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Friday, July 29, 2011

Obama's Concessions To GOP Contributed To Debt Crisis: There's Still Hope














Are Democrats Totally Blameless In This Debt Ceiling Crisis Fiasco?

NO!

Here's Why Democrats, Progressives & Independents Are Angry At Pres. Obama.

The ONLY Reason Republicans Were Able To Win Back The House Was Because Democrats Including Pres. Obama, Failed To Do What They Said They Would Do If Democrats Ruled Both Chambers.

Example:

When Drafting The STIMULUS Bill, Pres. Obama Conceded To GOP Members (Olympia Snowe & Susan Collins) By Including MAJOR TAX CUTS In The Bill & By Short Changing Minority-Owned Small Businesses.

Is That What Democrats & Pres. Obama Ran On In 2008?

NO!!

When Drafting The Affordable Health Care Bill, Pres. Obama Conceded To The GOP & Health Insurance Companies On A Public Option.

Is That What Democrats & Pres. Obama Ran On In 2008?

NO!!

When Extending Unemployment Benefits Last Fall, Pres. Obama Conceded To The GOP By Extending BUSH TAX CUTS.

Is That What Democrats & Pres. Obama Ran On In 2008?

NO!!!

So You See If Pres. Obama & Fellow Congressional Democrats Had Been RADICAL Enough To Help Look Out For The American Middle Class, Ending G.W. Bush's Tax Cuts, Reforming The U.S. Tax Code, Creating Jobs, Creating An W.P.A. Infrastructure Jobs Programs, Repealing No Child Left Behind Because It Stinks, Protecting Medicare & Medicaid, Protecting Labor Unions, Collective Bargaining Rights & Workers' Rights, Stopping Employment Discrimination (Age & Race), Helping To Prevent Big Banks From Foreclosing On Millions Of Homeowners, etc.,

Then.....

There Is Absolutely NO Way Tea Party Candidates Could Have Flooded The U.S. House Of Representatives Last Fall & Knocked Nancy Pelosi From Her Throne Last November.

Instead All For The Sake Of "Bi-Partsianship" Pres. Obama Placated GOP Congressional Members & Conceded To Whatever They Asked For.

I Too Became Super Angry With Pres. Obama & Democrats Last Fall.

I Too Became Impatient.

At This Point I Have Forgiven Pres. Obama & The Democratic Party.

However After Pres. Obama Is Re-elected In 2012 & Democrats Are Back In Power, Things Must CHANGE For Real NOT Just In Words Only!!

The American People Are Tired Of Broken Promises.

We Want Real CHANGE!

NOT Politics As Usual!

In Other Words Its Time For Pres. Obama & Democrats To STOP Catering To The GOP & Become RADICAL Enough To Protect Middle Class Voters, Senior Citizen Voters, Minority Voters (Including Hispanics), College Students, Homeowners, Over-Taxed Tax Payers & Children From Low Income Homes!

Versus Just Looking Out For Wall Street & People From Higher Income Brackets.

I Repeat: The American People Are Tired Of Broken Promises.

We Want Real CHANGE!

Since We Did NOT See Any REAL Change (Only A Little), Thus Pres. Obama & Democrats Share Some Blame In Tea Party Candidates Now Holding The U.S. Economy Hostage.

So Where Does America Stand Now?

Here Are A Few Suggestions:

1) Every Citizen Of This Nation Needs To PRAY! Pray Until Something Happens! Something Constructive NOT Destructive!

PRAY For Pres. Obama, Harry Reid & John Boehner.

God's Word Tells Us To PRAY For Our Leaders NOT Bash Them!

1 Timothy 2:1-4:

1) FIRST OF all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men,

2) For kings and all who are in positions of authority or high responsibility, that outwardly we may pass a quiet and undisturbed life and inwardly a peaceable one in all godliness and reverence and seriousness in every way.

3) For such praying is good and right, and it is pleasing and acceptable to God our Savior,

4) Who wishes all men to be saved and increasingly to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely and correctly the divine Truth.


2) Please STOP With All Of The Spending Cuts!

Pres. Obama Sir Why Aren't You Pushing For A Clean Debt Ceiling Vote?

Why Didn't You DEMAND A Debt Ceiling Vote?

In A Fragile Economy Spending Cuts Often Cause More Harm Than Good.

Where Were The Cries For "Deficit Reduction" When George W. Bush Created 3 Wars, Medicare Advantage, Established Tax Cuts For Wealthiest Citizens & When He Deregulated Wall Street?

Where Was The Tea Party, Michelle Bachmann & Sarah Palin Then????

Furthermore Those Spending Cuts Are Nothing More Than The Tea Party's Way Of Defunding Pres. Obama's Administration So He Can't Help Create Jobs & Bring Down The Unemployment Rate Before 2012.

Its A Scam & The American People Know It!

I Repeat: STOP With All The Spending Cuts!!!!

3) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Needs To STOP Waiting On Boehner's Bill To NEVER Reach The Senate (Because It Won't!) & Proceed With Getting Votes For HIS Bill Instead.

After All Senator Reid's Plan Is Much Less Destructive To The American Economy Than Boehner's.

4) Pres. Obama Needs To STOP Placating To GOP Congressional Who ONLY Want To See Him Destroyed & His Presidency Erased.

He Needs To Get Out & Began Spreading More HOPE To The American People.

Even Though He Wasn't RADICAL Enough To Help Protect Middle Class Voters, Senior Citizen Voters, Minority Voters (Including Hispanics), College Students, Homeowners, Over-Taxed Tax Payers & Children From Low Income Homes, During His First 2 1/2 Years In Office, Its NOT Too Late For Him To Keep Connecting With Constituents & Voters NOW.

Pres. Obama Needs To STOP Allowing The GOP To Slow Him Down!

If He Does NOT Get Back On The Trail Then How Will He Regain His Constituents' Confidence?

Do What Pres. Bill Clinton Did By Doing What Needs To Be Done For The American People Versus Sitting Around Debating & Talking!!

JUST DO IT OBAMA!

JUST DO IT!!

5) Pres. Obama Needs To Use Every Tool He Has In His Executive Order Tool Kit To Help Create Jobs, STOP Employment Discrimination (Age & Racial), Stop Voting Rights Violations, Stop Gas Speculation On Wall Street, Overhaul No Child Left Behind & Stop Or Slowdown Foreclosures.

6) Last But NOT Least, Pres. Obama Needs To Allow His 2012 Campaign Staff To Go Full Steam Ahead!

Including Allowing David Axelrod To Begin Speaking Out To Defend His Administration.

i.e, Start Another Constructive Movement (Democrats & Independents) To Outshine, Counteract & Eliminate The GOP's Destructive Tea Party Movement.

While Its True That GOP Tea Party Has Screwed Up Our Economy, I Still Believe Its NOT Too Late To Turn Things Around!

JUST DO IT PRES. OBAMA!

WITH GOD'S HELP JUST DO IT!

Vote Obama in 2012 & Rehire Pelosi!!!!






The Centrist Cop-Out

The facts of the crisis over the debt ceiling aren’t complicated. Republicans have, in effect, taken America hostage, threatening to undermine the economy and disrupt the essential business of government unless they get policy concessions they would never have been able to enact through legislation. And Democrats — who would have been justified in rejecting this extortion altogether — have, in fact, gone a long way toward meeting those Republican demands.

As I said, it’s not complicated. Yet many people in the news media apparently can’t bring themselves to acknowledge this simple reality. News reports portray the parties as equally intransigent; pundits fantasize about some kind of “centrist” uprising, as if the problem was too much partisanship on both sides.

Some of us have long complained about the cult of “balance,” the insistence on portraying both parties as equally wrong and equally at fault on any issue, never mind the facts. I joked long ago that if one party declared that the earth was flat, the headlines would read “Views Differ on Shape of Planet.” But would that cult still rule in a situation as stark as the one we now face, in which one party is clearly engaged in blackmail and the other is dickering over the size of the ransom?

The answer, it turns out, is yes. And this is no laughing matter: The cult of balance has played an important role in bringing us to the edge of disaster. For when reporting on political disputes always implies that both sides are to blame, there is no penalty for extremism. Voters won’t punish you for outrageous behavior if all they ever hear is that both sides are at fault.

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. As you may know, President Obama initially tried to strike a “Grand Bargain” with Republicans over taxes and spending. To do so, he not only chose not to make an issue of G.O.P. extortion, he offered extraordinary concessions on Democratic priorities: an increase in the age of Medicare eligibility, sharp spending cuts and only small revenue increases. As The Times’s Nate Silver pointed out, Mr. Obama effectively staked out a position that was not only far to the right of the average voter’s preferences, it was if anything a bit to the right of the average Republican voter’s preferences.

But Republicans rejected the deal. So what was the headline on an Associated Press analysis of that breakdown in negotiations? “Obama, Republicans Trapped by Inflexible Rhetoric.” A Democratic president who bends over backward to accommodate the other side — or, if you prefer, who leans so far to the right that he’s in danger of falling over — is treated as being just the same as his utterly intransigent opponents. Balance!

Which brings me to those “centrist” fantasies.

Many pundits view taking a position in the middle of the political spectrum as a virtue in itself. I don’t. Wisdom doesn’t necessarily reside in the middle of the road, and I want leaders who do the right thing, not the centrist thing.

But for those who insist that the center is always the place to be, I have an important piece of information: We already have a centrist president. Indeed, Bruce Bartlett, who served as a policy analyst in the Reagan administration, argues that Mr. Obama is in practice a moderate conservative.

Mr. Bartlett has a point. The president, as we’ve seen, was willing, even eager, to strike a budget deal that strongly favored conservative priorities. His health reform was very similar to the reform Mitt Romney installed in Massachusetts. Romneycare, in turn, closely followed the outlines of a plan originally proposed by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. And returning tax rates on high-income Americans to their level during the Roaring Nineties is hardly a socialist proposal.

True, Republicans insist that Mr. Obama is a leftist seeking a government takeover of the economy, but they would, wouldn’t they? The facts, should anyone choose to report them, say otherwise.

So what’s with the buzz about a centrist uprising? As I see it, it’s coming from people who recognize the dysfunctional nature of modern American politics, but refuse, for whatever reason, to acknowledge the one-sided role of Republican extremists in making our system dysfunctional. And it’s not hard to guess at their motivation. After all, pointing out the obvious truth gets you labeled as a shrill partisan, not just from the right, but from the ranks of self-proclaimed centrists.

But making nebulous calls for centrism, like writing news reports that always place equal blame on both parties, is a big cop-out — a cop-out that only encourages more bad behavior. The problem with American politics right now is Republican extremism, and if you’re not willing to say that, you’re helping make that problem worse.


Sources: CNN, MSNBC, NY Times, Think Progress, Youtube

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