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Barack Obama is Gutting the Core Principles of the Democratic Party
The president's attacks on America's social safety net are destroying the soul of the Democratic party's platform
In 2005, American liberals achieved one of their most significant political victories of the last decade. It occurred with the resounding rejection of George W Bush's campaign to privatise social security.
Barack Obama. The President, writes Greenwald, "In many crucial areas, has done more to subvert and weaken the left's political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party's leader endorses – even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe." (Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Bush's scheme would have gutted the crux of that entitlement programme by converting it from what it has been since the 1940s – a universal guarantor of minimally decent living conditions for America's elderly – into a Wall Street casino and bonanza.
Progressive activists and bloggers relentlessly attacked both the plan and underlying premises (the myth that social security faces a "crisis"), spawning nationwide opposition. Only a few months after he unveiled his scheme to great fanfare, Bush was forced to sheepishly withdraw it, a defeat he described as his biggest failure.
That victory established an important political fact. While there are very few unifying principles for the Democratic party, one (arguably the primary one) is a steadfast defence of basic entitlement programs for the poor and elderly – social security, Medicare and Medicaid – from the wealthy, corporatised factions that have long targeted them for cuts.
But in 2009, clear signs emerged that President Obama was eager to achieve what his right-predecessor could not: cut social security. Before he was even inaugurated, Obama echoed the right's manipulative rhetorical tactic: that (along with Medicare) the programme was in crisis and producing "red ink as far as the eye can see." President-elect Obama thus vowed that these crown jewels of his party since the New Deal would be, as Politico reported, a "central part" of his efforts to reduce the deficit.
The next month, his top economic adviser, the Wall Street-friendly Larry Summers, also vowed specific benefit cuts to Time magazine. He then stacked his "deficit commission" with long-time advocates of social security cuts.
Many progressives, ebullient over the election of a Democratic president, chose to ignore these preliminary signs, unwilling to believe that their own party's leader was as devoted as he claimed to attacking the social safety net. But some were more realistic. The popular liberal blogger and economist Duncan "Atrios" Black, who was one of the leaders of the campaign against Bush's privatisation scheme, vowed in response to these early reports:
The left ... will create an epic 360-degree shitstorm if Obama and the Dems decide that cutting social security benefits is a good idea.
Fast forward to 2011: it is now beyond dispute that President Obama not only favours, but is the leading force in Washington pushing for, serious benefit cuts to both social security and Medicare.
This week, even as GOP leaders offered schemes to raise the debt ceiling with no cuts, the White House expressed support for the Senate's so-called "gang of six" plan that includes substantial cuts in those programmes.
The same Democratic president who supported the transfer of $700bn to bail out Wall Street banks, who earlier this year signed an extension of Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and who has escalated America's bankruptcy-inducing posture of Endless War, is now trying to reduce the debt by cutting benefits for America's most vulnerable – at the exact time that economic insecurity and income inequality are at all-time highs.
Where is the "epic shitstorm" from the left which Black predicted? With a few exceptions – the liberal blog FiredogLake has assembled 50,000 Obama supporters vowing to withhold re-election support if he follows through, and a few other groups have begun organising as well – it's nowhere to be found.
Therein lies one of the most enduring attributes of Obama's legacy: in many crucial areas, he has done more to subvert and weaken the left's political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party's leader endorses – even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe.
This dynamic has repeatedly emerged in numerous contexts. Obama has continued Bush/Cheney terrorism policies – once viciously denounced by Democrats – of indefinite detention, renditions, secret prisons by proxy, and sweeping secrecy doctrines.
He has gone further than his predecessor by waging an unprecedented war on whistleblowers, seizing the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process far from any battlefield, massively escalating drone attacks in multiple nations, and asserting the authority to unilaterally prosecute a war (in Libya) even in defiance of a Congressional vote against authorising the war.
And now he is devoting all of his presidential power to cutting the entitlement programmes that have been the defining hallmark of the Democratic party since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The silence from progressive partisans is defeaning – and depressing, though sadly predictable.
The nature of American politics is that once a policy is removed from the partisan wars – once it is adopted by the leadership of both parties – it is removed from mainstream debate and fortified as bipartisan consensus. That is why false claims in the run-up to the Iraq war, endorsed by both parties, received so little mainstream journalistic scrutiny. And it's why the former Bush lawyer and right-wing ideologue Jack Goldsmith – back in May 2009 – celebrated in The New Republic the fact that Obama was doing more to strengthen Bush/Cheney terrorism policies than his former bosses could have ever achieved: by embracing the very terrorism approach he once denounced, Obama was converting it from rightwing radicalism into into the official dogma of both parties, and forcing his supporters to defend what were, until 2009, the symbols of rightwing evil.
Identically, Obama is now on the verge of injecting what until recently was the politically toxic and unattainable dream of Wall Street and the American right – attacks on the nation's social safety net – into the heart and soul of the Democratic party's platform. Those progressives who are guided more by party loyalty than actual belief will seamlessly transform from virulent opponents of such cuts into their primary defenders.
And thus will Obama succeed – yet again – in gutting not only core Democratic policies, but also the identity and power of the American Left.
191 Comments so far
Show AllGlenn Greenwald pretty much sums it up--Obama is playing his part well.
And the Obamabots are still grinning, as if that's how they were constructed.
Greenwald left out the "payroll tax holiday" that Obama added on to the Bush Tax Cut Extension in December 2010, thereby requiring the Social Security program to borrow money ($113 billion in 2011, more in subsequent years) for the first time in its history.
Republicans have tried and failed for decades to inflict this fatal blow to the program, knowing that once it goes into debt it will be a prime target for privatization.
Obama keeps bragging about his "payroll tax holiday" every chance he gets.
glen says "Barack Obama is Gutting the Core Principles of the Democratic Party"
sorry pal the dems never had any core beliefs to gut - other than taking as much graft, kickbacks and pay offs that they can get their grubby slimy paws on
just like to reps do
they are two flavors of rancid bologna
when are the sheeple gonna wise up to this scam called amerika
this country exists for the benefit of the ultra rich - think of the politicians as the midgets in a three ring circus - comic relief at best
Isn't it interesting that Obama was elected with a campaign promise to expand the "good" war in Afganistan thus bringing more pain and misery to those people who had done absolutely nothing to deserve it? As was also brought in the name of the American people to the people in Iraq?
Come to think of it, isn't the entire history of the U.S. and before that, of the Europeans in the New World, riddled with violence directed towards the indigenous people of North and South America as well as the rest of the people in "underdeveloped" world?
So now the chickens are coming home as it were for the American People. For the Democrats who voted for Obama. For the people who voted to bring more pain and misery to the Afgans, and the rest of the Middle East. And for what?
It is "funny" that the American people can delude themselves into thinking they are exempt from misery and suffering while exporting it. Indeed it is the only thing left that they have to export. They gave away the store. They thought that Obama was going to save them, but he turned out to be a monster. They didn't see this because they didn't see the monster within themselves.
There is nothing wrong with this, it is simply the way it is. Pain is a great teacher, maybe the only real teacher. It gets your attention. And exacts tuition from students whereby they must dig deep into their pockets. And it doesn't even need a union to back it up.
The American People need to save themselves from themselves, it can't be done by proxy, through a president, or by trying to control every other nation, country or person on earth.
onemorethought,
Very powerful post!
Thank you Inanna.
"It is "funny" that the American people can delude themselves into thinking they are exempt from misery and suffering while exporting it. Indeed it is the only thing left that they have to export."
You make a very good point. Most Americans have for too long have held the view "It won't happen to us. We're the chosen people". Guess what? It's already happening, people. We still keep exporting misery and suffering and continue to kill innocent people around the world, steal the wealth of smaller, weaker nations while the ground is giving away under us. It won't be too long before you see the payback - coming back to us in kind and with interest.
Unless the American people can wake up and bring down these wretched, selfish, greedy corporations and their attack dog politicians, we're all doomed.
Stop buying anything new (except for necessities like food), kill your TV, drive less and consume less. Then we'll see how long these corporations last. If Staples going under is any indication, all these big corporations are in for hard times.
QUOTE -- Stop buying anything new (except for necessities like food), kill your TV, drive less and consume less. Then we'll see how long these corporations last. If Staples going under is any indication, all these big corporations are in for hard times.
UNQUOTE
Yes -- that's the way to uninvent the dollar bill which is meaningless --
escept as a way to transfer power to the few wealthy.
Meanwhile, we have Global Warming increasing in intensity every day --
and a MIC/national security state which uses 80% of our oil.
RW political violence over 50 years and more removed our presdient and put
our government in their hands -- since then they have made sure than any
liberal or progressive leadership is removed even before it has a chance to
rise ---
People are still sitting in front of their TV's it seems quite sure that if there
were really anything wrong, the TV Host/Anchor would let them know!!
Wow, so well written, it leaves me wordless.
onemorethought,
I have been reading and posting on CD for many years. This is one of the best and most articulate posts I have seen.
One more thought - thanks for saying so very well what many (not enough though) of us feel. LOL
Hi onemorethought. Thanks for an extremely articulate, spare, cutting and crucial post.
Though I agree 100% with your contention that Progressives are often as deluded by American exceptionalism as are extreme Conservatives, I'd offer caution about letting the recognition of this flaw _ and the guilt it carries _ paralyze us into an even worse state of submission.
Humans are social creatures, and most of us have a psychological need to take some form of pride in a group or geographical identity. Americans whose self-awareness is genuine enough to perceive our deep flaws, and who comprehend the Karmic debt of our rapacious history, probably also are weakened some by a feeling that we lack a place we can call a homeland without tasting bile.
When Conservative acquaintances argue that 'we' never whipped a slave or killed an Indian, I like to point out that 'we' also never won WWII or invented the light bulb. We can't be selective about owning our own history, but have to bear the pride and shame in equal measure, and go from there.
It often feels like the shame of our history, and also the insular depravity of the culture we've become, would outweigh any claim on pride, almost to the point of obliterating it. If you do the math, and look at ourselves clearly, this may appear to be true.
I've spent many years living outside of the US, and I've been able to view us from an unusual perspective, able to 'back away' somewhat from my American-ness. I've seen close up some of the damage we've done to the world and it's probably worse than you'd believe. I've also experienced some of the hatred we've drawn, and it'd shock some of the most self-flagellating Progressvies. I've also seen our strengths. They actually are real. We have many well-known flaws, but as a culture we also do have a unique and very genuine identity of generosity, perseverance, humor and innovation. Much as admitting our flaws can burn away the dross and make us stronger in a healthy way, we may also need to occasionally look to our actual positive points. We're going to need every source of strength and unity we can muster in our bid to improve things. Shame and guilt alone aren't going to be enough fuel for us to fight the monster we face. A sense of duty helps. However, we're also going to need something else _ I'm not certain if 'pride' is the correct word for it, but we're going to need something positive, a situation that would benefit from the insights of a person as intelligent _ and honest _ as yourself.
I hope we'll hear more than one more thought from you. Thanks again.
The Bush Admin. hijacked any discussion about "why they hate us," told us to go shopping and let the Big Boys run the country to "keep us safe." They also easily whipped up the American propensity for violence and revenge. "We will never forget" became the mantra for any and all outrages committed by the Bush Admin. Meanwhile, we put our heads in the sand, continued the "support our troops" cheerlead, and denigrated anyone against the war(s). I honestly think Americans thought that by voting for Obama, that he would make everything all better, and kiss our owies. He's definitely been kissing something, and I'll leave it to you what that is.
I do not think this post says anything.
DEMOS = Co-operative OR of the people.
If that is what she is saying then I agree. The People need to gather and take charge from the ashes and use the Basic structure of the Constitution and the MANY lessons learned from the UN documents NOT signed by the leadership of the USA but signed by the leadership of European Nations that make them much more welcome to accepting Social Justice issues.
Leadership and Inspiration is important in all societies. Otherwise one has chaos. At the moment in the USA there is a leadership standoff and many many conflicting power interests at play. The single dollars paid by the many many many individual taxpayers add up and swamp. It should be the lesson just as the Arab Spring and the example in Tahir Square with all those individual taxpayers adding up and swamping.
My sentiments exactly. The only purpose of the Democratic Party is to delude the sheeple into thinking there is some semblance of democracy in the United States. We should all know by now it's a corporatocracy.
I will never vote for Obama again. They are using the big scary Bachman to fear progressives into supporting and donating money to a corporatist in Dem clothing. At least if Bachman were elected the progressives would be out in the streets again screaming about the loss of social programs, war spending, etc.... Progressives have been in an abusive relationship with Dems for long enough. This time when the "Obama Boys" hit town to run his campaign and ignore the local party committees (like they did last time), I will not be a part of it. I don't have the answer to this problem but I do know that the first step in getting my political life back together is to admit that I have been abused. So, how many of you will break down and support Obama out of fear?
Ah, a "fear" straw man. Surely, I might vote for Obama because he may well be THE ONLY RATIONAL CHOICE.
LOL- you think that there's gonna be a "choice"? You get coke or pepsi and that's it.
Rational? How can that possibly be a rational choice for a Progressive? As Mr. Greenwald points out, Obama has been even more successful at implementing the corporatocracys' agenda than Bush was. One party, two faces...
Why not mention why you would imagine such a thing possible?
I am a political news junkie. This costs me a great deal in the rest of my life such as little income, a extremely messy house, etc. But I did happen to notice early on, before Obama became the rising star that he voted against certain pro progressive bills in the Senate. The deal breaker for me though was his campaign position to expand the "good" war in Afganistan.
I voted against him and for Cynthia Mckinney. I think this was rather clever as I not only voted for a black candidate (I'm a white caucasian male and have a long time male chinese partner.), but also for a woman. Two birds with one stone as it were. But more to the point, Cynthia is one of the good ones in this world saturated with corruption.
Needless to say, I've never regretted my vote. I overcame my fear of the Bachmans in politics because I want to vote for the candidate that I actually want to support (I've recently read that Bachman was and is opposed to the multi-trillion dollar banking bailout, a position I am throughly in agreement with). My reasoning to support this action was and is that I decided my vote would express in the public domain my wishes, and not use it in a deparate attempt to save the world from the Republican monsters. I figure that others are free to vote however they do, or not, and we can all live with the consequences.
It sounds like your involved in the political machine in your local area which I admire. I might get around to that someday. Up until now, the most I've contributed to politics is to vote.
At least when the Right does the exact same thing we wouldn't have to say a turd smells like a rose.
Oh that is a really good justification for all the other C* * P.
We need to get rid of lobbyists and tort law
Well, I'm with Chris Floyd. Anyone who votes for Obama votes for his policies and, therefore, supports his policies. It really is as simple as that. My anger these days tends to boil over when I hear anything coming out of mouths of Obama and courtiers. There is no lunatic bad enough that the GOP could offer up that could get me to vote for Barry again, never. I don't vote for war criminals and murderers by proxy.
why and precisely what were the mechanism that pronounced Obama as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient? No one seems to dare ask how this atrocity came about: No one questions the "Chicago Schools" (heavy financial funding beyond all reason for the economic department) and its own uncanny luck with the corrupted streak of the hybrid Neo-con Swiss bank financed award versions either. And no one questions Obama’s background any more as child in the land of the CIA massacres of Indochina (…just boy hood training…), nor do people "see" Daly and Chicago power politics settling now posited into and entrenching the National Capital city with its stench…as part of the Obama team stream. Just keep your eyes on the money now, but maybe instead of temper tantrums over Wall Street Greed and Corporate syndicalism we might all start a new realistic chant: that might just make a real difference in "real: history:
NOW!!! ELIZABETH WARREN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren
…………………………………………….for President YES! FOR PRESIDENT!
NOW!!! ELIZABETH WARREN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren
…………………………………………….for President YES, FINALLY; AN HONEST PRESIDENT!
NOW!!! ELIZABETH WARREN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren
…………………………………………….for President... BUT OF COURSE, SHE KNOWS WHERE TO FIX THINGS AND WHO TO KICK OUT OF THERE!
NOW!!! ELIZABETH WARREN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren
…………………………………………….for President ...THINK OF THE GREAT MINDS IN THIS COUNTRY SHE WILL ENDOW WITH POWER AROUND HER!
A REAL PEOPLE'S CHOICE!
NOW!!! ELIZABETH WARREN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren
…………………………………………….for President A PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE...
NOW!!! ELIZABETH WARREN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren
…………………………………………….for President....FOR THE PEOPLE , AND:
NOW!!! ELIZABETH WARREN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren
…………………………………………….for President ............ BY THE PEOPLE!
ELIZABETH WARREN FOR PRESIDENT NOW!!!!!!!!!!
LET’S HEAR IT ACROSS THE COUNTRY!
LOUDER!!!!!!!!!!!
BRUCE E. WOYCH
July 31, 2011 at 4:06 am | #5
Reply | Quote
...and lest we forget that the “secular” government is more militarized now in strategically captured positions, while the military are retiring to take over the secular top spots; even as every TV show is adulterated with glowing uniform conformity and pride for a professional killing force that is doing a job for corporate American Interests, …and those interests are to eventually entrap this very domestic economy under financial domination enforced by those same “outsourcing” mercenary mentalities that are orchestrating the directions of our economic well being. And who else will end up leading the police state under the National security dictators?
Heats ON!
Lets get REAL!
So I guess we were had. Hillary would not of been different. How about Howard Dean? Maybe that is why Obama and Dean don't have a relationship even after everything Dean did for him during election of Obama with Dean's 50 State strategy.
Where is alternative? It is just screws to the American people.
Right now I have a defeatest attitude which is what they are hoping for and what they have always wanted. Paul Weywrith strategist for Republicans from 30 years ago said they did not want more voters as that was not in their best interest.
Although a few of Obama's 2008 campaign boosters (Dr. Cornel West, for example) have subsequently been willing to let facts get in the way of a good story, Howard Dean and others keep chugging the Democratic party kool-aid.
I can't say for sure, but I don't think this would have happened under Howard Dean. The reason the election puppeteers, i.e. the corporate interests, got rid of him with that manufactured "Dean Scream" controversy, I suspect, is because they knew they knew he would be difficult to control. Whoever makes it through the primaries, you can be certain has been fully vetted by Corporate America. Whoever they take down or marginalize could just be that one who would actually be representing the people.
Exactly. Dean was a threat to the corporate power structure because he explicitly ran against the DLC and big media. And the "I have a scream" speech was not the beginning of the corporate media's attacks on him, but merely the culmination. That was one of the creepiest episodes in recent US electoral history, for it revealed just how thoroughly Corporate America owns every aspect of the process.
Glad to see you exposing the phoniness of the "Dean Scream"... it never even happened, and, if it had, wouldn't have been important enough to include in a news report, let alone run incessantly. So why did ALL the media participate? It's how they eliminate trouble-makers now... TeleAssassination. No need for messy shooting, just discredit them. Dean went on TV, questioned media centralization and was Road Kill w/i a week. John Edwards mentioned the poor during a Presidential campaign and now we get wall-to-wall coverage of his personal life that we never got about, say, the 100+ people the CIA tortured to death. Media Manipulation.
What happened to Dean was so apparent. So obvious. Scary as hell.
He was one of the good ones.
What's weird about Dean is how he went on to become DNC Chair, the ultimate cheerleader for the party. Why didn't he drop out and form a third party, or join the Greens? Is it possible he doesn't get how Big Media assassinated his campaign? Surely the DLC collaborated with this too? What a pathetic chump, working for the Dimocrap party after that.
Tele-assassination. Good word.
Your right DC-CPH, Roosevelt managed to get in because Corporations thought he would be going along with them. When they found out, well they tried to organized a "Facist Takeover" in the late 30s. If you remember the rhetorial saying "Roosevelt is a trader to his Class?" It was explained to me when it looked like Clinton would be elected for his first term, that the very wealthiest people and corporations in the world control it. He explained to me how Ross Perot didnt win and his campaigned looked pretty sorry to say the least at the end. This person also mention Howard Hughes as another example. He did not run for office but the way he more or less was taken down in the corporate world, always seemed like an outsider to the likes of GM. US Steel, CEOS etc. Obama was well groomed before being elected, you can be sure.
Well, sure, if you're gonna get picky, Obama has done some bad stuff, but he's helped the gay/lesbian community. I think he has also helped...well, let me think...
Nah. The gays and lesbians actually fought for their issues and won support. If Obama helped the gays, it is only because it was expedient for him to do so.
I don't think he's done crap for them, either, other than getting out of the way from time to time. They have cash, so he'll try to "court and thwart" in order to keep the LGBT bucks rolling in. And they will next year, like clockwork.
Uh, he gave 'em guns & jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Glenn, once we get serious about attacking the causal cancer instead of wasting our time on symptom issues to feel good, and gut the political whores of two-party "Vichy" Empire, like Obama, then real Americans can address, confront and excise the hidden Empire that Obama and all of them shill for and re-establish People's democracy over disguised violent Empire":
When we just recognize that our former country (and others like UK, Israel, et al) have now been totally captured and are now fully controlled by a disguised global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE, which hides behind the facade of its bought and owned TWO-Party "Vichy" faux democratic government (aided by its corporatist media), and that this causal cancer is the source of all our "identity politic", "symptom issues" --- which the ruling Empire loves to see gutless and complicit liberals waste their time chasing around (like dogs chasing their tails) in stead of simply exposing, confronting, and surgically excising the cancerous tumor of EMPIRE.
Apparently gutless-wonder, Obama and his motley crew of Demo fools, are doing a great job, as the second-team "Vichy" cons, in keeping most of the people confused and hoping for the best most of the time, while they continue the help disguise this global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE by never even whispering the word 'empire' -- except as Obama did in his deceitful speech on the reasons to invade Libya, when he claimed the exact opposite by lying and saying, "we're not there for Empire" [which reminded me of the old SNL skit in which the land shark knocks on the door and replies to the question of "Who's there" with the obvious lie, "It's not the land-shark".
These FOE's (friends of Empire) are lying through their teeth in the insane sham of pretending that our country is a democracy rather than what it really is --- an EMPIRE.
By merely getting this well disguised occupying Empire out in the open, we, the vast majority of average, middle-working/class Americans, can begin to do what the French resistance did to the occupying Nazi Empire that installed a crude, first-generation, and single-party "Vichy" government to hide that earlier and less guileful controlling Nazi Empire.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Liberty & democracy
over
violent
empire
New America People's Party 2012 (our last chance)
PS. once we get rid of the GD Empire we can rationally address all the subordinate issues of foreign policy, economics, social justice, equality, etc. etc. - since our real "Core Principles" won't be being defined and set entirely by the global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE for its exclusive benefit, and by its Empire-whore politicians of both "Vichy" parties!
History proves that fascists have a brief reign and then the revolutionary tinder box is ignited by some small event. Mr O is such an embarrassment.
How many centuries did the dark ages last ?
Not a time span I would define as brief.
You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages — they haven't ended yet.
Kurt Vonnegut - Deadeye Dick (1982)
JJ, Mr. O is such a Zero!
Best,
Alan
Not this time, J.
This is very likely the last swing of the pendulum. If it goes further rightward it's unlikely we will swing it back in time to stop runaway climate catastophe. The relentless and worsening shocks of peak oil/peak everything, Biblical weather and crop failures and ecological collapse causing economic collapse leading to war and perpetual trauma-driven, trauma-causing fascism will end us by next century. The signs of epic failure are everywhere; we have MAYBE ten years left to reverse course and revolutionize the human world with renewables, permaculture and reforestation.
Obama didn't have to dig too deep to gut the core principles of the Democratic party. He is only following the lead of Billie who cheerfully ended welfare as we know it (the end of the New Deal), deregulated the banksters and best of all, killed manufacturing in the United States with NAFTA.
Billie is a hard right wing guy to compete with but our Barry has done it and won the contest!! He is even worse than Clinton!! Now you loyal Dimocraps will say that dear Billie left us with a budget with money to spare--but it took a few years for his evil deeds to come to fruitation. Face it, Loyal D's, you been had, as have all the rest of the working people of this nation. It is imperative to all of us that you realize this fact and don't vote for either corporate party in the future. Please!! I am begging you. We must change this government and voting D or R will just continue their austerity and expanding war programs. No way will these parties will repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and return our monetary system to the Congress and take the power away from the banksters who own the Ds and the Rs.
OK, think about your last sentence. It makes no sense.
OK, let's say congress repeals the fed reserve act of 1913 and returns control of the monetary system to the congress, and takes power away from the banksters. They will then transfer that power to congress, whose Ds and Rs are owned by those very same banksters. Ding ding ding!
Agreed that both parties are fully controlled by the corporate "empire" except for a few non-conforming outliers.
You are correct, sir.
wantrealdemocracy, don't forget that Billie also facilitated killing the Glass Steagall Act and allowed Wall Street to prepare the way for their Great Depression II.
[One must remember that WWI was only called the "Great War" until WWII came along, and the Great Depression will only be known in history as that until what is happening now is correctly referred to as GDII.
Best, Alan