"The People Are Rising" - Robert Reich

[swag]

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2006/10/people-are-rising.html

A Republican operative told me the other day that if Republicans could only get Americans to focus on the economy instead of Iraq, the GOP could hold on to the House. He's got it completely wrong. A big reason Republican poll numbers are sinking around the country is Americans are focusing on the economy.

The great sucking sound you hear every time Bush or any other Republican says the economy is doing fine is the collective inhalation of tens of millions of Americans, shocked that their leaders are so out of touch. Republican candidates are dropping like dead fruit flies across North and South Carolina, in Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, through Ohio, upstate New York, and Connecticut, in Missouri and Montana -- everywhere wages and jobs are under sharpest assault -- because Republicans won’t admit what their constituents know: that wages are stuck in the mud, that job security is gone, that pensions are drying up, that health insurance costs are out of control, that housing prices (the only nest eggs left) are leveling out or falling. The only people who are getting much out of this economy are in the top one percent – earning over $800 grand a year. They’re taking home almost 20 percent of total income. Back in 1980, the top one percent took home 8 percent of total income.

Bush’s father was sent packing in 1992 when he insisted the economy was in fine shape. He sounded looney – as if he lived on another planet. It’s too late to uproot the current Bush but Americans are ready to uproot congressional Republicans who have shown not a jot of what most people are going through.

Worse yet, over the last few years Congressional Republicans gave away the store to big corporations and the rich, and robbed average working people. At the behest of the credit-card industry, they made personal bankruptcy almost impossible, while allowing big companies to declare bankruptcy and rid themselves of pension and health obligations to their workers. At the behest of the oil and gas industry, they gave away billions in subsidies, while oil companies got record profits and most people paid through their noses for gas and home heating oil. At the behest of the drug companies, they created a Medicare drug benefit that prevented Medicare from using its huge bargaining leverage to get lower drug prices for the elderly. At the behest of chain stores and the fast-food industry, they blocked the minimum wage from catching up with inflation. At the behest of corporate America, they got rid of overtime pay for millions of hard-working Americans. At the behest of the richest, they created tax cuts that made the rich even richer, while cutting housing assistance and health care for poor kids.

. . . more

[bleedingheart]

1. repukes live in their own fantasy world.

[Binka]

3. They Actually Think The Economy Is A Selling Point?

Holy fucking shit they are ALL bat shit insane. Shit house rat crazy.

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. Well, they DID have to destroy villages, in order to save them.

Kind of phoenixes, except the kindling must have been wet, what with the monsoon rains and all that.

[calimary]

30. Yes. "Creative destruction." Damned fine doubletalk.

[Joe Chi Minh]

31. No better omelette-makers in the world. Eat your heart out,

Escoffier!

[NewJeffCT]

32. I saw an op-ed from George Will recently -

he was practically orgasming over how good the economy was...

[Stardust]

42. 40-60M jobs to move overseas in next 20 years (heard on AAR Ring of

Fire w/Bobby Kennedy.)Walmart's now the largest US employer, average salary $18,000/yr. How are we ever gonna recover??

[Binka]

2. Damn Fine Read! Thanks Swag.

Just because the repukes don't want to live in reality doesn't mean the rest of us don't feel it. Hey ASSHOLES prepare to get booted!

[acmejack]

4. Financial reality.

Republicans never buy groceries, or get sick, and their chauffeurs fill their limos up.

[liberal N proud]

5. The economy is doing well.

That is it is doing well for the wealthiest of America. Maybe the top 5% of Americans are doing really well financially. The rest are feeling the pinch of the bu$hnomics.
"Steal from the poor to give to the rich."

[LiberalEsto]

7. Reich is right on the money - as usual

Robert Reich is perhaps the most articulate critic of failed Rethuglican "trickle-down" economic policy in America.

He reminds us once again of why "It's the economy, stupid" and why this will play a crucial role in Democrats' election chances on November 7.

Any rethug who whines and calls this "class warfare" should be slapped and sternly reminded that any class warfare that has been taking place during the current Misadministration was initiated and sustained by the ruling corporate elite.

[Binka]

9. PO' Folk Too Damn PO' To Engage In Warfare

Rethugs should use trickle down to describe class warfare because the shit ALWAYS starts at the top. That is the truth about trickle down. Shit & Piss on the heads of working folks is all that ever trickles down. PO' folks can't wage shit. Don't these dummies realize PO' doesn't mean stupid! Sheesh!

[BootinUp]

11. Yeah hes pretty good

But macroeconomics is still argued too much from an ideological viewpoint. Hence you never win the argument when people are leaning to the other side, the numbers can be twisted to show so many things. Thats my take anyways.

[hfojvt]

38. Reminds me of what Michael Hudson wrote

"Graduate economics courses have become classes in rhetoric. The idea is to make plausible and logical arguments based on assumptions that need not be realistic at all. The criterion for economic theory is simply whether it is internally logical, not its realism. That is what makes economics a non-science in the sense that the physical sciences require not only a consistency of assumptions, but realism as well. The task of economists is to come up with a set of assumptions that will lead to the conclusions promoted by their employers."

But I do not think, from my graduate level education, that our side is as far removed from reality as theirs. I do not think my own studies are ideologically tainted. The question is whether the numbers can be honestly twisted. Not everybody is using statistics the way a drunk uses a lamp-post, more as a means of support than illumination. Admittedly I am biased in at least two ways in that I actually care and belong to the working class, unlike, say, George Will on both counts - he neither belongs nor cares.

[BootinUp]

39. When I posted that response, I was

really thinking about how we ended up here. IOW how did we lose the economic debate in 2000 or not win it bigger?

At this point I agree with Reich that middle America isn't swallowing the RW spin anymore.

Glad to hear from someone with the creds in the subject, me, I am just an amateur. Cheers.

[Quantess]

41. GOP is "far removed from reality"

Delusional thinking seems to be a hallmark of the neocons.

[mucifer]

8. Reich was one of the few people in the Clinton administration who was

a true liberal. Thanks for the article.

[Patiod]

16. AND he appeals to sensible Republicans

I've given his book "The Work of Nations" about the disaster in US education to several Republicans I know, including someone who was at the time at the top of Simon & Schuster's Educational Publishing division.

http://www.amazon.com/Work-Nations-Preparing-Ourselves-Capitalism/dp/0679736158

The book focused on the fact that only 20% of Americans complete college, while we almost completely ignore the education and training needs of the other 80% and basically throw them to the wolves, which might have been okay when there were good manufacturing jobs to be had without post-secondary education, but isn't okay now.

No one has any argument with his outline of the problem, and several found it "eye-opening". The solutions he proposed may be controversial, but he certainly illuminates the problems clearly - problems most people weren't even thinking about in 1992, and are only just beginning to see now. I wish he'd revise and update it, because the key points he makes are just as salient today, 15 years from when this was published.

[ms liberty]

10. I love Robert Reich...

He gets it, and he says so in plain language, so that anyone else can get it, too. He makes it interesting.

And he's right. I'm in NC, where we (used to) make furniture. The people around here drive past the closed-down plant where they used to work. We lost a lot of our manufacturing jobs to China, and they haven't been replaced. High unemployment, people underemployed, people on trade retraining - who aren't counted on the unemployment rolls. At least 6 or 8 foreclosure notices in the paper EVERY WEEK for about 3 or 4 years now. No joke. Things are not good, and people know it.

[Patiod]

12. Even the hardcore WSJ Republicans admit it's not all rosy

in interviews on TV, on the Sunday shows, EVERYWHERE, none of them are stupid enough to say that everything is great. Yes, the market is up, yes, big corporations are doing great, yes, gass prices are down, but EVERYONE admits that education costs are up, that health care costs are up, and that wages are flat.

That's what's driving the anti-Republican rebellion, in my opinion -- most people in this country don't feel better off, because their salaries aren't keeping up with the key costs they have to deal with

[swag]

21. Interesting. WSJ has a piece today that shows that only 3.4% of the

total workforce (MBAs, JDs, and MDs) have had wage increases that beat inflation from 2000 to 2005. Um, that's awful.

Those with Bachelor's Degrees and no advanced degrees (about 21% of the workforce) had their wages eroded 3.1% by inflation since 2000.

Everybody from HS non-grads to those with non-MBA masters degrees lost out to inflation from 2000 to 2005, that is their wages did not keep pace.

See "Why It Takes a Doctorate To Beat Inflation" by By David Wessel in today's WSJ. Don't have a link because WSJOnline is subscription only.

[malaise]

13. Good read

Kick

[Skidmore]

14. Please someone do a "dead fruit flies" cartoon showing

the Republican candidates dropping. Please, please, please....

[madokie]

15. Robert Reich is the man who worked very hard to give me 8 good years

and for that I will always love the man.

[butterfly77]

17. I am so tired of the damn lies...

I was just looking at c-span and Portman is on there sucking air and giving long answer to take up all the time and the host is letting him. I also just heard a report on the radio about how unemployment is down because people are filing less claims. Yes, as I posted the other day keep on talking about the economy because it is f--ked up like everything else.

[msongs]

18. it is NOT TOO LATE to uproot the "current Bush" if a democratic majority

is elected and they demand the president follow the constitution of the USA.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[Hepburn]

19. Talk about being OUT OF TOUCH!!!

"A Republican operative told me the other day that if Republicans could only get Americans to focus on the economy instead of Iraq, the GOP could hold on to the House. He's got it completely wrong. A big reason Republican poll numbers are sinking around the country is Americans are focusing on the economy."

I wonder how far that asshole has his head buried in the sand??? :eyes:

[speedoo]

20. Thanks, swag.

I hope the dems come up with a legislative agenda that addresses all of the issues that Reich highlights in this piece. I'm assuming, of course, that the dems get a majority at least in the House.

[swag]

22. De nada.

See you in a little over a week, by the way.

[speedoo]

36. swag, please check your PM.

thanks.

[swag]

37. Gracias.

See you another day.

[FredStembottom]

23. Ahhhh.....My dream Presidential candidate.....

(not that he is interested).

This is the original no-nonsense guy. And that includes the nonsense that comes from people who adopt a "no-nonsense" pose!

Read vast amounts of his stuff if you can. Quickest route to getting a beginner's understanding of our economy.

He's not infallible - I use his "symbolic analyst" job category derisively as a reminder of the dead dream (never alive, if you ask me) of the NAFTA-ists: that we could all safely lose our jobs to out-sourcing because we would wake up tomorrow as animators at Pixar (or something).

BUT.....he is just too plainly correct too often and I have welcomed him back after that major blunder. He learns. He grows. And he can explain economics to anyone of any level of schooling and make light bulbs go off in their heads.

But I am gushing......... :blush:

[MrCoffee]

27. Get Out of My Dream!!!

Robert Reich is fantastic.

[FredStembottom]

40. There's room for 2!

Watch out for that talking hedgehog, though! He's actually your 7th grade Math teacher!



:freak:

[Boomer]

24. If the economy is doing so well...

If the American economy is doing so well, why can't we afford to increase the minimum wage?

[Odin2005]

25. Yes, the Pukes really are THAT STUPID!

A few days ago on another forum I post on a Puke poster made a thread complaining about how the American people must be uninformed if they think they think the economy was bad. :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[Katzenjammer]

26. And how many of these will the Dems do more than band-aid

if they take control?

At the behest of the credit-card industry, they made personal bankruptcy almost impossible, while allowing big companies to declare bankruptcy and rid themselves of pension and health obligations to their workers. At the behest of the oil and gas industry, they gave away billions in subsidies, while oil companies got record profits and most people paid through their noses for gas and home heating oil. At the behest of the drug companies, they created a Medicare drug benefit that prevented Medicare from using its huge bargaining leverage to get lower drug prices for the elderly. At the behest of chain stores and the fast-food industry, they blocked the minimum wage from catching up with inflation. At the behest of corporate America, they got rid of overtime pay for millions of hard-working Americans.

[swag]

28. Well, probably not many since Bush might remember how to veto a bill

once the Dems control Congress, something which he has never figured out to do with a Republican spending (and I DO mean SPENDING) bill.

Welcome to DU, by the way.

[kestrel91316]

29. He may be short, but the man's a TRUE GIANT in my book.

[Danascot]

33. US: Wrong approach on social-economic policy

Article from Sciam

On average, the Nordic countries outperform the Anglo-Saxon ones on most measures of economic performance. Poverty rates are much lower there, and national income per working-age population is on average higher. Unemployment rates are roughly the same in both groups, just slightly higher in the Nordic countries. The budget situation is stronger in the Nordic group, with larger surpluses as a share of GDP.


The Nordic countries maintain their dynamism despite high taxation in several ways. Most important, they spend lavishly on research and development and higher education. All of them, but especially Sweden and Finland, have taken to the sweeping revolution in information and communications technology and leveraged it to gain global competitiveness. Sweden now spends nearly 4 percent of GDP on R&D, the highest ratio in the world today. On average, the Nordic nations spend 3 percent of GDP on R&D, compared with around 2 percent in the English-speaking nations.
The Nordic states have also worked to keep social expenditures compatible with an open, competitive, market-based economic system. Tax rates on capital are relatively low. Labor market policies pay low-skilled and otherwise difficult-to-employ individuals to work in the service sector, in key quality-of-life areas such as child care, health, and support for the elderly and disabled.

The results for the households at the bottom of the income distribution are astoundingly good, especially in contrast to the mean-spirited neglect that now passes for American social policy. The U.S. spends less than almost all rich countries on social services for the poor and disabled, and it gets what it pays for: the highest poverty rate among the rich countries and an exploding prison population. Actually, by shunning public spending on health, the U.S. gets much less than it pays for, because its dependence on private health care has led to a ramshackle system that yields mediocre results at very high costs.

Von Hayek was wrong. In strong and vibrant democracies, a generous social-welfare state is not a road to serfdom but rather to fairness, economic equality and international competitiveness.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=31&articleID=000AF3D5-6DC9-152E-A9F183414B7F0000

[earth mom]

34. K & R!

"Here's what Americans are deciding: It’s time to throw the rascals out. The people are rising because they’ve had enough. And when the Democrats take over the House, and perhaps the Senate as well, Democrats must remember they were put there to get the nation back on track – to end this reverse Robin-Hood scourge and to give everyone once again a fair shot at decent work so the economy once again works for everyone."

:woohoo:

[sendero]

35. Reich....

... is a favorite of mine. I find his observations and insights to be very credible, something I can't say for many economic prognosticators :)