Activist Wednesday: The Year of We, The People!
Posted on: November 14, 2012
Last Tuesday, the American people re-elected Barack Obama to the highest office in the land. They spoke against the benighted and hate-filled views of today’s Republican Party. They spoke about the core American belief that all people, including female people, deserve a chance at a good job, a good education, and a secure and healthy retirement. They also spoke about the rich, and their belief that those who have benefited so much from our society’s bounty, have the obligation to pay their fair share in taxes, and not be permitted to protect their millions and billions in overseas shelters on Caribbean islands.
The people made their feelings known by voting for politicians who spoke to these issues, and not voting for those who didn’t. Americans ensured that those who diminished violence against women and claimed that all pregnancies should be looked upon as the will of God, or indeed, even a blessing, did not make it to Congress (for the most part) or the White House. (Check out our new sidebar for some inspiring statistics on how well women did this year!)
All that being said, however, we know that Obama’s first term did not exactly produce the results that we would have liked. Whether you blame Obama, the corporations, the Boehner or a number of other factors, most of those same factors will be in play for Obama’s second term. And the new names that are coming out for the 2012 Cabinet, remind us of how rightward-leaning, and how unwilling to take the bold actions needed, Obama can be. Take a look at who Obama is looking at for his economic leadership: First off, TurboTax Timmeh is staying. Of course! Why not let the guy fail upward? It’s worked so well for all these other *ssh0les.
The White House wants consistency in its “fiscal cliff” negotiating team, meaning Geithner is likely to put off his departure from Treasury until Obama and lawmakers can reach some agreement.
White House chief of staff Jack Lew is seen as a leading candidate to replace Geithner. Lew is well-respected in Washington by both parties and served as budget director under both Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
Another person often mentioned as a possible successor to Geithner is Erskine Bowles, a White House chief of staff under Clinton and the co-chief of the White House’s 2010 deficit reduction commission.
Both Lew and Bowles would bring an intimate knowledge of the intricacies of the federal budget and could be expected to take a leading role in trying to negotiate a broad budget agreement with Congress. The selection of either would signal that the administration intends to make resolution of the government’s deficit problems a priority.
The two potential nominees, Jacob “Jack” Lew and Erskine Bowles, are very different. Lew has been a big proponent of preserving the social safety net and keeping taxes higher on the wealthiest Americans, whereas Bowles is basically an Austerian - the other half of the Simpson-Bowles (aka “Catfood”) commission which recommended deep cuts to all of our social programs in order to solve the deficit issue. (Said cuts would actually have increased the deficit, but hey, facts schmacts!) But no matter who is the nominee, the chattering classes are sure that he will have to make a bargain with the GOP that will “cement Obama’s legacy.” At least Lew seems to have a clue that maybe this time, they should work with their OWN Party before kissing Burnt Orange Boehner’s ring; nonetheless, it seems clear that Obama is willing to exchange tax hikes for cuts to our beloved social programs.
Under Lew’s direction, the administration instead will reach out to the Senate and to House Democrats to try to build a consensus before dealing too much with the tea party portion of the Republican Party.
At the center of this push will be Lew, a 30-year veteran of budget battles under Presidents Reagan and Clinton. Tall and thin, with Harry Potter-like glasses and salt-and-pepper hair, he looks like a typical Washington technocrat, an image that belies his talent for combat. “He’s like a labor-union negotiator. He’s not going to give you an inch if he doesn’t have to,” says Judd Gregg, the Republican former senator and Budget Committee chairman. “He’s a true believer in the causes.”
By causes, Gregg means Medicare and the rest of the social-safety net. These are the progressive ideals close to Lew’s heart, friends and former colleagues say—and programs he will cut or change only in exchange for an equally big prize: in this case, the Republicans agreeing to more revenue, as Obama has called for from the campaign trail.
This whole thing is complete nonsense, a manufactured crisis that is essentially an excuse for handing corporations the keys to our collective retirement and health insurance monies. We know exactly why the deficit is there – it’s because W slashed taxes and then embarked on a wild orgy of war spending, which continues to this day. Yes, Medicare is in trouble, as is Medicaid – but cutting Medicare and Medicaid will only reduce the revenue coming into the government, which will, of course…increase the deficit. Social Security is an easy fix and doesn’t contribute to the deficit at all, so only the most credulous believe that it should even be “on the table.”
Yes, from a governmental standpoint, things look rather bleak for our social safety net, or as spinmeisters like to call it, “entitlements.” (I hate that word so much. Benefits I have paid into all my life, with my hard-earned tax money, are NOT ENTITLEMENTS.) I am not going to hope that Boehner will suddenly realize that outside of his little bubble, no one in America wants to cut these programs, and back down. No, the best we can hope for is the exchange I mentioned above, otherwise known as the “grand bargain.”
That is, unless we stop them. And Widdershins, I truly, TRULY believe we can stop them!
Because Americans are paying attention now. This was not an election to be excited about, yet 126 million people still showed up to vote. We are becoming invested again in what is happening to our country, and we made our feelings clear. WHEN our clueless, bought-out politicos try to throw our money into their corporate sponsors’ pockets, you know what we’re going to do?
We’re going to call. And write. And post on FaceBook and Twitter. And those of use who can, will march on Washington. Because I say, it’s time that our Congresscritters remember: We the people, no matter what Citizens United says, does NOT mean “we the corporations.”
We are watching, Congress. We are watching, President Obama. We won’t let you mess up a good thing. We are taking our country back! I am declaring 2012 the Year of We, The People! And may all the years following be the same.
This is an open thread.
20 Responses to "Activist Wednesday: The Year of We, The People!"
November 14, 2012 at 8:40 am
Our entire opposition to Obama in the first place was an inability to trust him.
Not much has changed in that department since most of us are again in a state of anxiety over his next course of action when it comes to the majority who voted against the radical Right.
Until we see differently he will always give us pause on that score.
Keeping the crazies from the Right out of majority rule was the intent on November 6th and not a “great bargain” that most of us detested.
November 14, 2012 at 8:58 am
@1 – If he shows that type of leadership on this, I will be extremely (pleasantly) surprised. Obama is very bought -in to the idea that we have to address the deficit “crisis” by cuttting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He is predisposed to doing this despite the fact that a large majority of Americans do not want him to do it.
The fact that Bowles’ name is floating around out there should make us remember exactly whose idea the Catfod Commission was.
November 14, 2012 at 10:07 am
Check this out – Millions of union workers are on strike in Spain and Italy over Austerity. The workers say that spending cuts have made the economy worse. Imagine that!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/14/us-eurozone-idUSBRE8AD0UK20121114
November 14, 2012 at 10:43 am
Let’s hope that Obama is keeping an eye on that development.
Unions are the backbone of the middle class both here and abroad and fooling around with their rights could easily cripple any gains put forward to bring the economy back into reason.
November 14, 2012 at 11:00 am
I admire your optimism, madamab. I do. Me, I’m so jaded I’m surprised Lew’s name is even mentioned (even though in any real government he’d be well right of center). Probably, he’s in the list just to make it look like they thought about this before handing it to Catfood Bowles.
The thing that surprised even me was that Obama didn’t so much as give his voters the weekend off. I don’t think 24 hours elapsed after his win before he started pushing his more-money-for-Wall-St agenda. The constant betrayals are one thing, but the breathtaking arrogance of not being slightly polite about it seems like gratuitous violence.
November 14, 2012 at 11:22 am
@6 – I don’t have a lot of optimism with regard to Obama. (Actually, I have none.) My optimism comes from the fact that the people are sick of this Austerity sh*t and voted that way. I mean, people voted to raise their own taxes in California! (Thank you, Jerry Brown, for putting that Proposition on the ballot.)
I also have seen women standing up for themselves a lot more this past year. We are tired of being told we can’t be trusted with our own reproductive health.
I think the tide is turning, I really do.
November 14, 2012 at 11:54 am
I wasn’t accusing you of optimism about Obama 
. Just the general sense that there’s something we can do. As Biko said, the first weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed, and I think the kleptocrats are pretty close to getting mine. 
Hang in there. As I said, I admire that optimism and I like to bask in it.
November 14, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Thanks, quixote. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Bask away! And don’t let the evildoers set up shop in your big, beautiful brain.
November 14, 2012 at 2:13 pm
LOL!! @2,3,4,5.6, … Well we will have to see what he does. As I wrote in my comments that’s what the talking heads on the teeve have said about the fact he can just let all the cuts take effect. It is what’s the law for now. We will need to see what the repub in the House come up and the same for the Dems. in the Senate.
Have a doctor’s appt to get ready for. Later!
November 14, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Interesting:
Tampa socialite’s base pass suspended
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The military has suspended the Air Force base pass of the Tampa socialite who sparked an ongoing sex scandal .
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Steven Warren says the decision to indefinitely suspend Jill Kelley’s pass to MacDill Air Force Base was made in the last couple of days.
Kelley’s complaints about threatening emails triggered the FBI investigation that led to the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus and a probe into communications between her and the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
Warren said it was decided the pass suspension would be in the best interest of the Air Force base community. Kelley can still enter the base but now must report to the visitor center and sign in like everyone who doesn’t have a pass.
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I had a decal when I worked for D.o.D. and Dad had one since he was military retired. When he passed we had to bring his vehicle to security to take off *his* decal so that whenever I took the momster to the base exchange in my car we always had to stop at the guard shack to get a temp pass. How this woman got a permanent pass/decal is beyond me.
November 14, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Okay, whose turn is it to tell John McCain that the 2008 election is over and he did not win?
Whose turn is it to advise this man that his hatred and bitterness have long worn off and that his own selection of a “passable idiot” as a running mate would have made this nation far more dangerous than it already is just for the sheer ignorance that this woman exhibited.
Could we at least wait for a final report before we make turn this Benghazi debacle into a polticial football? Yes, mistakes may have been made but it could also be that what Susan Rice was officially fed for publication by the CIA was inaccurate. Wasn’t that what supposedly what happened when Cheney and Co. deliberately misinterpreted the data they received as the excuse for bombing the hell out of Iran?
John McCain, please take Lindsay Graham by the hand and get off the stage that was denied you in 2008. You are no longer viable or interesting but bordering on petulance that belongs to a toddler who knows no better.
November 14, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Fredster, Uppity has some great info on Jill Kelley. She is a dim bulb with very questionable motives and ties to the Middle East. Frightening that a pair of nice boobs can get you so far.
As for McCain and Graham, they are another pair of underperforming, overpraised schmucks. The media loves to build these guys up into something they’re not.
November 14, 2012 at 4:35 pm
MB, I, too, am cautiously optimistic, but then I always am since it makes getting hit up the side of the head so wonderously surprising.
Hate, hate, hate the word entitlements. It was birthed by the Heritage Foundation and its father was probably Frank Lutz and its mother probably lived somewhere in the vicinity of Tampa or Charlotte.
Okay, McCain should just shut up — spend a little time in his beer distributorship and call it good. Lindsey should just go open a drapery fabric shop and be done with it. All the bad initial intel was CIA talking points — not to say that at the time I didn’t wonder why Rice was going out so far on such flimsy gossamer, but it was ultimately the CIA, that had a hive of agents in Benghazi housed at the “annex,” that was the font of all the information.
Two things that McCain, Lindsey, and Faux News keep forgetting — on the same day, Cairo erupted because of the movie and conflation was the order of the day in the “news in 30 seconds world.” The other small thing these dipwads ignore is simple physics — the rapid deployment team serving Europe and northern Africa is stationed in Italy — to date we don’t have a Star Trek teleportation device and to saddle everyone up in Italy, fly them to Benghazi, off load them, saddle up the camels and get them to the consulate was impossible before the whole thing was over. End of argument — so drink your beer John, and marvel over the damask Lindsey — you’ll make the world a little better place.
November 14, 2012 at 4:44 pm
“Book Club” meeting tonight and I just poured a glass of wine and took a few seconds to peek in before they get here.
Wrong move! I just spit the wine all over the screen reading Prolix’s take on all this! Graham indeed!
November 14, 2012 at 5:43 pm
@15 – When I was enthusing with my friend about how we finally have an openly gay member of the Senate, he replied, “Oh, we’ve had Lindsey Graham for years.” 
I’m guessing there are quite a few other Republicans who have “wide stances” but don’t want to admit it!
November 15, 2012 at 1:31 am
Prolix ROFL! Yeah, Lindsay should come out. He’s not a movie star.
I’ve been saying the same thing about Benghazi and the supposed rescue from Italy that the fox news crowd think Obama stopped, or something like that. Nothing they say about this makes any sense.
Fredster how are you??? Hope the Dr appt went well. 
Comments are closed.
November 14, 2012 at 7:35 am
From what I’ve seen on the teevee and talking heads, Obama really doesn’t have to do too much of anything. The Bush tax cuts are scheduled to end; that’s it. The Fiscal Cliff will come, if nothing is done. If the Repubs become too intransigent, O can sit back and let them happen. Now we know that supposedly he wants to keep the cuts for the middle class and only let them rise on the higher earners. But if push comest to shove, those cuts can just end for all.
And of all things, look who is changing his tune here. That’s fine but I don’t expect him to undo anything he’s done in La. Of course lil Booby is only trying to make himself look good for the 2016 elections. Something that I sincerely hope turns out to be fruitless.