It's not news... many people in our country are suffering. Uncertainty over our economy continues with high unemployment, which in turn has triggered many more home foreclosures. The lack of jobs has left a lot of people understandably angry, fearful and cynical about what they will face in the days ahead.
It's natural to want to stop the pain, to find a fast solution or look for a quick fix to end the agony of the last twenty months. But it took many years (eight) to unravel the policies and regulations that both protected our economy and kept it strong, and it is going to take time to rebuild and restore it.
The patience of the American people has worn thin. However, as we head into a midterm election, we must not make decisions based on frustration or anger, and revert back to the party and the leaders that turned a $236 billion budget surplus left by President Clinton into a $1.2 trillion deficit left by President Bush. We cannot, out of fear, go back to the same party and policies that created this economic meltdown, abused the system, and did little to help those who were left victimized by the greed of Wall Street and the special interests from K Street.
Republicans spent eight years creating and supporting the destructive policies of the Bush Administration, which systematically debilitated the economy as well as weakened our regulatory system. They created the biggest disparity between the ultra rich and the poor, while working to relax and eliminate rules governing banks, corporations, and financial institutions. Now, as we near Election Day, they are again asking hardworking Americans to trust them with their vote. Why should we trust them? They spent twenty months stonewalling the President's efforts to recharge our economy and put Americans back to work.
My question to the Republican Party is: What actions would you take that would differ from the actions that originally got us into this mess? Would you extend the Bush tax cuts that primarily benefit the top 1% of our country? Continue to block energy policies that will create millions of new green jobs? Keep policies in place that reward corporations that ship American jobs overseas? Oppose strong financial reform that insures that transactions, loans and credit cards are fair and transparent? Oppose a jobs bill that helps small businesses get the loans and the tax cuts that they need to prosper? Those are not the decisions that will lift America out of its difficulties and make our country stronger.
Week after week, on the 24 hour cable news cycle, Republican officials and prominent GOP leaders twist, distort and misrepresent the facts in order to place blame on others, while they continue to obstruct progress. It's like the old saying that if you tell a lie big enough and you keep repeating it often enough, people will eventually come to believe that it is true. Whether they are discussing financial regulation, health care, jobs, the economy, energy policy...virtually every important issue our country is grappling with today, the Republican Party that once stood for something, now refuses to engage in constructive conversation about anything, all the while, offering virtually no new policy alternatives in return.
Since President Obama took office, the Republican narrative has been to serve their party over serving the people. They have been committed to blocking progress at all costs in order to insure the failure of this President. But now is the time to give President Obama a chance to fulfill his promise of reviving the spirit of hope and possibility that has always allowed our country to dream and to make the impossible possible. The only way he will be successful is if he has a Congress that dreams with him and an American electorate that gives him the chance!
I believe that Americans truly want a government that represents the middle class and working families of this nation, not the extremely rich, the bankers, and the CEOs. We have experienced a difficult recession, but due to the President's policies, the country has avoided a total depression. What matters as we move forward is that consumers are protected, Wall Street is regulated, children have health care, and our representatives in Washington are committed to working for the people, not the private interests. I only hope that we can all take a deep breath and show the patience that is required to give our smart, committed and hopeful young leader the time he needs and the elected allies in Congress he requires to lift us all into a new time of innovation and prosperity.
Thank you Barbra.
The anger doesn't stem from impatiently waiting for this Keynesian recovery to start working; it's from realizing that despite its wholesale failure, Obama still isn't changing course, either because he's too stubborn to admit to the failure or he's just plain incompetent.
I suggest to you, Chris1962, to begin by eliminating the addition of 'tags' or name calling to your grammar. Referring to "...this Keynesian recovery..." isn't what I believe is an accurate description of to what you are referring.
Name calling and 'tag's added to our communications only increases the vile emotions us humans are born with. You can be part of the solution or continue to make it worse. All change starts with the individual and takes a lot of time. Our POTUS has long term plans for the nation to become better balanced. It doesn't happen over night. Just like it wasn't overnight that we got into this mess. We did it ourselves by feeding the corporate monster with our consumption.
He's got 'til January before his master plan gets halted and his legislative "victories" dismantled.
Barbara, we in California have two Democratic Senators and the largest contingent of Democratic Congresspersons including the Speaker of the House.
Yet, we rank almost last among the states in per capita Federal spending.
California legislators, despite their voting power, are last, the worst at bringing money to our state.
The worst losers.
Outcomes Matter.
Our California Democratic legislators are the worst contingent in Congress. The worst.
We have among the highest unemployment. We have high poverty. We have, perhaps, the greatest influx of illegal visitors - who local citizens must support with healthcare and other services.
Democrats have utterly failed Californians. Obama only shows in California to get money from true believers like you. But, in truth, Obama and the Democrats have foresaken California.
After 20 months it is now time to measure Obama and the Democrats based upon their achievements - not their words or promises.
If you were dating someone for 20 months, and he was still seeing other women, would you still believe him?
Carly and Meg are awful. The worst sort of Repugnantones.
But, it is a VERY close call indeed to consider the Democratic representation of Californians any better.
They are, truly, FAILURES, for Californians.
Their empty words no longer ring true. Especially since they recently voted with the healthcare reform bill to send even more of our money to Louisiana
I find they are just dithering, fretting or sadly indifferent, I even remember Bill Cosby thought about buying NBC, he should have done so. I mean Oprah is starting one but it's not news, but there needs to be something like that for news.
Every vote for a Rep Bagger this year is rewarding the party that created the messes we now face as a nation and if that were not enough it also condones their obstructionism of the last two years when instead of being part of the solution they decided for political reasons to remain part of the problem !
And to top it all off their policies have not changed one iota from the ones that brought the economy and the country virtually to our collective knees.
The definition of insanity is:
Do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result !
Your glass of koolaid never gets empty, does it eduardo?
Unfortunately for America there doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming desire on the part of the present administration to reverse course. This administration has been tentative at best in its approach to restoring jobs to the economy and has meekly and mistakenly pursued compromise on major issues to no avail. At worst the White House has been complicit in diluting legislation and pandering to special interests.
Thus the stimulus, while useful, was inadequate; the public option was abandoned; and financial legislation did little to regulate the disastrous Wall Street practices that crashed the economy. And perhaps the most shocking consequence of all was that Obama fatalistically accepted the outcomes as inevitable when tough minded support might have made a difference.
The Democrats were given their chances in 2006 and 2008. Obama and his party were given an historic opportunity to reverse the destructive course set by the Republicans. And the Dems and Obama failed. It may be asking too much of the electorate to give the party of FDR a third chance. There is no assurance whatever that conservative Dems and especially Obama and his White House have any appetite for changing the direction of the country.
Thus liberals are left with the task of seeking out progressive candidates and voting for them only.
But Lincoln, FDR and Truman faced greater challenges and achieved greatness because they fought for what they believed in.
Obama did not fight. Because he threw in the towel on the important issues of the day, it’s hard to know what exactly he believes in. Because he did not stand against the obstructionists in Congress, the nation is still adrift and facing a very uncertain future.
To lift this nation out of the doldrums liberals should seek out progressive candidates and vote for them-most importantly in the primaries and then in the general election.
F&F
My question is not to the Republicans, because they do what they feel they must do...
It is however to the Democrats and the voters, election is just around the corner, and they need to get their priorities straighened out. I see a lot of blame game is going around toward Pres. Clinton, surely the voters must have a very short term memory...
It is Bush who took us to two wars on a false pretence and blew all the surplus and then so much more. We need to unite as a party and put aside the small differences and go and vote.
Vote for Democrats.
Republicans have been saying "no" because their constintuencies want them to. The majority of Americans never wanted the Dems' HCR plan, let's recall. They consistently said "no" all throughout the crafting of that legislation. Scroll down that list and see for yourself: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/obama_and_democrats_health_care_plan-1130.html#polls And while they screamed "no," the party of "no" stood with them. And guess who the majority of Americans are standing with now? And guess how furious they are at having had that "mandate" forced upon them, against their will? The same mandate that Insurance lobbyist Karen Ignagni insisted upon, along with killing the public option, which Obama — the man of "change" — immediately and obediently agreed to. This is before Congress had even BEGUN to work on the legislation, mind you.