Liberal Freshmen Are Shaking the Capitol

[babylonsister]

BRAVA!!!

Liberal Freshmen Are Shaking the Capitol
January 6, 2019 at 7:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard

“It took less than 48 hours into the new Congress for some of the most liberal freshmen of the now Democratic-controlled House to upend Capitol Hill — and they see no reason to slow down,” the New York Times reports.

“They have pressed for an ambitious and costly climate change proposal that would eliminate the use of fossil fuels in 12 years and provide a job to anyone who wants one. After conservatives tried to embarrass Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) with old footage of her dancing, she faced them down by videotaping new footage of her dancing — outside her new congressional office.”

“Between dance numbers and knowing Instagram posts, she tried — and failed — to beat back an obscure austerity measure for the incoming Congress, and she floated plans to tax the extremely wealthy by as much as 70 percent. In the meantime, her freshman classmate Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was unapologetically upsetting Democratic talking points with an exuberant, expletive-filled pledge to impeach the president.”

[UpInArms]

1. I hope she succeeds in rolling back the RayGun tax cuts

https://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news/economy/reagan_years_taxes/index.htm

The 1981 bill also made certain business deductions more generous.

In 1986, Reagan lowered individual income tax rates again, this time in landmark tax reform legislation.

As a result of the 1981 and 1986 bills, the top income tax rate was slashed from 70% to 28%.

Despite the aggressive tax cutting, Reagan couldn't ignore the budget deficit, which was burgeoning.

After Reagan's first year in office, the annual deficit was 2.6% of gross domestic product. But it hit a high of 6% in 1983, stayed in the 5% range for the next three years, and fell to 3.1% by 1988. (By comparison, this year it's projected to be 9% but is expected to drop considerably thereafter.)

[JayhawkSD]

8. Since 1986 the deficit (under Bill Clinton) has reached zero.

Therefor Reagan's fiscal activity is irrelevant to today's deficit. They were in place when we had a zero deficit, and it is subsequent actions which have caused it to rise again. We cannot blame today's deficit on Reaganomics and it is time we started taking responsibility for our own actions and quit blaming everything on the past. There are, in any case, many economists who claim that the deficit and current balance sheet are just fine, and that if anything the deficit should be larger.

[UpInArms]

18. Hmmm ...

We’re you alive before everyone had a microwave?

[pecosbob]

2. Liberal freshman shaking up the Capitol

while last mid-terms it was conservative freshman shaking down the Capitol...a change for the better.

[JayhawkSD]

9. Right. And how much did they actually change?

They passed a bill in the House to repeal Obamacare 47 times, and Obamacare is still with us. Why do we think these freshmen will be any more effective. They are certainly entertaining, but...

[obamanut2012]

15. yawn

[theaocp]

16. With support like that... n/t

[brewens]

3. It's how much of our tax dollars actually go right to the top they need to be talking about.

Many of the wealthy are way in the black on our tax dollars. They rake in more than they ever pay out. That's why they pay billions to lobbyists. It's a better return on investment than any of us working people ever get a sniff at.

[Roy Rolling]

4. Nice

She's doing a great job so far, keep perspective always. I love her because of her political positions, not because she's an infallible hero to me.

Hero worship is the problem we have in the White House.

[JayhawkSD]

10. Hero worship in the White House and symbolism in the Democratic Party.

We love the freshmen because they are making noise and engaging in symbolic gestures. They are threatening to oppose Pelosi in favor of "new and fresher leadership" until Pelosi starts handing out committee chair positions, and when she hands one to them they vote for Pelosi. They make a big show of voting against House Rules originated by Republicans (Pay As You Go), and then quietly move on the something else when the rule is overwhelmingly accepted. Very big on symbolic gestures that excite the troops but which serve no other useful purpose.

[theaocp]

17. I haven't seen this much frustration with success in a while.

Have patience and optimism.

[ananda]

5. * Like *

..

[SMC22307]

6. I love that they're throwing it back in GOP faces.

We don't own a FUX or over a thousand radio stations (like right-wingers), but at least we've got social media. And folks seem to be paying attention...

[TheBlackAdder]

7. Perhaps folks should read or reread "Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age"

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Synopsis

Daniel Rodgers’ work, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age, explores the fundamental exchange of social-politics that engulfed both Western Europe and the United States during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Through a comparative analysis of countries such as Germany, Great Britain, France, and the United States, Rodgers demonstrates that social-politics rarely resulted from a singular source. Instead, Rodgers argues that state and national policies on welfare, housing, government subsidies, urban-development, wartime economies, poor-relief, public utility projects, and social insurance were all developed through an extensive system of transatlantic trade between nations. As Rodgers points out, progressives residing in the Atlantic borderlands actively sought out and borrowed ideas in social reform (from countries abroad) to implement in their own city and state structures. Through this borrowing of ideas, countries were afforded an opportunity to pick and choose from an array of social policies that had worked for other nation-states, while avoiding social experiments that had failed; thus, allowing progressives to create, adapt, modify, and implement a “melting pot” of social-reforms that they could tailor towards their own particular needs at home. This transatlantic trade of ideas was made possible, as Rodgers points out, through study-abroad programs for graduate students, foreign inquiry projects (organized by government offices such as the Bureau of Labor in the United States), international conferences, liberal and progressive journals and books, and through an increased inclination to travel abroad (whether through private pilgrimages or state-sponsored visits).


Main Points

In showcasing this exchange of social ideals, Rodgers points out that Americans were largely the recipient of European thoughts (concerning social reform programs) in the beginning of the twentieth-century; benefiting from a large array of social experiments taking place across the European continent. However, with the advent of the twenties and thirties, Rodgers argues that this pattern began to dramatically shift as Europeans gained a newfound interest in exploring the innovations being developed by American progressives in the years of Roosevelt and the policies of his New Deal program.

By focusing on this earlier tendency of the United States to borrow ideas from abroad for their own needs, Rodgers’ interpretation serves as a great counter to historical works that emphasize the isolationist policies of America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rodgers’ work demonstrates, beyond a doubt, that America participated deeply in the transatlantic exchange of social ideas from the late 1800s until the end of World War Two – when the politics of the Cold War finally put an end to the cross-exchange of ideas that had permeated intercontinental relations for decades.

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Review-Atlantic-Crossings-Social-Politics-in-a-Progressive-Age

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[JoeOtterbein]

11. Love it! I'm 62 and feel they represent me perfectly.

Keep up the pressure!

[panfluteman]

12. I Believe That's Rashida TALIB, not Tlaib.

She's a Muslim, and Talib means "student" in Arabic. I've seen this misspelling of her name in other posts at DU as well.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. "Tlaib" is how she spells it. It was that way through her campaign, and now ...

https://tlaib.house.gov/

[obamanut2012]

14. It is Tlaib

Unless you think the Congresswoman spells her own name wrong.