Obama needs your help. He wants to take political heat. Help him find hot button areas to work on.

[Karmadillo]

So far, he's confused and thinks beating up on the elderly and the poor is the place to generate political heat. I'm thinking we can maybe help him find areas where his efforts might be a little more constructive for all Americans, not just the oligarchs who own the government. Here's a couple of areas where I'm thinking he can generate some real heat and work up some real outrage from Republicans (the other side, right?), not Democrats:

1. Defense. Ending the Forever War and all of its associated conflicts (six?) would really generate some heat, and all of that money could be used to help build a better America.

http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

Where Your Income Tax Really Goes

Total Outlays (Federal Funds): $2,650 billion
MILITARY: 54% and $1,449 billion
NON-MILITARY: 46% and $1,210 billion




HOW THESE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED

urrent military” includes Dept. of Defense ($653 billion), the military portion from other departments ($150 billion), and an additional $162 billion to supplement the Budget’s misleading and vast underestimate of only $38 billion for the “war on terror.” “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.*

The Government Deception

The pie chart below is the government view of the budget. This is a distortion of how our income tax dollars are spent because it includes Trust Funds (e.g., Social Security), and the expenses of past military spending are not distinguished from nonmilitary spending. For a more accurate representation of how your Federal income tax dollar is really spent, see the large chart (top).

Source: Congressional Budget Office for FY2008

These figures are from an analysis of detailed tables in the “Analytical Perspectives” book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2009. The figures are federal funds, which do not include trust funds — such as Social Security — that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2008, goes to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining trust and federal funds began during the Vietnam War, thus making the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.

*Analysts differ on how much of the debt stems from the military; other groups estimate 50% to 60%. We use 80% because we believe if there had been no military spending most (if not all) of the national debt would have been eliminated. For further explanation, please see box at bottom of page.

2. Jobs. Obama could extend UC benefits for the 99ers (whose loss of benefits will have a terrible impact on the "recovery"). He could also launch the kinds of job programs FDR used to help Americans during the economy. Talk about generating heat from the free market ideologues.



http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/10/opinion/la-oe-taylor-wpa-20100910

<edit>

But despite his vocal opponents, in January 1935, FDR announced his intention to launch the massive jobs program that became the Works Progress Administration.

The president's promise that the country would "see the dirt fly" was realized that fall, more than two years after he took office. The WPA addressed a range of long-standing infrastructure needs, including roads and bridges, hospitals and water treatment plants, and airports. Its workers fought floods and forest fires and cleaned up after hurricanes. Its sewing rooms made clothing and blankets that went out to disaster victims. The WPA also employed nurses, doctors, teachers, librarians and artists. By the fall of 1936, 3.3 million people were on the WPA payroll. The stimulus provided by those jobs buoyed the economy. By the spring of 1937, after Roosevelt's landslide reelection, the country's unemployment rate had dropped to 14%.

FDR then, again like Obama, heard calls to cut spending and balance the budget. These calls were not just from his opponents; some of his own advisors, including Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, also urged him to cut back. And he heeded them. He slashed WPA spending by two-thirds, from its original $4.8-billion appropriation to $1.5 billion for the year starting July 1937. Half as many workers — 1.65 million — would get WPA paychecks.

more...

3. Any other ideas?

[vi5]

1. You think he's just "confused"?

How quaint.

Even your 2 ideas alone are good. But they'll never happen under this right-of-Reagan presidential administration.

[Karmadillo]

3. One can hope it's confusion, because the alternative explanations are

extremely distressing. The one thing I'll give him credit for, whether or not he's confused, is he has given liberals the best chance they've had in years to resurrect the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party. If we can't build something out of this in your face provocation, we're going to be out of the ballgame for an awfully long time.

[Karmadillo]

2. Yikes. Hit post instead of preview. Relatively fixed now. Please help Obama with your suggestions.

nt

[amborin]

4. defense vs states:

http://www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass/publications/Comparing_cost_2011.pdf

[Karmadillo]

5. Wow. "all state budget deficits would be erased with almost $40 billion left over"

Think of the cuts in Medicaid, the laid off employees, and the unaddressed deteriorating infrastructure. All that money wasted (well, it lines the pockets of our masters, but it's still pretty much wasted).