Look, I'm a proud political junkie but this debt ceiling nonsense is, as they might say on the street, some bad shit. Listen to it too long and it'll kill ya. The debate itself has pulled our nation so far from where I had hoped it might be heading two years ago that I'm having a hard time reconciling my memory of my country and this present reality. Didn't we elect a transformative, Democratic president? Don't we still have the Senate? I can't watch anymore. Maybe I'll start gorging myself on sports instead. Cubs fans are less depressed than fans of a brighter American future.
The nausea I'm feeling is exactly what came over my GI tract towards the end of the never-ending healthcare debate. Twenty-four-hour-news giving us twenty-four-hours-a-day political sausage making, each compromise more non-sensical, gruesome and depressing than the last. After this one is over and Obama and Boehner shake hands in the Rose Garden, I'll have long since run out of Prilosecs.
The Tea Party and their elected leaders in Congress have every right to crow. Even though a middle-schooler's understanding of basic economic history would convince anyone that government debt is a long-to-medium-term problem while crippling unemployment is a vitally urgent, ongoing catastrophe, the wisest people in our nation's capital still dither to the Tea Party's beat.
The president himself bears so much blame. He empanelled the Bowles-Simpson Debt Commission in January of 2010 but has yet to name any such august body to confront unemployment. Even his own economic advisors, as soon as they leave the White House, admit that they all understand what needs to be done now (more stimulus, infrastructure bank, etc.), yet politically the White House insists that meaningful change is impossible.
Yes the debt is real. Two wars, the Bush tax cuts and entitlement spending have been sailing our ship of state toward a thundering waterfall for half a decade. But our ship is on fire, unemployment is a fire, and if we burn down to the hull we won't ever have to worry about the drop after the falls.
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But this is no TP 'victory', far from it. The debt will thus increase several trillion dollars between now and the next election, and the deficits which fuel the debt are going to be just as large as ever, all while new spending comes online (Obamacare anyone?). This deal is a joke, and the 'Big Govt Just Get's Bigger' crowd is the real winner!.
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I guess we didn't.
We are going to need some really inspirational thinking to get us out of this. But don't expect Republicans to be creative. It is not their strong suit.
But you know what. The same argument could be made for Bill Clinton. He inherited a crummy economy from Bush the 1st.
Republicans were out to sink Clinton every step of the way, remember Ken Starr and the Lewinsky impeachment hearings. But Bill Clinton was smart and GUTSY. He took it to the Republicans. He stood up for what he believed in. You knew where Clinton Stood because he made his position clear and HELD HIS GROUND. What does obama stand for? Anyone??
Obama needs to drop his ego and listen to the advice of Bill Clinton. Take a page or two from the Clinton play book. Bill Clinton, the only modern democrat who successfully handed the republicans their asses on a regular basis.
I think we progressives screwed up and should have picked Hillary.
She muttered on a show that Chelsea wasn't going to have to support the boomers or something like that.
Politics changed when Reagan came, then the Clintons decided the country didn't want Democrats/liberalism. I wanted Democrats who would stand up for the middle class and poor. I kept waiting for them to do something, but they didn't really.
1) the uber rich will just quit realizing income if tax rates go higher and they will still be uber-rich
2) anyone on here or in Washington, anywhere; please tell the rest of us exactly how much more they should be forced to pay. No politician has the guts to name a number. Not one. Even the most left leaning progressive out there does not have the cajones to name that exact figure.
How is that for a pair, Slick?
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That's exactly what people said during the Carter presidency. Then Reagan came in and showed us how it's done.
You don't have to agree with Reagan ideologically. I certainly don't. But he displayed executive leadership in a way that was unmistakable, and proved (once again) that the office is made by the man.
We need a progressive Reagan. We hoped Obama was that man. Turned out we were wrong.
It is high time that liberals - the so-called intellectuals, admit that they have been had. Disappointingly, many Dems are still making excuses for this president's actions. Interpreting the facts to fit a previously held belief, used to be a conservative trait. Obama had 'promise and no record' in 2008. At that time, anyone could be excused for believing him to be a liberal. It is inexcusable to have that belief in 2011.
The Senate can block bills. Problem is, we need to pass something, not block something. Normally, the Senate's ability to block stuff can be used in negotiation: there are things that everyone understands need to be passed in some form or bad stuff will happen. The Senate can insist that one form gets passed rather than another. But the current Republican Party is not normal. They're fully controlled by the Tea Party faction, which is not merely willing but actually eager to take the Keyser Söze option on any bad stuff that might befall America.