Katrina vanden Heuvel: Obama's Disastrous Path

[polichick]

"Ronald Reagan famously quipped that the Democratic Party left him before he left the party. Like many progressive supporters of Barack Obama, I'm beginning to have the same feeling about this president.

"Consider what we've seen since the shellacking Democrats took in the fall elections.

"On Afghanistan, the administration has intimated that the 2011 pullout date is "inoperable," with the White House talking 2014 and Gen. David H. Petraeus suggesting decades of occupation. On bipartisanship, the president seems to think that cooperation requires self-abasement. He apologized to the obstructionist Republican leadership for not reaching out, a gesture reciprocated with another poke in the eye. He chose to meet with the hyper-partisan Chamber of Commerce after it ran one of the most dishonest independent campaigns in memory. He appears to be courting Roger Altman, a former investment banker, for his economic team, leavening the Goldman Sachs flavor of his administration with a salty Lehman Brothers veteran.

"On the economy, the president has abandoned what Americans are focused on - jobs - to embrace what the Beltway elites care about - deficits. His freeze of federal workers' pay, of more symbolic than deficit-reducing value, only reinforced right-wing tripe: that federal employees are overpaid; that overspending is our problem, as opposed to inane tax cuts for the top end; that we should impose austerity now, instead of working to get the economy going."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/06/AR2010120606599.html

I agree with Katrina (last lines), Obama's challenge is about "the fate and future of our country."

[ProSense]

1. Interesting:

This daunting project is not a matter of ambition or appetite - or even unconscious Kenyan socialism. It is the necessary function of a progressive president elected in the wake of calamitous conservative misrule. Every entrenched corporate and financial interest stands in the way; it is easier to take a less confrontational path. President Bill Clinton, for example, found it convenient to join in the conservative project of corporately defined trade, financial deregulation and social welfare constriction. From NAFTA to the repeal of welfare and the failure of labor law reform, to deregulating derivatives and repealing Glass-Steagall, he got his agenda wrong. He was seduced far more by Wall Street's Robert Rubin than by Monica Lewinsky.

Now Obama faces the same challenge. This isn't about conventional politics. This is simply about the fate and future of our country. This president has a clear and imperative historic mandate. If he shirks it, he risks more than failing to get reelected. He risks a failed presidency.

Given that President Obama is being tasked to reverse that agenda and fix Bush's mess, and given that Bill Clinton didn't face ruin, these opinions while constructive, may not be considering the bigger picture. They're very reactionary.




edited for clarity

[polichick]

4. You don't reverse the Bush agenda or fix the Bush mess by continuing his policies...

...and reinforcing Republican talking points, such as the one about federal workers getting paid too much.

There's no way to spin Obama away from his decisions.

[ProSense]

6. You don't

fix the economy by doing nothing. Democrats aren't voluntarily extending tax cuts for the rich. They are trying to protect Americans and the economic gains thus far. Dean Baker:

<...>

It is important to realize that most of the money in this package is maintaining tax cuts in place that were scheduled to expire. This will prevent tax increases from having a contractionary impact on the economy, however there is very little, if any, net stimulus in this package compared with current levels of taxation and spending.

[polichick]

7. You bet the prez is "voluntarily" extending tax cuts for the rich...

He has a veto pen.

[ProSense]

8. "He has a veto pen."

What does that mean? Why would he veto the other parts of the package? He's going to veto the bill he negotiated and Congress passes?

Why did I even bother posting Baker's comment?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[ProSense]

11. So no matter whose opinion it is

Krugman's, Baker's or anyone else's, their opinions are crap because I post them?

Good to know.

Crap?

[Mojorabbit]

13. I have seen a gazillion charts

showing that tax increases on the wealthy do not have a negative impact on the economy. If fact they show the opposite.

[ProSense]

14. Baker wasn't referring to tax increases on the wealthy

Do you have charts showing that tax increases on the middle class have a positive impact on the economy?

[Mojorabbit]

17. I did not see a

a differentiation in your highlighted quote between the wealthy and the middle class.

[mtnsnake]

12. Aint that the cold hard truth. nt

[myrna minx]

2. K&R n/t

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[polichick]

5. I don't think it's within the rules to accuse fellow DUers of hatred...

...because they take a principled stand against the policies of the president.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[rfranklin]

10. He will be this century's Jimmy Carter...

Reviled by most and loved by a few.

[jaxx]

15. He will be this century's Barack Obama.

The tired old cries of comparing today with yesterday will be shown to be as ineffective as comparing president to president. Times change, situations change, refusing to move into today leaves some scratching their heads and trying to find out why the world left them behind. People will be brought kicking and screaming into the future, the time is now. Not yesterday.

[BlueIris]

19. More like this century's Warren Harding.

You think he's unpopular now? I think it's going to be worse after he's out of office, and the corruption that was too taboo to discuss at the time starts trickling out.

[Phx_Dem]

16. The fact that Katrina hates it, makes me like it all the more. n/t