Posted on 13 December 2009. Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, bob dylan, health care, health care reform, Iran, iraq, jimmy buffet, mussolini, Obama, Senate
“It’s the price of oil, the war for the spoils, where’s your bucket for the big bailout? Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, we got a lot to drink about…”
Forgive my unlicensed quoting of a Jimmy Buffett song (for an intelligentsia-marketed publication no less), but it seems to me that today is a great day to develop some alcoholism. Now, I don’t mean to mock anyone with a serious problem (get some help?), but a recovering alcoholic got us into this mess. Shouldn’t our law-professor generalissimo be able to realize that maybe voicing withdrawal plans that are as intelligible as a monophonic recording of Bob Dylan singing the Tax Code in hurricane-force winds might not be the best strategy to adopt? That may be a bit harsh, but I should like to think that Il Duce is smart enough to experience a little déjà vu when he hears his withdrawal plan float out past that mole-colored mole on his lip. And I’m not likening Obama-fo-yo-Mama to Mussolini, but all of this plebeian pandering is reminiscent of the 30s in Europe, ain’t it?
It occurs to me (your local card-carrying GOP-er) that the withdrawal plan el Presidente has been handed to read to the public is strikingly similar to dear-old-W’s “wait-and-see” approach that had Hillary (this is actually her plan donchaknow) and Her Hell-kittens in a hullaballoo not too long ago. Just don’t let anyone named scaevola (Latin, look it up) know that, holy shit, there are similarities between our two indelible parties.
“What if we’re wrong”, I question myself, “what if we just happen to be overreacting to the health-care debate?” That’s possible, but what’s also possible is that I’m still disgusted with the rabidity that Obama-disciples display; don’t let’s criticize the Phrenologist-in-chief, “he’s won a peace prize” (don’t worry, no “piece” puns here); “he’s ‘fixed’ the economy” (my collie is wincing). Bullshit, he’s just as little as Clinton ever did, except Obama has a Senate in his favor, in HIS FAVOR!
By the by, the economy still isn’t fixed, but it’ll be worsened by spending ourselves deeper into Chinese debt. We can’t fix healthcare with a public option and it’s very foolish for Liberals to compare it to the VA. There won’t be an up-swell in new industry by placing increasingly devious barriers to job-growth. There won’t be any major success in Iraq and Afghanistan until either of those nations decides it wants success and the citizenry actively seeks to extirpate the fascist-fundamentalist coalition which has hijacked the same faith which sponsored Battuta’s journeys to China. I used to be an optimist, you know.
The fact is that the Change-Meister-in-chief has failed to bring his “change.” Don’t get me wrong, everyone in Washington politics needs to be taken out for an afternoon of electroshock, but it starts at the top. I know it’s a tired line, but the hype generated by our President was obviously better suited for campaigning than leading. I mean, anyone could get elected with that kind of plebiscitary doling.
Headlines are punchlines folks and there’s not much we can do about it, except pour shots and bitch until someone comes along worth supporting. We’ve got a lot to drink about…
Posted in Current Affairs, To the Right, Voices/The Times
Posted on 18 September 2009. Tags: "Big" Newt Gingrich, Heath Care, Joe "You lie!" Wilson, Obama
The healthcare reform agenda will have major implications for the ever-aging Baby Boomer populous.
Healthcare reform. (Vomit.)
The phrase has lost none of its political salience since Bill Clinton first tried it out in 1993, with disastrous consequences thanks to the obstructionist “Christian Coalition” led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich. With this in mind, the Republicans in Congress, most notably Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and suddenly Joe “You Lie!” Wilson, have been doing their political darndest to stop the Democrats from passing any kind of meaningful bill. Recently Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, felt the brunt of this, as he passed a “bipartisan” bill that has taken nothing but criticism from progressives and yielded no Republican support. Part of the frustration on the part of Democrats comes from the blurred lines between the Christian Right and the establishment Republican Party. Even as RNC Chair Michael Steele attempts to distance the Party from far-right positions shouted by protesters at town-hall meetings, Michelle Bachmann and Joe Wilson make his job harder by embracing the views of the “birthers,” “deathers,” “tenthers,” and everyone in between.
This canyon between the right and the GOP needs to get smaller, not bigger, if they truly want to broaden the base in 2010 and beyond. Let me play the part of Republican strategist for a bit here. The party leadership and 2010 candidates are making a calculation, whether conscious or not, that preventing the President from furthering his agenda in the healthcare arena will be politically beneficial to their side. Because they missed the boat on early negotiations, and have failed to provide an alternative that meets even the most basic consensus goals of any meaningful bill, they have created a zero-sum game where any success for their side necessarily means total failure of any reform efforts.
This is a suicidal move.
Nancy Pelosi is digging her feet in on the public option, even as President Obama hits his stride on a series of campaign-style rallies on college campuses and in major cities that yield thousands of supporters in enthusiastic attendance. The complacency of OFA on this front that I and so many others railed against for the last few weeks seems to have evaporated into a low-pressure front of anger and frustration that is storming across the country, building huge progressive support for the Democrats’ agenda with it. As the country gradually becomes more educated on the issue, the right looks cynical at best and ignorantly masochistic at worst. It is incredibly easy at this point for the coalition of elected representatives, NGOs, and volunteers to get on the same message, and push it consistently to all outlets: health insurance companies are unaccountable and need to be reined in.
I will stake my political-handicapping reputation on the following: the House and Senate will come to consensus by the end of the year on a meaningful healthcare bill. Scattered by the newly-united Democratic Party and worn down by months of constituents’ frustrations, the GOP will continue to be a disorganized political entity with no real contributions to the national dialogue on the issue, and we will enter 2010 with perhaps a little too much optimism regarding Democratic gains in the midterm elections. Give or take a couple scandals, the Democrats will lose seats in 2010 – this is inevitable given the absence of a candidate with as massive the coattails as Obama had in 2008, which will lead to weak turnout in progressive areas. However, the talent base that OFA built and is continuing to accumulate will turn into an army of organizing power for those candidates smart enough to cash in.
There are legitimate conservative criticisms of the healthcare reform legislation currently on the table, but the GOP either doesn’t see them or is unwilling to argue them. Any rational messaging strategy is going to need to emerge by the end of the year, or the ridiculous incoherent mess that they are will continue until the leadership whips them into submission. Stay classy though, Republicans.
Posted in Current Affairs, To the Left
Posted on 16 September 2009. Tags: china, Congress, economic recovery, economic stimulus, Obama, trade
By Jonathan Slemrod
On paper, the Obama administration cares deeply about America’s economic recovery, taking bold steps to rescue the failing financial system, helping to save the Big Three automakers, and spending nearly $800 billion to create jobs through an economic recovery package. The reality isn’t so sweet.
Last week, the administration announced they will slap a punitive tariff of 35 percent on tires imported from China, a move which makes no economic sense, other than merely as a gesture to the United Steelworkers Union, who have complained about the influx of cheap Chinese tires for months. The announcement has infuriated the Chinese, who are threatening to retaliate by raising tariffs of their own, or worse, refusing to buy further U.S. Treasury bonds to pay off our gigantic budget deficits. Already, China has announced an “anti-dumping” investigation into U.S. sales of chicken and automotive parts.
Regardless of the fact that Chinese tires coming to the U.S. make up a very small fraction of total Chinese exports, the Obama administration will make a grave mistake if it tries to pursue an agenda of economic recovery and trade protectionism simultaneously. Doing so will hurt investor confidence in U.S. markets, and damage relations between the world’s first and third largest economies. Politically, an administration hostile to trade will send the Democratic leadership in Congress a message to keep stalling two vital free trade agreements that are waiting in the docket; Panama and Colombia.
President Obama and Yang Jiechi
Another blow to economic recovery would be allowing passage of the deceivingly-named “Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)” a labor-backed bill which would slant the rules of union organizing away from workers and towards union bosses. The bill easily passed through the House of Representatives, but has stalled in the Senate where moderate Democrats have been reluctant to embrace the controversial “card check” provision, which effectively eliminates the secret ballot elections for workers when voting whether or not to form a union.
It is possible that some version of the Employee Free Choice Act will emerge soon from Senate negotiators without any card check provision, a move which would be aimed at shoring up Democratic support and possibly luring some moderate Republicans who wouldn’t mind labor’s support in future elections. Yet a provision known as “binding arbitration” would be just as damaging as card check, allowing a government-picked arbitrator from the National Labor Relations Board to set the terms of an agreement (wages, benefits, etc.) if labor and business cannot reach a frivolous deadline for doing so. Arbitrators will likely be biased against employers, forcing business owners to spend a fortune on lawyers, rather than putting resources towards doing business. This drain on business means less profit, less economic growth, and undoubtedly less middle-class jobs in America.
The cliche Hippocratic oath “First, do no harm,” couldn’t apply more to the Obama administration’s wacky move to ramp up protectionism towards China and risk starting an all-out trade war. These tariffs, accompanied by labor legislation which threatens small business at the expense of the secret ballot for workers, should be quickly dismissed as nothing more than the populist, anti-growth measures that they truly are.
Posted in Current Affairs, To the Right
“It’s the price of oil, the war for the spoils, where’s your bucket for the big bailout? Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, we got a lot to drink about…”
