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ProSense

(116,464 posts)
4. Or,
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:32 PM
Mar 2013

"Because the alternative will be worse for the 99%? He's likely right."

...maybe he's not and looking at it as a deficit hawk? You seemed to agree that they were "dumb."

US Senator Elizabeth Warren: Sequester cuts are ‘just plain dumb’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2426940
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022425872

"I'm not sure which is worse I'll have to trust in Warren on this one."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2427799

"Would You Like To Buy A Pen?" She Asked Me
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/1251288230

patrice

(47,992 posts)
2. I don't know, but #1. He's a rationalist, because that's what DOCTORS do.
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:11 PM
Mar 2013

#2. He has a background in grassroots action.

#3. His professional roots are in health care.

abelenkpe

(9,933 posts)
3. I like Dean too
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:28 PM
Mar 2013

I wasn't aware that he wanted to go forward with the sequester. Seems like it was designed to be horrible for everyone no matter what happened though. Wasn't the alternative offered by democrats chained CPI? And from republicans even worse pain? Did anyone offer an alternative that would raise revenue without causing economic sacrifice by the 99 percent?

abelenkpe

(9,933 posts)
8. Depressing
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:52 PM
Mar 2013

Gotta admit I was hoping something would be done to close tax loopholes for corporations. It's bad enough that jobs in my industry and others are being lost because of subsidies and healthcare costs but that our government rewards corporations for offshoring on top of it? Devastating for US workers. Great for billionaires and corporations though! Good to see someone in congress cares

OldDem2012

(3,526 posts)
5. From February 15th of this year....
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:43 PM
Mar 2013
Howard Dean On Sequester: 'Let It Happen'

QUOTE:

WASHINGTON -- Howard Dean is used to being an eccentric within his own party, so the fact that he's urging Democrats to address the impending sequester by doing basically the opposite of what the Obama administration, congressional leadership and every progressive-minded economist wants shouldn't come as a terrible shock.

"We should let it happen," Dean said of $1 trillion in domestic, defense and Medicare spending cuts set to be triggered on March 1. "I’m in favor of the sequester. It is tough on things that I care about a lot, but the fact of the matter is, you are not going to get another chance to cut the defense budget in the way that it needs to be cut."

"It’s an odd view from the left," he conceded.


Cha

(295,899 posts)
11. Thanks for the link, OldDem..
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:16 PM
Mar 2013

Question:
There’s a school of thought that says now is just not the right time to do any cuts of any variety. [Congressional Budget Office Director] Doug Elmendorf testified that if sequestration went through, you’d lose 750,000 jobs in the first year. So what about the argument that you should put off sequestration for a year and not have any cuts at all?

Dean:

Well, the problem is that it’s never a good time to do cuts. When I look at these guys on Sunday talk shows, they’re all over the place. They all say we need cuts and when you try to pin them down, they don't have any. So either they can be serious about the deficit or not. They're not. And I think cutting the Pentagon is the good thing to do. I don’t think we’re going to get another chance. If you want to put this off for six months, yeah okay. But I don’t want to miss this chance. We already missed our chance before.

dsc

(52,129 posts)
7. He is a major deficit hawk
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:48 PM
Mar 2013

and believes this is the only way defense will ever be cut substantially.

 

Laura PourMeADrink

(42,770 posts)
14. what you say is key. But, think you don't even have to be a deficit hawk to think
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 09:48 AM
Mar 2013

the military budget is exorbitant.

madfloridian

(88,117 posts)
9. He's letting his inner centrist/conservative come out. He could have been a progressive leader.
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:06 PM
Mar 2013

Instead he decided it was better to try and have the party's approval.

I guess it's easier that way.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,149 posts)
10. You think he gets "the party's approval" for this viewpoint?
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:15 PM
Mar 2013

I can't see that. At all. He's pretty much a lone voice in well-known Democrats saying the sequester is a good thing, and I don't see much grass-roots support for him saying it either. How have you arrived at your conclusion?

Skidmore

(37,364 posts)
15. I heard him say on one of the MSNBC programs
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 10:04 AM
Mar 2013

that he thought it is the only chance we will have for a generation to cut the military budget. I think he is spot on.

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