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Dean Baker: Budget Cuts are the Real Job-Killers
"People who want to see the budget cut are people who are advocating throwing people out of work, it's that simple," says Dean Baker of the pressure from conservatives on Obama's budget--pressure, it appears, that Obama is conceding to as he brags that discretionary spending will be the lowest since Eisenhower's administration. So Obama's budget includes cuts to infrastructure, education, and more, and for Republicans, that's still not enough. Dean joins us from D.C. via Skype to talk about what the president should be arguing as the budget fight heats up.
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Show AllHere! Here! Enough said...the truth will set you free! Progressives...we need to get a life!
I cannot understand who exactly Obama is trying to please.
It seems that pretty much everything he does pisses off his base. I.e., extending Bush tax cuts for the rich, dropping the public option and never even mentioning single payer during the health care debate, continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and sending more troops to Afghanistan, accepting the Republican lie that government spending caused the current crisis.
In the past, Obama, Gibbs his press secretary, and Rahm Emanuel have all insulted and degraded the "professional left," i.e., the hard working people who voted all of these cowards into office and expect Obama to fight for the policies they support.
I'm at the point where I'm hoping that a serious contender challenges Obama from the left in 2012.
0bama wants to please his principal financial backers: the financial, military, pharmaceutical, insurance, and hydrocarbon industries and related sources of money.
I surely left plenty of bribemeisters out, but you get the pattern: no one on the left or center-left or center or what is usually thought of as a traditional Democratic base (except perhaps in the old Confederate states before 1968) is represented here.
One more thing in response to your comment, Jill.
I sincerely believe that Obama thinks that by caving in to Republican demands before the debate even begins, that he will somehow curry favor with Republicans and those mysterious "independent voters." I believe that he is sacrificing good policy, and throwing working people who supported him under the bus, for the chance to be re-elected.
If that is what he believes, it's similar to giving the bully on the playground your lunch money so he won't punch you in the face. Now the bully knows that you are weak, and he will demand even more money the next time.
The other explanation, as you noted, is that he actually supports the Republican policies. I really don't think he does.
I think he is listening to political advice from the likes of neoliberal corporatist advisers like Emanuel and Delay. To be fair, he is responsible for picking those people. As a result, he has lost touch with how his policies are being received by the liberal base that was responsible for his election.
In conclusion, he is in hoc to the financial sector that elected him, concerned about getting the "center" back so he will be re-elected, and takes it for granted that liberals will suck it up and vote for him in 2012 anyway to avoid the greater evil of a Republican getting elected.
Bah, I meant "Daley."
So you think Obama is a fool who has no mind and listens to his "advisors?"
He is no fool. Obama is a skillful politician. He is also a Trojan horse Republican.
Look at what he does, not what he says.
Jill, "....you would think Obama's budget was a fantastic starting point..." Does your statement sound just like Obamacare by many Progressive, Liberals and Independents defending Obamacare as a starting point. It's dead on arrival.
Excellent observation!
Obama is useless - he always starts "negotiating" by conceding the framing to the Republicans. May I suggest that everybody who is of the progressive bent go to "Progressives United" - Russ Feingold's new progressive organization, and sign up. We need to do the same thing the good people of Wisconsin are doing - organize and stop this madness! While the healthcare law is marginally better than what we had before, it is still pretty bad because it was crafted to please the health insurance companies - the real "Death Panels" of our healthcare system. Contact your state representatives and state senators and urge them to have your state begin the process of setting up their own single-payer healthcare system. If enough states do it the federal government will have to follow us!