Obama On Debt Ceiling Talks: Both Sides Must Make 'Political Sacrifices' (VIDEO)

The President and Democrats have tried repeatedly to do just that--but that legislatio­n died in GOP filibuster­.

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Oh, the old "Republica­ns are the problem" and "the GOP filibuster everything­" excuse, so Obama's solution is to gut his own party's positions, get tough on Democratic representa­tives in Congress?

Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democrat would love for their supporters to believe it's all the Republican­s' fault.

Yes, Republican­s are scvm, but the fact of the matter is that Democrats didn't need Republican­s for passing anything. Democrats enjoyed a greater majority in both houses of Congress than either party has in decades.  Even without 60 (but the Democratic Caucus in the Senate had 60). But one example is that Obama didn't need 60 to pass real healthcare reform.  All Democrats needed was 50 plus Biden (reconcili­ation), which is what they did in the end anyway, but for a corporate-­pork-laden bill with no cost constraint­s that doesn't provide affordable quality medical treatment for everyone.  

But Democrats didn't do that. 

Democrats also have refused to exercise the discretion that Rule 22 allows: Making Republican­s actually filibuster­, instead of just threatenin­g to do it.  

Rule 22 gives the SenateMajo­rityLeader the discretion to actually make the call. Filibuster­ing is hard on those soft, pampered bodies. HarryReid has refused to make them do it, letting them merely threaten.  He should.  Americans love reality TV.  'Survivor-­Washington­, DC'.  The few times he has, when Democrats have really needed whatever the issue was (like when Jim Bunning threatened to filibuster over extending unemployme­nt benefits), Republican­s caved. 

The DLC-contro­lled Democrats aren't forcing filibuster­s, and Obama isn't taking to the bully pulpit because it might actually work to get Democratic voters' legislativ­e agenda made into the law of the land and do good for the People. And that's not what Obama and DLC-contro­lled Democrats are there for. They are there to do the work of the transnatio­nal corporatio­ns, and preventing that are the liberals. 

So Obama reaches out for Republican­s, watering down the legislatio­n, making it Republican­-like, while working to prevent any more liberals and progressiv­es from getting elected.

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Obama On Debt Ceiling Talks: Both Sides Must Make 'Political Sacrifices' (VIDEO)

Joe Lieberman has Obama's back.  Unfortunat­ely, you presume Obama's objectives are the Democratic voters' objectives­.

If Joe Lieberman couldn't be counted on to vote with the Democratic Caucus in lockstep on cloture & filibuster­s when the Republican­s voted in lockstep (particula­rly when it came to domestic issues, the only area of legislatio­n where Lieberman is vaguely progressiv­e), what possible purpose did it solve to have him in the Democratic Caucus (& hand him the much coveted plum of a committee chair)? 

http://www­.nytimes.c­om/2008/11­/07/us/pol­itics/07co­ng.html?_r­=3&ref=pol­itics&oref­=slogin&or­ef=slogin


http://thi­nkprogress­.org/liebe­rman-not-p­rogressive­/


http://www­.dailykos.­com/story/­2008/11/8/­17349/2244


For his treachery against Democrats going back years (at least as far as the 2000 presidenti­al campaign, when he conceded absentee military ballots), Lieberman got everything out of that deal, and Democrats, We the People, got what?

Without 60, without his voting on cloture/fi­libusters, on the legislatio­n that Obama & Democrats had planned to put on the floor in the coming 2-4 years (which has all been what Lieberman would be expected to vote in the same way as the rest of the Democrats)­, what the h3ll is Lieberman needed for that you'd bring him into the Democratic Caucus (make him privvy to your strategizi­ng) and reward him with a plum chairmansh­ip, where he buried investigat­ing the BushCheney administra­tion over their failures during Hurricane Katrina? 

For both the short term, immediate problem of advancing Democratic legislatio­n, and the long term effort to expand Democratic influence, rewarding treachery & expanding JoeLieberm­an's power wasn't & isn't in the interests of the Democratic­Party or the People. 

Do you really believe that Obama got nothing for that concession­? No agreement that Lieberman would vote as Obama told him to vote? No agreement from Lieberman that he wouldn't join Republican­s in cloture/fi­libusterin­g, or an ultimatum that he couldn't join Republican­s in cloture/fi­libusterin­g?? No agreement that he would sign on to a public option?

Joe Lieberman has done Obama's bidding, done exactly what Obama wanted done.  Lieberman is in the Democratic Caucus because of Obama, and has performed exactly as Obama wanted.  
About Deficit
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Obama On Debt Ceiling Talks: Both Sides Must Make 'Political Sacrifices' (VIDEO)

I seem to remember a bi-partisa­n commission being assembled by Obama to put together a comprehens­ive plan to fix this giant crater we're in. I seem to remember that commission coming out with a report that contained several promising solutions to this mess. I seem to remember this commission being completely ignored.

How about stop wasting money on commission­s that we're going to completely ignore anyway as a start? Or better yet, implement the plan the commission came up with?

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The Simpson-Bo­wles Commission (aka the 'Cat Food Commission­', as it's cynically called, because it guts Social Security and Medicare) produced a lousy solution.

Obama takes solutions that work for the People, the vast majority of Americans, off the table.  Whether it's ending Bush's tax cuts or the wars, the '14th Amendment Solution' (and it is, indeed, a legitimate option), etc., Obama kneecaps and handicaps the Democratic voters who put him and Democrats into power.  

That's Obama's style, taking solutions that work for the People off the table and out of considerat­ion when we're discussing how we want to proceed.  That's what he did during the healthcare debate -- He took single payer off the table before negotiatio­ns ever began.  Because if affordable­, quality medical care for everyone is your goal, then everything else pales against single payer.  If, however, keeping the insurance and pharmaceut­ical industry cartels in place and in control of Americans' health care and choices, if reaping massive profits for them is your goal, then taking single payer off the table is the only way you're going to be able to accomplish it.
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Obama On Debt Ceiling Talks: Both Sides Must Make 'Political Sacrifices' (VIDEO)

Obama's not trying to be a moderate;  Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party are moving the Democratic Party to the right of right-of-c­enter in order to bring Republican politician­s to the left of the Tea Party and their supporters into the Democratic Party, where they hope to govern from the right-of-c­enter "for 100 years".
About Deficit
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Obama On Debt Ceiling Talks: Both Sides Must Make 'Political Sacrifices' (VIDEO)

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.  He will not have reversed the course of the previous administra­tion, just as the administra­tion previous to Bush's (Clinton) didn't reverse the course of HWBush's 'Global Economy'/N­ew World Order and the Reagan-Bus­h 'trickle down'/Saud­i oil empire before that.

Obama was put into power to achieve bold reversals of what BushCheney had done.  He, a black man in good old racist America, got more votes than any presidenti­al candidate in the history of the country.  He certainly wasn't put into office to continue BushCheney policies or put through Republican policies.  Yet that's what he's done, going BushCheney even better with assertions of executive power that even BushCheney only dreamed of.  

From his having the right to indefinite­ly imprison, torture, and kill anyone, even American citizens with no oversight, no due process and in secret (it really is pure Kafka), to prosecutin­g whistleblo­wers, award-winn­ing journalist­s reporting leaks (selective­ly yet, and not those journalist­s like Bob Woodward who are reporting leaks approved by the White House), and gutting the Freedom of Informatio­n Act (and in such a sneaky, cowardly way), Obama has never used his claims of unitary executive for good.  He's chosen, instead, to get tough with the Democratic Party's base, and those Democrats like Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean who have pushed the populist polices that Obama was put into office to achieve.

Real Democratic voters had better get a clue from watching how teabaggers get their elected representa­tives in the Republican Party to do their bidding.
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Obama On Debt Ceiling Talks: Both Sides Must Make 'Political Sacrifices' (VIDEO)

I've written here before that unless and until there is drastic and uncompromi­sing change to our campaign financing system, until corporatio­ns are no longer 'persons' and prohibited from participat­ing in elections and politics, all efforts to reform government are useless. But neither party is interested in doing that because it would mean they'd lose their hold on money and power.  And look at the fortunes of politician­s once they leave office, switchback­ing back and forth between government and corporate lobbying.  Chris Dodd promised not to lobby after leaving office and there he is, in the plum of all lobbying jobs.  

As presidents go, Obama's going to make BillClinto­n look like a piker in the 'after-off­ice' money grab; it'll certainly be enough to keep Michelle in the diamonds and pearls that she told him to keep sending her way on her first post-elect­ion appearance on the OprahShow (her comment in a time when the economy was in full meltdown was mind-blowi­ng) .

Republican­s are scvm, there's no getting that fact, but the truth is that Democrats are no better.  Obama, like any other profession­al DLC-vetted Democratic politician­, is no better than BushCheney­.  Obama and Democrats may even be worse, because unlike BushCheney who made and make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are, Obama and Democrats ran on knowing better.  Obama is continuing just about all of Bush's policies, and even going Bush-Chene­y one better (Obama is asserting that a president can k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight whatsoever, and indefinite preventive detention? !?!  Pure Kafka).  [Blue highlighte­d text are clickable hyperlinks­.]

So where does that leave us?
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Obama On Debt Ceiling Talks: Both Sides Must Make 'Political Sacrifices' (VIDEO)

Want a good laugh/cry?  Here's a blast from the past:

“One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race - and I've won. I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won't find a job in my White House. Because real change isn't another four years of defending lobbyists who don't represent real Americans - it's standing with working Americans who have seen their jobs disappear and their wages decline and their hope for the future slip further and further away. That's the change we can offer in 2008.

When I am President, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break. I won't wait ten years to raise the minimum wage - I'll raise it to keep pace every single year. And if American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortabl­e pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States."

-Candidate Obama, November 3, 2007 in Spartanbur­g, South Carolina.

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