A beautiful NY Times Editorial

[Uzybone]

Time to get tough (with GOP and pussy ass Dems)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/opinion/06fri1.html

We’re happy to see President Obama getting tough with Congressional Republicans who are trying to sabotage the stimulus and recovery bill and bring even greater ruin on the economy. Since Mr. Obama campaigned on the promise of bipartisanship, we hope he will also bring his hammer down on shortsighted Democrats who are threatening their own brand of havoc.

Mr. Obama needs to remind Republicans that he won the election on those terms. And he is going to have to get tough with Democrats. So will House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who have been too timorous about wielding their power.

In the Senate, Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, spent the day working with Republicans to dangerously strip down the Senate’s version of the economic measure. What noxious programs were they so eager to dump? Money for the Amtrak passenger rail system, the shortchanging of which has been a damaging annual ritual that has put America decades behind most of the world.

In the House, Ms. Pelosi will have to help Mr. Obama overcome protectionist Democrats who have already voted a provision that would require stimulus-financed projects to use only American-made iron and steel. Senate Democrats inserted an even worse provision — requiring that all manufactured goods bought with stimulus money be made in this country. That has been somewhat diluted, but not nearly enough.

The “Buy America” plan could touch off a trade war, which would be disastrous for the American economy and American workers. It’s astonishing that any national leader could have forgotten what happened when Congress tried this before. Remember Smoot-Hawley?

If Senate Republicans still want to filibuster, Mr. Reid should call them on it. No filibuster on this urgent a bill could withstand the certain public outrage.

[democracy1st]

1. K & R thanks great to see NYT stepping up for a change

[cilla4progress]

3. Right fricken on!

It was a NYT editorial that turned the tide against Daschle. Let's hope this turns the tide in BO's favor!

[DJ13]

2. So will House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

....... who have been too timorous about wielding their power.


Yeah, good luck with THAT.

I dont believe modern medical science is capable of spine implants yet.

[TeamJordan23]

4. great article. nm

[Uzybone]

5. The internet and print media leads and cable usually follows

I suspect we will see more reality based coverage from the cable media in the coming days. Oh they will continue to spin and lie and suck up to republicans, but their display this past week was approaching Swiftboat levels of bias. The American people are still with Obama.

[rockymountaindem]

6. Why is everybody so quick to bring up Smoot-Hawley?

Is it because that's the only economic reference they have? Smoot-Hawley was the most robust tariff regime in US history. The "buy-American" provisions pale in comparison and, apparently, are well within the bounds of our trade agreements and are far less stringent than similar measures enacted by Canada and the EU.

Comparing that to Smoot-Hawley is exceedingly weak. That's like comparing the Spanish-American War to World War II. Yes, they are both wars, but they differ by multiple orders of magnitude so the comparison is not apt.

[izquierdista]

7. Repub frames of reference

Repubs like nothing better than to point to a big pile of elephant dung and say "that stinks", as if they had nothing to do with the manufacture of it.

It serves their agenda of catering to the wealthy who want to shop the world for the most desperate workers to exploit to say "no, no, tariff bad". They conveniently forget that tariffs are what made America the manufacturing powerhouse it was in the years leading up to WWII. Now that they have taken down the tariff fences and let all the jobs leave for India, China and even cheaper places, they have the audacity to tell American workers to watch out and not step in the elephant shit.

[GeorgeGist]

8. I see the NYT still believes that the profit fairy ...

will save the economy from being devoured by the PROFIT MONSTER.