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Count among those disappointed in the budget deal that was forged oh-so-dramatically at the very last hour before government shutdown Michele Bachmann, chair of the House teabaggers.
Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) called the $39-billion slashing deal a “disappointment.”
Millions of Americans expected $100 billion in cuts and “wanted to make sure their tax dollars stopped flowing to the nation’s largest abortion provider, and who wanted us to defund ObamaCare,” Bachmann said in a statement.
“Instead, we’ve been asked to settle for $39 billion in cuts, even as we continue to fund Planned Parenthood and the implementation of ObamaCare.’
You remember all those campaign ads last election season about defunding Planned Parenthood completely, right? Yeah, me neither. But apparently to small-government conservatives, the most egregious example of government overreach is its funding of pap smears, mammograms, and prostate exams for Americans too poor to afford private medical attention.
Could the entire deal still go off the rails? Other teabaggers are making noise about their unhappiness with The Boehn’s deal:
The deal is still tentative, and Congress passed a one-week stopgap budget to put the bill in legislative form.
“It doesn’t go far enough or fast enough for me, based on what we’ve seen so far,” Tea Party backed-freshman Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) told Politico. I don’t like the number that I’m hearing,”
Steve King (R-Iowa) was one of the 28 Republicans who voted [no] on the budget compromise. He told CBS’ “The Early Show” on Saturday that the experience shows the power of the Tea Party.
“There’s a tremendous amount of leverage there,” he said. “There are 87 freshmen in this Congress. Quite a few of them are here because of the support of the Tea Party,”
There were 70 votes in the House against the stopgap deal passed late Friday (early Saturday) night that avoided a shutdown while The Boehn’s Big Deal is finalized for a vote mid-week. More Democrats than Republicans voted against it.
70 Comments
We are going to have a shut down – so why the wait?
The wait only accomplishes a larger give away before the final battle – making us weaker going into that final battle. A lot like the frog in cold water that is being heated – the frog would jump out if tossed into a pot of boiling water but stays in as the water is heated to boiling as he expires and is cooked.
The debt limit bill – which Obama should declare unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on Congress having any law that would prevent the honoring of US debt – is already being sold in the media as needing major concessions to pass. And then next years budget will be another weekly give a little game. Obama did not have the guts to take the hit this time – let’s hope he grows a pair in the next few weeks – or lets Hillary run things as he goes on vacation.
There isn’t any federal funding for abortions. Is there? Wasn’t that defunded last year?
Who is going to tell the Tea Party?
Bachmann is lying by omission.
I don’t blame the T-GOP. If TanMan can get the WH to capitulate to beyond his initial bid, certainly the Koch’s can bus in a few tens of thousands of demonstrators in the next week to move the goalpost even further. Meanwhile, the WH is LaLa land:
The Boehn’s Big Deal? Let’s give credit where it’s due. It’s also the Bama’s Big Cave.
“More Democrats than Republicans voted against it.”
And Barry called it a “win.”
IMHO, you assume that Obama doesn’t want to make these Herbert Hoover domestic budget cuts.
Obama wants to do this in several chunks. That is the best way to lay it on the public. A chunk at a time.
The SOB needs to be impeached. He is a one man wrecking crew.
All available information points to this:
Obama’s actions are intentional.
1. Where the fuck were these people on two (now three) unfunded wars?
2. Where were these people on the Bush tax cuts?
3. If tax cuys are so good for jobs, where are the job over the last 10 years?
Will any of the Media (R) ever ask them those questions?
There hasn’t been federal funding for pregnancy termination since the Hyde amendment was first passed 35 years ago. Reality has no place in Republican, (and increasingly in Democratic) politics though.
Barry called HCR a win.
Instead of gutting programs in the name of fiscal austerity, raise revenues. Make everyone pay their fair share in the *&^%$#*@# name of ‘shared sacrifice.’ Make corporations pay their taxes instead of paying nothing. End the Bush tax cuts for the rich so they can share in the sacrifice by paying their fair share, too.
1. Cheering
2. Cheering louder
3. Overseas.
But you knew that. :)
Thanks for this, Teddy.
Of course Bachmann’s going to say it’s not enough. She’s setting up for the real fight, the debt limit — a fight that it looks like was deliberately set up by Obama by telling Harry Reid not to raise the debt limit back when the Dems still could via reconciliation last December.
Why would Obama do that? To please the people whose tens of millions in corporate and institutional donations he wants and needs for his 2012 election campaign.
Yup.
Obama seems actually quite pleased with himself to be cutting more money from the budget, with a disproportionate impact on the working poor and destitute. Oligarchs and plutocrats never suffer economic pain, do they? This is the government now being anti-stimulus toward the economy, a job busting dick move, and the president is happy, watch him smile. What a Cleveland steamer.
He’s going after his slice of the Citizen’s United Pie, a ruling that fully 80 percent of the country thinks is all fucked up but that Congress has eagerly embraced en masse.
For those of us who tweet, the hashtags to use are:
#ObamaCavesAgain (applicable to a variety of situations)
#DeathOf1000Cuts
#FeedtheZombies
Feel free to suggest your own. :-)
What is disappointing is the Tea Party is losing popular support eveyday but the Media morons pretent the tea party really counts…the tea party has rallies in only hundreds attending yet the Media acts like millions show up…when progressives rally with hundreds of thousands show up the Media will bearly cover the event..
Someone recently talked about the government creating a feeling of learned helplessness among progressives. Sounded just about right to me. No matter what we say, what we do, or what numbers we have, we are still helpless.
Gotta love Ben Sargent’s good ‘toon.
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/ben-sargent
Of course, the new “coat” isn’t just being made by GOP “tailors”; Barack Obama’s sewing up a storm, as we speak.
Yes, it is now becoming more obvious that he has been laying it on “a chunk at a time” since day one. From heath whatever care to each “budget battle”. We are being too kind in pointing out, what seems to be a shrunken “pair”, as papau, put it. He is “complicit”. Though I don’t know if it is impeachable, this seems methodical. Sounds dramatic, but his presidency is beginning to look like a coup. We should have known, when he sent out the “Harry and Louise” mailer in the primaries.
The Shrill One yesterday:
“Celebrating Defeat … it’s one thing for Obama to decide that it was better to give in to Republican hostage-taking than draw a line in the sand; it’s another for him to celebrate the result.”
The Dems could have passed a budget when they controlled the House. Did they? But, by all means focus on wacko Bachmann & the terrible meany Republicans who are trying to destroy America. Come on FDL, you’re much better than this crap.
BOTH Parties have abandoned the American people, Obama ran as a Democrat & the Dems still control the Senate. Since Obama was elected EVERYTHING he’s done favors Corporate Republicans. There is ONE reason any of us should believe this Budget isn’t just what Obama wanted. He’s a disgrace and so are Democratic lackeys who continually try to misdirect Dem. voters from the deplorable President we elected.
Just remember folks,come Nov. 2012 – those Republicans are BAAAAAD people, we have to stick together & vote the Party line, OR ELSE!
I thought Title X is still funded through Fed for life of the mother and rape and incest and this gets administered through Medicaid. So with no Medicaid, then there is no Fed funded termination. The health whatever bill was set up to defund Medicaid eventually and replace it with this whatever care. And Ryan’s 2012 budget proposes “block grants” for states to do what they want with it. Most won’t want to keep Medicaid, thus the final nail in the coffin to the meager protections of Hyde. Basically both sides are lying their ass off.
The hyper-ambitious Eric “Creep Vibe” Cantor is waiting in the wings to bludgeon The Boner into handing over the speaker’s gavel. That little sideshow, along with a potential catfight between Princess Tinfoil Hat and Princess Dumbass of the North, should make for some C-Grade comedy. Cheap entertainment at twice the price. (Well, if you don’t factor in the continuing destruction of the country, of course.)
Have I mentioned that these people are stone, fuck-nuts insane? No? Must have slipped my mind.
And the D’s, led by Barry, are soooo much better?
They support the majority of the voters?
If they did they’d have an unbeatable majority in our government.
Maybe the question might come up if Rachel Maddow replaces that clown David Gregory on MTP. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend holding your breath.
3. If tax cuys are so good for jobs, where are the job over the last 30
10years?FTFY. (Goes back to Reagan. I’ve been using arguments like this on the tax-cut nuts on my friendly newspaper comment pages.)
He should have been arm-twisting them on the budget last year, if he didn’t want to get to this spot.
As far as I’m concerned, if they can’t pass a budget on time, they should resign. At any level of government. Because they can’t do their jobs.
I don’t believe them insane. I believe them with a shred of decency and completely opportunistic.
If Palin believed she could get an advantage by fucking a moose, it would be on TV. Bachman will do anything for power.
That’s much worse than insane.
$39-billion is chump change compared to the financial hole the U.S. is digging, about a week’s worth of federal deficit.
from the Congressional Budget Office:
“The federal government incurred a budget deficit of $830 billion in the first six months of fiscal year 2011, CBO estimates—$113 billion more than the shortfall recorded in the same period last year. Outlays and revenues are both higher than they were last year at this time, by 11 percent and 7 percent, respectively.”
$830bn deficit in six months (Oct-Mar) is about $4.5bn per day. In was $8bn per day in February.
The federal deficit in March was $189 billion, CBO
estimates—$124 billion more than the deficit recorded
in the same month last year. While an improvement over February, it’s still $6bn per day. So $39B in debt was accumulated in about a week last month.
Note that while revenues are up by 7%, expenses are up by 11%.
The US debt/GDP ratio is rising rapidly, from 40% in 2008 to 97% currently. Multiple government sources including the current and previous presidents, the GAO, Treasury Department, and CBO have said the U.S. is on an unsustainable fiscal path. Current trends could add $10tn to debt by 2020.
Several European countries are going through this currently. Greece was asked to cut its deficit to 7.8% of its GDP to receive a bailout. US deficit/GDP is at ten percent.
European countries in trouble:
Debt as % of GDP
2009
Greece 112%
Ireland 65
UK 68
Spain 54
Portugal 77
Also in trouble:
US 97% (2011)
I am really getting tired of having to read what inconsequential people like Bachman and Paul have to say, as if it were amusing or mattered. So-called progressive sites are obsessed with these people. Maybe it’s just easier and funnier but it’s magnifying these reactionary forces, making them seem more powerful and organized than they are. Are there no progressive voices to report on? No proposed actions, responses, statements of outrage, criticisms from intelligent people or organizations to focus on?
Or maybe this is the result of the self-hating left having no platform, no program, no goals, no cohesion, no idea what to do.
How about this. Bachmann and her husband own two Christian counselling clinics. It’s not a stretch that a neighboring Planned Parenthood facility may be in direct competition, cuts into the profits of the Bachmann enterprises? After all, most Reps ultimately work for that which puts money in their own pockets.
This is so wrong that it must be the Obama Meme. Those other D’s are to blame. I noticed OBama blames everyone in the world but he himself is perfect in all ways and never makes mistakes.
Oilbama and his wars and his Romney Care and his Petey Peterson Bankster Crime Family, just made this failed Administration, Bushie Third Term. It is all about alternative energy. The corporations say there never will be any. It is all about the Oil and the wars that give neo-cons strength to carry on their insanity. Obama is insane.
Obama never really supported the Democrats who are also lesser people such as me. Obama threw the 2010 election to the Teabaggers. He will do the same in 2012. Obama Sycophants have only have a year and a half more of self deception.
Moose have standards, ya know.
8 States (HI, OR, WA, IL, LA, MD, VA, MA) moving to State of North Dakota bank model:
“US States creating their own banks-On the Edge with Max Keiser-04-08-2011-(part1)”
“US States creating their own banks-On the Edge with Max Keiser-04-08-2011-(part2)”
From “A Simple Example Of How Chinese Wage Inflation Can Hit American Consumers” (Apr. 9, 2011):
So the banksters made a mint selling your country out from under you so you can’t even control the prices you pay for goods as you no longer can make them yourselves. How’s that working out for you, America?
The budget deal was a big disappointment.
Obama was the disappointment.
“More Democrats than Republicans voted against it.” Probably because the rethugs know who the REAL leader of their party is.
Not the presidency. The government itself. It even has a name. The Reagan Revolution.
Not a bad summary of the coup’s beginnings at this link:
http://emayzine.com/lectures/1980S.htm
They have power. Do you? Do you vote in the halls of Congress?
They are followed because they are among the most dangerous, fanatical and powerful people on the planet. And they are either insane or they are the mouthpieces for the movement to destroy western society in favor of an international, corporate controlled, monopolistic fascism.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? First you must know your enemy.
I said, know your enemy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LvwzanCLCo
Austerity porn.
Everyone of those European countries have slash their budgets and the result is their economies are tanking. The only one that did not is Iceland, who are well on the road to recovery.
I will not vote for ANY Torie or Whig!!!!
“Come out of her my people, that you be not partakers of her sins and her plagues, for her sins have reached unto heaven.”
The point, as you are gathering, is not to succeed.
The nations must fail and get out of the way for the multinationals and their bankers, who find regulations vexing and taxes onerous.
They want no taxes – on themselves.
They want no protections – from themselves.
They seek tyranny.
After gutting the nation’s ability to manufacture, what do we export besides war, disasters, disaster recovery and financial fraud?
Whatever “our” multinationals are profiting from, other than the above-mentioned four items, one thing is certain. It isn’t manufactured here.
It’s manufactured by robots or the poor. It doesn’t matter which, so long as they don’t ask for a damn thing.
We export fascism.
OT, but…
If FDL would like an Edit button here (I know I would), I’d be happy to add one for you!
Tory.
Tories.
Not Torie.
Moar of teh koff-E, plez!
I think the plan is to suck every last drop out of the economy they can, then walkway.. They have already set up shops overseas in the developing world. Our economy is already gutted but they can still scavenge for awhile.
Funny/sad Obama’s whole re-election is going to come down to the economy and he is arrogant to see he is sabotaging chasing votes he will never get.
all of these cuts better = more good jobs for Americans
if they do not,
the people of the USA will start attacking the corporations and business lobbies, Wisconsin is yet again leading the way.
Me thinks there will be a lot of social un-rest in the USA soon
Gas prices are climbing toward $5.00 per gallon
Real USA un-employment is probably 20% among whites and 40% among non whites not good.
Obama is losing control of the Dem Party
Why? no one thinks a Clarence Thomas type of guy like Obama can win a Dem election
Obama? Yes he is a black president, and the GOP will make this clear come 2012, and the LIBERAL Dems who voted for Obama in 2008 probably will not vote for him 2012.
Black Candidates don’t get conservative votes, ask Colin Powell.
Gov. Walker actions in Wisconsin destroyed Obama 2012 campaign, does anyone thinks there is a middle in USA politics? anyone?
Some dude at Tea Party Nation says,:
Two days ago, I sent an open letter to Boehner about the budget impasse. In that letter, I told him, you have a great opportunity here. The Government Accounting Office, over a month ago, released a report identifying “hundreds of billions” in waste that could be eliminated from the Federal Budget. Where is Boehner on this? Where are any of the Republicans? No one has done anything with this. As I was talking to reporters yesterday, I mentioned this to several of them. They all remembered the story and were very surprised that no one in DC had done a thing with it. We could have a budget with hundreds of billions in cuts, at a time when we desperately need those cuts, and the cuts would have huge public support. No matter where you stand politically, almost no one favors their tax dollars be wasted.
(Emphasis mine)
This sort of reminds me of the healthcare debate, where neither the Democrats nor Republicans wanted to talke about the fact that we were paying about double for health care as First World Europeans, and getting worse results. And therefore, wouldn’t it be a swell thing to make any plan be judged on how close it came to cutting our total HC expenditures by 50%.
In other words, it was a ‘debate’ between two sets of liars, neither of which wanted real reform that put ordinary Americans, first, and both of whom relied on lies of omission.
The GAO has more credibility than either the Democratic or Republican parties. If either of those parties was worth a piece of spit, they would have jumped on the GAO report as an opportunity to cut pork and waste, while still exceeding Tea Baggers fondest hopes (which were $100 Billion, not $39 Billion) for this round. Oh, yeah, the fact that $100 B is much less than 100′s B suggests to me that the Tea Partiers had already adopted a compromise position. (No, I’m not sure how they came up with $100 B).
It’s dereliction of duty, and Orwellian framing, by both the D and R wings of the Big Business / War Party, as exemplified by the recent drama, that (partly) makes me not trust either party.
Here’s a challenge for the bleeding heart lefties out there, who just want to moan about cutting $39 billion from a budget that the GAO says could be cut by hundreds of billions: Can you find any lefty website talking about more could have been cut, while not (I presume; haven’t read the GAO report that the Teabagger guy refers to) diminishing the level of current services?
If not, what does that tell you about how responsible and rational such people are?
BTW, in a subsequent article, the same Tea Party guy says that Republican leadership wasn’t consulting with Tea Partiers (I suspect that they basically consider them a nuisance), and furthermore, wasn’t even consulting with mainstream GOP’ers in Congress.
=============
This article, Our Cowardly Congress in the NY Times gave what appeared to be a sane, balanced treatment of the budget drama, though he’s not interested in talking about the GAO report, either.
Looks to me like Boehner is using Tea Partiers as a form of leverage against the Democrats. However, the Tea Partiers may have the last laugh, if they take over the Republican Party, rather than have it coopt them. I certainly don’t think Boehner is going to fool many Tea Partiers, especially if they get their act together and force the electorate’s attention on the GAO report.
That would be a very smart move for them, and I have to wonder why they didn’t already do so. Maybe they’ll figure it out, and maybe they won’t, but right now it doesn’t appear likely.
Unfortunately, it appears even less likely that progressives would gain credibility by going the same route.
Why does anyone believe that there is a difference between Boehner and the other reactionaries?
The Democratic (progressive vote) against the first installment of this budget deal was nearly twice as large as the Republican opposition. But the Republicans get a lot more press trashing the agreement. As action speaks louder than words, this looks like they got what they wanted and are in agreement.
So, where’s the investment in seeing the verbal disagreements on the right as an indication that there’s a real disagreement?
What would we need to see to call the whole apparent division of the Boehner, Bachmann, Cantor crowd political theater? Where’s the suasive argument that this isn’t just a massive good cop – bad cop ploy on a national stage?
It’s not like Dick Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George “codpiece” Bush didn’t do theater.
The Bachmanns run Christian counselling clinics? Another blow against Christianity, in my opinion.
This would be a partial explanation for her zealousness about Planned Parenthood. I’m sure Michelle would love to get federal funds for counselling women about how all embryos are precious little snowflakes or whatever fairy tale she’s currently reading.
The U.S. under a Democratic president and congress doubled war spending and increased the national debt one-third in the short time the donkeys have been in control.
So don’t blame the Tea Party entirely. They are responding to a problem that has to be fixed and the Dems with their love for war spending are the biggest part of the problem.
In fact Senator Paul placed an anti-war rider on a recent bill and all 53 Dem senators voted against it.
* War
Afghanistan
Operation Enduring Freedom
FY09…..59.5
FY11….119.4 (requested)
–more war, and now Libya
*debt (billions)
2008 9654
2009 10413
2010 13954 +34%
*Economy (GDP)
2008 14441.4
2009 14119
2010 14508.2
– essentially flat
Bachman, like many on the right, is a disappointment to the idea of public service, intelligence and common sense,
saw Paul Ryan out doing the bidding of his corporate paymasters on the tv this morning, peddling his plan to curb stomp the poor and middle class while serving up tax cuts and more political power to the rich.
Ryan, Bachman and many others should not be public servants, in a world where things made senes they could not rise much past the ranks used car salesman/woman….but we don’t live in a world that makes sense now do we?
Heck no! thank goodness we’ve got Obama to represent and protect the interests of our kids & grand-kids!
Except, the economy isn’t “essentially flat”. Subtract the Gov’t. borrowing & money printing & it too is in the tank.
.
Obama wouldn’t do it if there was one iota of evidence the Dems who are railing against his performance might actually vote for someone else. But, hey, it’s all one great big happy tribe, right? Of course there’s going to be squabbles, but in the end Obama can count on FDLers to toe the line.
By comparison, here’s what Democrat Congressman Jim Himes has to say:
Ryan’s plan is “an opening statement for a negotiation that we need to have. I’ve been on record now for a couple months saying I’d support the Simpson Bowles proposal.”
http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/node/12031
There are Democrats who support the financial blitzkrieg, they only differ with Republicans on time schedule and chosen route.
Have politicians always been this blatantly idiotic? Seems like it’s getting worse.
heh… thanks for that reminder. I did know that but forgot, so yeah: the bigger picture here is that Bachmann doesn’t want the *competition* that PP provides against her demonizing clinics.
Figures. Just like all these conservatives who rail against public schools bc they want to *make money* (from our taxes, of course) in setting up and running charter schools.
The so-called “Tea Party” is a wholly-owned “front” of the Koch family, who funds the so-called “Tea Party” as a “beard” for what the upper 1% is doing, which is (to put it in a nutshell): ripping off the lower 99% of the population.
Having an expectation that the T-Party is actually “independent” of the Republicans & the likes of Elites like Koch, is a fictional fairy tale. I “get it” the T-Party “voters” are probably quite sincere in their belief systems, but they are being swindled and used to further enable what the upper 1% wants.
Is there “waste” in the govt that could be “cut” to “save money”? I’m sure there is. But cutting and cutting and cutting is not the way to stimulate our economy, nor will it grow jobs for citizens who have lost jobs and cannot find any.
I sincerely doubt that real tea party voters will have any more sway or influence that real liberal/progressive voters do. We are all just serfs, whose lives and issues are meaningless to the Masters of the Univers (MOTU). What you see going on in Congress, including the likes of someone like Bachmann declaiming in her “off with their heads” way, is what most of us around here call: Kabuki Show. The so-called “two party system” doesn’t exist, and neither, really, does the T-Party. It’s all just “theater.”
You mean that there’s a “difference”??? /not exactly snark
They’re not “idiotic,” they’re wholly owned by their corporate masters, like the Kochs. What they’re doing is just Kabuki show to “entertain” and/or fool the masses into believing that they are “working for the voters.” Couldn’t be further from the truth.
have much respect for the Tea Party, they have the ear of the congress and more importantly the respect of the republican party. The republicans actually fear this small group of citizens and legislators and that is why they are getting what they want. The differences btwn the Tea Party and the Progressives are night and day. We have our facts and our intelligent points but we dont have any courage of our convictions. The Tea Party may be full of wingbats but they believe what they stand for and they will fight for what they believe. A republican president wld not dare disrespect them the way Obama has disrespected us. The Tea Party wld never allow a candidate that they put in office to run to the center or the left without consequences, most of us progressives are going to complain about Obama and then tell everyone we know we have to vote for him. We can laugh and ridicule the T baggers all we want but the truth is they are handing us our lunch.
Yep, the dems cldve avoided this budget battle when they had the majority but chose not to. It is a familiar theme with Obama and the Dems, they dont want to do this but those republicans are making them. Truth is, both parties are on the same team. The republicans are going to make Obama cut SSI and Medicare as well as defund his own healthcare plan in order for them to sign off on raising the debt ceiling. In four months they have gotten the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy extended, the Colombian Free Trade Pact signed, and now $38.5 billion in spending cuts. This is not by accident this is by choice.
Austerity porn.
I hadn’t heard that before. Really like it. Succinct.
Well said onitgoes,
I am so sick of seemingly intelligent people attempting to engage me in dialogues about nonexistent choices, over nonexistent controversies, within absurd topics.
NO, the elites no longer get to frame the topic!
It is tantamount to being spit on and called stupid.
Well, if you’re in a rush, the Republicans will get us to hell in time for the early bird special.
Democrats will take longer, they obey the speed limit and will prolly stop for a picnic along the river styx.
BRAVO, I AGREE COMPLETELY! Isn’t it curious how little discussion this merits on this “Progressive” site?
And until we let him know he cant count on our votes in 2012 he is going to keep doing this crap. Every progressive pundit out there is still committed to his reelection. Sad.
Please prove your contention that “the” Tea Party is a wholly owned front of the Koch family.
Please don’t forget to tell us why, in their evil genius wisdom, the created competing Tea Party factions, which bumped heads with each other, and in one northern state, split the Tea Party’ish votes so much that a mainstream GOP’er won.
Bald assertion of hugely improbable conspiracy theories is not a proof.
If you can’t manage proof, then try a convincing plausability argument.
Your post has some merit, but by vastly overstating the case, it’s frankly hard to take you seriously. The 2 parties do, in fact, engage in a bit of Kabuki. (See, e.g., diaries by John Emerson at OpenLeft.com re Indispensable Enemies). To say that that’s all they do, however, is BS.
I personally like the crime family analogy. Crime families do indeed cooperate. They also compete. No huge mystery, here.
I think the Tea Parties are, indeed, much more aggressive than progressives, and this explains their greater success. However, even they haven’t been smart enough and/or brave enough to make a commitment to throwing some Republicans who they don’t like, under the bus, during a general election. AFAIK, they’ve only been electorally aggressive during primaries. (Which is indeed, the weak spot of the corrupted system for both Dems and Repubs. However, it shouldn’t be the only point of attack!).
I’m going to be writing a diary addressed to the Tea Party, which will essentially be the reflection of a diary addressed to progressives, which basically outlines the same strategy, but naturally translated to the Republican Party. I wrote about that in Recommended Short and Long Term Voting Strategies for the Dump Obama Movement
I don’t know how long it will take progressives to get organized and electorally aggressive, to the point that the Tea Parties have already attained. (If unions weren’t so coopted by the Democrats, then they could probably quickly outflank Tea Party groups. Unfortunately, we can see just how useful the unions are…) However, there’s no point in Tea Partiers being strategically foolish, not from their perspective, and not from mine, either. In spite of misgivings about the degree to which they’ve been manipulated and misinformed, I believe that their impulses are, by and large, fundamentally good. They have already gotten the attention of some progressives as to what strategic lessons progressives can learn.
If the Tea Parties have to also teach progressives the virtues of dumping legacy party candidates to whose party they are closest to (Repubs for Tea Partiers, Dems for progressives), well so be it.
Of course, first they have to learn that lesson, themselves. Perhaps my forthcoming diary will help propel them in that direction.
The Democratic and Republican Party no longer serve the interests of the American people. To begin to take the country back, some politician needs to run on these (beyond left vs. right) ideas and WIN.
1. End Political Corruption – enact the Fair Elections Now Act. Strictly voluntary. Matching funds. $100.00 maximum donation. Ban politicians from becoming lobbyists
2. End The Wars – (another form of corporate welfare). Immediately pull out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen
3. Put Millions Back To Work – Federal government invest $2 trillion over 10 years through a national infrastructure bank (run by engineers, not politicians) to create jobs now and increase productivity later. Fund with a millionaire’s tax
4. Balance The Budget – over time by cutting the defense budget, end agricultural subsidies, stop corporate welfare, raise taxes on the super-rich, contain the explosion of health-care costs by adding the public option, allow Medicare to purchase drugs, give MEDPAC wider authority and allow drug re-importation
5. End National Addiction To Oil – begin with a carbon tax to reduce consumption, increase energy efficiency and make alternative energy more cost-competitive. Revenues generated should go to reducing payroll taxes to stimulate employment
6. Keep Social Security Solvent For Generations – raise the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security tax to $180,000. Congress could gradually slow the growth of benefits for middle and high earners while still allowing these benefits to rise in terms of absolute dollars and purchasing power. Lower-wage earners would receive everything they are now promised. Eliminate $4.8 trillion long-term deficit
7. End Bank Monopoly – break up the big banks, strengthen the Volker Rule, end the foreclosure crisis by giving bankruptcy judges the power to order reductions in mortgage principal owed
8. Encourage Upward Mobility In Society – make higher education free to families that can’t afford it. Fund with a financial transactions and bank tax