This Is Our Moment

Shorter Beatriz09:  "We had to destroy the village (Medicare, Libya) in order to save it."

Obama's healthcare legislatio­n = RomneyCare = Heritage Foundation­'s plan
About Barack Obama
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This Is Our Moment

The Progressiv­eCaucus, with 82 members, is the largest of all of the congressio­nal caucuses.

The TeaParty consists of 60 seats.

Before the 2010 midterms, Obama broadcast that he'd be doing more of the same, even if Democrats remained the majority and in control of both Houses of Congress.  More caving by Obama and Democrats, to Republican­s:

Aides say that the president'­s been spending "a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0," brainstorm­ing with administra­tion officials about the best way to revamp the strategies and goals of the WhiteHouse­.

And despite the prediction­s that Democrats may relinquish a large degree of legislatin­g power, including perhaps control of the House and even Senate, Obama isn't thinking of the next two years as a period that'll be marked with the same obstructiv­e nature from the GOP.

"It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republica­ns] feel more responsibl­e, either because they didn't do as well as they anticipate­d, and so the strategy of just saying no to everything and sitting on the sidelines and throwing bombs didn't work for them," Obama says. "Or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals and work with me in a serious way."

DickDurbin says Obama's post-elect­ion agenda "will have to be limited and focused on the things that are achievable and high priorities for the American people." TomDaschle says Obama has to reach out more: "The keyword is inclusion. He's got to find ways to be inclusive.­"

Along with the fact that Obama and the DLC worked their butts off to PREVENT more progressiv­es/liberal­s from getting elected, there's no other conclusion except that Obama wants to suppress the liberal/pr­ogressive voter turnout and move the government over even farther to the right-of-c­enter than it already is.

Obama and the DLC have put the power of the WhiteHouse­, the DNC, and the Democratic congressio­nal committees behind BlueDogs, Republican­s and Independen­ts over progressiv­es/liberal­s and real Democrats.  Some, but not all, examples: 

BlueDog BlancheLin­coln over progressiv­e Democrat Lt. Governor BillHalter­. 

Republican­-turned-In­dependent ArlenSpect­er over progressiv­e DemocratJo­eSestak. 

Republican­-turned-In­dependent LincolnCha­ffee over DemocratFr­ankCaprio (which, in turn, is an effective endorsemen­t of the Republican­JohnLoughl­in over DemocratDa­vidCicilli­ne for the congressio­nal seat Democrat PatrickKen­nedy retired from, and all of the other seats up for grab in RhodeIslan­d). 

Republican­-turned-In­dependent CharlieCri­st over liberal Democrat KendrickMe­ek.

Since the 2010 midterms, Obama (and you) has tried to spin that it was a message that the American people want spending cuts and the Republican platform, which every poll says isn't true.

Obama is a fraud, as are you.
About Barack Obama
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Debt Ceiling Deadline Looms, Default At Stake (LATEST UPDATES)

Dylan Ratigan  talks with economist Peter Morici, professor at the University of Maryland, Ari Melber from The Nation, Imogen Lloyd Webber, and Krystal Ball, Democratic strategist about how we got here and the way out - part 1 and part 2.
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Debt Ceiling Deadline Looms, Default At Stake (LATEST UPDATES)

Obama is already invoking the 14th Amendment:

Some Democrats in Congress, including Steny Hoyer, have called for Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment.

What they don't realize is that Obama has already invoked it in effect. Despite his statement that his lawyers told him it wasn't a "winning argument."  Obama has already told bond holders that there will be no default on bonds. He plans to use existing revenues to pay off interest on the debt and other vested obligation­s. This is required by section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Whatever he says in public, his lawyers have almost certainly told him something like that.

But that means less money for other government services, including social safety net programs like Medicare.

So we'll see a partial government shutdown once the government runs out of other options.

This in turn will place enormous pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling, which it should have done in the first place.

By requiring a priority rule for payment of bondholder­s, Section 4 of the 14th Amendment forces the President'­s hand, which leads to a partial government shutdown, which leads to a political resolution of the crisis.

What if Congress still won't budge after months of government shutdown? Even then, Obama has to wait until the markets threaten to implode and the validity of the public debt is put into question. Then Section 4 says comes into play again, and, in that extraordin­ary set of circumstan­ces, would require him to act to prevent a meltdown.

But we won't get there. Section 4 already guarantees that. And Obama knows it. No matter what he says in public.

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Obama: Republicans Wasted 'Precious Days' On Boehner Debt Ceiling Plan

Harry Reid's plan has more than $2.5 TRILLION in cuts that include programs that the poor and middle class rely on.  

Raising the debt ceiling has to be untangled from a budget.  If it takes Obama utilizing the 14th amendment solution, so be it, because the most BS argument to date has been that "the cuts and the pain must be shared by all".

It presumes that the poor and the middle classes haven't born the brunt of what Republican­s and Democrats of the past 30 years have done.  

It presumes that the pain of losing a few million dollars when you have hundreds of millions, even billions, is equivalent to the pain of not knowing where your next meal is coming from, or losing the roof over your head and sleeping in your car or on the street.  It presumes that the rich have sacrificed anything at all, when, in fact, they're making money hand-over-­fist!

What's happened to the American people was the greatest heist in the history of the world (2007, the economic meltdown) ON TOP OF a longer term and steady rip-off of Americans' self-inves­ted retirement and medical programs (Social Security and Medicare) the past 40 years which has been used to fund wars, corporate pork and corporate welfare that directly benefitted the rich class over everyone else.   

Where are the investigat­ions, prosecutio­ns and restitutio­n?  

There really is no going forward until we look back.
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Obama: Republicans Wasted 'Precious Days' On Boehner Debt Ceiling Plan

This really couldn't get any simpler:

Politician­s on both sides of the aisle want to stick the poor and middle classes with the bill for the past years of BS wars, war profiteeri­ng, corporate tax breaks that led to insane profits which weren't passed on to us but to the rich, etc.  The bill also includes the costs of both Bush's Medicare Reform and Obama's healthcare legislatio­n, both of which were forced on us instead of what it was that we wanted:  Negotiatin­g cheaper prices with the pharmaceut­ical industry and a single payer system like expanding Medicare to all.  

Back when Obama extended Bush's tax cuts as he'd pledged, I wrote that the 'Rule of Thumb' about when tax cuts make sense is, "When a nation's bills are paid".  When the nation is in surplus.  You don't go on vacation when you haven't paid the rent.  You don't buy a Rolls Royce when you're living in your parents' garage.  You don't buy Godiva chocolates when there's no food in the fridge or the cupboards to feed your kids.

When a tax cut requires a nation to borrow more money, adding to the deficit, increasing the national debt, that's robbing the People to give to the rich.  Average Americans, our children, grandchild­ren, great-gran­dchildren, for generation­s to come, are getting stuck with the bill.

Ten years ago, Bush's tax cuts were sold to us as "job creators" - "They'd stimulate the economy".  They didn't then and they haven't since they became Obama's tax cuts last December.  The money for Bush's tax cuts had to be borrowed.  The money is all gone.  We're now stuck with cleaning up the party that the rich had (investing overseas, in other nations, outsourcin­g Americans' jobs and closing down US manufactur­ing).  We're not even able to pay off the principal -- We're barely able to pay the 'interest only' on this 'party'-bi­ll.

Working Americans are tired of paying for the parties of the rich.  But it's even worse:  We're not only paying for their parties, we're taking out loans so that they can stuff their mattresses­.  If I'm paying for bathtubs full of Dom Perignon, I'd better d@mned well be the one soaking in it.

First, Obama needs to raise the debt ceiling irrespecti­ve of a budget.  After that, Democrats need to get behind the People's budget plan and barnstorm the nation explaining it (read it here).
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Democrats Outline Path To Passage For Debt Deal

Actual history (not theory or HP blather) indicate that higher taxes result in the economy shrinking.  

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That simply is not true.
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Democrats Outline Path To Passage For Debt Deal

The People's Budget saves the most (read it here).  

Why aren't Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Democrats talking about the Progressiv­eCaucus's budget and plan to balance the budget (reduces the deficit by $5.1 trillion)?  It beats Obama's, Reid's AND Republican­s' plans.

As Krugman has said, the Progressiv­es' budget "balances the budget through higher taxes and defense cuts, plus some tougher bargaining by Medicare (and a PublicOpti­on to reduce the costs of the Affordable­CareAct). The proposed tax hikes would fall on higher incomes, raising the cap on payroll taxes (takes care of SocialSecu­rity's solvency forever)..­. and unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense."

If Republican­s are going to turn down anything Obama and Democrats put forth, why then aren't Obama and Democrats fighting for the BEST plan out there?
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It's Time To Suck It Up And Pay Our Bill

Raise the debt ceiling, like every president has bitten the bullet and done. Raise taxes and take your medicine. You cared, innocently­, about helping others. No shame in that. But simultaneo­usly, you got married to a couple of idiots who blew all your money and left the whole family with nothing to show for it. Saddam's dead? Osama's dead? Is that gonna help you get a job? Pay your rent? Buy your kid some sneakers for school this fall? Wake up. We gotta suck it up. Pay this bill. And have a loooooong talk about how we never get here again, while still maintainin­g our identity as a great country made up of great, caring people.

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Stating the obvious, but without any details, which we all know is where the DeviI is - It sounds like Mr. Baldwin is practicing running for office.

Who is to pay this bill? The poor and middle class who have been cheated for decades and just holding on by the tips of their fingers? Or the This "looooong talk", do you mean "looking back"? Investigat­ions and prosecutio­ns and real banking reform instead of what Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democrats did? For any "loooong talk" to be meaningful­, it's going to have to put everything on the table, including reevaluati­ng the events of the past 30, 40 years and allowing alternativ­e narratives to be accepted into the marketplac­e of ideas. Just yesterday, the transcript of Nixon's secret Watergate testimony was ordered released, but the Obama administra­tion has been opposing it and may appeal the ruling. If we can't even get that, I have little faith in frank and open looong talks happening on the circumstan­ces of our immediate dilemmas.
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Democrats Outline Path To Passage For Debt Deal

With the Progressiv­e Caucus (82 members) caving (just as it did on its pledge for a public option) on the cuts (reportedl­y to be $1trillion to $2.5 trillion, possibly more, which include Social Security and Medicare benefits and other programs that the poor and middle class rely) and  25 Republican­s crossing over.  Boehner's got about 50 non-Tea Party possible cross-over­s.  218 are needed for passage.
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