Four More Years Starts Today
By louisehartmann
As many as a million Americans gathered on our National Mall today, to watch Barack Obama be publicly sworn in to serve his second term as President of the United States. And he rides into his second term with a mandate – as the only President since Dwight Eisenhower to be elected twice with 51% of the vote. But if there’s one thing the President learned from his first term, it’s that Republicans will at all costs destroy whatever mandate he’s earned.
In fact, on this day, four years ago, Republicans gathered at a fancy steakhouse in Washington, DC, just as President Obama was attending the inaugural balls. The likes of Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, and Frank Luntz all attended this meeting. And the purpose of the meeting was simple: How to destroy the Obama Presidency and retake the White House in four years. That night – Republicans committed themselves to four years of obstruction and economic sabotage. And that’s exactly what they did – even though it didn’t work out for them in the end.
Today, the question is – what are Republicans plotting now? How will they sabotage the President’s second term? Let’s hope the President has learned lessons from the first term, and accepts that he’s facing a loyal opposition in the Republican Party. He’s facing economic terrorists – and the only way he can succeed is by taking the debate to the American people, using his bully pulpit, and shaming the fossils on the Right who serve the Billionaire Class.
Comments
#2
MMMMmmmmNachos: Right on! and you're making me hungry. mmmmmNachos and jalepeno cheeze dip, yummy!
Old Blue: Right on, as ever!
#3
IMaude: I rather enjoy Michael Hudson, the economist. His web site: http://michael-hudson.com/
But, thank you for that tip on web site. It looks like it is very interesting and well worth reading.
I know that Thom has had on Michael Hudson, the economist, before...but not often enough. IMNSHO
I'd like to see Stephanie Kelton on his show as well.
#4
Old Blue - MMT does not advocate "printing money". This is a common misconception. What MMT does state is that the restraint on government spending is inflation, not debt or the deficit. There are several aspects of MMT that are important to grasp;
1) Government deficit = private sector surplus
2) Taxes do not fund government, they act as the break on an expanding money supply. In other words, they subtract money from the supply in the economy. Therefore, a government surplus means they are taking money out of the economy which equals recession. Even a balanced budget (taxes taken in equal spending) would mean the government is adding zero money to the economy, therefore zero growth - or even recession because of leakage (private sector savings, and import imbalance taking money out of circulation)
3) Money does not exist in the economy until the government spends it. They are the monopoly issuer. For 2011 the percent of government spending to GDP was 38.9%. If you agree that spending in an economy creates growth, then take any portion of that percent out and you have recession.
4) We currently have an output gap in our economy of around 25-30%. This is idle manufacturing and 23 million unemployed. The danger of inflation from our government spending (printing) money into the economy is non-existent. What causes inflation is a scarcity of resources, not money.
There are many issues in our economy that need to be addressed, but for us to simply misunderstand our own fiat currency is creating many of the problems that we face.
#5
Michael Hudson is also a contributer on New Economic Perspectives.
#6
IMaude: Yes, I see that...and William K. Black is a very frequent contributor...great!!!
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By webmaster
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Another was that Afghanistan was harboring Usama bin Laden and Al Qaida, who had, they believed, been behind some Embassy bombings and the bombing of the USS Cole... The Khobar Towers bombing in Dharan, Saudi Arabia...etc. And then there was the rift between Saddam Husein, who had threatened little Bush's daddy and threatened to get off the dollars for oil standard (would have been very terrible for the US..and other OPEC nations are considering just that..wrecking the US economy and superiority and ability to get other countries to pay for America's wars..like China).
And it wasn't just Bush anyway...it was the same forces that now controls Obama...it was the plutocratic forces behind him who wanted control of Middle East oil and a way to squeeze 90% of Americans out of their wealth..increased taxes to the lower classes and destroy social programs. It facilitated the cover up of decades of criminal business practices...took away people's liberties and freedoms and any say in bringing these criminals to justice. Justice?..9/11 destroyed that.
Just like Peal Harbor...where FDR needed a way to break the American people out of their refusal to go along with going to war.. so they followed the McCollum plan to push Japan to attack us. The plan was to antagonize Japan to the breaking point that they really had little other choice but to attack. In effect, the US declared war on Japan first but using antagonist actions that could be more covert than an all out declaration of war. Japan was also trying to expand it's influences and control over that part of the world..Operation Golden Lily (sacking of the far east), Nanking beheadings, Manchurian Biological warfare experimentation...was much to be concerned about. But what was it that really made Japan such an aggressive country? What was the root of the problem? You probably know...being the history buff you are. Why do school kids shoot other kids in school? The feeling that they've been excluded, ostracized, made fun of, treated unfairly, made to feel inferior, pushed into a corner by arrogant bullies. And when you finally do fight back, say with an AK-47 and you manage to kill a lot more than just the original bullies, you are deemed a wacko...which you probably are by now anyway. So why does our system create such wackos to begin with? Maybe we should start questioning and reforming our system that creates wackos.
Many US actions against Arab nations have a long history of being antagonistic against them and when they try to fight back, in any way they can, the US finds a way to break their American citizens out of their anti-war sentiments. They create a false flag...everything from throwing down a red carpet for these 20 so-called 'hijackers' to get into the country (only the last 'hijacker' was stopped by a border control agent who wouldn't 'play the game' as set down by his chain of command). Training them at flight schools. Having a military exercise including the scenario of the WTC towers and the Pentagon being hit by hijacked planes (this is done so that the confusion would be enough to make those who aren't in on the actual attack think it was just a drill).
Ken, you must speak Arabic fluently. How else would you have understood what Usama bin Laden was saying about 9/11? Usama bin Laden also had many doubles...how do you know that the one that you heard was the real one? How do you know that what he said was what you were told he said? There are very easy ways to dub in voices in videos as well. How can we really believe anything that these organizations like the CIA, NSA, or even the military has to present in the way of evidence when they have the ability to create any audio/visual presentation they want. I mean if they can fake a picture of Oswald standing and holding a rifle they can certainly fake a voice saying anything in Arabic, even if one can understand Arabic, and most certainly can mis-translate what is being said. Millions of frightened, xenophobic Americans are more than willing to believe what they are told he said.
If our country was willing to sacrifice the many, many more deaths by sending troops over to die in the Middle East then why would anyone doubt that these same people would sacrifice several thousand people in a false flag operation? What they got was, to them, well worth the sacrifice...to them...but not to our country..to the rest of us.
And there is even the remote possibility that the US has been playing a grand chess game from the very beginning in order to control the world's oil. Their plan: create the illusion that there are 'terrorist operations' that go around bombing embassies, ships, and barracks, etc... that reinforces their propaganda that we have to be afraid, very afraid of 'terrorists'...especially Radical Muslim terrorists. This all creates the fears and hatreds in the world's subjects...especially American subjects...that, and the grand finale of bringing the WTC towers down, and hitting the Pentagon, as a final statement as to why we needed to invade the Middle East allowed for the eventual unprovoked and illegal invasion and control of the Middle East oil fields.