Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Turkey posts

Here's some great links to look at during your extended break.

Jonathan Tasini does a great job in popping the deficiet myth in a 50 page booklet.

Bill Moyers explains how wage repression works.

More evidence that America is now a Banana Republic.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

A thought on the results of Nov. 4

A lot of people are saying that the election results are a result of people thinking that Obama went too far in his policy. I think that's bull. If you look at the groups that voted, it was tilted towards mostly older whites. This group is always more conservative, so it's no surprise that you get this kind of election result with that electorate group. Baby Boomers are angry. They have good reason to be angry. But they did bring a lot of this on themselves, as I have said many times in this blog. What I think a good spin for Obama on this would be "Yes, the economy isn't where it needs to be. People are really hurting. I have no idea what it is like to lose your home and your job. I don't know where I would find the strength to see me through that situation. But this slow recovery is because I compromised. I tried to meet Republicans halfway. But Republicans are so far to the right that going halfway doesn't mean you meet in the center. It means you end up going right. So that is why our policies have been tilted to the right. Healthcare reform is not an over reach. The stimulus was 40% tax cuts, and look how those tax cuts are NOT helping us. Look at how large our deficiet is BECAUSE of the Bush Tax Cuts. This pain is a RESULT of Republicans, and we are forgetting who got us here and punishing those folks who are trying to get us out of this mess."

Now, will Obama say something like that? No. I don't think he actually believes that for one thing. I also think that it wouldn't help matters, even though it is the truth. Republicans have such an effective propaganda machine it's amazing. I was watching a debate that had Arthur Laffer and Phil Gramm and these guys said great things. But their past actions do not meet their words. Never have. Yet people still hear them and follow them, time and again. It's quite amazing. If conservatives actually practiced what they preached, then

a) things would be very different
b) they probably wouldn't be in office, because people in this country don't like to make hard choices

This countries biggest fiscal issue is non-discretionary spending, yet all Republican's have proposed going after is discretionary spending. That will help, but it won't solve our problems. But that is where the 'adult' conversation with Republicans stops. That's a problem, and electing these liars won't solve them.