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It seems President Obama has succeed in shifting the deficit debate dramatically to the right. The right-of-center plan Obama laid out that relies on two parts spending cuts for every one part new tax revenue has already been declared the left extreme in the debate by top senate Democrats. From ABC News:
Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., says the bi-partisan group of senators working to find a way to reduce the deficit — the so-called “Gang of Six” — is near agreement on a plan that will chart a middle ground between the House Republican budget and the plan outlined last week by President Obama.
Every liberal that was momentarily cheered up by Obama’s deficit speech should have known better, known that by ceding so much rhetorical and policy ground to conservatives, his speech was going to produce this result.
If any final “grand bargain” is as Durbin wants, in between the center-right Obama proposal and the radical rightwing Paul Ryan budget, regular Americas are in for a world of pain. The rich, on the other hand, should have little to worry about.
At this point, it is clear that the absolute best we can possibly hope for is that gridlock results in nothing happening.
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Dick “World of Pain” Durbin.
As has been said here before…”we are so fucked”.
Don’t worry: Dick’s watching over SS — just needs some “tweaking.”
A minority of a minority of the American House of Lords has spoken.
And we’re supposed to bow down and genuflect?
“It seems President Obama has succeed in shifting the [enter issue here] debate dramatically to the right.”
Isn’t his willingness to serve this function a big part of the reason he was made president to begin with?
Worse than shifting the “deficit” issue to the right is how his words and actions have served to legitimize what is going on economically. Cutting social programs, cutting education funding, busting unions, etc. has fuck all to do with lowering the deficit. If the deficit was the real concern, the trillion bucks the US spent last year on war would be the big topic. All that is going on is that folks with real power and money are fucking over the other 95% of their fellow citizens. All this Dem v. Rep pretentious haggling over reducing the “deficit” is just so much bullshit theater with all the predictability and integrity of a reality show.
Completely OT but begs the question(rhetorically): Why can’t ti happen here?
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/canada/110418/pot-medical-marijuana-legal
And Huffpo has a story that the ‘gang of six’ are upset because they aren’t part of the WH negotiations regards the ‘deficit budget’.
President Barack “Bob Dole” Obama is the “left” edge of the debate, huh?
Since Obama’s speech was empty and hollow, it left the situation open for anyone to fill it up with any interpretation that suited them, at the moment. And with a congress overflowing with opportunists, what did you expect?
It sickens me that Democrats are doing this but let’s face it, most elected officials in D.C. don’t represent ordinary people anymore. They represent wealthy campaign donors. Period.
Calling Barack Obama’s policies “left” of anything is a mistake in perspective. Like using multiple vanishing points in a painting, it confuses the eye.
It would be more accurate to describe them as “stage left”, a term of art that underlines how important it is always to remember the audience he is playing to.
O is Reagan on steroids. So shameful, such a corporate tool.
I am guessing this isn’t news to anyone who regularly visits this site…
Don’t worry Obama will fight tooth and nail for the people and for his position to the left of Congress. Not.
I watched the biggest part of his town hall speech and question time on C-Span today. Benito Obama said he wanted to hear from us and tell him what we thought and needed. I’m just wondering if we all did the same as the last time if he will send a minion out to tell us to STFU again!
Wait a minute folks, it’s not that bad. Better than McCain, right? Right???
OK, even if McCain were just as bad, at least the Dems would be making a show of opposing him.
Bush III. Much, much worse than Bush II. 4 more years anyone?
OT– I heard Michelle Rhee was in Gov. Kasich’office a few times w/in the past two weeks discussing public school stuff. I hope Kasich does not hire a past superintendent allegedly involved with suspect standarized test scores with high rates of answer changes. Also, Kasich and Ohio GOP may be dispersing individual items contained in SB5 into other bills, and/or their own bills in case the SB5 referendum passes this fall. Has anyone else heard anything about this, or perhaps in past comments or posts?
I’d like to see this end ________.
The word starts with a letter between u and x and ends in -ly.
This is the class war equivalent of the tanks rolling on the capitol and laying down enough artillery to flatten the capitol of “poor person-land”
I don’t want this to be settled peacefully or with reason.
For now. IMHO, the final product will be somewhere between the Gang of Six Plan and the Ryan Plan.
By 2016, Obama will be a full-blown right-wing ideologue, and the Republicans will be to the right of where Ryan is now. I remembered seeing Ralph Nader on CNN in 2002 predicting that Tom DeLay’s agenda would be the mainstream of the Democratic Party by 2020. He won’t be too far off.
Says it all. Obama’s M.O. is clear as day. Only the most delusional could support him or vote for him in 2012.
I’d be fine with Obama beginning his post-presidency come Jan 2013 and could care less whether he’s playing golf with Dubya or going hunting with Dick by 2016.
Phoenix Woman is upstairs!
Republicans Are Whiners: Bachmann-Berg Edition
How would Durbin know? He hasn’t been left of center in years.
for progressives, obama is a Trojan Horse, installed to destroy the new deal, democratic party, and progressivism…and he is very, very good at it.
OK, then which one of those teapublican’ts do you want.i’m all sold out,BTW take these so called dems with you,welcome in another era of “W”,I ONLY WISH HE HAD MORE FIGHT IN HIM, RIP AMERICA
Democratic “liberal” Dick Durbin did day that “Bleeding heart liberals should be open to social Security and Medicare cuts”. So, this should be no surprise.
My plan is to vote for whatever RW crazy assclown they put up for 2012 in a hope of disposing of the Corporatist DLC’r, Obummer. I was planning on voting for Dick in 2014, to help keep a counter check. I may have to reevaluate that. He has a few more years to fuck up, or at least, play it safe.
obama’s deficit proposal is left edge of bat-shit-crazy.
no, wait, that was the cpc budget proposal. the cpc wins the battle for the left edge of bat-shit-crazy.
my question is why are we even playing this game?
So O’Sellout gives a pretty speech that serves as a reacharound to us DFH’s and his right hand flunky in DC’s Millionaire’s Club says never mind, we’re really not that serious about fighting for any of those high falutin’ principles we Dems only pay lip service to in the first place – our true allegiance is to our corporate overlords sitting around the highly polished conference tables in Manhatten skyscrapers. Besides, the real problem facing this great nation of ours is that Gramps and Naana and Uncle Joe and Great-Auntie Hildie are going to suck us dry like undead mutant vampires unless we put them on a cat food diet and kick them out of the nursing home now.
Q: Who could have predicted this debate was all Kabuki/Bullshit from the beginning?
A: Anyone paying attention since the phantom Health Care Debate.