Wall Street Dems Unveil Plans to Undermine the Progressive Movement

[Hestia]

April 5, 2006

Wall Street Dems Unveil Plans to Undermine the Progressive Movement

By David Sirota

Here's a big shocker - the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party today announced it would be beginning its new war in earnest on the grassroots elements of the party that are demanding serious public policy changes. As the Financial Times reports, Citigroup Chairman Bob Rubin held a press conference at the Brookings Institution to announce the formation of the so-called "Hamilton Project." After paying lip service to various economic problems afflicting the country, Rubin and his former Treasury colleague Roger Altman quickly let it be known exactly what they are up to.

Here's the key excerpt:

"At a time when Democrats have become more aggressive in voicing concerns about the foreign ownership of US assets, Roger Altman, former deputy Treasury secretary under Mr Clinton, added that more inclusive economic growth could also 'blunt the political demands for protectionism'... said it was willing to take on entrenched Democratic interests, such as teaching unions. Policy papers unveiled on Wednesday proposed vouchers for summer schools..."

There it all is. First there's the dishonest name-calling aimed at those courageous Democrats who are challenging the free trade orthodoxy that is destroying the lives of millions of American and foreign workers. Then there is the promise of an ensuing attack on the labor movement - a reflexive move, of course, for a bunch of corporate executives. And finally, the nod to efforts to defund public education through "vouchers."

None of this is surprising, of course. As head of Citigroup, Rubin has a financial interest in the agenda he's pushing. And he's made no apologies for the brazenness with which he pushes his corporatism. Remember, it was Rubin during the debate over the Central American Free Trade Agreement who demanded that congressional Democrats back off their efforts to include labor, human rights and environmental protections in the pact. He and his pals are the same people who rammed trade deals like NAFTA, WTO and China PNTR down the throats of Americans, and then left government service for the high life of the corporate boardroom. There, they reaped the rich financial rewards of the very sell-out policies they used public office to push, while millions of Americans saw their jobs outsourced, their wages frozen and their benefits slashed.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_david_si_060405_wall_street_dems_unv.htm

[Mountainman]

1. We who call our selves progressives must not vote for these folks.

Stay home and don't vote if the candidate is not of your liking. They take for granted that all Dems will vote for the Dem candidate no matter what their politics are just because they are not repubs. But I say it is just like running two repubs and in that case I would not vote in the election so why should I vote for a Dem repub lite? Stay home and work for you grass roots local progressives and progressive issues. The survival of a strong financially secure working class depends on it.

[KoKo]

2. David Sirota is the best..... A new voice out there ! Thanks for this

post. It's a good alert.

[Idioteque]

3. AKA: Liberal Dems unveil plan to undermine socialism

I guess the fact that Bob Rubin has read an economics book is too much for Sirota. Bob Rubin is a progressive Democrat but he is smart enough to know that turning the United States into an autarky would be foolish.

[Hestia]

4. Hardly...

Progressive-ism is not the same as socialism, no matter how hard and fast you try to ram that down people's throats. This new groups appears to be the Repub-Lite party and are trying to protect their corporatachracy. We need to take note who is a part of this group and what candidates they are pushing, so we will know who not to vote for.

[Elwood P Dowd]

6. Hard to believe

with all the massive failures of NAFTA, GATT, and WTO, there are still dems supporting this shit. Rubin and Altman are scumbags.

[BootinUp]

5. Heres a thought

Reverse the tax cuts on the wealthy, get the federal budget balanced, use federal funds to invest more in America and stop promoting protection/isolationism which will not make our economy better for those at the lower end of the scale.

[Idioteque]

7. But...but..protectionism and isolationism have worked so well in the past!

I mean we could invest in trade adjustment and health care to take care of Americans and make American companies more competetive but I suppose it's more progressive to raise tariffs and pretend that competition doesn't exist.