Eugene Robinson: The GOP’s Soundproof Room

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



The GOP’s Soundproof Room

Posted on Jan 29, 2009
By Eugene Robinson


Watching the House Republicans vote unanimously against President Obama’s economic stimulus package, I thought of Ronald Reagan, the air traffic controllers and the potential consequences for those who fail to recognize that one political era has given way to the next.

You may recall that the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization went on strike in August 1981, seeking better working conditions and more pay. Reagan had been in office just seven months, and the nation still wasn’t quite sure what to make of him. The controllers’ union had legitimate gripes and calculated that the new president would deal rather than risk a disruption of air travel. The union knew that strikes by government workers were illegal, strictly speaking, but also knew that other organizations of federal employees had gotten away with similar walkouts in the past.

Reagan declared the strike a “peril to national safety” and gave the more than 13,000 air traffic controllers 48 hours to return to work. A few complied. When the deadline expired, Reagan fired the 11,345 controllers who had defied him. Two months later, the union was decertified. Years passed before any of the strikers were allowed to work as controllers again.

The point isn’t to revisit the merits of the strike or the wisdom of Reagan’s hard-line stance. The point is that the controllers’ union failed to realize that the dawn of the Reagan administration represented a rare fundamental shift in American politics. Under Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford or even Richard Nixon, the controllers might well have won their strike. Under Reagan, they had no chance—not just because of his stubborn resolve, but because American voters had given him a sweeping mandate for change.

That episode turned out to be just the beginning. Before Reagan, the economic beliefs that came to define the modern Republican Party—always cut taxes, always slash government spending, always deregulate—were associated with the conservative fringe. He brought them into the mainstream, effectively shifting the whole political spectrum sharply to the right. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090129_robinson_sound_proof_room/

[terisan]

1. The lesson I draw: Obama must say no more billions for the failed Big Banks

[MarjorieG]

2. Hard to sya no to banks, but better policy, yes. They need to get hold of their assets, take losses.

[terisan]

4. Eliot Spitzer in Slate makes a good case for no more bailouts. We are pouring borrowed

money into a failed system; banks are going to invest out of our country; the financial service jobs are following them overseas.


Too Big Not To Fail
We need to stop using the bailouts to rebuild gigantic financial institutions.
By Eliot Spitzer
Posted Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008, at 5:59 PM ET
Last month, as the financial crisis and the government rescue plan dominated headlines, almost everyone overlooked a news item that could have enormous long-term impact: GE Capital announced the acquisition of five mid-size airplanes—with an option to buy 20 more—produced by CACC, a new, Chinese-government-sponsored airline manufacturer.

Why is that so significant? Two reasons: First, just as small steps signaled the Asian entry into our now essentially bankrupt auto sector 50 years ago, so the GE acquisition signals Asia's entry into one of our few remaining dominant manufacturing sectors. Boeing is still the world's leading commercial aviation company. CACC's emergence—and its particular advantage selling to Asian markets—means that Boeing now faces the rigors of an entirely new competitive playing field and that our commercial airplane sector is likely to suffer enormously over the coming decades.But the second implication is even bigger. The CACC story highlights the risk that current bailouts—a remarkable $7.8 trillion in equity, loans, and guarantees so far—may merely perpetuate a fundamentally flawed status quo.

So far, at least, we are simply rebuilding the same edifice that just collapsed. None of the investments has even begun to address the underlying structural problems that are causing economic power to shift away from the United States, sector by sector:
Our trade deficit has ballooned from about $100 billion to more than $700 billion annually in the past decade, and our federal deficit now approaches $1 trillion. These twin deficits leave us at the mercy of foreign-capital inflows that may diminish as Asian nations, in particular, invest increasingly at home.


We are realizing that the service sector—all the lawyers, investment bankers, advertising agencies, and accountants—follows its clients and wealth creation. This, not over-regulation, is the reason investment-banking activity has begun to migrate overseas

<http://www.slate.com/id/2205995/>

[montanacowboy]

3. And then the fucking repukes put that bastard's name on National Airport

[struggle4progress]

5. kick

:dem: