It’s time for the Democrats to be that Party again...
And Republicans are openly acknowledging they have a much weaker hand post-election. One of the top Conservative thinkers, the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, criticized his party on Sunday morning for its obsession with defending tax cuts for the rich. Kristol advised Republicans to take President Obama’s deal to immediately pass a tax cut extension for 98% of Americans while allowing the top tax rate on the richest 2% to go up. Kristol said, “It won’t kill the country if Republicans raise taxes a little bit on millionaires…the Republican party is gonna fall on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires, half of whom voted Democratic, and half of whom live in Hollywood and are hostile to Republicans?”
Kristol is right – though he’s forgetting the pledge of allegiance the Republican Party has sworn to anti-tax master and millionaire K-Street lobbyist Grover Norquist. But if Democrats hold firm and let everyone’s taxes go up after January 1st, then Norquist’s pledge is irrelevant and Republicans won’t have a choice but to extend tax cuts for the middle class. Everyone needs to keep an eye on what happens over the next few weeks. And Democrats in particular need to remember they have the upper hand in this fight and they should not compromise on their principles. That means no grand bargain that shreds Social Security, Medicare, and social welfare programs for the poor.
As President Franklin Roosevelt said in 1940, “the Democratic Party has received the support of the electorate only when the party, with absolute clarity, has been the champion of progressive and liberal policies and principles of government.” It’s time for the Democrats to be that Party again.
Comments
Chris Hedges has the clearest understanding of what is going on and what will transpire...
"Liberals have assured us that after the election they will build a movement to hold the president accountable—although how or when or what this movement will look like they cannot say. They didn’t hold him accountable during his first term. They won’t during his second. "
"Liberals, by voting for Barack Obama, betrayed the core values they use to define themselves—the rule of law, the safeguarding of civil liberties, the protection of unions, the preservation of social welfare programs, environmental accords, financial regulation, a defiance of unjust war and torture, and the abolition of drone wars."
"....most Americans (like) to think of themselves as good and virtuous when they are, in reality, members of an efficient race of killers and ruthless profiteers."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/once_again_--_death_of_the_liberal_c...
Well Kend if you don't know what Pres. Obama's plans are, you haven't been paying attention.
Wheather or not he'll hang tough is a question worth asking though.
Tax rates?
I vote, Raise them on the top end............AND close loop holes.
The Tea Party Republicans are an unstable group. I expect them to attempt to sabotage any efforts on the part of the Republican leaders to work with the Democratic Party. The Tea Party leaders are more like terrorists or anarchists than patriots. They would prefer to see the nation collapse financially than to compromise to move forward. I hope that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will find a way to keep them in check for no other reason than the survival of the union. The Tea Party folks remind me a bit of the people who formed the Conferderacy, they would rather stand alone than support the unity of the nation. They seem to not want the majority to rule. And they are a nasty bunch. It is as if they believe they are the only people who know anything. I have challenged those I have met to explain to me their understanding of the freedoms protected under the United States Constitution. The only clause that means anything to them is the 2nd and 10th amendment. What a bunch of uninformed citizens.
Obama has his 21-point plan already in the mail and it is SWEET!! Music to our ears!! Obama's win will not stop the New Right of Paul Weyrich and their Theocracy/Oligarchy attempt to overthrow Democracy; but, we will have 2 years to get ready to rid our states of as many ALEC members as possible. Then, hopefully, the Real old-fashioned Republicans can fight to regain their platform/laws and we can return to normal. Unfortunately, we continue to deceive the average republican that their leaders are republicans, lol. One day - soon, we hope - they will understand that their party is gone - having been takenover by these jackels called "The New Right" of Paul Weyrich!!
Apparently you missed President Obama's plans to go on the road to "Sell" this plan of cutting everyone's social programs, while taxing the rich a smidge. Wall Street is slavering to serve grandma catfood while giving Pandit another $15.4 million for dragging Citi's stock value down about 88%.
I guess we're supposed to pay for that among other WS spending sprees. The Gilded Age returneth.
Apparently, NO ONE got the message that most of the population, including republcians want their SS, Medicare and Medicaid. Not too surprised that Obama is already throwing his base under the bus before he loses his ideal congress
We don't care that they borrowed it for war, we want our money.
Thom,
Do you get a copy of all the Republican BS that goes around in emails? I got one today that you might want to see. Just let me know! judithlee2@verizon.net. It's attacks how we all say that Obama took over in 2009 from a failed economy caused by Bush and the Republicans. This email says that the economy started failing in 2007 when the Democrats started being the majority in congress, and because of the actions they, the Democrats, took.
It starts off with a fake sacharine letter from a fake 63 year old businessman turning down his fake college student granddaughter's request for money, because, due to Obama, they no longer have money. It's a real tear jerker. Or a vomit jerker, depending on your POV.
Judy
RS, I am serious, I guess I wasn't paying attension. Besides taxing the rich what is the plan to put people back to work. Please enlighten me, I never get a response to this question. I am starting to think there is know answer.
And now Rush should pack his bags. He promised to move out of the country if Obama won. I'll help buy a ticket on a slow boat to South America.
Let him try and spread his stuff down there.
You are absolutely spot on Thom. Let us not forget not to long ago how the GOP rubber stamped every issue George W Bush ran by them. Bush Cheny did not give a damn what anybody thought. They were in power and and goverened with a heavy hand. Obama needs to do exactly the same. The votes are in and the majority is fed up with catering to the rich and powerful. I hope this time around Obama will lose fear of reprisal by offending the far right. The GOP has been on hyper drive to knock down a very good man. If they don't tow the line and support WE THE PEOPLE I say let the Excecutive orders FLY!!!
In my opinion Cantor and his Teapublican reps will continue their economic terrorism for two more years and then fade into history known as one of the most stubborn, radical, manipulated, and narrow minded group of so called representatives ever to have despoiled our fine country.
This Republican obstruction could have ended on election day, had more candidates followed Alan Grayson's election strategy....... simple and concise exposure of the Ryan Budget Plan. This plan truly was the Tea Party's achilles heel, as I've been saying for months..... lots of missed opportunity here.
Protest wherever these tea- bagger reps show up, call and email their offices. Let em know we're not going to tolerate their manipulation by, and representation of, only a handful of billionaires any longer.
Thom, you’re crazy if you think this is about the people! Obama only cares about his legacy and how it will read as the first black American to be president and the National Health program he put together. Why is it he said he left part of the healthcare bill undone until his re-election? Nothing has changed in Washington. Same president, same House of Rep. and same Senate. So what is going to change except the Republicans are more resentful and hateful then before the election they thought they could buy? Now they (Repub.) are talking about extending the budget and fixing it when we have a new congress. I understand why you write this crap (and it does not seem like you even write it your wife does), it is your job to keep the listeners fired up so they can hear more progressive rabble, that is how you get paid the bucks you make! So if anyone knows what is different today than it was last Monday please let me know, because it all looks and sounds the same to me!
Palindromedary-Sounds like your talking about the Conservatives in the Republican party not the liberals! Who started the last two wars for OIL and PROFIT for the military industrial complex that builds are the weapons this country used to kill more than a 1,000,000 civilians in Iraq and Afghanastan? I believe it WAS Bush and Cheney the war criminals and they fit your description more so then the Liberals you hate so much!
Kend-Where else will the Chinese spend their money that they make selling us goods. If we fail, they know they will fail. Japan owes a greater debt then we do per capita compared to their GNP and they are doing okay...The sky is falling, the sky is falling cried chicken little!!! Taxing the wealthy will not fix the problem by itself, but is a good start. Taxes were higher under Clinton and we were doing great until Bush lowered the tax rate on his political donors and allowed Wall St. to get away with what they did to the world with bogus derivitives from bad mortgages!
Thom, doesn't submitted by Louise Hartmann mean she wrote this blog?
Oliver Stone was on Piers Morgan today and Mr. Stone was fantastic in his assessment of the Gen. Petraeus affair and just what Mr. Stone thought of this guy and the US wars in the Middle East. After what the damn Republicans did to Bill Clinton on the Monica Lewinski affair Gen. Petraeus shouldn't get off easy. I get a chuckle out of some of the comments I hear on the various news stations...where they sound like they are doing a PR job in trying to preserve Petraeus' "good?" name.
I am really looking forward to Oliver Stone's new movie..."The Untold History of the United States"...named after his book...should be a blockbuster!
Now that the election is over you can take off your Obama glasses and wake up!! Social security, Medicare, and Medicaid are going broke. And class warfare, and raising more taxes will not come close to a fix. He told you that he will fundamentally change this country and nobody listened. Why the Libs wanted to drag us down this socialist path I will never know. We are losing this country to the weak, pop culture, "give me what I want now" society. I think the individual states are going to have to stand up to this bald faced stomp on the constitution tyrannical federal government.
Hear hear! Extending tax cuts for 98% of Americans should not be seen in any way, shape or form as raising taxes! And btw, social security is not broke, it has a surplus. What has changed is that the American people have spoken out strongly against big money, which they had not done since Citizens United. When that happened, we not only maintained liberal numbers in the senate and house, but increased them. Our best hope is that the people continue to do speak.
Letting the rich have more money only lines their bank accounts. Asking them to cover more of the roads, education, protections and economic infrastructure that allows them to have their business helps put that money back into circulation, stimulating the economy. Rich people don't create jobs, consumers and demand for goods creates jobs. History shows this to be true, which Thom has talked about many times.
damn, you hit that target rite on the head !
we really should also be thinking about doing whatever it takes to make sure that 2016 will also keep following the same agenda of keeping the right wing out and stripping them of all of their power. !
isn't it just sooo typical and sleezy as usual how the right wing operates ? of corse and I dont expect less from them. !
after all that we know to be the truth, you are still sooooo lost pal. !
No my friend you are the one who has lost your will for a free people, you would rather force other people to give up their property for the good of the collective. The sovereign individual is in real danger of being lost and destroyed right in front of your eyes. We are creating a bigger and bigger welfare state where people have lost the will to live life to the fullest but would rather be a dependent subject to the state just as Alexis de Touqueville wrote about. Hope you are prepared for the police state when the armed IRS agents canvas the neighborhoods of your state knocking on doors demanding to see proof that you have your health insurance. That is only the first pillar of total control of your thwarted existence. Land Of the not so free home of the slave.
I get pretty sick of hearing the Faux News line that taxing the rich won't fix the national deficit. They always put it in terms of the tax take from ONLY the rich and the shortfall that will have in clearing away the deficit IN ONE YEAR. Obviously Republicans don't think about the lie of any country trying to clear all of a recession busting deficit IN ONE YEAR. They just keep drinking the corporate Kool-Aid.
@Kend: To create jobs there has to be demand for goods and services. Here in Australia, our government understands that, and stimulated the economy by handing the stimulus money to consumers. A move that they were resoundingly criticised for here, by the local conservatives, and loudly praised for, by economists all over the world. In the US and EU, they handed the money to the supply side and......Nothing happened. The supply siders just salted it away in the Caymans in secret accounts, while they continued to sack workers because there was no demand. Giving tax breaks to the corporations and the wealthy DOES NOT CREATE JOBS. Only demand creates jobs, and demand comes from consumers. In order for consumers to consume, they have to have some disposable income. The corporate "geniuses" keep pushing wages and conditions down and then wonder why demand dries up. They can't see further than next year's bonus.
just as i said before , you just proved that YOU ARE A LOST SOUL. !
you think I am lost because I choose liberty over tyranny. you and all like you are have given up on what made this country great. Just admit it that you are a socialist and you live only for the collective, the federal government and the democratic Party is your master.
You are right you have to create demand for goods and services. Here in Canada we gave tax breaks to consumers to put in new furnaces, air conditoners, windows etc. I know because I took advantage of it. It helped small business and the enviroment at the same time. The US just wasted billions giving green companies hand outs and as soon as the cheese ran out the companies failed. I can't complain as a Canadian no one has recovered better than us. By the way it was with a converatice Government.
At this historical time in our nation, I hereby renew my pledge to give Obama one of my testicles. In spite of his big talk- he talked big before, if you remember, and then he gave away almost the entire farm. Hopefully there's enough mojo in my nut, to give him the courage to actually do the right thing, which is to tell Boehner to kiss his ass- in fact, tell ALL of the republicans to kiss his ass, that they are not taking America hostage again, and that this time WE AMERICANS get the bailout, and the hyper-wealthy transnational thieves can pay for it, or they can move their banks out of our country and we will start our own banks, and they can move their stock market out of our country, and we will start our own stock market.
Boehner and all the rest of the traitorous republican fascists belong in North Korea or China: if it has feathers like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably IS a duck. Either that, or a fascist traitor who has sold out his own country.
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The Republicans are going to go only with the tax breaks for the rich as they know it will not help the country hardly at all and make Qbama look bad. That liitle bit of money doesn't even scratch the surface of the debt problem, but its better than nothing. After that what is Obama's plan? Does any body know?
Maybe tax the dead? Tax children? Tax pets? Every American is in debt $51,000 and if you live in New York add $16,000 to that. Greece only owes $39,000 per person and know one will lend them money. How long befroe the Chinese say no more to the US, then what? Food stamps for the Government?