What does it tell us when president and “progressives” in congress alike collapse like some kind of low quality lawn furniture, even without a great deal of pressure from GOPers?
Earlier this week economist Robert Reich wrote, "Word from my moles in the White House is the President will be calling for a "chained-CPI" for Social Security in his April 10 budget. That's a lower inflation adjustment than currently -- meaning future Social Security recipients will be getting far less than otherwise, especially when compounded over their retirement years. This makes no sense either politically or economically. Politically it's absurd for the President to offer the Republicans a concession on the budget they haven't even asked for, before bargaining has even begun, and which most Americans -- who have paid into Social Security for years -- will oppose. Economically it makes no sense because the typical senior spends 20 to 40 percent of his or her income on health care, whose costs have been rising far faster than inflation -- meaning even the current inflation adjustment understates the true needs of seniors."
Then a few days later that’s exactly what happened. Yes, without pressure from GOPers.
News and political analysts on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show this week pointed out that what happens is that President Obama moves to the political right presumably showing a willingness to compromise only to have GOPers demand the already caving president cave some more. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who sees it.
Why would President Obama do this because like most of our congress he hears the silent whistle of the one-percent and obeys on command.
The competing ideologies in our nation are the same as they were before the revolution more than two centuries ago.
One-percenters would have you believe that what matters is the “size of government.” There’s no such thing as “government.” There are those in governance. The idea of “government” is an abstract notion that creates a face-less monolithic entity that the average person can be influenced to hate and blame. It is a ruse. It is nonsense.
Robert Reich writes, “regressives want Americans to believe the fundamental issue is the size of government, but it's not. It's whom the government is for.”
Don’t forget that five years ago “we the people” became the underwriters, the insurers of and for the gamblers on Wall Street. Gamblers on Wall Street, huge realty and insurance companies incurred bad debts no different than any other gambler in a drunken stupor loses it all.
The difference is that now the “biggest banks are still reaping a huge financial advantage by their implicit guarantee they'll be bailed out if they get into trouble,” again. If history is any indicator they will.
Meanwhile some 12 million US homeowners have faced foreclosure in the past five years.
The huge one-percent transnational corporations are all receiving their welfare checks from “we the people” annually like clock work.
The huge winners in the latest military incursions have been military contractors who “are already planning their post-sequester moves.”
The wealthy are the largest beneficiaries of the tax preference given capital gains. Hedge fund and private-equity managers still get their own "carried interest" loophole. The rich can deduct unlimited mortgage interest on mansions as well as second and third mansions, while a majority of Americans now rent their homes and have no mortgage interest deduction at all.”Not to mention that “we the people” give welfare checks in the amount of $83 billion annually to the nation’s biggest banks.
Meanwhile for “we the people” it is indeed an “American Winter.”
This past year the medical bill to the collective was somewhere in the range of $2.8 trillion dollars. Hiding in plain sight “the Medicare drug benefit is a giant give-away to the pharmaceutical industry. Social Security tax revenues continue to grow as a proportion of federal revenues while corporate tax revenues continue to shrink.”
Think about it, if we were to “rid ourselves of these special bailouts, subsidies, and tax giveaways, we could reduce the budget deficit and have enough left to invest in the future of our people (world-class education, infrastructure, and basic R&D). We would not have to do it on the backs of the middle class and the poor, or to the disadvantage of our children our seniors, but by placing responsibility on those best able to bear it.”
So what does it tell us when president and “progressives” in congress alike all collapse like some kind of low quality lawn furniture, even without a great deal of pressure from GOPers?
It tells us that our “elected” representatives are little more than lapdogs that hear the silent whistle of the one-percent and obey on command to the delight of one-percenters, the hateful, mean-spirited majority and to the chagrin and detriment of the rest of “we the people” Change? Not even small change. I did try to tell you.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of for profit prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
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