"Obama Gives It All Away: Conservatism will be the driving force in U.S. politics for years to come"

"This is the lowest moment of Obama’s presidency. It makes Bill Clinton signing of the welfare reform bill of 1996 look like the founding of the Peace Corps."

by Michael Tomasky


...First, over the long term, the deal drastically reduces domestic discretionary spending over the next 10 years. Remember, this is just 12 percent of the federal budget to begin with. Within that 12 percent, the amount of money we spend on most domestic programs is small: transportation is .85 percent of the total federal budget, education is 1.15 percent; housing and community development is 1.7 percent, as is environmental spending; and so on for all the other categories of federal spending that in people’s minds add up to the evil “gov’ment.” The notion that we’re drowning in debt and deficits because we spend too much in these areas is absurd.

Second, entitlements are next on the GOP’s list. Take my word for it: The Republicans who will serve on the “super-committee” of 12 senators and House members who’ll be charged with determining the next round of cuts by Thanksgiving are going to aim squarely at entitlements, especially Medicare and Medicaid. Now, entitlements need reform and savings, no doubt about that. If Republicans were interested in a good-faith way in shoring up the programs for the long-term even if it meant, say, that Medicare wouldn’t kick in until age 67 for people now in their 40s, that would be one thing. But in fact, they want to destroy it. And Medicaid’s position is even more precarious. We spend too little on it as it is—the barest minimums for poor people’s health costs, which inevitably result in higher-cost treatments down the road. This December, liberals will be counting on Barack Obama to defend those programs. What a disgrace that that is now a frightening proposition.

Third, and this is most prominent short-term effect, cuts this deep will take many millions out of the economy and help to prevent a rebound (and don’t think the Republicans don’t understand this). The Commerce Department estimated earlier this year that the austerity cuts already agreed to took 1.2 percent out of the 2011 GDP in the first quarter. These cuts will basically ensure that growth stays at anemic levels through the end of the year, if not longer. For self-preservation reasons if nothing else, it’s hard to see why in the world Obama agreed to all this.

Fourth, and this might be the worst thing of all, is the horrible precedent set by the way this whole episode has played out. If he’s reelected, Obama is going to have to go back to Congress to increase the debt limit again three, maybe four more times. Now that he let the Republicans establish the precedent—never pursued by either party in our history, until now—what will they want next time? And the time after that? And after that? Would Democrats do something similar to a Republican president—demand that she or he support dramatic tax increases? That wouldn’t be any more right than the other way around. Of course Democrats, given their different DNA, might well be afraid to do something that...mean—which suggests that this precedent will have extremely conservative impacts on our politics for years to come. As Republicans love to remind us in other contexts, once you give in to hostage-takers’ demands, you embolden them to try for more next time.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/31/obama-s-capitulation-on-the-debt-ceiling-marks-a-new-conservative-era.html

...turn over the House, where money bills originate, and nothing changes.

I want to live there too.

Conservatism's been the driving force in US politics for the entirety of my adult life.

n/t

Nothing could be further from the truth ..... Conservatism received one of the worst black eyes it has gotten in years ...

The Tea Party extremists pissed off MANY moderates and independents .... They showed the whole world what kind of deluded crazy they are ....

Nope .... I don't see conservatives gaining anything here ....

I simply stated that conservatives will NOT gain from this, now that the most of the electorate realizes they are willing to bring the whole nation down in order to pursue their extremist cause ....

the second portion of the deficit reduction by saying, "Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required — on entitlement reform and tax reform".


What else is there to say? He keeps advocating it as the leader of our party. Can't wait to see, honestly, who's on that committee, and how secretive and how much capitulation occurs to the conservatives within the group of 12.

sighhhhhhhhh

Message received, Mr. President.

And, frankly, It doesn't get anymore disgusting than seeing the Teahadists be gleeful in their freshmen term about getting massive cuts through that are going to hurt this country - it truly is unbelievable, and worse, if the super-duper surely-to-be-secretive "star chamber" committee of 12 doesn't work out a consensus on the additional cuts, the punishment for the GOP is surprisingly not automatic revenue increases but instead military, and for the Democrats it's the entitlements - I'm thinking the GOP-6 would be happy with failing to work out a plan come Thanksgiving Part II.

It's not that they backed the president into the corner so much as he went over to it and had most of what they wanted ready. I keep hearing he looked weak. I never thought that as so much that agrees with a lot of what they want, and has always remained respectable and stoic in his speeches, but there's a time to stand up for the people and drop the hammer - he chose not to do that a several months back when his strong voice was needed to call their desires to cut entitlements an act of callousness against those suffering already, and people need to tell their reps hands off entitlements - but he stayed out of the fray for months, and then towards the end, wasn't specific about anything except saying he wanted s shared sacrifice - barf!

If he and his advisers don't actually agree with the GOP on the budget cuts as much as it appears, then he is quite the ineffectual leader when it comes to deal-making - it's one or the other, and has left this country greatly angered right now with this mess! I don't believe a primary-ing of him will work, and frankly, I see our only hope is somehow making voters see that they need to send all the teanuts back to their hometowns jobless! Can that happen, sure. Will it, I just don't know, considering angry people are gonna be blaming the president for this...



I'll do what I can, but the president has made it brutally hard to defend him!

I really am trying to understand the mass declaration by columnists and pundits conceding a huge victory to Republicans.

Are they trying to encourage the Republican base and demoralize Democrats?

What's the goal here: "Conservatism will be the driving force in U.S. politics for years to come"

Do these columnists and pundits think this is the way to start a political movement to counter conservatism?

All I see are a lot of pied pipers and aome people following them over the cliff of despair. Someone posted on Daily Kos that they were going to vote for Romney.

Success!

things will get clearer for you.

"This is the lowest moment of Obama’s presidency. It makes Bill Clinton signing of the welfare reform bill of 1996 look like the founding of the Peace Corps."

...make this bizarre statement more clear!

I really believe they're all digging up the most hyperbolic references they can find to make this out to be the worst thing ever!

who had stopped looking for work than there were people still being counted.

thing. It's not always just Obama-hate for no reason, you know. These cuts will mean millions of people will be much worse off than before the cuts - while the already rich will live even more comfortably....how is this a victory for anyone but the super-rich?

I'd say that - objectively - the passage of these cuts is a very bad thing. And I'm not being hyperbolic by saying that.

Thereby allowing them to claim that they had successfully eliminated the need for welfare, since those people were no longer eligible to receive it. Success!

cheering to the usual "democrats in trouble/Rs on the prowl" "liberal media" paradigm ...

Typical extremist behavior. Someone disagrees with me; they are with the enemy! Everything I believe is 100% true and can never be proven wrong!

Send your messages to your president.
Tell him to stop slugging the "political movement to counter conservatism" in the face.

Remember: Step 1 of the "political movement to counter conservatism" was electing Obama in a landslide.

Your premise admits that we must start from scratch again.

People are feeling the pain of that this morning.

by withdrawing your support from conservative politicians that hide behind the "D" after their name.

The cuts are extremely backloaded into distant years (with almost none of them happening this year or next), and most of them are either unenforceable (can and will be ignored by future Congresses), or deep defense cuts.

I would agree with him that the bill he is talking about would be bad. But that bears little resemblance to the bill that is about to pass.

seriously?
what a happy world you must live in.
share you drugs please, because i want to live there too!

it is maximally bad because to assume otherwise would contradict your long held beliefs about Obama. Well you may carry on with your blame-first-ask-questions-later attitude. But perhaps others might actually be interested on what is in the deal that is about to pass (rather than a mythical deal), and my posts are directed at them.

Excellent!

the last 3 years never happened?
it's a SAFE assumption that this will be BAD the the little person.
you
re obviously not a little person, you
ll probably benefit, YAY for you!!!!!

the rest of us are QUITE fucked however

Like I said, I WANT to live in your pretty little word.
i WANT to believe he shits gold and farts glitter, don't you get it... I WANT TO BELIEVE!!!!!!!!

but that would require lobotomizing myself. and I just can't

The evince and proof that he's NOT on our side is simply too great to ignore.

Please, help me become like you.
how can I believe so blindly in a man who has done nothing but spit on, insult, or at best, ignore the left?
please?

We will look back and see this as the start of the Republican Restoration.

....before you set the date of their restoration.

Illusion as it was.

...from '09 of the Senate for the public option -- thirty-five Senators. Forty, tops, with a tailwind on the best days.

Add a House majority, but on Blue Dog sufferance -- albeit they got hammered in the '10 wave.

And while Obama is the left-most president of my adult life (Nixon to the present), no one's confusing him with Eugene V. Debs.

That's your high water mark.

Optimism was never warranted.

but didn't Nixon create the EPA that Obama used to lend cover to BP? Nixon appointed Justice Stevens. He began detente. Like Obama, he wanted the states to determine a number of domestic issues. Nixon went to China; Obama is re-arming the secret police in Indonesia in service of trade, he's about to cut a deal with Colombia who has more internally displaced persons than anyone else but Somalia. Nixon endorsed the ERA when it passed. Nixon's "it's not illegal if the president does it" seems to be Obama's m.o. with respect to assassination, rendition, black sites, undeclared war -- although that's more Reagan than Nixon.

I'm not seeing a big gap between the two men.

The country had had it with them.

But then, the president we elected pulled them up out of the gutter we threw them into, and restored them to power. He put them on powerful committees, he gave them positions in his cabinet, he sought their advice OVER the advice of his own party. He gave them ambassadorships. He kept them in the DOJ, he kept Gates and Bernanke.

WE thought we voted them out. And they were so grateful to him, they became even more radical and resentful and hateful.

They needed to be finished off. Not one single one of them should ever have been given an iota of power. Any remnants of the disastrous Bush era should have been purged from the DOJ eg.

I don't know what he was thinking. He should made them fear him, after what we saw them do to this country for the eight years they were in control. It was a moment in time that was set to determine the future of this country and instead of taking the opportunity to ensure that those who had all but destroyed it never got a chance to do so again, he invited them back in. They didn't even need to be elected.

Maybe he's just too nice a guy or something. Although when it comes to progressive Democrats he doesn't seem to be all that nice.

assume he's not on our side and draw your own conclusion

and has always been one of them. All the signs were there from the beginning of his administration and before.

I believe that progressivism will survive even this disaster. Our weak-kneed leader may have knuckled under to the Tea Party extremists with the debt, but I think that there is a deep well of anger against the Tea Party and their wealthy backers that could and should be tapped in time for the next election cycle.

One notion progressives need to get into their heads NOW. Mr. Obama will NOT support us. Mr. Obama is still mistakenly playing the same "bipartisan" stuff he blithely brought into Washington with his baggage when he came to town in January, 2009 and he doesn't seem able to let go of it. Any progressive movement that wishes to elect fighting Democrats will have to act as if the White House and the corporate media establishment will be indifferent or hostile to a progressive resurgence. Plan, act, but don't wait for any "go-ahead" from the Obama administration or the placeholders at the DNC.

I think a lot of people are very angry at the Tea Party and the political spectrum of the angry runs not just to genuine leftists and liberals, but so far into the middle of the political spectrum that there might even be some moderate conservatives fed up with what just happened. The resurgence will have to emphasize that they are insurgents, they are progressives, they are Democrats, but that while Mr. Obama may be also be a Democrat, he is NOT one of them, and they DON'T look to him for leadership.

:grr:

:dem:

I'm missing Hell's Kitchen for this?!?

I know, that was a bit facetious, but no, this was not part of the deal when we voted for Obama in November 2008.

:kick: :thumbsup:

The last thing we need in the White House at this point in time is some right-leaning President who is from the rightfringe element of the Tea Party.

This is not a compromise, this is capitulation.

not on the national stage, at least, and I'm 47.

:(

We are essentially hamstrung from even maintaining what we have eked out, and certainly cannot advance the ball a millimeter.

Hell, we cannot even advocate our positions from within this party anymore, the party line is corporatism, a branch of a failed and suicidal false secular religion that has brought this nation to lower and lower places as time goes on.

The conversation and solutions must come from somewhere between Reagan and the most insane ravings of the Teabaggers, good luck with that because we all will need it.

My awareness of politics begins with Reagan. The media dialogue has always been pretty conservative.
There has been a bit of a push back due to the extremism of the * years, but my generation has not known a time when welfare and poor people in general were not demonized and tax cut have not been glorified.
Seniors may be a voting block. But economic selfishness and religious extremism have much more power than New Deal and great society idealists.
Aside from that, the arguments have shifted so that progressives are defending not just abortion rights but birth control. Gay rights, racial and gender equality, and other things that are important.
We are still fighting to hang on to education investments.

Moving the country left starts with us infiltrating local formal organizations and government. The only reason we even discuss whether or not evolution should be taught is that RWers developed a strategy for people who shared their views to run for school boards. If you read resumes of policy makers across the country, you will find "school boards" on many of them.
If we truly want to change the institution that is our government, we have to be a part of it and take on leadership roles.

up or vote for some third party mythical person. Elections have consequences!

If it weren't for the 2010 election we would not be in this situation.

You and others bashed President Obama because he wasn't moving fast enough on DADT. He said he wanted to do it right, you and others said he could do it with a stroke of a pen. Surely he could but if the Dems don't win in 2012 a Republican could erase that penmanship with a stroke of a pen.

He took out OBL....but hey whose bragging...

People wanted to punish him in 2010, right here on this blog people encouraged others not to vote. Now we have Teabaggers who are uneducated morans making decisions that impact our lives.

Yes, President Obama has responsiblity. The House and the Senate have their roles and the House is a pile of shit with Boehner leading it.

We have a responsibility and that is to vote.

I am not going to fight you over Hillary or Obama. What I will fight you over is 2012 and repeating 2010 again...

It's more than dadt I don't believe the man anymore.

...was the driving force in u.s. politics?

about 1903.