless may be Third Way's idea of "modernization," it may even appeal to some Democratic real estate developers, but there is nothing progressive about it.

[davekriss]

55. Complete Rubbish

I recall the math at the second George W Bush Republican tax cut: The projected 10 year reduction in tax revenue *exceeded!* the 75 year shortfall in social security!

We need to get real, class war has been going on since Reagan and our side is losing in big ways. Do not let them steal our hard-earned social security benefits! Primary out every Third Way Democrat and vote out every Republican on earth!

[Armstead]

57. He's right...

Right-wing asshole masquerading as a Democrat that is.