That's what being one of the privileged Haves gets you: 'Government insurance' that covers care and rehabilitation and holds your job (and pays you as if you've been there, on the job) until you're ready to return or have decided not to. And continues to accommodate you at your diminished pace and capacity.
Nice work if you can get it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Immigration reform works to the benefit of immigrants (non-voters) and the rich and corporate (cheap labor). It does NOTHING for the working class of Americans, and that includes both those workers on the low end and those on the upper end (tech and engineering jobs) who are being aced out of work by foreign workers who are willing to work cheaper than Americans.
So, again, this is both political parties selling out the poor and middle class Americans.
About Latino Politics
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
About Obama's lousy deal-making, and compromising:
Democrats have been more than willing to sell out their base groups's interests, but particularly women's and the pro-choice movement's. And Obama's been particularly 'oily' (slippery) on these issues. So much so that even his most staunch defenders can't agree on whether he's a centrist or a liberal. [Psssst, the debate is over: "Privately, Obama describes himself as a BlueDog Democrat", which means he might as well re-register as a Republican.]
One example of how Democrats and Obama are real free and easy "compromising away" a base group's interests is Obama's healthcare legislation which opens the door to ending insurance coverage of all abortions). Even after we on the left have compromised, after we have deals, Republicans renege and Democrats still cave some more.
One example of that is the Capps amendment. That was the compromise AGREEMENT on abortion in Obama's healthcare legislation that Republicans reneged on, and in the end, with the StupakAmendment and Obama's executive order, Obama and Democrats have put us firmly on the path of ending all insurance coverage for abortions. More here.
Fairly soon, Roe and overturning it is going to be moot with all that Republicans have managed to get Democrats to "compromise" on, making getting an abortlon impossible. Why bother overturning Roe, outlawing abortion, when you've made it virtually impossible to obtain one?
We wouldn't be down to this horrifying situation where you can't get an abortlon in 92 percent of the counties in the US (and 3 states in the country have only one abortion clinic, and other states heavily restrict a woman's access to abortion, and ban abortions in clinics or any facility that receives public funds, and ban abortion counseling and clinic recommendations) if Democrats and Obama weren't so breezy with women's hard-fought for rights.
And there are no more important issues for woman than these economic decisions.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Those who keep urging "compromise", the left has done all of the compromising for the past 40 years. Deregulation and privatization are two core principles that the left has caved on that have gotten us to this point of destroying the middle class and the nation.
More recently, SinglePayer was a compromise. When that proved not enough for the CorporateMasters of the universe, a PublicOption was compromised. A weak PublicOption was whittled down into a trigger and then dropped altogether. There are no cost controls in Obama's healthcare legislation, but plenty of protections for continued gouging by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
By the way, SinglePayer wasn't our first, best proposal. We'd already been denied our first best proposal: A level playing field where we all could rise and share in the obscene corporate profits that come at the expense of so many people's lives. We've lost to a corporate mentality that it's a 'dog eat dog'-world, where making a living isn't enough (or even possible); only 'making a kiIIing'.
Had Republicans never been in power these past 35 years, had Democrats not crossed over to become the same bought-off corporate tools that Republicans are, free education through college, access to nutritious, clean and safe food and water, abundant clean and green and sustainable energy, and affordable housing and healthcare for everyone would've been the bare minimum standard of living for all Americans. But greedy OILy conservative politicians entered our lives and our government, and we're now on a fast track to the end.
In 2001, Bush's tax cuts for the rich promised to create jobs and wealth for all, and once again the left compromised and Democratic politicians caved. Since 2006, Democrats campaigned on ending Bush's tax cuts when they expired in 2011. And again, Obama gamed it and extended them.
The latest Democratic caving over the budget:
When the budget process began, Republican congressman PaulRyan came out with the first number that Republicans wanted to cut ($32 billion). Then there was a TeaParty revolt in the House, and Republicans in the House said "Fine, you win, $64 billion."
At $64 billion Democrats moved all the way over to where Paul Ryan was when the process began. So even if Democrats got that number (which in Washington would be considered a "win" for Democrats), Democrats went all the way over to where the Republican leadership thought their opening bid would be. Ultimately the cuts are going to be very dramatic, more so than anyone in either party thought was wise a few months ago -- NOBODY is representing the interests of the poor and middle classes.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
These comments are from an HP article dated July 28, 2011:
The media pundits are calling an end is at hand -- Democrats will agree to spending cuts ($1 trillion), no revenue increases, and what Obama gets is that this won't come back up again before the 2012 election.
Shorter version: Democrats cave, but not as much as feared.
As are the super rich the masters of the Democratic Party.
Coke = Pepsi
About Joe Biden
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It cuts military spending and neither party is about to let that happen.
That's what this is all really about, and why they're so desperate to avoid any break in funding the MIC.
Really.
About Joe Biden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
I put comments to you under Pickles and Pops' comment - See it here (it's hung up in moderation 3 comments).
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
But what I find worst of all is Obama's deceit and cowardice.
If you believe what he believes, then own it. But he hasn't owned it. He's let people believe that he was on their side, that he believed as they believe, all the while he's been scheming to undo the social safety net.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
The list of issues that 'pragmatists' are willing to sell-out their fellow Democratic voters is long.
If 'pragmatists' aren't on Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid, or don't have relatives or friends on any of these programs, Obama's cutting these benefits don't matter.
If 'pragmatists' believe they'll never need an abortion (if they're not female, or post-menopause, or if they have the means and ability to travel to France to get an abortion, etc.), then assaults on a woman's right to choose aren't 'deal-breakers'.
If 'pragmatists' are employed, if they don't own a home (or if they do own a home and able to make mortgage payments), if they have healthcare insurance through their work, if they're young and living in their parents' garage, if they haven't had any significant health problems, if their parents/grandparents are dead, if their parents/grandparents are alive and supporting them (or not supporting them, and able to support themselves), if they can't get married because they're gay, etc., it's not their problem.
If they're not a 'brown' person, if they're not criticizing politicians or government, if they're not sick and using medical marijuana (or if they rely on legal substances like alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs to manage their stress or recreation), [everybody together now]..."IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM!"
[Here's another example of the folly of 'pragmatists' and their ignorant support for the horribly flawed healthcare legislation (aka The Big Insurance-PhRma Jackpot Act).]
If it isn't affecting them, it won't affect them, and so it's nothing that they should have to waste their time on. Or in their 'bottom line'.
There's nothing "pragmatic" about these people. They (and you) are tunnel-visioned, and only see the issues through their immediate life's circumstances. Some might say that they're in denial. Others might say they're selfish, "narcissistically-inclined". Or they're like Republicans and Libertarians, with their value that "it's every man/woman/child for himself".
But they're certainly not about Democratic values.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
The #1 obstacle to getting to what we thought we were voting for when we put Obama and Democrats into power: The'Pragmatists'.
Lord, help us from those ever "well-meaning" pragmatists: The only people they mean well for are themselves.
We hear about "pragmatism" a lot from Obama's 'most ardent supporters'. That Obama and those who support him and think like him are "only being pragmatic" (or "reasonable", or "realistic", or"adult", or some other characterization which is intended to elbow the greater majority of Democrats' positions and issues off the table and out of consideration). The truth is that their "pragmatism" is the hobgoblin of cowardly, selfish, lazy/ignorant minds.
'Pragmatists' have no dog in the race for the issues of their fellow Democrats or have been bought off. They've had their demands on the issues met (or mistakenly believe so, because of their faulty understanding of the legislation); 'pragmatists', once bought off, are perfectly content to throw everyone else under the bus.
'Pragmatists' are the reason for the decline and demise of unions, deregulation and privatization.
Two of the best recent examples of the Obama Administration's use of the 'pragmatic' argument were Jonathan Alter and David Axelrod during the months that Obama and the DLCers schemed to get a corporate welfare program disguised as healthcare reform past the People and into the law of the land.
See here.
And here.
And here.
And here.
KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
You and I aren't average Democratic voters; I don't know what it's going to take for the truth to get through to the others about the modern Democratic Party. Those who believe he's a liberal continue to make excuses for him. One that I encountered earlier today talked about how Obama was "better than the alternative", refusing to accept that he is equivalent to the alternative.
Anyone who believes that Obama is a liberal is flat-out ignorant about his record and history. Obama's got nothing but contempt for liberals, stemming from long before he ever ran for office in Chicago. In hindsight, it's pretty clear that he's been a cold, calculating character who has lied to a great many people over the years to get to where he is. There are liberals who knew him in the early days, at Harvard Law Review and then later in Chicago, and questioned his intent, his philosophy and commitment to people's issues, but found him to be slippery and hard to nail down.
Our nature, of giving others the benefit of the doubt, has been our undoing.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
I don't think this is going to sink in to the average Democratic voter - Look at how this article has been written. As if it's Republicans who proposed chained CPI.
About Fiscal Cliff
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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