"The Bad Deal" ---- James Galbraith
The Bad Deal
The debt agreement should finally make clear to Europeans that Barack Obama is not the progressive President they had hoped for. Instead, writes James K. Galbraith, he is a willful player in the Washington politics game.
by James K. Galbraith
Obama is no progressive
The debt deal will make things clear. The President is not a progressive he is not what Americans still call a liberal. He is a willful player in an epic drama of faux-politics, an operative for the money power, whose job is to neutralize the left with fear and distraction and then to pivot rightward and deliver a conservative result.
What Barack Obama got from the debt deal was exactly what his sponsors have wanted: a long-term lock-in of domestic spending cuts, and a path toward severe cuts in the core New Deal and Great Society insurance programs Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And, of course, no tax increases at all.
To see the arc of political strategy, recall that from the beginning Obama handed economic policy to retainers recruited from the stables of Robert Rubin. From the beginning, he touted fiscal responsibility and played up the (economically non-existent) problem of the budget deficit. From the beginning his team sabotaged economic recovery with optimistic forecasts and inadequate programs in the clear interest of protecting the banking system from reform.
As the presidency moved along, false claims of economic recovery supported a transition toward obsessive focus on debt and deficits, validated by a federal commission and constantly reinforced by a Washington propaganda chorus funded by Peter G. Peterson, for many decades a billionaire campaigner against Social Security and Medicare.
Debt ceiling a pseudo-crisis
But it wasn't enough. Even with the Republican victory in the 2010 mid-terms there wasn't the political will-power simply to pass the cuts and make them stick. For it wasn't sufficient just to pass them: politicians need cover when they do ugly things.
More at:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/08-4
The more things change the more they are the same...
(This article was Originally published Monday, August 8, 2011 by Deutsche Welle (Germany)
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)"entitlements", "austerity", he is using words directly from the Rove manual.
The punditry will label his presidency a success. In fact it has been a disaster - he had a chance to save the nation from Wall Street, Big Media, hate Radio, and the Koch brothers and their ilk, and instead decided to join them even though they hate his guts. He abandoned those who loved him to curry favor with the ruling class that despises him. Unmitigated FAIL.
And let's not forget that he's adopted Republican positions on Keystone, education, gay rights (left up to the states? really?), health care (insurance mandates,no PO), GM foods, and so on.
I was hoodwinked. I believed the bullshit in 2008. You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you sure can fool enough of them enough of the time.
4dsc
(5,787 posts)so I wonder what liberals are to do?
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Usually the pick give a speech at the Dem Convention. Who was the star speaker in Charlotte? I can't remember who it was. There was some mix up I think...
I agree about Hillary. I think age is a factor if she was seeking two terms. And, she isn't a liberal in the way of FDR, imho...so she wouldn't be my pick for hope.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)"Budget Crises that seem to be Every Year Now...whereas as an Older Democrat I don't remember any of this until Late Bush...Obama.
I guess it could be the "TeaBaggers"...but it seems hard to understand that it goes on no matter WHICH PARTY controls the House...so it's getting to be some kind of "New Normal" which we Voters are supposed to Accept.
Congress did Budget Negotiations ahead of time in years past...but, now it's "Extend, Cut and Pretend" about all this.
I'm sick of it and think every American Voter should be Damned sick and tired of these "CRISES" that occur EVERY YEAR NOW!