Obama Adviser Calls for 'New' New Deal at U. Iowa

[tekisui]

David Bonior, a former Democratic U.S. representative and member of President-elect Barack Obama's economic transition team, championed such a policy at a Monday night lecture at the University of Iowa Shambaugh Auditorium.

Drawing parallels between the Great Depression and the current tanking economy, he called for a more proactive government with bold initiatives.

Green jobs must be created, labor laws must be strengthened, and health care must be more readily available, Bonior told a crowd of around 140 people. And oversight and transparency in past and future bailout packages is paramount as well, he argued.

Former President Franklin Roosevelt "wasn't interested in baby steps, he wasn't interested in triangulation," said Bonior, taking a shot at former President Bill Clinton. "He was interested in going at the problems as they existed and to pour his heart and soul into making them change."

Despite being rumored to be Obama's secretary of Labor, Bonior said he has no interest in the position.

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"I've basically told people to remove my name from being bandied around because that's not what I want to do with my life for the next four years," Bonior said after the event.

The former Democratic whip also compared Obama and Roosevelt, who he said were both adept orators.

Now, he said the president-elect must use "his voice like FDR did to get us out of this mess.

"He is the embodiment, personally, of the hopes and dreams of literally billions of people on this planet today," said Bonior, who was the campaign manager for John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign.

To enact such sweeping changes, a sustained Democratic majority in Congress is likely needed. Last week's election put them closer to that - Democrats picked up additional seats in both the House and Senate. As of Monday night, Democrats had 57 seats in the Senate and 255 in the House.

[Thrill]

1. He can do it. He has a mandate for change

And the polls show people are more concerned about the economy than the defecit

[Peace Patriot]

2. Reading between the lines: Does this mean Bonior is out, and the neoliberals are back?

If true, then, as they did with welfare--turned it into welfare for the rich and the corporate--so they will do with any "New Deal." It will be a "New Deal" for the rich and the corporate.

And the Bushwhacks have laid the ground work for this: The rich and the corporate now get more than obscene profit; they get to put their greedy hands directly into our pockets--not just via credit card usury, and gas gouging, and the outsourcing of jobs, and skyrocketing medical costs, and skyrocketing energy costs, and tax cuts for the rich, and looting of good companies, and 'golden parachutes,' and looting of savings & loan institutions and pension funds, and low wages, and unsafe working conditions and products, and privatization of public works, and the Forever War, and no-bid contracts, etc., etc., etc.--they get to wildly speculate on all these things, and charge us trillions and trillions of dollars for their losses, indebting us unto the 7th generation.

WE will pay for the "New Deal" for the rich!

Reading between the lines: It appears to me that Bonior is putting a good face on a bad situation. He has been muscled out by the likes of Robert Rubin (Clintonite/neoliberal) on economics, and on pro-corporate law enforcement, Eric Holder--Chiquita death squad attorney (re: 4,000 murders of union leaders and other workers in Colombia)--touted for U.S. Attorney General.

I hope this isn't true. But hope is a thing with feathers.

[rockymountaindem]

3. Why do you get that idea?

If he's on the team, he's on the team. That's not good?