++It might be useful if you know a Teabaggers to remind them that the Boston Tea Party was a protest against corporate tax cuts. The Crown has cut the taxes on the East Indian Tea Company so that it could dump tea onto the American market and drive the small American merchants out of business. Sounds familiar hey.
++Dana Millbank floats the idea in the Imperial Post that President Obama would be better off with a Republican Senate because they would have a moment of overreach and then have to govern. On all social issues President Obama would have public opinion on his side and would have to use his veto pen, which he has only used twice. This, Dana tells us, would make President Obama look strong and he might accomplish something his second term. Of course, he would have to settle for some rollback of his healthcare reform and face the GOP trying to cut away at all he has achieved.
++TO Millbank's credit, he does quote Norm Ornstein about how crazy the GOP has become and that they would make life miserable for Obama. I agree. I also think they will not hesitate to impeach him for real and imaginary crimes. The problem is not that the GOP needs time to govern. It is that they pathologically hate this President and it would take years--too many for the remaining time Obama has in office--before they would act constructively.
++No, they would not pass immigration reform if they controlled Congress. Millbank hopes for a Clinton time of welfare reform, which was awful, and a balanced budget, which makes no fiscal sense. The nomenklatura wants to control Obama in his last years. He has escaped the noose in his climate change rules and Obamacare. They don't want him to leave town unpunished. Maybe they can blackmail him into another war.
++Democrats have been writing recently about how better things will be in 2016, when they have a better electoral landscape in the Senate and have a better advantage for the Presidency. Democrats are still in a great position to maintain control of the Senate. The atmosphere is toxic but congress' low approval rate is something that can work to the Democrats advantage.
++Millbank warns that the GOP would hold up executive appointments and force the remaining staff to use their man hours on answering the congressional inquests. They would only accelerate this if they won the Senate.
++What would happen if the Republicans won the Senate would be the passage of the TPP and the European Trading Pact. These would be an exponential NAFTA experience. A Senate controlled Congress would also make the Grand Bargain a reality. We have passed the point where this exercise is even worth it.
++A Republican Congress would set up 2016. Remember 2000. Clinton had run off 57 straight 200,000+ months, reduced unemployment to 4.2% and had balanced the budget and had a surplus. And then we got George W. Bush. It was the atmosphere that the House GOP had created that made another Democratic presidency unlikely. That's what they are trying to do here.
++The public and the media have not come to grips with how crazy the GOP is and how radically right their agenda is. By allowing the GOP to win the Senate would only be to reinforce their craziness. The GOP has not done the necessary self-reflection to even merit being allowed to govern.
++Right now, President Obama still controls the political language in this country. Even with this moribund Congress,it is important that this language continues to dominate so it lasts a generation.
++While Democrats have become disillusioned with this President, he still stands a chance of dominating the political language of the next generation much like Reagan did. It is important that he be given a chance to end his term without having to experience a full Republican onslaught.
++We are talking only of two years. The last year will be consumed with the presidential elections. So he has effectively a year and a half left. Personally, he has picked up wind and his executive orders have had a profound impact on governance. From the latest court decisions--more to come--he will have to fight rearguard actions all the way out.
++But the other aspect of a Republican win, would be to let the GOP off the hook so it doesn't change its policies. The Beltway pundits, who have written Obama off since 2010,will do so again and emphasize the Republican themes they mimic anyway. That's not where the country is at. It is also a place the US can't go to if it is to survive and flourish.
++Finally, I want to emphasize that the Koch Donor Network--there is such a thing--has recently pledged $500 million to take back the Senate. It's important that they fail because any progress made in the last 6 years will be jeopardized. The libertarian argument for dismantling the social welfare state will be in hyperdrive and the media will sell it to all of our disadvantage.
++President Obama's achievements are in all the small initiatives that have not received publicity. His innovations in alternative energy will be crushed. His outreach to minorities,native Americans and others will be squashed. It's important for us as a nation to finally accept the tremendous diversity in this country. And, for you women, forget it. Do you want to hide for two years and pray that Hillary gets elected to be recognized again?
++There is nothing about the future in the "Reformist conservative" policy proposals. There is still no understanding of the larger world in which we have to operate. There is less than any knowledge about the global economy. The reformist conservatives accept the Ryan budget. A Republican Senate would insure the Ryan Budget gets passed. As this blog has repeatedly said--the Ryan Budget would string deficits out to the far horizon and convert the US into an aircraft carrier. And frighteningly the neoconservatives are trying to mount a comeback without any sense of shame and the awesome cost of their adventures. Nothing the GOP has done this year indicates they will avoid costly errors. They passed in the House further tax cuts that would add $500billion to our deficit without any additional revenues. This is all a big Con.
++I wrote before that this is like the summer of the BP oil spill. How much of W's mess must President Obama clean up? Progressives are deluding themselves if they will be able to comeback if Obama is crippled. The whole exercise of the press and the corporations is to so demoralized America that you will never dare to dream again. What we are experiencing is a massive psychops experiment on the American people. Its aim is to promote absolute surrender to the unseen forces trying to control us. If you want to re-legitimate the system through libertarian language,that will serve the illusion. But that language is far removed from any fact-based reality and will be tougher to fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment