If this is true – and right now it is unconfirmed – then there seems little reason to support Obama on anything:
President Obama plans to announce a three-year freeze on discretionary, “non-security” spending in the lead-up Wednesday’s State of the Union address, Hill Democratic sources familiar with the plan tell POLITICO.
The move, intended to blunt the populist backlash against Obama’s $787 billion stimulus and an era of trillion-dollar deficits — and to quell Democratic anxiety over last Tuesday’s Massachusetts Senate election — is projected to save $250 billion, the Democrats said.
The freeze would not apply to defense spending or spending on intelligence, homeland security or veterans.
I’m trying to think of what could possibly be a worse plan. Let’s see: we might be entering a double-dip recession and unemployment is in double-digits, and you are going to freeze spending? What in God’s name are they thinking?
Perhaps the worst thing about this is how it cedes the ideological ground to the Republicans. At some point someone must make an argument for government. I think it was former Senator Paul Simon Harry S Truman who said: “give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they will choose a Republican every time.”
What next? The rotting corpse of Andrew Mellon as Treasury Secretary? Or do we already have that?
UPDATE: Seemingly confirmed by the New York Times. Why exactly did I give money and make calls for this guy in 2008?
Simple. So you could win.
When Obama tossed women and gays overboard in favor of courting the fundies, that should’ve been a clue that any and all Democratic values could be ditched in a heartbeat. But the hip librul dudes I know didn’t pay attention because it wasn’t their feet in the stirrups or their civil rights. They wanted us pesky girls and homos to siddown and shuddup so they could win an election for a change–and look cool on the cheap.
Maybe you all will listen to your wives and girlfriends next time.
[...] bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting [...]
Hi Zas,
Been awhile. Your name always pops up in the most random of places, as in Americablog. But glad you are still out there doing this. BTW, do you still have all World Series champions memorized or was that a high school trick?
Mole
PS, as others have noted, you voted for Obama to help ensure there wld be no VP Palin. Rs: vote for us or die; Ds: we’re not them! But tossing Dean aside to hire Kaine, and also Rahm-y, Timmy and Larry? That’s not change I can believe in.
Jeez, it soooo sucks to be a lib these days. Oh, the agony, the agony! Aah, the schaudenfreude, the schaudenfreude! I feel so terribly guilty. Not.
My advice to you guys, to quote Pluto, is to start drinking heavily. It will be a long cold lonely ten months.
Jeeves
You know what, many of us told you what an abject failure Obama was going to be and no one wanted to hear us. I was called a bitter uneducated, ignorant racist for clearly seeing the writing on the wall. Fact of the matter is that I am in my 30′s with a B.A. in Political Science, an M.A. in International Relations, a member of the so-called “creative class” that went on to tell half of the Democratic Party that their services and support were neither required nor desired. To top it all off I am gay.
So what clue did I have that so many of you clearly either didn’t or chose to ignore? Was it the fact that he had never accomplished anything? He was a community organizer with a paper thin resume. He had yet to have finished one (1)full term in the Senate. His “handlers” and major money backing came from the very industries and sources that true liberals have been railing against since Reagan was in office. Was it his vote to give retro-active immunity to the telecomms? Was it that fact that he has never stuck his neck out for anything or anyone. I do not call making one (1) anti-war speech on the U. of Chicago campus that went un-noticed and un-recorded until needed for a political prop a real “Profiles in Courage” moment. Was it his statement that he would, as President, re-visit and re-negotiate NAFTA only to tell Canada, through back-door channels, that his statement was merely to garner political points with his “base”? Was it that fact that he never attended a gay pride parade, went on a Southern gospel tour with Rev. Donnie McClurkin who claims that “Jesus” cured him of his gayness? Could it be that with the flourish of his pen, by executive order, he could over-turn DOMA and DADT but has not. This a man with 300 electoral college votes, and what were 60 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House? Could it be that he said this summer that he would veto any health care bill that did not contain a public option and then had old Rahm go up to the hill and tell Harry to give ole Joe Lieberman what he wanted?
Where in the hell were all of you? Sucking on the Hopium pipe!
Eurogirl70, I cannot empathize, but I sympathize. Who did you vote for in the primary if I may ask? I did not vote for Obama then, but given our broken 2-party system cum corporatist state in the general, he was always going to be the lesser of 2 evils… McCain DQ’d himself the moment he surrendered his soul w/ the Palin pick (his Palinbotomy). BTW, it should not have mattered how Obama won; once he did, he could have governed anyway he chose.
Rollah:
I voted for Hillary in the primaries. She was the most qualified candidate we had running. I went and saw John Edwards and very clearly saw through his little populist schtick. I have not always agreed with Hillary on some issues, but we needed an FDR and not a JFK at this moment. We are not coming off the relative peace and prosperity of the 1950′s. Hell, even Eisenhower a Republican kept the wealthist 1% in this country taxed at 90% and we still had millionaires. We are in the crapper. I am not a fan of any Republican, let alone McCain, but when I heard about Edwards being used as a spoiler in Iowa, when there was already talk of a possible “mistress gate” my blood boiled. When I listened to Democrats use the mantra “count every vote” after the debacles of 2000 and 2004 and then agree at the Rules and Bylaws Committee decided to not count the votes in Michigan and Florida because those were “the rules” all parties agreed to, my blood boiled.
Had the Democratic primary used the same “winner takes all” system used by the Republican’s, Hillary would have been the nominee. She would have easily trounced McCain. Would I have agreed with her on all issues. No. On most, Yes. I had to hear right-wing talking points, created by the Republicans parroted back by Democrats I had come to admire and respect. I have been a Democrat since I was eligible to vote in the 1988 election. I, unlike Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg, have never not voted in a state-wide or national election. I have voted a straight Democratic ticket during those years. I was not one of those naive idiots in 2000 who voted for Nadar; seeing no difference between Bush and Gore. However, I did not cast a vote for the top ticket this past election and I have re-registered as an Independent.
Frankly, I think you are overreacting. The amount of spending in the freeze is trivial. More broadly, if progressives want Obama to push a progressive policy agenda, then progressives must first convince the political center of the wisdom of their policies.
If Obama is not progressive enough for you, please let us know which progressive do you think could someday be elected President?
You went full disclosure there, so I will return the gesture: Zasloff and I went to high school together. He’s wicked smart (and had better be reading these comments; Zas — did you see that Matt Weiner is now the Exec Producer of Mad Man?). I was Independent but my recall is so bad, I think I had to re-register as a Democrat in order to vote in the CA primary. I mailed in my ballot for Kucinich the day before he dropped out. Yes, it was a wasted vote, but lil’ DK seemed to espouse the positions closest to my own worldview (troops home, single-payer, investigate war crimes…). I kept the mini-flyer I got from 1 of his wife’s speeches out here; alongside the Obama post-card that asks me to donate to the DNC so Obama can defeat the lobbyists. What a contrast.
I agree that this country’s off the cliff. I was already the “full cynical”. What happens when other Obama voters sit the next one out b/c of his broken promises? Talk about feeling disenfranchised!
typos: Mad Men
Obama’s scared (and I say this as someone who voted and contributed for him in 2008). Consider this weak attempt to show “fiscal discipline” (fat chance – the Republicans will just throw the bailouts and stimulus in his face), combined with the reports that he’s assembling some of his old election team back together to fight the good fight later this year.
[...] Obama’s Self-Inflicted Lobotomy Proceeds Apace [...]
[...] bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting [...]
[...] bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting [...]
[...] bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff [...]
[...] some of the apoplectic responses in the left blogosphere, this is not a job [...]
[...] some of the apoplectic responses in the left blogosphere, this is not a job [...]
[...] bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting [...]
[...] bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting [...]
>Why exactly did I give money and make calls for this guy in 2008?
Beats the hell out of me-but then I saw what Obama was (a shallow center-Right corporatist pol of the sort who would make Bill Clinton look like FDR) all the way back in 2004, when after listening to his speech at the Democratic convention I turned to my Significant Other and said,”Better hope that guy never gets the Democratic nomination.” So, no, I don’t get why any liberal didn’t see what he was: Was it the revenge of identity politics? Sexism? CDS? Shock after 8 years of W? Whatever it was, it was really no excuse-the truth was always right out in the open.
[...] Jonathan Zasloff writes (TOH Krugman) that “At some point someone must make an argument for government.” Our take is that by harping on government in all its forms (besides those forms that help favored firms and industries collect their share of rents from the rest of us, of course), Republicans leave the door open to the development of increasingly socialist policies. In fact, if our take on the private sector economy is accurate, they practically mandate it: http://www.samefacts.com/2010/01/politics-and-leadership/obamas-self-inflicted-lobotomy-proceeds-apa… [...]
[...] bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting [...]
What to do for the lobotomized citizenery of the world. Can they be helped if it is a full lobotomy? Can you legally brain transplant a suitable brain in the heads if they are innocent? What if they are being programmed to send these emails? What to do about that probable situation because it seems to be the same organizations? What to do if you are bond to silence about what has happened to the lobotomized citizen you are caring for through a computer? Please help me!