NYT: Obama in Osawatomie

[babylonsister]

Obama in Osawatomie
Published: December 6, 2011


After months of Republican candidates offering a cascade of bad ideas about the economy, President Obama’s speech in Osawatomie, Kan., Tuesday came as a relief. He made it clear that he was finally prepared to contest the election on the issues of income inequality and the obligation of both government and the private sector to enlarge the nation’s shrinking middle class.

The economic downturn, combined with ideological gridlock, has created a “make-or-break moment” for the middle class and for those trying to enter it, he said. Mr. Obama correctly framed the choice for voters: The country can return to policies that stacked the deck for the wealthy and left everyone else to fend for themselves, creating what he called “you’re on your own economics.” Or elected officials can step in to keep competition fair and ensure the government has enough money to protect the vulnerable and invest in education and research.

The speech felt an awfully long time in coming, but it was the most potent blow the president has struck against the economic theory at the core of every Republican presidential candidacy and dear to the party’s leaders in Congress. The notion that the market will take care of all problems if taxes are kept low and regulations are minimized may look great on a bumper sticker, but, he said: “It doesn’t work. It has never worked.” Not before the Great Depression, not in the ’80s, and not in the last decade.

The president repeated his calls for the rich to pay higher taxes, for financial institutions to be more closely regulated and for education to become a national mission. What set this speech apart was the newly forceful explanation of why those policies are necessary. Incomes of the top 1 percent, he noted, have more than doubled in the last decade while the average income has fallen by 6 percent.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/opinion/president-obama-in-osawatomie.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

[vi5]

1. "The speech felt an awfully long time in coming..."

Is it too late in the year to nominate something for "Understatement of 2011"?

[babylonsister]

2. That's all you have to say? Did you hear what the President had

to say? Does he ever deserve anything but scorn from you?

[vi5]

3. I did hear the speech.

I've heard a lot of speeches. I've seen a lot of actions on some things and inactions on others and those things don't always match up with what is said in the speeches.

I've praised him plenty when he deserves it. I'm sorry if you missed those instances. His gay rights speech was great and it matches up nicely with his actions and he deserves much credit in that area. Not perfect but I absolutely believe he's done every single thing he possible could in that area with what he was dealt.

His handling of the economy has been piss poor and it's been largely because he's spent too much time enacting policies that rely on and also appointing people who seem to fully believe in trickle down, supply side economics. So yes, on this area his sudden "come to Jesus" moment rings hollow to me. You disagree, and that's absolutely fine.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Late is better than never.

It is still late. Good speech delayed.

[hedgehog]

5. Unless people are willing to listen, a good speech is worthless.

Obama has spent his term demonstrating over and over again that the Republicans don't care about the middle class, that their highest priority is "to bet that n***** out of the White House." OWS has shifted the discussion from the deficit to economic unfairness. This speech was given when the time was ripe!

[vi5]

6. Why was the discussion on the deficit in the first place?

Obama and the Democratic leadership in general bought into the deficit hysteria just as much as the Republicans did (if not more).

Yes, the Republicans started the hysteria but rather than just going "Really? NOW? Now you want to deal with the deficit?!?!" and pointing to all the historical data and signs and history showing that austerity and deficit reduction in a shitty economy is a horrible, no good, disastrous idea all around, they all jumped in feet first, gave full credibility to the deficit hysteria and tried everything in their power to "Me too!!!" the deficit reduction hysteria.

[patrice]

8. At least some of that hysteria is about holding treasury bonds AND being over a barrel in some of

these international hedge-funds, with American equity on the auction block.

Yes, this stuff is PRIVATE business CONTRACTS which makes it impossible to find out with any degree of certainty (even if they actually choose to tell you) how big the problem REALLY is, so maybe this is authentic hysteria and maybe it's more like a bunch of drama queens milking the situation for what THEY can get out of it America-Be-Damned, but in either case, when you're one of the main ones who has to decide what to do with all of these financial murder-suicides you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, so you go for the percentages that have the highest probability of hurting the fewest people - especially the people who didn't have anything much to do with the whole fucking situation in the first place.

[patrice]

7. Presidents aren't kings, despite what a lot of people want us to think. nt