The Obama 'panic' amuses me

[DainBramaged]

Maybe if we see where this budget is going we'll find out if we should get the smelling salts?


People, think about this for a second.



Do you know the people panicking?


Or do you think that the fires of angst are being flamed?


And does DU have a line to the President to voice these fears?


I'm in the last quarter, approaching the two minute warning. I used to get pissed off over these kind of developments. No more. We just don't know enough to make judgements.


You voted him in, give him a break.


I will answer no questions, gnash your teeth amongst yourselves.

Good night.

[trumad]

1. I think what we are doing is better than sitting on our hands.

[Buzz Clik]

25. Really? A bazillion angry threads on DU is NOT sitting on our hands?

[cliffordu]

41. What you said.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear DainBramaged...

I can only speak for myself, but I want to tell you that I am not panicking.

I am simply pissed off. I have seen enough, and that makes me mad.

The kind of negotiating he's doing is just plain wrong.

[Bolo Boffin]

3. I think he's made the political calculation that he can take the heat

for offering this return to "grand bargain" negotiations that ended last year.

So anybody dishing out the heat, more power to them.

[sendero]

6. If the price of the "grand bargain"....

.. is the destruction of the Democratic party, you still think it is worth it?

I think, as many others, that Obama's quest for "bipartisanship" is simply pathological.

Assuming of course, that that's whats driving his idiotic proposals.

[Bolo Boffin]

10. Bipartisanship = something that can pass both House and Senate.

Where did I ever say I thought it was worth it? I know any Social Security problems can be fixed by raising the taxable income ceiling. The whole chained CPI question just seems wrongheaded to me.

[slipslidingaway]

14. Obama posted at DK when he was a new senator ...

he advised reaching across the aisle on the subject of day, many were angry in their comments.

But they had better vision than most people, is he better than the Repubs??? We would never have let Repubs get this far without a fight, trusting someone can be great, it can also make you blind.

[sendero]

17. Compromise...

.... is an essential part of governance. I do not argue with that. But there are thinks that can be compromised and things that cannot.

Obama seems to be completely unable to tell the difference. SS is mot up for grabs, period. That money was taken from us forcibly and has to be paid back. Using it to pay for pointless wars and bankster bailouts is not going to cut it.

[slipslidingaway]

27. Totally agree...

there are times for compromise and times for standing your ground. Unfortunately I think he has compromised too often, mostly from the beginning with the HC debate.

As with SS, when I heard him talk about the lower ratio of workers to beneficiaries without any acknowledgment of the trust fund I was not pleased.

He could have mentioned that the loans from SS to the general fund were used for other expenses such as wars and bailouts then again he voted to fund the other items.

[Warpy]

29. It's a dangerous, ugly game

because he doesn't know at what point the Republicans are going to be worn down enough to say "OK, we'll take it!"

I'm completely pissed off. I get that way when people try to cheat me.

[delrem]

43. This has gone around too many times.

All but a small corner of the left/center pundit talk is repeating stuff they said years ago, pretending that it's somehow new. Meaning that they're afraid to speak their judgment, which must be as obvious to them as it is to us.

In Egypt it happened. A false ending to a revolution. It can happen anywhere. People have to pick up the pieces, but first they have to recognized just what is broken.

[Control-Z]

4. Yes.

No gnashing here. Thank you for posting this.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

5. There are legitimate concerns about Chanined CPI, and then there is just insane rhetoric...

About President Obama intentionally wanting to hurt seniors or being a sellout. Some of it, like the impeachment talk, would fit in very nicely over at Free Republic.

[sheshe2]

8. +1

And thank you Matt.

People like you, level headed, you are exactly what our future needs.

she

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

13. Thank you sheshe!

[SidDithers]

44. Well said...nt

Sid

[uponit7771]

57. ++++POST OF THE THREAD++++

[slipslidingaway]

7. There is no panic as he is just doing what he said he would do prior to the first innauguration...

although some people had all sorts of excuses.



Obama’s ENTITLEMENT PLAN Was Four Years In The Making

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2656053

And with Medicare, we're only going to cut payments to providers, it will never trickle down to the patients ... and you can buy beach front property in the middle of the country if you believe that line of BS.

No gnashing of teeth, but people should be prepared to be more self reliant as benefits cuts trickle down to their parents or themselves.

[sheshe2]

9. DainBramaged,

Thank you!

[Hoyt]

11. I think in the scheme of things, folks are overreacting, especially with the protections,

Ten year adjustment, all the good stuff we've gotten recently (much better prescription drug coverage, more "free" preventive services, expanded Medicaid, etc.), what is in his budget for jobs, unemployment, education, increased revenues and the like if we do force GOP to pass some legislation.

And you are right, Obama knows a lot more about what is going and has had a though time with the hand dealt him. Talk about armchair quarterbacking . . . .

Instead, we bash Obama and encourage GOP.

I don't think CCPI will pass, but we'll get screwed in other ways because we've helped GOP by tar and feathering Obama for them.. If it does pass, most of us will adjust.

I don't like it, but I don't think people are looking at this from a broad and long - term perspective.

Thanks for posting.

[0rganism]

12. while my intuition tells me to wait and see, i can understand the panic

It reminds me a lot of the atmosphere after the first debate in 2012, where people were wondering if Obama even wanted to be re-elected. And it wasn't just DUers freaking because the POTUS didn't show up, there was the mainstream media and dispensers of "conventional wisdom" saying Obama was done for too.

He turned it around, and made a lot of "serious" people look like fools.

Now he's done something that's leading a lot of people, both supporters and detractors, to think he's royally fucked up. Again.

I agree that it sure does look that way, and there's a helluva lot at stake. But then I think back to 2012, and I notice that the CFG has started shitting on republicans who dissed Obama's CPI proposal. It looks like Obama fucked up, but it also looks like the GOP is on the verge of discrediting its anti-entitlement plank.

Guess I'll wait and see.

[hatrack]

15. Well, that was 45 seconds of my life I could have used for other purposes . . .

[boilerbabe]

16. yeah, worried older folks is a laugh/riot! hahahahahahahahahaha

glad you are amused.

[Summer Hathaway]

52. There was absolutely nothing in the OP

that remotely suggested amusement at "worried old folks".

But then you already knew that. You just felt it was an opportune time to insert today's talking point, i.e. that anyone who isn't running around with their hair on fire is "laughing at seniors".

It's already old, as a result of being extremely over-used in the last 48 hours.

Time for a new talking point - and at least try to make the next one something that isn't, in and of itself, completely laughable.

[frylock]

18. I trust Bernie Sanders judgement on this one

[840high]

22. Without hesitation - I do, too.

[mopinko]

19. who is pulling the chain, that is the question.

and when the wailing is this loud, you know the answer to that is not good.

[madamesilverspurs]

20. Keeping score

[Webster Green]

32. He caved on single-payer...

...and he caved on medicinal cannabis.

There are likely some more.

Your graphic is false.

[Art_from_Ark]

35. You need to keep better score

Let me start you off with three caves: the public option for health care, medical marijuana, and the Bush tax cuts.

[Marr]

38. Oh, brother. He *offered* Chained CPI. Do you understand that...?

No "cave" needed. The offer was *his*.

The fact that he can't seem to get his beloved deal past Congress does not make it any less his deal.

[Union Scribe]

46. He also caved on free trade agreements.

The ones he signed and the huge one he's going to.

That rah-rah graphic might go over like cupcakes in the treehouse, but not out here. We know better.

[woo me with science]

47. NDAA, "Kill Lists," torture and rendition, settlements for corrupt banks,

privatization and corporatization of public schools, selling off Gulf of Mexico for drilling, support for Trans-Pacific free trade agreement, implementation of massive surveillance of American citizens, brutal and coordinated crackdowns on peaceful protesters, arguing at the Supreme Court for warrantless surveillance and strip searches for any arrestee, escalating drone wars on civilians in sovereign countries with which we are not at war, new policies of targeting children and first responders in drone campaigns, and awarding medals for remote drone attacks, pressure on attorneys general for settlements for corrupt banks, advocacy of austerity budgets and repeated offering of SS and Medicare as bargaining chips, tying of SS to the general fund with payroll tax holiday, support of TSA naked scanning and groping, escalation of the war on marijuana, appointment of private prison executives to head the US Marshal's office and subsequent massive escalation of federal contracts for private prisons, etc., etc., etc..

He doesn't CAVE. He LEADS on these things. He is working aggressively for the interests of the one percent, because we have a problem of corporate money in government.

[Babel_17]

51. "What have the Romans done for us?"

A little levity because we know there are lists.

[Fearless]

21. Fiddle while Rome burns if you must

But I'll be filling buckets thanks.

[fascisthunter]

23. Ja, javul

my neighbors and their neighbors will be comforted to hear what you've just stated. Very good, yes. Everybody, calm down, although we have all witnessed a slide towards giving to the rich and wealthy for the last 30+ years, be calm, and stop being so, so upset!

[Buzz Clik]

24. You're no damned fun.

Impeach him!

Charge him with the murder of your grandparents/parents/you!!!!111

No level of conjured outrage could ever be enough.

[Auntie Bush]

26. I'm still with you 100% DB

[DirkGently]

28. Your concern is noted. (nt)

[elleng]

30. Thanks.

Last edited Thu Apr 11, 2013, 11:19 PM - Edit history (1)

Incidentally, norquist knows something about poker, and said 'This isn't real, PrezO doesn't mean it,' or somesuch thing. (Heard on msnbc.)

edit: norquist saying what he did, @ 6:19:

[delrem]

48. Interesting that you fall back on Norquist, of all people.

Look, now that Pres. Obama has said chained CPI is OK with him, no budget will go through without it, as Norquist the poker player knows. Everyone knows that now, including the writer of the OP. What Pres. Obama has laid down is, to the opposition Republican mind, *by definition* a position such that no proposal "to the left" of it would be acceptable, and they have Obama on their side to hammer that home. Understand?

This isn't poker, it's negotiation, and it's negotiation where under the rubric of a so-called "bipartisan" president the left concedes, and concedes, until left=right and no trace of progressive positions remain, and where the US is going into the second term of the Democratic administration with the Republicans having conceded *nothing* of any substance, the "bipartisan" Democratic president now heavy into serious cuts.

It isn't only Pres. Obama's fault that this has happened, the blame extends over the whole Democratic Party and it obviously requires some serious rethinking of strategy. It *doesn't* require a pretense that this isn't happening under Pres. Obama's watch.

[elleng]

49. Its poker; THEY are NOT negotiating.

THEY will NOT accept his budget, even tho it includes CPI which they challenged him to include. Hear boner/cantor/ryan say this is a beginning?

And if 'fault' were to be found among Democrats, it should be among those many of us who failed to do the work we should have done for the 2010 congressional elections, sticking us with these intransigent, inhumane and sick repugs.

I 'fall back on norquist' to demonstrate only that HE knows this is not a genuine budget proposal from President Obama, which norquist said at the very end of an otherwise painful interview. norquist knows it is not, and the more time we Dems spend rending our garments over this, the less time and energy we have to do other things.

[delrem]

50. Sheesh, don't you understand that Norquist and co. will be demanding, and getting, more???? nt

[Cha]

31. Hey Dain,

Too late, the smelling salts are all sold out. And, the flames are inextinguishable.

But, thanks for your late night questions.

[Surya Gayatri]

33. Humongous K & R...

[Union Scribe]

34. The UAW and AFL-CIO are opposed to it.

I know them. You do too. I believe them, as well as the many solid arguments I've seen against Obama's proposal. How about you?

[Marr]

36. If everyone was as calm as the President's defenders recommend, we'd have Chained CPI-- and worse--

in no time.

[Hotler]

37. Obama wil NOT all of a sudden find a spine or some fight. He is ...

bought and paid for by the corporations. I quit giving him a break when he let the Bush/Cheney cabal walk free. I quit giving him a break when he let the Wall St. crooks walk free.

[99Forever]

39. We'll see who is "panicking" come...

.. November 2014, funny man

.

[caseymoz]

40. Panic, no. Anger yes.

He lied to us to get elected. There are no breaks for a lie like this.

[delrem]

42. No panic. Just enlightenment. But no amusement, either. nt

[winter is coming]

45. I'm sorry your toilet is broken. n/t

[magellan]

53. It's amazing to me that some don't get it

Chained CPI doesn't have to be adopted for people to be upset. The fact that a sitting Dem President even proposed this unnecessary and punitive "deal" is enough to outrage those of us who value party principles above party loyalty.

Add to that the revelation earlier today that Obama offered it not to show the Repubs up, an explanation pushed here as if that made it okay, but simply because the Repubs asked him to. (And if that's true, the timing of the announcement really ought to have preceded the Repubs grabbing the mics and putting it all on Obama.)

Really, you're okay with that? I'm not. There's not enough lipstick in the world to make that "compromise" pig remotely acceptable, no matter how it's sliced.

I'm not a Dem, but I always had a good idea who they were and what they stood for...until going on 14 years ago. Now I no longer recognize the party, it's adopted so much obsequious centrist bullshit. What was once unthinkable is now rationalized six ways from Sunday. Just because someone has a D after their name.

This is the sort of thing we accuse the right of doing. Idol worship to such a degree that the blinders never come off, and what would never be accepted from the other party is absolutely okay if it's done by ours. And if it isn't quite okay, we'll damn well contort the hell out of it till it is.

And you expect us to get on board with this thinking? No thanks, from me. I prefer the objectivity that comes with not having to defend the indefensible just to prove my credentials, or feel superior, or whatever it is you get out of realigning your views every day to match what's coming out of DC.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

54. "We just don't know enough to make judgements." Why is that? Why the secrecy?

Meetings and discussions with bankers and the Republicans in secret. Why? What happened to Obama's promise of "Transparency in government"?

[patrice]

55. It takes courage and strength to ask an honest question. I admire what you just did even if

we still end up in different positions, at least I can respect how you got there.

[TheKentuckian]

56. No breaks, I know that benefits are too meager and are too long delayed.

I strongly believe in a less than zero tolerance policy for our earned benefits being diminished any further.

We can't afford it, not as a people and for most folks not as individuals.

We should be talking about expanding our tattered little net but to dare to even mutter the reverse should be vilified and beat back with terrible fury.

Anything that shakes up that orbit is something a free people must know so the excuses are hollow to the point of being jokes more than anything else. About zero percent plausibility.