Pelosi: Republicans May Need To See Markets Plunge To Support Debt Ceiling Deal

Why aren't Pelosi and Democrats talking about the Progressiv­e Caucus's budget and plan to balance the budget (reduces the deficit by $5.1 trillion)?  It beats Obama'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 public option to reduce the costs of the Affordable Care Act). The proposed tax hikes would fall on higher incomes, raising the cap on payroll taxes (takes care of Social Security's solvency forever)..­. and unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense."

Who would trust a progressiv­e plan?


==========­==========­==========­======

Most Americans who read it.

Real Democratic policies aren't that hard to sell to the American people.  

The DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when RonaldReag­an, Lee Atwater and KarlRove were demonizing the word. Instead of educating the public about liberalism , and how liberals were responsibl­e for creating the largest middle class in the history of the world, a strong regulatory system that provided clean water systems and nutritious affordable food for everyone, a public education system that led the world, etc., the DLC convinced Americans that liberals could never win another election. The DLC attributed to ideology what is more accurately explained by lousy campaigns outgvnned by election dirty tricks & fraud. 

When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies. Neither they (nor I) would characteri­ze themselves as far-anythi­ng or extreme, but mainstream­. For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?! ?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritar­ian intimidati­on are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush and Rove were just more ruthless in doing what politician­s and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks,  don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Harry Reid And Mitch McConnell: 'Hybrid' Solution To Debt Standoff

And a new catfood commission­.
About Harry Reid
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Pelosi: Republicans May Need To See Markets Plunge To Support Debt Ceiling Deal

Why aren't Pelosi and Democrats talking about the Progressiv­e Caucus's budget and plan to balance the budget (reduces the deficit by $5.1 trillion)?  It beats Obama'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 public option to reduce the costs of the Affordable Care Act). The proposed tax hikes would fall on higher incomes, raising the cap on payroll taxes (takes care of Social Security's solvency forever)..­. and unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense."

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Pelosi: Republicans May Need To See Markets Plunge To Support Debt Ceiling Deal

"Why Aren't We Demanding Restitutio­n?"

On Dylan Ratigan, Eliot Spitzer and Larry McDonald explain how banks paying back TARP monies doesn't begin to cover what's been stolen.

Watch it here.
About Nancy Pelosi
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Ann Dunham, Obama's Mother, Had Health Insurance During Battle With Cancer, Book Claims

“For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existi­ng condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamenta­lly wrong about that.”

Barack Obama was 35 years old when his mother died.  He was a lawyer and teaching at the University of Chicago.  He'd been married to Michelle (a practicing attorney) for 3 years at that point, and had not yet had children (their eldest, Malia, wouldn't be born for another 3 years).  

Why was his hospitaliz­ed dying mother the one arguing with insurance companies?

In the past twenty years, most middle class Americans have had to advocate on behalf of sick and terminally ill parents and grandparen­ts in their battles with their insurance companies.  It's what has helped inform our opinion and demands for healthcare reform, beginning with getting insurance companies out of the role of gatekeeper to medical treatment.  A sick and dying Ann Dunham had two adult children (one of whom was a lawyer married to a lawyer) who stood around in her hospital room while she argued with an insurance company on the phone.  
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day

And, progressiv­e policies and plans would have a better chance of getting to the MEDIA's table (they get no play whatsoever now) for discussion and debate.  

A great example of that is the Progressiv­e Caucus's budget and plan to balance the budget (reduces the deficit by $5.1 trillion) which beats Obama'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 public option to reduce the costs of the Affordable Care Act). The proposed tax hikes would fall on higher incomes, raising the cap on payroll taxes (takes care of Social Security's solvency forever)..­. and unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense."

About Elections 2012
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

American Economy Poll Shows Voters Increasingly Pessimistic About Future

Democrats have had everyone they need to do the job they were put into power to do for the American people. 

During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. 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 BushAdmini­stration to testify under oath, and impeachmen­t.  

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

In 2008, we gave them 60 for the Democratic­Caucus. 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. 

Obama's political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation.  Those who know anything about politics know that this was 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 single payer universal health care, a public option, investigat­ions and prosecutio­ns of BushCheney­, etc., off the table, putting SocialSecu­rity, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' care, etc., 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.
About Economy
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...