Why have Democratic leaders adopted the right's DEFICIT CRISIS SCAM?

[polichick]

I just started reading ex-union leader/organizer Jonathan Tasini's book, IT'S NOT RAINING, WE'RE GETTING PEED ON: THE SCAM OF THE DEFICIT CRISIS. Though many of us here understand what's really going on, many Democrats have adopted and perpetuate the scam described in this book.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/its-not-raining-were-gett_b_789127.html


WHY do you think Democratic "leaders" aren't speaking the truth about this scam?

[Vincardog]

1. because they are being PAID by the SAME people the GOP is being paid by, This is what happens when

The Peoples party gets its' money from the CORPORATIONS and corporatists.
Before any one chimes in about how corporations are just a form of governance
FUCK THAT I AM TALKING about UNRESTRAINED MALIGNANT CAPITALISM at its' worst.

[OHdem10]

2. Business essentially runs the country and many, NOT ALL,

Democrats on the Hill owe their souls to the Company Store.

[ProSense]

3. There are right and wrong ways to address the deficit

The Republicans are full of shit and they don't actually care about the deficit.

Democrats shouldn't play into the hysteria, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't address the deficit.

There are even progressive deficit hawks (2009 video: Feingold Unveils Major Bill to Slash the Deficit, Cut Wasteful Spending ).

There is a right way to do it: "Mr. Obama...has done more to rein in long-run deficits than any previous president."

The thing that Democrats shouldn't do is allow Republicans to get away with hypocrisy.

The cuts Republicans propose are all about destroying the middle class and less fortunate Americans, while protecting the rich and greedy corporations: Alleged deficit hawks surrender billions in revenue to oil companies

They're also not interested in spending to stimulate job creation. This is something Democrats need to emphasize.

[SlimJimmy]

7. I agree with this part. I the article referenced in the OP and

could not agree with most of it. It's the old "class warfare" argument, which partially true, is nothing close to accurate or accountable for the massive deficits that we are running now. The second issue has to do with using "stimulus" to create jobs. That's great and is advised when we are not running a deficit, but is warned against if we have to borrow to do it.

Democrats shouldn't play into the hysteria, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't address the deficit.

[Vincardog]

10. If the government has a role in creating jobs, why can't it create them when they are needed?

Because the GOP blew a huge hole in the budget?

GET REAL

[SlimJimmy]

11. Don't get mad at me, ask Keynes about it. It was his rule. (nt)

[grahamhgreen]

8. There is really no need to cut anything. Returning to 1950's tax rates on the rich will

eliminate the debt and deficit in 10 years.

[CrossChris]

4. The Koch brothers paid the DLC, too

I was talking about this in another thread----I'm not sure if it's legal here to link to your own thread, but it's on the greatest page. Here's the article:

http://www.democrats.com/node/7789

Do deep-pocketed "philanthropists" necessarily control the organizations they fund? That has certainly been the contention of those who truck in conspiracy theories about the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations funding liberal and neo-liberal organizations. As for the rightwing, journalists such as Joe Conason and Gene Lyons uncovered that the "vast right wing conspiracy" -- or the New Right network of think tanks, media outlets and pressure groups -- was marshalled under rightwing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife for his Get-Clinton campaign. Prior to the work of Conason and Lyons, Russ Bellant extensively documented in "The Coors Connection" how the Coors Family, Scaife and other wealthy rightwingers have funded the New Right movement since the early '70's. Among these rightwing benefactors are the Koch brothers. But the Kochs have been working both sides of the fence. As Bill Berkowitz writes, the Koch brothers have also been funding the Democratic Leadership Council.

According to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, the brothers are "leading contributors to the Koch family foundations, which supports a network of Conservative organizations and think tanks, including Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Manhattan Institute the Heartland Institute, and the Democratic Leadership Council."

Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute in 1977, while David helped launch Citizens for a Sound Economy in 1986.

This is no less stunning than if Scaife or the Coors family were funding the DLC. So do the Kochs just throw money at the DLC -- as long as the Council supports a free-market" (i.e. unrestricted/unregulated corporate power) agenda that the Kochs generally agree with. Or is it more than just that -- does this really buttress what Greens and other disaffected liberals contend -- that the DNC has just become a party of "Republicrats", thanks especially to the DLC? They would say that corporate backers like the rightwing/libertarian Kochs have co-opted the Democratic establishment -- a hostile takeover of (what was once) the opposition. (continued at link)

[craigmatic]

5. They're bought by the people who own repubs and they lost the media war already.

[DirkGently]

6. Yes, yes, and yes. Why isn't this being debunked constantly? Why do we hear it from Obama?

[ProfessionalLeftist]

9. Who controls the government?

?

That's your answer.

CLUE: it's not us.

[GeorgeGist]

12. Count the money ...

and you'll soon discover there is no deficit.

Capitalism has merely robbed the economy and called it profit.

[polichick]

13. Yeah, socialized debt and privatized profits.

[On the Road]

14. There is Indeed a Deficit Crisis

Addressing it is pretty meaningless, however, without raising income taxes at the top.