Sold Down the River?
So Barack Obama is putting himself on the line for gay rights, immigration reform and gun regulation. All very nice, but I am deeply afraid that he is doing it for a very malicious reason.
Here is a statement that may make many people on the left angry: All of these issues have a very minor effect on our lives, compared to what happens to the economy. And what I fear is that Obama is championing these things solely to mollify the left while he sells out the American people on economic issues like utterly unnecessary cuts to Social Security, raising the Medicare age and abandoning any real attempt to hold the rich responsible for the damage that their greed has done. Here, courtesy of Digby, is Dean Baker:
"We will never know if President Obama could have garnered support for more stimulus and larger deficits if he had used his office to pound home basic principles of economics to the public and the media. But we do know the route he chose failed... it was President Obama who decided to play deficit reduction games rather than be truthful about the state of the economy. There was no reason to expect better from the Republicans in Congress, but we had reason to hope that President Obama would act responsibly."
But he didn't act responsibly, and he shows no sign that he is going to. As he always has, he is clearly preparing to collapse and let the Republicans have their way, even though Republican policies are a prescription for more economic disaster, which will be followed by more insane Republican demands. He is confident that the people on the left can be bought off with a few gewgaws dangled in front of them. while he sides with Wall Street and the rich on the one thing that really has the potential to save or destroy the lives of virtually all Americans.
Here is a statement that may make many people on the left angry: All of these issues have a very minor effect on our lives, compared to what happens to the economy. And what I fear is that Obama is championing these things solely to mollify the left while he sells out the American people on economic issues like utterly unnecessary cuts to Social Security, raising the Medicare age and abandoning any real attempt to hold the rich responsible for the damage that their greed has done. Here, courtesy of Digby, is Dean Baker:
"We will never know if President Obama could have garnered support for more stimulus and larger deficits if he had used his office to pound home basic principles of economics to the public and the media. But we do know the route he chose failed... it was President Obama who decided to play deficit reduction games rather than be truthful about the state of the economy. There was no reason to expect better from the Republicans in Congress, but we had reason to hope that President Obama would act responsibly."
But he didn't act responsibly, and he shows no sign that he is going to. As he always has, he is clearly preparing to collapse and let the Republicans have their way, even though Republican policies are a prescription for more economic disaster, which will be followed by more insane Republican demands. He is confident that the people on the left can be bought off with a few gewgaws dangled in front of them. while he sides with Wall Street and the rich on the one thing that really has the potential to save or destroy the lives of virtually all Americans.
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