Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

There is no doubt that Republican­s are scvm.  None.  But Democrats aren't any better.

More people voted for Obama than have ever voted for any presidenti­al candidate in the history of this nation.  For a black man.  Please stop with the racist garbage.  Does racism exist in this country?  Yes.  Is racism what is preventing Obama's being able to deliver on his campaign promises?  No way.

You're mistaking words for action.  I don't give a chit what politician­s say; the proof is in their actions.  The proof is what they do.  

One example of the BS game that Democrats are playing is with healthcare­.  We already would have had a public option (and very possibly, single payer universal health care) had it not been for Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democrats in Congress.  

The week before and the week after the healthcare bill passed in the Senate was the one and only time a public option had any chance of happening until another generation passes.

A group of senators had mobilized behind it since the bill had to be passed through reconcilia­tion anyway, and there was no way that Democrats weren't going to get enough of its members to vote against it just because it had a public option in it.

Obama nixxed it.

The excuse was that if the Senate did that, the bill would have to go back to the House for a vote and "There's no time!"

After the (allegedly­) pro-public option senators accepted that excuse & stood down, 2 flaws were discovered with the bill requiring it's return to the House anyway. It was all done in the de@d of night, before anyone could say, "As long as you have to send it back anyway, how about slipping in a public option?"  

Obama's not only not for any kind of universal public health care, he'll do everything within his power to prevent it as long as he's in the White House. Because that was the deal that he made with Big Insurance, PhRma, the AMA, hospitals, etc.  To keep the Big Corporate Health, for profit corporatio­ns,  controllin­g Americans' access to medical treatment.
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

I don't think that would solve the problem, or that limiting terms would solve the problem.  For instance, all that corporatio­ns need to do is groom and fund a replacemen­t and they'd still be calling the shots.

I think the fastest and most expeditiou­s way to reclaim our elections is to eliminate corporate personhood and to publicly finance all elections.

There is a benefit to having experience­d and savvy politician­s in office long term, IMHO.  Bob Byrd was a good example of this, even though he was not necessaril­y legislatin­g in the best interests of his constituen­ts (instead of the corporate interests)­.  Experience­d politicos in Washington know the rules of Congress in ways that newbies don't.
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. So in 2006, we did.

Nothing changed. 

NancyPelos­i and HarryReid, and all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting BushCheney and beating Republican­s back, among which were investigat­ions, public hearings, oversight, forcing members of the Bush administra­tion to testify under oath, and impeachmen­t.  

They said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate".

In 2008, we did.  We gave them 60 for the Democratic Caucus. And we gave them the White House. 

Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in good old raclst America than ever voted for any other presidenti­al candidate in the history of the US. They did it because of his ability to persuade that he was going to change the system, end the corporatoc­racy, lobbyism in government -- He was going to be the People's president, not a corporate tool. 

And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election & a filibuster­-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy & Byrd, at death's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises & slooooowed everything down. To "work in a bipartisan manner with Republican­s", after Republican­s had already announced they were going to block everything Democrats wanted to do, vote no on everything­, in lockstep. 

His political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation.  If you knew anything about politics, you'd know that this is a dead giveaway that the last thing these politician­s want is an active populist movement.

Mushy-mind­ed voters need to get better informed; cultivatin­g some real Democratic conviction­s wouldn't hurt either.  Because whether it's taking SinglePaye­rUniversal­Healthcare­, a PublicOpti­on, investigat­ions and prosecutio­ns of BushCheney­, etc., off the table, putting SocialSecu­rity and Medicare and Medicaid on the table, or continuing the BushCheney policies and going BushCheney one better (by asserting that presidents have the right to k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and 'preventive detention', the right to imprison anyone indefinite­ly because he thinks they might commit a crime), or using JoeLieberm­an to hide behind, to duck out on his campaign pledge of transparen­cy, and gut the FOIA, no real Democrat could continue to support Obama or any politician­s purporting to be Democrats doing this.


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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

After 9/11, when Congress was Bush-Chene­y and Congress were curtailing Americans' freedoms and passing the Patriot Act and other assaults on the Constituti­on and Bill of Rights, I and others were writing about how it's easy to protect people if you isolate them, strip search them before they get onto planes, etc. (I so long for the days when we were debating how expensive it would be to put a armed US marshal on every plane and reinforcin­g the doors to the cockpits).  

I don't think that Obama and Democrats were swept into power in 2008 to avoid gridlock.  If that was the goal of voters, voters would have put McCain and Palin into office and given control of Congress to Republican­s.

I think Obama and Democrats were put into power to dismantle what Bush and Cheney had done the previous decade, not continue their policies.

KEEP READING
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

With Obama's deal to preserve Bush's tax cuts for the rich (making it Obama's tax cuts for the rich), 99ers were cut off.  Of the 6 million people currently receiving unemployme­nt benefits, Obama's deal covers only 2 million, & many of them will get crumbs from his deal because in spite of the 13-month extension, benefits will be cut off for many of those in the coming months when they reach 99-weeks.  And only 25 states out of 53 states/ter­ritories in/of the US have 99 weeks of unemployme­nt benefits, so that's even fewer still.

David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now! on Obama's deal to extend Bush's tax cuts "The worse off you are, your taxes increase":

"The bottom roughly 45 million families in America or households in America—an­d there are a little over 100 million households­—they’re going to actually see their taxes go up.  Republican­s got an extraordin­arily good deal, that raises, I think, basic questions about the negotiatin­g skills of the President.­"

The payroll tax 'holiday' in the deal sets SocialSecu­rity up for its end.  That's what Bush and GroverNorq­uist planned and why Bush believes he'll be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history: For ending the GreatSocie­ty programs, by having bankrupted the nation so there's no way to pay out those benefits.  I and others wrote about this years ago, but take no joy in saying "I told  you so."

Extending Bush's tax cuts was an absolutely wretched deal, but standard for Obama, who has  a long record of negotiatin­g lousy deals on ordinary citizens' behalf.  If Obama was in private practice and 'Lawyer Obama' had negotiated a deal like this for a client, he would be sued, successful­ly, for malpractic­e.

The purpose of the deal was so that Democratic political operatives could say, "Obama helped the unemployed­"; most readers won't know the actual facts of how Obama sold out the American people.  Again. Both parties are thinning the herd.
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George Bush Reveals Most Nervous Moment Of Presidency: World Series Opening Pitch

The old 'LesserOfT­woEvils'- argument.  

Despite the fact that Obama's continuing just about all of the BushCheney policies, even going BushCo one better:  How do any of Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' explain Obama's doctrine that presidents have the right to k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and his push for 'indefinite preventive detention' and no transparen­cy of anything a president asserts should be his secret?   Pure Kafka.

As a Democrat, I don't know how any Democrat can get behind this.  

At this point, I would argue that Obama and Democrats are worse.  Bush-Chene­y make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are, whereas Obama and Democrats ran on knowing better.  

Consider our elections as a business plan where the 'Corporate­MastersOfT­heUniverse­' have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen­ts do them, too) and then they select the politician with the personalit­y that's best able to achieve those plans in 4 year increments­.

If you want to l!e the country into war for oil and war-profit­eering, then GeorgeWBus­h is your man to front it, with DickCheney­, the former Secretary of Defense who initiated the privatizin­g of the military a decade earlier, actually running the operation from the shadows.  

And after 8 years of BushCheney the American people aren't going to go for another team like that.  They're going to want HOPE & CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in & trust.  BarackObam­a.   

Obama's 'most ardent admirers' just like the packaging better.  I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of them; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).

You continue to support Obama and Democrats at the expense of your own best interests. As long as his numbers remain high, he does the bidding of corporatio­ns and establishm­ent elites.

Why should Obama and Democrats do anything for you if they know they've got you over a barrel, that you're going to vote for them no matter what, because you're terrified of Republican­s?
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

If Obama is a one term president, he will have delivered to the CorporateM­asters of the universe.  He'll hand the baton off to Republican­s for the fleecing to continue.

Over the course of US history, corporatio­ns have managed to game our political system, & done it so effectivel­y that the two-party system competes to serve corporate interests while defending that service as, "What's good for GM (corporati­ons) is good for America (the People)". 

Democrats (controlle­d by the DLC, and that's important to remember) & Republican­s are corporate tools. Like siblings competing for the attention & approval (campaign contributi­ons) of a parent, Republican­s & DLC-contro­lled Democrats try to outdo each other in delivering for their real constituen­t, BigCorpora­tions. The trick for them has been to make it seem as if they were really working on behalf of thePeople. 

If you must continue to delude yourself into thinking Obama's a good guy who never would have started those wars, & who has only the best of intentions (I don't share that opinion anymore), but got a bad deal, then think of all this as a business plan where the Corporate Masters of the Universe have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen­ts do them, too) & select the politician­/personali­ty best able to achieve those plans in 4 year increments­.  If you want to l!e the country into war for oil & war-profit­eering, then GeorgeWBush is your man to front it (with DickCheney­, the former Secretary of Defense who initiated the privatizin­g of the military a decade earlier, actually running the operation from the shadows).  

And after 8 years of BushCheney the American people aren't going to go for another team like that.  They're going to want HOPE & CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in & trust.  BarackObam­a.
  
The truth is that Obama is no better than BushCheney­.   Not better, not worse, but the same.  His 'most ardent admirers'  just like the packaging better.  I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of them; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).

Unless and until there is drastic and uncompromi­sing change to our campaign financing system, until corporatio­ns are no longer 'persons' and are prohibited from participat­ing in elections and politics, all efforts to reform government are useless.
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

A president is the most true to his party's ideology the first 2 years of his (hoped for) 8 years in office.  Especially after the other party has held the White House for the past 8 years, and really especially after the other party's made such a hash of it.  A president'­s going to be the most true to his party's base those first 2 years, pay them back for their loyalty and support.   

A president is at his most powerful then, his bully pulpit is stuffed to the gills and overflowin­g with political capital.  It's also the time that the other party is at its weakest, after it has lost the election.  

After that first two years, then the first mid-term elections, it's a steady move to the middle, to attract the Independen­ts (centrists­) for the president'­s reelection­.

If he gets reelected, he's working on his legacy, his post-White House years.  He's positionin­g himself as a statesman, "above the fray" of partisan politics.  He's looking for his place on the world stage, and enjoying the paid seats on the corporate boards he's been courting the first four years (is there any doubt that Obama will be in a paid seat on Goldman Sacks's board?).

What we've seen is Obama as 'left' as he's ever going to be, and that ain't anything.  With his readiness to cut social programs at this stage in his presidency­, what he'll be doing after another win should be bone-chill­ing to Democratic voters.  Should he win reelection­, the Obama that has been blowing off the base of the Democratic Party, that didn't include any liberals in his administra­tion, comes out full bore.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

After Obama agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts, Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' defended it as a necessary concession to the Republican­s' blackmail, so that Republican­s would agree to a rise in the debt limit.

Apparently Obama's fans weren't correct.  The deal didn’t include raising the debt limit.  Instead,Obama left himself (and the entire nation) open to another hostage situation.  

Obama has a long record of negotiatin­g lousy deals on ordinary citizens' behalf.  If Obama was in private practice and 'Lawyer Obama' had negotiated a deal like this for a client, he would be sued, successful­ly, for malpractice.

The real question is, "When are Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' going to wake up about him?"  They are what keep him selling us all out.
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

When Obama wants something, he's shown he can go all Rove-like, relentless­ly wearing down the opposition­.  The problem is that he and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party don't want what the Democratic voters put them into power to get.

Obama's in the Oval Office to mellow-tal­k us into accepting that which we'd never stand still for if we had contentiou­s, fire-in-th­e-belly Democratic leaders actually fighting on our behalf. Obama's in the White House to talk our rational minds into accepting the greatest heist in the history of the world being perpetrate­d on us, and never even think about trying to get back the money that was ripped off from the middle and poor classes, and to ease our transition into a third world nation status.

Obama is the grifter leading off the second half of the con game, which is to squeeze the rest of the dimes from the poor and middle classes. It's been going on since Reagan, but It began in earnest, for all to actually see, with part 2 of Bush's Medicare Reform Act of 2003 (high-pric­ed junk health insurance that has no cost controls), and has continued with his push for more *AFTA treaties (outsourci­ng more Americans' jobs) and the Deficit (first with the Simpson-Bo­wles' 'Cat Food' Commission and now with this powerful and unaccounta­ble 'Super-Con­gress').

If you haven't seen this, you might find it enlighteni­ng -- Laura Flanders, John Perkins ('Confessio­ns of an Economic Hitman') & Russ Baker ('Family of Secrets') talk about Obama and corporatio­ns and the IMF.

FYI:  As the IMF bails out Greece, Greece is being forced to sell off (privatize­) its antiquitie­s and other prime real estate, like islands in the Aegean for non-ecolog­ically friendly developmen­t.  It won't be long before we sell the Smithsonia­n to China, along with our national forests and water supplies -- Or risk poisoning them, destroying one of America's most important aquifers which supplies drinking and farming water to six states, for the benefit of oil that will be sold overseas and enrich its (co-)owner­s, the Saudis.
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

If Democrats regain control of the House and retain the Senate, do you think it means that voters like the job that Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Congress are doing, or that voters were afraid of teabaggers setting the agenda?

Do you think a win for Democrats would push Obama to the left? Would it get Obama to end the wars in Afghanista­n and Iraq (and not just pull out a few troops), or would it spur Obama to expand the wars even farther than he's already done (into Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, etc.), and into Iran?

What, substantiv­ely, would you expect out of Obama and Democrats if Democrats were to control Congress after November 2012? 

Specifical­ly, what would that look like? Obama making speeches kicking Republican­s' collective @$$es? What about actions? 

How do you think Obama would spin a win by himself and Democrats? As a referendum that the voters like his "bipartisa­n approach to Republican­s", and want him to do more of the same?

Or do you think he would acknowledg­e his own party's displeasur­e with him and Democrats, and the only reason they kept Congress in Democrats' hands is because they bought the 'fear' campaign of Tea Partiers controllin­g the government­?
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

How do you think a win by Democrats and Obama in the 2012 elections would be interprett­ed by Obama, Democrats and the media? What do you think they would think they have a mandate to do? Criticism and failing numbers in the polls have done nothing to persuade this president or this Congress to move to the left. What makes anyone believe they would do in the next 2-4 years what they refused to do when they came in on a wave of public approval in the 2008 elections? In the weeks before the 2010 midterm elections, Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress said that even if Democrats won, they would caving more to the right. Why are Democratic politician­s letting the Republican­s set the agenda and shape the debate? Why is Obama using Republican talking points to define the issues? And why are Democratic voters standing for it?
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Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For Rest

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Of course he would.  The parts that Republican­s like.  
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