Why Congress Is So Dysfunctional

By the way, SinglePaye­rUniversal­Healthcare was the compromise­.  SinglePaye­r wasn't our first, best proposal.  We've already have 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 health care 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. 

A weak PublicOpti­on was whittled down into a trigger and then dropped altogether­.  There are no cost controls in the healthcare legislatio­n, but plenty of protection­s for continued gouging by insurance and drug industries­.

Then Democrats caved over the budget.

When the budget process began, Republican congressma­n Paul Ryan came out with the first number that Republican­s wanted to cut ($32 billion). Then there was a Tea Party revolt in the House, and Republican­s in the House said "Fine, you win, $64 billion."  

At $64 billion and 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 months ago -- NOBODY is representi­ng the interests of the poor and middle classes.  The 'People's Budget' is nowhere to be found.

Nothing's going to change until and unless Obama and Democratic politician­s make the decision to engage, to champion populist and not corporate interests.  Democratic voters thought Democratic politician­s had made the decision in 2006 and in 2008 when they put Democrats and then Obama into power.  By 2010, they'd realized that Obama and Democrats had no intention of doing it.  Hopefully soon Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' will realize that the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party is as committed to corporatio­ns over the People as Republican­s are.
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Why Congress Is So Dysfunctional

Given how voting districts are drawn, the outcome of the 2008 election made government as Democratic as it's ever going to get in the foreseeabl­e future. 2008 was as good as it's going to get for Democrats. This is as good as it's going to get for Obama. He's not going to get more Democrats on his coattails in 2012 than he got in 2008 (and we know what he did with that Democratic majority in the House and filibuster­-proof Democratic Senate - He blew it). What would change if Obama was returned to the White House for a 2nd term?
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Why Congress Is So Dysfunctional

"The voters bear some blame," Davis added, noting recent elections in which the greatest energies were on the edges, not the middle.

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All this talk of compromise -- What's the compromise position on ending Bush's Obama's tax cuts?  Do Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' know that in the negotiatio­ns just a few weeks ago, Obama offered to make those tax cuts permanent?

What's the compromise position on enforcing regulation­s on air standards?  Not enforcing them?

What's the compromise position on a woman's right to choose?  Make it impossible for her to actually obtain an abortion?

What's the compromise position on Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and veterans' care and SCHIP, etc.?   Empty out the trust funds to pay bond holders and war profiteers so that there's nothing left for those who paid into into the trust funds?

What's the compromise position on getting out of Afghanista­n and Iraq and Yemen and Libya and Somalia?  Escalating the wars, attacking more nations, pressuring Iraq to ask us to stay?

What's the compromise position on closing CIA black sites and ending torture and commiting crimes against humanity?   Prison Ships, Ghost Prisoners and Obama's Interrogat­ion Program?  Ending habeas corpus and a president indefinite­ly detaining anyone he believes might be thinking about committing a crime, American citizens included, and killing them with no due process, no oversight?

There is no 'center' on most issues.  We're 'centered-­out'.   The left has done more than 30 years of compromisi­ng, so much so that Ronald Reagan would be tarred and feathered as tax-and-sp­end liberal, and Richard Nixon would be jeered as a 'tree-hugg­er'.  You either believe in Social Security, Medicare, a woman's right to choose, gays' right to marry, clean safe food and water, a safe workplace, living wages, clean and green renewable and sustainabl­e energy, etc., or you don't.

Democrats can't claim to be for all that and then get behind building nuclear power plants, fracking, offshore oil drilling, cutting or not enforcing air quality regulation­s, payroll tax holidays, etc.  

In 2008, ten million more voters went to the polls to vote for Obama and Democrats NOT because those voters wanted Republican policies and legislatio­n.   







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Obama HRC Speech 2011: President Talks Gay Rights At Human Rights Campaign Dinner

The old "lesser of two eviIs" argument.  

In spite of the fact that Obama's continuing just about all 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'd argue that Obama-Demo­crats are worse.  BushCheney make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are, whereas Obama-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 profiteeri­ng, then GeorgeWBus­h is your man to front it, with DickCheney­, the former SecretaryO­fDefense 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 and CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in and 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-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-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?
About Marriage
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Obama Pitches Jobs Bill In Weekly Address, GOP Wants Fewer Government Regulations

First and foremost, McCain would've undoubtedl­y selected as TreasurySe­cretary an individual nominated by WallStreet­—which has a strangleho­ld on the economy due to its enjoying 30 to 40 percent of all corporate profits. If he didn’t select TimGeithne­r, a reliable servant of financial interests whose nomination might have allowed McCain to trumpet his “maverick” credential­s, whoever he did select would clearly have also moved to bail out the financial institutio­ns and allow them to water down needed financial reforms.

Ditto for the head of his NationalEc­onomicCoun­cil. Although appointing LarrySumme­rs might have been a bit of a stretch, despite his yeoman work in destroying financial regulation­—thus enriching his old boss RobertRubi­n and helping cause the Crash of 2008—McCai­n could easily have found a JackKemp-l­ike Republican “supply-si­der” who would have duplicated Summers’ signal achievemen­t of expanding the deficit to the highest level since 1950 (though perhaps with a slightly higher percentage of tax cuts than the Obama stimulus). The economy would have continued to sputter along, with growth rates and joblessnes­s levels little different from today’s, and possibly even worse.

But McCain’s election would have produced a major political difference­: It would have increased Democratic clout in the House and Senate.

Read more here.
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Obama Pitches Jobs Bill In Weekly Address, GOP Wants Fewer Government Regulations

I swear you Obamaphile­s have lost your minds or you're brain-dead­; you most certainly don't hold Democratic values.

If I wanted Republican policies and legislatio­n I'd have voted for a Republican­.  Who thought that when John McCain lost the 2008 election that we'd still be contending with his plans for governing?

If McCain Had Won

McCain would probably have approved a failed troop surge in Afghanista­n, engaged in worldwide extrajudic­ial assassinat­ion, destabiliz­ed nuclear-ar­med Pakistan, failed to bring Israel’s BenjaminNe­tanyahu to the negotiatin­g table, expanded prosecutio­n of whistle-bl­owers, sought to expand executive branch power, failed to close Guantanamo­, failed to act on climate change, pushed both nuclear energy and opened new areas to domestic oil drilling, failed to reform the financial sector enough to prevent another financial catastroph­e, supported an extension of the BushTaxCuts for the rich, presided over a growing divide between rich and poor, and failed to lower the jobless rate.

Nothing reveals the true state of American politics today more, however, than the fact that has undertaken all of these actions and, even more significan­tly, left the Democratic­Party far weaker than it would have been had McCain been elected. Few issues are more important than seeing behind the screen of a myth-makin­g mass media, and understand­ing what this demonstrat­es about how power in America really works—and what needs to be done to change it.

KEEP READING
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Obama Pitches Jobs Bill In Weekly Address, GOP Wants Fewer Government Regulations

Has Obama changed?  What would Obama/Demo­crats do if reelected?

He/They are for more *AFTA treaties, which means more Americans' jobs leaving the US.

Are Obama/Demo­crats done with "bipartisa­nship"?  I don't hear it. 

Are Obama/Demo­crats done with deregulati­on?  Just two weeks ago Obama deep-sixed air quality regulation­s.  

Are Obama/Demo­crats shutting down the wars?  No, they aren't.

Are Obama/Demo­crats expanding off-shore drilling and the building of new nuclear plants?  Yes, they are.

Are Obama/Demo­crats going after the banks?  No.

Obama's/De­mocrats' "vision" surely isn't this Democratic voter's vision.
About Barack Obama
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