"When it comes to the plight of the middle class, Obama still doesn't get it"

[another saigon]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/obama-insists-he-made-the_b_711515.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=091010&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle

-snip-

But the problem isn't that his economic policies have been slow to succeed or unpopular -- it's that they have been inadequate given the magnitude of the crisis.

And, in his sit-down with George Stephanopoulos, he admitted to making unspecified "mistakes," but insisted, "if you are asking have we made the decisions that are the right decisions to move this country forward after a very devastating recession, then the answer is absolutely."

Can he really believe that, with unemployment at 9.6 percent, underemployment at 16.7 percent, millions of homes foreclosed, millions more heading to foreclosure, and the middle class under assault?

In any case, this appears to be the administration's story, and they are sticking to it -- come hell or a double-dip recession.

The president's comments were a continuation of the tack taken by Robert Gibbs who, when asked if the stimulus bill had been too small, offered this jaw-dropper: "I think it makes sense to step back just for a second. ... Nobody had, in January of 2009, a sufficient grasp of... what we were facing."

[pnwmom]

1. He just barely got the stimulus passed that was passed.

Remember the filibusters? Sure it could have been great if the stimulus package had been twice as big. But how do you think it would ever have gotten passed?

[another saigon]

5. when one is bargaining for something

Shouldn't one start high before settling? Obama's trademark seems to be set the bar low and be willing to go lower.
Think Health Insurance 'reform'.

[JuniperLea]

7. It makes no difference at all...

When you have nothing but resistence all around. When the GOP isn't sitting on his face, we are. Give me a fucking break with that bullshit about starting high... good god... what nonsense. It doesn't matter where he starts... they are only going to let him have a little skin on his teeth.

[defendandprotect]

15. Obama elevates the "resistance" ...in fact, pretty much turned Congress over to Lieberman...!!

End the BS on the filibuster -- or end the filibuster!!

But when he's not doing that he turns the Congress over to corporate-Dems . . .

like Baucus -- who was exactly the person NOT to be in charge of health care reform --

because his pockets were loaded with health care industry payola!!

And, then, presumably satisifed with what Wall Street/Goldman Sacks -- Summers, Geither,

Bernanke did to create this mess -- he then picked a new team of right wingers --

headed by GOP Alan Simpson to attack Social Security and Medicare!!

Can we take another two years of this?

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[defendandprotect]

36. I happened to have voted for Obama ... so your fear-mongering is way off ....

The ALTERNATIVE is using our brains to gain leverage against the corporate

domination of the Democratic Party --

Targeting right wing Democrats and replacing them with liberals/progressives is

one way --

And, moving Obama out in 2012 and moving a more progressive Democrat in in 2012

is another way!!

Continuing to push Obama to get off of the pro-corporate decisions -- and to oust

DLC-Rahm and the rest of the Wall Street gang from the White House and his team --

are other ways!!

[pnwmom]

63. That mythical winnable more-progressive 2012 Democrat

wouldn't be any more effective with the Rethugs than Obama is.

[Wednesdays]

45. Two years?

Try "forever."
:cry:

[another saigon]

67. no we can not and

thank you.


:)

[pnwmom]

8. No, not in this case. Not at all. If he had aimed much higher and failed,

he would have been condemned to wear the label of failure for the rest of his lame duck term. He would have been seen even more as a powerless President to whom no one had to pay any attention. And we would have ended up with a final bill that was much WEAKER than the one we ended up with.

This isn't like bargaining in a bazaar somewhere.

[Mimosa]

11. "Yes, We Can" was Obama's slogan

And the Obama is always right dedicated chorus is always telling us 'Why he didn't' and 'Why he CAN'T'.

Keep telling it to us who are economic quicksand.

[JuniperLea]

14. My whole family is in quicksand...

And I understand the "what if" scenario.

He's not always right. He's not the Magic Negro. He has, however, succeeded in keeping this country from plunging into The Great Depression Part Two. That alone is a monumental feat. We don't have socialized medicine, but we do have the beginnings of what could be.

I'm seeing far more kick him while he's down here on DU than I have always right dedication... by a long shot. A very long shot.

[Mimosa]

16. WE are the people getting kicked.

So many people here are unemployed, under-employed, afraid of losing our homes. Who's really being kicked while they're down?

President Obama asked for his job. He is not a victim. He promised Change.

[JuniperLea]

17. And he gave us change...

A very long list of change... WE are all in the same boat... we should try to face the same direction at least.

From my post below...

But that said, I know, without question, that we have been quite fortunate that we didn't slip into a full blown depression with 30% unemployment and more people scrambling for the soup lines.

I'm stuck in a deteriorating neighborhood in a house that's worth half of the mortgage principle. I can't sell, can't short sell, can't refi. A good 25% of the neighborhood is bank owned; many empty homes are now crack houses and gangster hangouts. I hear helicopters more nights than not, and gunshots wake me from sleep at least six times a month. I have a son who got laid off from Dow and can't find work. I have a daughter who is working in a book store for minimum wage because that's all that's available, and a boyfriend who has been out of work for over a year. Both of my sisters have lost homes to foreclosure. My brother's construction business has slowed drastically. I'm trying to help way too many people. In short: I'm fucked. But I'm a realist. I know things are a little better than before, and I know what we've avoided.

But let's all go ahead and bash the only person on Earth who is trying to help. Let's kick him in the ass for not being the Magic Negro we elected!! Yeah, that makes a lot of fucking sense.

Edited to say... it will never, ever be exactly as it was. We were in an artificially inflated bubble... it won't ever be the same. We all need to get used to that idea.

[pnwmom]

32. And he's doing the best he can under difficult circumstances.

You don't think things would be far worse under McCain/Palin? The change that Obama has succeeded in has been turning the country back to the left. Now we all have a responsibility in the next election to keep it turned in that direction -- because the Rethugs are going to be pulling hard to the right.

[pnwmom]

29. The question keeps coming up

about trolls. Sometimes I do have to wonder.

[Mimosa]

39. Are you calling out the person who posted the OP?

Sure there are trolls. But I don't assume every new member is a troll. To call people trolls is against the rules, both old and new.

[JuniperLea]

41. I think you need to re-read the rules...

and then re-read that post. No one is calling anyone anything. A question was asked.

[Name removed]

53. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JuniperLea]

58. I'm inclinded to be suspicious of people who are so angry

and so outraged by everything that their sarcasm meter is shot.

[pnwmom]

61. No, I'm not. n/t

[defendandprotect]

51. Evidently, in your mind, Huffington Post is a "troll" . . . !!

[JuniperLea]

60. Tabloid is more fitting... eom

[another saigon]

79. Arianna's book looks great

though given my circumstances I will look for it in the library. My days of 'want' purchases are long gone. Just like my faith that any politician has the where with all to break this oligarchy into a million pieces.

'Asunder' is a word that I consider very apt for what has happened to my hopes and dreams for myself and my children. And millions of others in what was, the middle class.

:(

[area51]

76. The beginnings of socialized medicine?

How do you come to that conclusion? The exact opposite is true; by Obama & congress enslaving us to parasitic insurance companies that for the most part are unregulated, they did not affirm a right to health care, they put into law an obligation to buy insurance that denies claims, kills and bankrupts people. Utter Madness. We've moved far away from the goal of keeping citizens alive and heathy, and ensured that obscene profits of the insurance mafiosi will continue.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, and bankrupts people. Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

[bvar22]

77. Not only did HCR NOT establish a RIGHT to Health Care,

It saddled the citizens with an OBLIGATION to BUY Health Insurance from For Profit Corporations.
The only RIGHT established in HCR was the right of the Health Insurance Industry to PROFIT from each and every American citizen.

This was NOT a "step toward Socialized Medicine".
It was a step AWAY.
The foundation of this horrible bill will have to be UNDONE before any real reform can occur.
REAL Health Care Reform was set back at least a generation by this bill.

[another saigon]

80. best post in this thread

thank you for explaining to the 'true believers' REALITY

:thumbsup:

[inna]

82. exactly.

Thanks for making that point - this "profits over people" insurance reform is moving us in the opposite direction, even further away from universal health care as a human right (that the rest of the civilized world takes for granted, of course).

The whole idea is to protect parasitic profiteering insurance mafia, to make health care even more of a market commodity, to shift financial burden from businesses/employers to individuals, and to squeeze every last cent of disposable income from the middle class.
Profits over people ("the uniquely American way"), you see. :crazy:

How the American people put up with this crap is simply unfathomable; I guess we are an extremely "gullible" (immature?) nation, in comparative terms. :shrug:

[pnwmom]

28. He accomplished as much as any President could have accomplished

given the limits set by the Senate and the power of filibuster.

[defendandprotect]

54. Agree -- if you consider that he put the corporates in charge from step one ....

Now, had FDR put the "Robber Barons" on his team -- we might be saying the

same thing about FDR now!! Fortunately, FDR had concern for American citizens

and showed it!!

Fortunately, FDR didn't put Wall Street in charge of reforming Wall Street!!

[pnwmom]

62. Wall Street is unhappy with him because he's NOT doing what

the corporates want.

What are you going to say when he appoints Elizabeth Warren? That she's a corporate, too?

[defendandprotect]

71. Maybe you haven't noticed but even when the rw gets the whole loaf of bread ...

they still scram for "more" -- that's what they do and will always do --

they will never stop -- they want more movement to the right --

The LEFT needs to be more like them in that regard, IMO!!

Why would I say that Elizabeth Warren is "corporate" if she isn't -- ???

Most reaction to her is that she will be terrific -- let's hope so!



Btw, let's be clear what we are talking about . . .

Here's Rahm making everything clear --

Someone else at DU posted this on August 12th here --

Ramh .... crowing about preserving "private health care industry" ... business s/b grateful!

is the quote: ”In a Thursday interview, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel argued that rather than recoiling against Obama, business leaders should be grateful for his support on at least a half-dozen counts: his advocacy of greater international trade and education reform open markets despite union skepticism; his rejection of calls from some quarters to nationalize banks during the financial meltdown; the rescue of the automobile industry; the fact that the overhaul of health care preserved the private delivery system; the fact that billions in the stimulus package benefited business with lucrative new contracts, and that financial regulation reform will take away the uncertainty that existed with a broken, pre-crash regulatory apparatus.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B2F85DDF-18 ...

Kinda makes clear what the AIMS/GOALS actually were/are --

as if we hadn't figured that out immediately!!

[Kringle]

92. there WAS a stimulus that was twice as big, the bank bailout

well, almost twice

700 billion

1.25 trillion

[countingbluecars]

2. I listened to him today

at his press conference. I believe he gets it.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[opihimoimoi]

4. He gets it....the Whacko wimpy GOPers don't...they are heading for landslide defeat...

[JuniperLea]

6. I'm personally still seeing a lot of suffering...

But that said, I know, without question, that we have been quite fortunate that we didn't slip into a full blown depression with 30% unemployment and more people scrambling for the soup lines.

I'm stuck in a deteriorating neighborhood in a house that's worth half of the mortgage principle. I can't sell, can't short sell, can't refi. A good 25% of the neighborhood is bank owned; many empty homes are now crack houses and gangster hangouts. I hear helicopters more nights than not, and gunshots wake me from sleep at least six times a month. I have a son who got laid off from Dow and can't find work. I have a daughter who is working in a book store for minimum wage because that's all that's available, and a boyfriend who has been out of work for over a year. Both of my sisters have lost homes to foreclosure. My brother's construction business has slowed drastically. I'm trying to help way too many people. In short: I'm fucked. But I'm a realist. I know things are a little better than before, and I know what we've avoided.

But let's all go ahead and bash the only person on Earth who is trying to help. Let's kick him in the ass for not being the Magic Negro we elected!! Yeah, that makes a lot of fucking sense.

[pnwmom]

9. +1000. n/t

[Skidmore]

27. +1000

[defendandprotect]

35. "We're Dems ... "we suck . . but we also know that's all you have" . . . ???

PLEASE . . .

Who could have used MEDICARE FOR ALL more than you or the people in your neighborhood?

Who could have used a shortcircuiting of the foreclosures more than your neighborhood?

And why are we seeing this nonsense among those here disagreeing with this thread . . .

Let's kick him in the ass for not being the Magic Negro we elected!!

Let's make clear it is YOU using this expression and holding these opinions -- and NOT

the article or posters ...

Leave expressions like that to Limbaugh and the right wing which invented them!!

Don't drag them into DU and use them as you're doing --

[JuniperLea]

44. You have no right to tell me what to do

And your twisting of my words is offensive. Your comparing me to Limbaugh and RW asshats is also offensive.

What makes you think Obama could have gotten us medicare for all? What kind of foolish fairytale is that? You honestly think he had the power to do that? I'm using the expression, but you are embodying the definition! He did a lot of work on shortcircuiting the foreclosures... with every step forward the GOP, corporations, and banksters find loopholes and side steps.

It took over 8 years to screw us this badly. How long do you figure it will take to set things right? And do you honestly believe things will go back to the way they were?

[defendandprotect]

47. QUOTE: "Let's kick him in the ass for not being the Magic Negro we elected!!"--

THOSE are your words -- and disgraceful that anyone who claims to be a Democrat

would use them!!

No one is "twisting" your words, they are sadly your very OWN words!!
*************************************************************************


The American public 76%+ wanted Medicare/single payer/government run health care --

Did the public even get single payer on the table? No -- because Obama/Baucus controlled

who got to put what went "on the table." In other words, the health care industry which

financed both of them controlled the table!!

Obama has not blocked foreclosures and there were a number of ways he could have done that.

And still could! Rather he's given money to the banks -- the very banks whose crimes and

corruption from which we are trying to recover.

No one wants things to go back "to the way we were" -- if we did we'd be voting for the DLC

and Repugs!!

[JuniperLea]

57. clearly your sarcasm meter is busted

you should put down the rage and listen... read for comprehension for a change. 'back to the way we were' was in reference to where we were just prior to the financial crash... the artificially inflated bubble. people expect $100k homes to be work $350k again, ceo's expect multi-million dollar bonuses, etc.

i won't converse in a blender...

[JJ]

42. Poor Barack, people are saying mean things,

like 'He gives in too easy" "He has unrealistic expectations of Republicans actually working with him" "he set the bar too low"

I sure am glad I don't have his troubles. I only have to worry about becoming homeless in a matter of weeks if nothing changes. The President is being criticized.

Am I happy with what has been done so far? damn right I am.
Do I think more could have and should have been done? Damn right I do.

[Wednesdays]

46. Why do you keep calling him the "Magic Negro"?

:shrug:

[defendandprotect]

48. Exactly . . . preposterous that a Democrat here would do that -- !!

[JuniperLea]

59. Please look up the word "sarcasm"

and then take a look at all the magic that is expected... please... this is ridiculous

[defendandprotect]

84. It's "ridiculous" to refer to Obama as "the Magic Negro" ....!!! Wake up!!!

It's an expression used SOLEY by the right wing -- Limbaugh's, etal --

to insult and try to demean the president!!

"Sarcasm" -- ?? You had best look up the definition of sarcasm -- !!

[Mimosa]

10. I defend Obama against stupid attacks from Republicans

But when his policies are misguided I can and will discuss them here.

The President has a dedicated chorus of apologists here on Democratic underground. Some of you are always asserting the President just can't get much done to help us. Come on, he hasn't really tried.

We who are really sinking in the economic quicksand may go under. All in all, Obama does seem out of touch.

[defendandprotect]

18. +1000%

[JuniperLea]

19. What do you do when the Repbulcians are saying the same thing

As those on the left who bash Obama?

[Swamp Rat]

21. "YOU LIE!!"

:D




:hi:

[JuniperLea]

22. Plopaganda! hahahaha!

Oh boy... that's a good un!

:hi:

[defendandprotect]

24. The left disagree with Obama because he's made mainly pro-corporate decisions ....

the right disagrees with Obama because they want more aggressive pro-corporate

decisions.

I'm sure you can figure out that for yourself, however --

And, criticizing Obama is not "bashing" Obama -- except in your mind.

[Mimosa]

30. I defend Obama against dishonest attacks

If Obama is being lied about I will provide the truth.

But here on D.U. I will not pretend that everything is fine. I don't believe Obama is doing the best he can do for the working class people. We're not the ones who run media. Or make voting machines.

[JuniperLea]

40. I'm not pretending everything is fine...

I'm personally, financially on the verge of collapse due to the near ruin of world finances. "I don't believe" indicates this is your opinion. Mine is different.

[Forkboy]

72. Are there a lot of anti-war, pro gay Republicans complaining?

Are there a lot of Republicans that care about poverty or hunger?

Republicans, the Left...they stand for the exact same things, clearly. I know I can barely tell the two apart myself...

Tell me again how the brainless comparison of Bush to Obama bothers you, because you're guilty here of the exact same type of thinking. Obama isn't the same as Bush, and left wing criticism isn't the same as RW complaining. That's a lazy cop out. :shrug:

[bvar22]

78. !

"Strong and successful presidents (meaning those who get what they want - whether that happens to be good for the country or not) do not accept "the best deal on the table". They take out their carpentry tools and the build the goddam piece of furniture themselves. Strong and successful presidents do not get dictated to by the political environment. They reshape the environment into one that is conducive to their political aspirations."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/17

"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for,
at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."
--- Paul Wellstone

[another saigon]

81. what is really sad

is that he comes across as not even wanting to 'be in touch'. All of his pretty words have proven to mean squat.

[BzaDem]

12. She is conflating two very dfferent concepts: what would be nice to do, and what is possible to do

Your statistics don't mean anything by themselves. For example, unemployment is at 9.6. But that doesn't indicate what it would have been had Obama's decisions not been made. Most analysts indicate it would have been several percentage points higher.

Then, the question becomes is there something Obama COULD have done to get it lower than 9.6. And, given that Snowe and Collins wouldn't vote for a stimulus package greater than 787 billion (and given that their votes were required for passage), the answer seems that there was (obviously) not a huge amount he could have done with the current Congress in power.

[JuniperLea]

13. Well stated...

I think DU needs a whopping dose of "what if." I heard there was a study on just that (had we done nothing), but I've yet to see any findings.

[Mimosa]

23. Juniper, 'what if?' is mainly a scare tactic

That 'things could be worse' scenario is getting old.

How come President Roosevelt was able to get more done? Unlike President Obama he didn't say he 'doesn't believe it's the role of government to provide jobs' etc.

The commentary at the OP link is worth reading and thinking about.

Excerpt:

And now add to this dubious list Robert Gibbs: "Nobody had, in January of 2009, a sufficient grasp of... what we were facing."

This, of course, is utter nonsense. There were plenty of people with a sufficient grasp of what we were facing. Among them: Paul Krugman, who successfully hid his sufficient grasp in the pages of the New York Times (how crafty!). As he wrote on his blog in response to Gibbs, "the truth is that some of us were practically screaming back in January 2009 that the administration was proposing too small a program."

Then there's Martin Wolf, who hid his sufficient grasp in the pages of the Financial Times. His response to Gibbs:

I (among others) then argued that policy needed to be hugely aggressive. Alas, it was not. I noted on February 4, 2009, at the beginning of the new presidency: "Instead of an overwhelming fiscal stimulus, what is emerging is too small, too wasteful and too ill-focused.... Doing too little is now far riskier than doing too much."

[JuniperLea]

25. OFCOL...

What do you think would have happened if Obama hadn't done what he's done? Seriously.

[defendandprotect]

50. What if he hadn't put Baucus in charge of health care?

What if he hadn't put Repugs -- Alan Simpson -- in charge of cutting Social Security?

What if he had taken us out of Iraq sooner -- ?

What if he stopped giving money to "faith based" religious organizations?

What if he had stopped the foreclosures instead of giving money to the criminal banks?

[defendandprotect]

31. +1000% ... don't think we elected a dumb or unaware Obama ...

Obama either knew what the truth of the situation was --

or could have found out -- AND, by the way the figures are more like 17% unemployment

and 22 million unemployed -- and 25 million if you count underemployed.

I'm sure Obama knows Sen. Bernie Sanders -- and if he wants to find out anything, he

can ask him!!

Meanwhile . . .

Did eloping into the White House with DLC-Rahm help -- or with the pro-corporate

team that put us in the mess we're in? Of course not -- then why do it?

What's come out of this alliance with pro-corporate Wall Street -- and "the team" --

is simply more pro-corporate decision making . . .

which sets us up once again for just more of this capitalist crime and corruption!!

[another saigon]

64. Thank You!

very well said!

:)

[jkshaw]

34. Mimosa, read what Kennedy said in

his study of FDR's administration by his own on his attempts to stem a disastrous depression --

"Disillusionment with Roosevelt ran deepest and most dangerously on the left, especially among jobless workers and busted farmers, among reformers and visionaries who had been led to giddy heights of expectation by Roosevelt's aggressive presidential beginning, and among radicals who saw in the Depression the clinching proof that American capitalism was defunct, beyond all hope of salvation or melioration." (Kennedy, p 219)

[Mimosa]

38. Thanks, JKShaw.

I was aware of Kennedy's thoughts on it, if not the exact words. Sometimes I've wondered if what conservatives claim is right about World War II having ended the depression rather than the New Deal. But that doesn't mean the New Deal wasn't needed or effective to a degree.

[defendandprotect]

55. Or that citizens weren't eventually quite thrilled with what they did get -- !!

I don't know what the greater expectations could have been -- FDR delivered --

IMO -- EXCEPT that he did save capitalism for the elites -- that's their tool

for moving assets from the many to the few -- and we'd be far better off without it!!

A right wing Supreme Court also hindered FDR -- and doctors fought the universal health

care plan which was finally lost under Truman --

Would it have been lost had FDR not been forced to drop Henry Wallace as VP and take on

the more rw Truman?

[BzaDem]

56. "How come President Roosevelt was able to get more done?"

Perhaps because he had MUCH bigger majorities in the Senate than we do? No, that couldn't have ANYTHING to do with it. Silly me

:rofl:

I also find it funny that you call it a "scare tactic." What's wrong with pointing out the frightening truth? Shouldn't that be a good thing?

[pnwmom]

69. And maybe because he packed the Supreme Court when he didn't like

their decisions? Added extra members who'd give him the necessary votes?

[QC]

73. FDR's attempt to enlarge the court failed. n/t

[pnwmom]

68. President Roosevelt didn't have a Republican Congress that

filibustered every attempt to pass any bill. That state of affairs has never been the case until Obama's Presidency. The filibuster was in effect but never abused with the frequency it has been during Obama's time.

However, President Roosevelt didn't like his Supreme Court. So he packed the Court with rubber stamps-- adding EXTRA members to do so! That tactic isn't available to Obama, either.

I agree with you and Krugmann that a bigger stimulus was needed. But the persons you needed to convince of that were the centrist Senators whose votes in the end decided the size of the stimulus. Obama couldn't get anything bigger past them. You tell me WHO could have, and how they could have. Hopefully that person is advising Obama right now.

[defendandprotect]

26. Like "what if" .... Democrats had passed MEDICARE FOR ALL ...???

Democrats would be set for the next 40 years -- !!

It was their opportunity to break away from the corporate payola!!

[leftstreet]

52. [phone]

[Warpy]

33. He's done many of the right things, he just hasn't done enough of them

and if he doesn't veto any extension of that ruinous tax cut for people who don't need it and contribute little to the economy once they get it, I will be supporting any primary opponent who pops up in 2012.

While the stimulus saved many jobs, it was far too anemic to create the number of jobs it will take to repair the crumbling infrastructure and start to build new infrastructure for the next round of industrial expansion.

While the HCR reform bill contained a few reforms, it too was too anemic to have much positive effect on the economy. Had at least lowering Medicare eligibility age (at full price buy in) been part of the package, it would have removed a great deal of the burden for any business with older workers.

The scheduled increases in the minimum wage have been too small to have much of an effect since they're still behind the inflationary curve on subsistence purchases.

While he was handed the worst shit sandwich that any president has gotten since FDR, he has yet to flush it and start over.

[pnwmom]

70. As to your threat -- what if accepting such an extension

is the only way not to have the tax cuts on the middle class expire -- so that everyone's taxes go up, not just the rich? If the Rethugs are prepared just to let everyone's taxes go up, should Obama go along?

[Warpy]

74. I think he needs to call their bluff on that

and he needs to ask for air time to explain that everybody's taxes will go back up to where they were during the Clinton years because the Republicans are intransigent assholes.

If he doesn't draw the line somewhere, he's bloody useless.

[pnwmom]

83. I don't see that working. Because even here on DU,

too many people blame HIM for what Congress does. A TV address won't change that. The Rethugs and the media will simply repeat: Obama vetoed the bill so all our taxes went up! And that will be the bottom line.

[SargeUNN]

37. we have blurred the meaning of "free Speech"

What really does the constitution say about it?

[Wednesdays]

43. It's not just Obama. Nobody gets it..

No one.

[pnwmom]

65. I think some here don't get that if Obama had failed to pass the

stimulus that he did pass, the country could be multiples worse off than we are now. That he barely passed that stimulus, pushing for the most he could get with the few center votes that were undecided, including blue-dog Dems and people like Lieberman. There weren't any more votes in the Senate to get anywhere else; the only choice was to negotiate with a handful of Senators in the middle.

If you think he could have done more, explain how he could have gotten more past that Senate.

[defendandprotect]

85. Perhaps some don't get that the goal was to PRESERVE the private system of

health care which we have -- and that Rahm has "crowed" about doing just that --!!

[pnwmom]

87. What does that have to do with the OP?

Which is about unemployment and economic policy?

[defendandprotect]

88. Health care isn't economic policy? Would have also created 2.3 million jobs...!!!

Rahm makes clear that he worked to preserve the "private" system of health care --

worked to keep single payer from happening -- despite the fact that 76%+ of Americans

wanted single payer/government run health care!

Has everything to do with this administration's "interest" in its citizens -- and lack

of "interest" in its citizens --

and points again to the GOALS of this administration being directed towards pro-corporate

solutions!!

[pnwmom]

90. Yeah, right. Please show me the statistics that would demonstrate

that there would be a NET gain in that many jobs (after accounting for losses among private insurance companies). I'd love to see them.

[TBF]

94. Labor understands, the unemployed get it -

but of course you see those voices stifled here (if they even show up at all).

[ObamaIn2012]

49. Methinks a lot of lazy Republicans want to blame Obama for the fact they just suck at life

They blame the illegal immigrants. They blame the Muslims. They blame the blacks. They long for a more glorious time in the past.

[pnwmom]

66. Why was Robert Gibbs statement a jaw-dropper? Do you honestly think

the Bush Administration shared everything they knew with Obama -- all the projections and other information they no doubt had -- before Obama took office?

You can be sure they shared as little as possible. They wanted Obama to sink in the quicksand in front of him. Sink and drown. And they've been doing their best to help him ever since.

[defendandprotect]

86. New administration works to find out what the hell is going on when they step in -- GAO, for one!!

Comments like this . . .

Gibbs: Nobody had, in January of 2009, a sufficient grasp of... what we were facing."

are merely CYA and defensive -- and inane!

[ObamaIn2012]

75. There is no recession currently, we just had Recovery Summer

[defendandprotect]

89. Did you forget to hit the sarcasm button?

[Skittles]

91. LOL

:rofl:

[Cal33]

93. Maybe Geithner, Summers & Co. are continuing to do what they

had done under Bush. They were the ones who helped bring about the financial crash in the first place.
Are they reversing course now just because they are working for Obama? Not likely -- especially when
you look at the results of their handiwork. In fact, this is an excellent opportunity for the Neocons
to try to bring down Obama and his administration by working from the inside. After all, it was Obama
himself who had invited them to join his cabinet.

And Neocons have had a great deal of experience at bringing others down from the inside. Look at how
they usurped the powers of the Republican leaders, kicked them out, and took over the Republican
Party. And all this quietly and in secret. They were also smart enough to keep the Republican name,
so that the vast majority of Republican members who know nothing about the coup, would continue to
vote "Republican."