tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post5526299164182834246..comments2024-01-08T04:16:25.601-08:00Comments on Ché (What You Call Your) Pasa: ClunkChé Pasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926630891287949373noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-58231043417108404142009-02-08T17:32:00.000-08:002009-02-08T17:32:00.000-08:00Yeah, I saw Krugman's piece. It's enough to make ...Yeah, I saw Krugman's piece. It's enough to make me throw in the towel, delete a bunch of bookmarks, pull back, pay attention to the Econ blogs, blow off everything else, plant a garden, pull in a few cattle I can grow, kill, and dress out, and hunker down until 2012. Game over.<BR/><BR/><I>Social Security and Medicare are next.</I><BR/><BR/>I don't doubt you, but it's still insane. It's the <B><I>one thing</I></B> out of the Bush Years the Democrats refused to cave on. So, you posit they will cave under a Democratic president because it's now <I>their</I> idea?<BR/><BR/>Sick, sad, crazy, and the public will not forgive them for that one, even if they forgive them for everything else. <BR/><BR/>I just do not understand why Obama only wanted one term.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04637644376752164192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-86135582992695758332009-02-08T13:02:00.000-08:002009-02-08T13:02:00.000-08:00Well...I keep going back to the Shock Doctrine pre...Well...<BR/><BR/>I keep going back to the Shock Doctrine premise. The White House is fully engaged in the process, and the Senate bill was written by Democrats, not Republicans. Rahm is said to have contributed the cuts that eventually pleased Collins, et al, to the point where at least one of their votes can be counted on tomorrow or whenever they finally vote on it. <BR/><BR/>The bill is already in conference, so I hear, and what will emerge for ultimate passage and signing will be essentially what the Senate has come up with; all the tax cuts for the rich will stay, there might be a slight rejiggering of the formula for state aid, and that's about it.<BR/><BR/>And Obama will be charged with selling it to the peeps -- as something for their benefit. This Great Jobs Bill, that won't create many jobs and will lead to wholesale layoffs of state and local government staffs. <BR/><BR/>I assume he'll do a decent job of it; he is such a persuasive speaker after all. Whether the People will buy it, I don't know. When they realize that literally all they are getting out of this thing is $10 a week, assuming they can hold on to their jobs, which fewer and fewer will be able to do, and they see hundreds of billions handed over to the Plutocracy, and trillions going to the banks and Wall Street, I'm with people like Glenn and Naomi Klein who see the real potential for civil unrest in the offing.<BR/><BR/>When I saw Krugman's <A HREF="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/what-the-centrists-have-wrought/" REL="nofollow">"Oh Shit"</A> blog post last night, it was pretty clear we're in a brand new ball game, with the black hole of the plutocracy busy sucking up everything not battened down.<BR/><BR/>Social Security and Medicare are next.<BR/><BR/>Count on it.<BR/><BR/>Rosenberg and a few others seem to be clued in, but it really is very difficult to discuss these things. The ugly is so apparent, we instinctively turn away.Ché Pasahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01926630891287949373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-4375937540446640712009-02-08T09:40:00.000-08:002009-02-08T09:40:00.000-08:00I find this whole fiasco puzzling in the extreme. ...I find this whole fiasco puzzling in the extreme. If I begin from the premise that Obama wants more than one term as POTUS, then any economic recovery plan that fails to deliver some semblance of economic recovery dooms him.<BR/><BR/>Digby's pal <A HREF="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/ominous-by-tristero-duncan-says.html" REL="nofollow">tristero</A> posited:<BR/><BR/><I><B>Obama also knows that economic disaster cannot be avoided and that it will be far worse than anything anyone alive ... has ever seen... He also knows that no stimulus plan will work. And he knows he will be blamed for it when the misery adds up. Therefore, he is trying like hell to get the GOP to sign up, at least partially, for his proposal so he can spread the blame...</B></I><BR/><BR/>Paul Rosenberg <A HREF="http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11260" REL="nofollow">expanded</A> on the theme.<BR/><BR/>Over a longer horizon, Obama's tactics could make sense, and might work, if it weren't for this pesky notion of re-election in 2012.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04637644376752164192noreply@blogger.com