Robert Reich on MSNBC saying after 2011 he believes Obama

[RiffRandell]

"has learned you cannot negotiate with extortionists....once you do that the expectation is you're going to do it next time and their demands get larger and larger. So the President has decided, and I'm sure he has decided, that he cannot do this ever again."

I love RR and hope to hell he is right. I'm really starting to get scared.

[redstatebluegirl]

1. The closer we come to the debt ceiling the more scared we all should become.

I saw a lady in the grocery store this morning with two carts of food, she told the clerk, she was stocking up in case the "ceiling falls".

[BlueCaliDem]

2. I believe RR is correct.

But I'm not scared at all. I'm hopeful because this disaster can mean the end of Teapublicans and the Koch Bros' reign over our government.

[doc03]

3. They know he caved the last time so they are back for more, who could

blame them, it worked before. I just hope RR is right.

[patricia92243]

4. I put a LOT of stock in what Robert Reich says - one of very few people that I do. I know he is

right about not negotiating with extortionists, but I wonder where it will all end. Did he say what he thinks is going to happen?

[Xyzse]

10. I have to agree with this

I tend to like him more than Krugman for some reason.

[RiffRandell]

11. No, that was as close as a prediction he came to.

Those was his last words; prior to that he was explaining the debt ceiling and it's consequences in simple terms.

Unfortunately, I doubt the voters that need to be educated the most were watching...the ones that always vote against their best interest and screw us along with themselves.

[maryellen99]

14. of course not

If its not on Fox its not true

[pipoman]

5. Robert Reich is a traitor to US labor..a vermin never to be elected for anything..

a rethug thinker and doer who pretends to be a Democrat..

[leeroysphitz]

6. Link?

[pipoman]

8. Here is one...there are more..

Despite his reputation as a liberal and a friend of working men and women, Reich knows how to walk both sides of the street. I recall that he rarely, if ever, mentioned unions during his four years as Secretary of Labor. He has no problem backing proposals that cheer business more than labor, like ending the corporate income tax. If you read his recent book, Supercapitalism, you would think Steve Forbes was the writer. But no, it's the former Secretary of Labor calling for eliminating a tax that helps keep down the tax burden on working men and women across this nation. Does Senator Obama support that Reich idea? Is eliminating the corporate income tax going to be part of the "change we can believe in"?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-mcentee/robert-reichs-endorsement_b_97450.html

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. That link is five years old

This one is two years old:

http://robertreich.org/post/6538345540

"Why the Republican War on Workers’ Rights Undermines the American Economy"

[pipoman]

27. That link was 8 years after

he was secretary of labor..I choose not to be fooled twice..

Oh, and again in this piece of crap writing, denying his role in corporate greed, pretending the rethugs are our only enemy...what a worthless slug he is..

Maybe I would listen if he came before us and admitted his transgressions to labor and the US economy...til then he is just trying to salvage his worthless record.

Oh, and did time take away his Forbes impersonation in his book? Has he publicly recanted the corporate whore talk in the book? I didn't think so..

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. Robert Reich: "Why We Need Stronger Unions, and How to Get Them"

http://www.laprogressive.com/why-we-need-stronger-unions-and-how-to-get-them/

Why We Need Stronger Unions, and How to Get Them

[pipoman]

26. Exactly why Reich is part of the problem..

constantly and repeatedly refusing to acknowledge his own significant role in the destruction of US labor. Pretending that free trade is great for labor. Acting as though his complete and total disregard for labor, wasn't disregard for labor. Talking a good talk now, doing evil deeds when he had the opportunity to actually make a difference.

No, Reich is an enemy of US labor and a hero of 3rd world labor. He is a liar and a text book charlatan.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

29. NAFTA

Bi-lateral trade between the U.S. and Mexico, prior to NAFTA was 1.4% of the U.S. GDP. That's all trade, including raw minerals (including oil) and agricultural products. Even with a large increase in imports and exports with Mexico, one would have a hard to finding more than a minor effect overall U.S. economy.

NAFTA certainly didn't help matters, but to say that it caused the "destruction" of U.S. labor -- something that will come as a surprise to the more than 14 million Americans who are union members -- is something of an overstatement. Free Trade is not (in itself) the problem. The problem is a system that has been rigged to favor Wall Street over Main Street -- one that gives tax breaks to companies to ship their jobs overseas to places where workers and the environment they live in are exploited in unimaginable ways.

Should we be making free trade agreements that don't ALSO include significant concessions that protect both American and foreign workers? That's a damned good point of discussion. In my opinion, the failure of both Reich and the Clinton Administration is that got plenty of one and precious little of the other.

[pipoman]

30. Exactly what Rob Reicht champions..

The problem is a system that has been rigged to favor Wall Street over Main Street -- one that gives tax breaks to companies to ship their jobs overseas to places where workers and the environment they live in are exploited in unimaginable ways.

Exactly why he completely ignored every labor union...some 80% of the population and 90% of labor and fed his corporate masters. Did he do it himself? No. He claims he didn't do it to this day. He's either an idiot (and we both know he isn't), or he's a liar.

If Reich admitted his role we could move on. Instead he has consistently denied his role. Intolerable.

Believe me, I have strong opinions on trade..another day perhaps. This is about the lying SOS Robert Reich.

Oh and surely you don't cruise these parts proclaiming the fine condition of labor in the US and that labor is oh so much better since NAFTA?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

31. Did he "pants" you in gym class or something?

You seem to have an unnatural hatred toward the guy. One normally doesn't see this level of venom reserved for a former Secretary of Labor.

"If Reich admitted his role we could move on."

I think that moving on would be a good idea for you. Reich was an imperfect politician who didn't accomplish everything he set out to do -- but it's not 1994 any more and it hasn't been for nearly 20 years.

Fight the next battle.

[pipoman]

32. Just due distaste for corporate shills

of the highest levels being canonized on a Democratic board. Yet he continues his crusade for corporate greed. Maybe you wish to trust him further, I refuse to trust someone who kicks me in the teeth until they admit they were wrong.

Oh, and I hate nobody.

Oh, and LOL...Reich is like 4' tall, I'm thinking he was the one getting panted..

[AnotherMcIntosh]

21. Rec. His occasional opposition to Republicans doesn't make him a pro-labor guy.

[CrispyQ]

7. Maybe if the prez stood firm before, he wouldn't be here now.

This is the most spine Obama has shown. If it weren't his signature legislation on the table, would he fight so hard?

I hope RR is right.

[BlueStreak]

25. Correct on all counts, including your sig line.

"The system isn't broken. It is fixed." That is something that almost nobody seems to understand. The system is working exactly as the 0.1% want it to. It isn't broken at all. It is working as designed.

And "the fix" is not a new thing. It certainly goes back to the the Koch's John Birch Society of the 50s, the formation of the private bank owned by aristocrats in complete control of our money supply (i.e. the Fed), Standard Oil and all the other super-corporations of the early 1900s, and the robber barons before them. Our whole national history is just one wave after another of the 0.1% trying to extract blood from the other 99.9%. The only difference this time is that they now effective have complete control over our government, our military, and our media. They have been working on this for well over 150 years, and have finally succeeded in a totalitarian way.

[lame54]

9. the rest of us learned that years ago

[rhett o rick]

12. The problem I have with this thought is that it assumes he wasnt

aware of the fact that you cant negotiate with terrorists, blackmailers, and today's Republicans.

The left has been screaming this from the get-go. Maybe the President got bad advice from all the conservatives he has surrounding him.

[colsohlibgal]

13. Nice, But A Little Late To The Party For Supposedly A Very Smart Guy

I'll always wonder why Obama didn't figure this out sooner, like most of us.

Now if only he has another come to Jesus moment, an epiphany, and figures out how bad this TPP he's pushing is for average citizens. TPP, a trade deal on steroids now with so much more awful.

[Puzzledtraveller]

16. But don't we always end up doing just that?

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

17. Don't give in to the fear,

That's how terrorists win!

The roof will not collapse all at once, there will be time to "save" yourself.

[JDPriestly]

18. Democrats have given and given and given.

And remember, the Republican's majority in the House is only 17=18 votes. We can probably get that many Republicans to take the risk and vote for sanity.

We Democrats have nothing to lose really. We don't represent the rich guys. We lost our money in 2008.

The Republicans are a much smaller minority in the country than they think. They lost the popular vote in 2000, arguably won/lost the election in Ohio in 2004 (depends on your view on what happened there), lost in 2008 and lost in 2012. They have a majority of seats on the Supreme Court. So, they have a 1/4 majority in the House, half the Supreme Court and some votes in the Senate. The presidency is Democratic. Republicans have to give up and shut up or we lose any sense of democracy.

Hey! Democrats did not want Roberts or Alito on the Supreme Court, but we went with it because a Republican was in the White House. We gave in because we were in the minority.

Republicans are in the minority. They have to give in to Democrats who are in the majority. If you are a Republican, get used to it because the Republican Party is extreme and out of touch with America. You are not going to have it any better. You are moving into the permanent minority. Good riddance.

[RiffRandell]

24. Hope you are right.

Last edited Tue Oct 8, 2013, 03:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Edited as I thought you were calling me a Republican.

[Liberalynn]

28. +1

[jtuck004]

22. The people who should be most scared are those with the most assets. People

who don't have anything don't have a hell of a lot left to lose. I talk with a lot of people, and many seem to be under the impression that if everything spins apart the ones that will be most hurt will be those on the bottom, but in my experience they dig and scramble every stinking day just to get through, so this will be nothing new for them. But it's a common misconception of people who do things "for" others instead of "like" them.

It's the people with more, especially those with much more who are totally unprepared for the kind of future their support of conservative policies could bring them. And I find that damn funny.

So don't be scared. A lot of what we do is in support of keeping the assets of people like Mi$$ RobMe intact, and we might find that after a period of unsettlement which may or may not hurt more people than our current system is hurting those with the least that we might all be better off in the long term.

[munster69]

23. RR is spot on

President Obama wishes he never negotiated with them during the last extortion event. We all know if we give them anything Boner will be on TV claiming he got 90% on what he asked for.

[Skittles]

33. better late than never I guess

but WTF took him so long