2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDemocrats Need to Stop Attacking Obama’s Budget and Wake Up to Reality
by Robert Shrum Apr 14, 2013 4:45 AM EDTThe Republican jeremiads were expectedbut why cant liberals see the sense in the presidents not-at-all draconian budget proposals? Robert Shrum says its time to face reality.
You would think President Obama was proposing to repeal the New Deal. (Well, actually, thats Paul Ryan.)
This wasnt the Republican reaction, of course, to a budget that was pre-dead on arrival, dismissed in advance by House Speaker John Boehner and disdained by the Tea-spooked Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who couldnt take yes for an answer when the president called for the entitlement changes McConnell had previously promised would get Republicans interested in new revenue. Aside from the fiscal fallout of a failed budgetary process that could slow the economic recovery, the episode points to a likely and grim outcome of these two yearsthat not much will emerge living or lasting from this Congress.
And dont just blame GOP members, largely trapped in their gerrymandered red districts, incapable of doing right even if they recognize it, as they cower before the threat of primary challenges. The Democratic base, and prominent Democrats in the Senate and House, rushed to scorn the presidents Social Security and Medicare reforms as a betrayal of progressive principle. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was shocked, which presumably means she hadnt been reading the wave of advance stories on the Obama budget. Iowas Tom Harkin denounced an unnecessary attack on a critical program. And Rhode Islands Sheldon Whitehouse insisted that Social Security has no place in this debate over federal spending.
Thats an amazing statement, given that Social Security and Medicare account for 35 percent of federal outlays, and the trust funds for both are in serious and not-so-long-term trouble. We are far from the bipartisan moment in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan, House Speaker Tip ONeill, and Alan Greenspan rescued Social Securityby, yes, gradually raising the retirement age.
more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/14/democrats-need-to-stop-attacking-obama-s-budget-and-wake-up-to-reality.html
villager
(26,001 posts)Staunch defender of progressive values?
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)avoid having to move to the White House. His advice often leads to his candidates losing to GW Bush, so take that advice with full knowledge of who is offering it.
still_one
(91,947 posts)tired of people telling other people what they should or should not do.
You have a view, fine, express, debate it, great, but everyone has the right to do that, even if it means criticizing the President.
It seems that the everyone including the President has lost track of the budget. The point was to REDUCE THE DEFICIT. HMMM, social security is NOT part of the deficit.
It is a separately funded program, that has been looted by the government to fight their wars. Perhaps they should stop STEALING from the fund, and then it would not have the issues, they are supposedly trying to rescue from
In fact it is solvent for the next 20 years, so perhaps they can focus on more immediate concerns
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)LOL.
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)someone wants to cut it down and I shouldn't holler?
illegaloperation
(260 posts)Medicare and Social Security are getting out of hand.
Lot of the money can see better use elsewhere: eg. public universities.
DemocraticProse
(28 posts)The planet will be dead by then, anyway.
dmosh42
(2,217 posts)for the good old USA, I would gladly give a little more if it was done with the idea that "all men are created equal". But I do remember being asked to volunteer four years of active duty so many years ago, I gladly stepped forward and completed my duty as it was called. But, unfortunately, I found the 'equality' thing lacking, and then my time was something to be expected of people like me, but not of certain other classes. So here we are now, with billionaires and such widening the gap, being told that we should expect more of the same sacrifices made by the peasant classes, with the usual nothing for the country by the wealthy and privileged. Surely more drivel being handed out by some ass kissing messenger of our patrician class.
neverforget
(9,433 posts)maybe his class can step up and pay more instead of bitching about everyone else. Austerity doesn't work, see Europe.