It's the season of giving but you'd never know it from today's Meet The Press, and everyone's working through this Christmas with the gifts being understated and modest at best. As a general rule, one should have very low expectations of people, all the time in all instances. Because if you do not, you end up feeling disgusted, frustrated, disappointed et al., like so much of the American public about the politics in this country.
Today's telling Meet The Press first featured White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod, pleading his case within almost every answer he gave on the merits of the present Healthcare reform bill. He spouted facts such as that 7 previous Presidents had tried to pass Healthcare and failed. That no bill this significant has ever passed without compromise. He softly argued that the Administration's core principals on healthcare have not been compromised with the bill in it's current form citing various fine-print statements by the President. But none of this left us convinced.
One of the methods, whether conscious or not, of the Obama Campaign/Administration has been to sell the ideal but not push hard enough for it and then settle for what others decide. During the campaign, Americans' collective expectations were so high on the idea of change and hope and a new idealism, there was no other way to go but down. However, there's down and there's thrown out the window and now we're left with the reality that the Administration didn't fight hard enough for them in the previous rounds of this heavyweight fight. David Gregory pointed out that the Administration didn't fight for the public option until the very end when it had no chance of surviving in the Senate, which is a compromised institution and that's putting it mildly.
Mr. Axelrod did rightly state that this Healthcare bill will make it affordable for 31 Million more Americans to get insurance, but later in the program during the panel discussion The Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas framed it as 31 Million more people being able to buy into the current system. If his opinion is to be believed and that's what this bill real boils down to, then that's not reform. And you would be inclined to believe his general premise because why would insurance stocks close on Friday at 52 year high as Joe Scarborough, also on the panel, echoed Howard Dean from earlier in the program? Here we have a problem with the idealism/realism equation.
[By the way, Mr. Scarborough is good spouting and analysing facts, but no good at all with opinion calling Afghanistan and Healthcare a distraction from the job creation priority - one small example from today's program. ]
Howard Dean, former DNC Chair and Vermont Governor - today's second interview, said earlier this week that the bill should be scrapped and restarted. He did pull back from that today citing various amendment changes that represented 'positive' reform. However, he also stated that serious problems remain, one being that cost controls would not be applied to hospitals. But significantly said that if the final compromise bill between the House and Senate did not contain the public option, he could not support it.
Real Democrats and Progressives (not Blue Dogs) are not imploding as it is made out to seem. It's more correct to say that they are having a serious discussion while having to deal with Blue Dog agendas to achieve the traditional 60 votes in the Senate. [Always remember that the 60 vote majority is a Senate traditional, and not a rule of law.] And Dr. Dean understated it when he said the compromises in the Senate bill have been too much.
However, he accurately stated, in spite of his dissatisfaction, that the Republicans have acted reprehensibly. Their entire strategy is politically motivated. The reason we know this is that they haven't offered any real comprehensible solutions to the problem. And we'll at this point mention that Fmr. RNC Chair Ed Gillespie was also on today's panel, but all that can be said for his contribution to the discussion was forwarding Republican talking points.
So in the Senate, you have the Progressives gnawing at each other, Blue Dog Democrats holding the majority hostage with personal political agenda items, and Republican Senators collectively doing everything they can to obstruct, delay, sabotage, and ultimate crash the bill. Here is your reality.
"Where is the principal we started out with?" PBS's Tavis Smiley asked. "This is not the healthcare we were promised," he also stated. Americans wanted healthcare for all and now that we've gotten so far along from that idea, opinion and hope have soured. Mr. Smiley opined that the Administration lost its first big fight with an entrenched lobby. And that leaves us to ask how will the Administration do in its next major bout? Compromising and parrying?
Mr. Smiley also threw this one out there, "Campaigning and governing are two different things." Yes, they are. Campaigning is talking about the fights you're going to pick, and governing is fighting those fights. And even if you lose, if you go down swinging, the ideals stay in tact.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
12.13.09: The Economy - "I Don't Know the Answer, but Don't Call Me Stupid"
Today's Guests:
Dr. Christina Romer who chairs the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, Governor Jennifer Granholm (D-Michigan), 2008 Republican Presidential Candidate
and former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, and the Host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer.
And you thought Afghanistan was a quagmire? Judging from every answer, or non-answer, from all of today's guests, the one thing we do know is that no one wants to get into this swampy mire of an economy above the hip. With all due respect to Dr. Christina Romer, she had the skill of a seasoned politician when it can to giving a straight answer, she didn't... or maybe couldn't. And that's the thing with the U.S. economy, it makes the Afghan War seem predictable.
However, when she said that the Administration hit this recessive economy with everything it could get through Congress, I take her at her word. The Obama Administration instituted a tax cut for 95% of middle class families. Then there was the first home buyer tax credit, small business tax breaks for hiring, and cash for clunkers of course to name a few. Staying with taxes for a minute, Mr. Gregory hammered Ms. Romer on the question of taxes because it is a key factor in how the government is going to pay for everything. The reason it is a non-answer because as Ms. Romer stated, you can not raise taxes during the recession we're in. However, you can not lower them to the extent the Republicans want, breaks in which only the top of the monetary food chain truly take advantage of. To fully recover, tax breaks in the short term are a good helping fixer, but eventually they are going to have to go up. It's a hard truth that no politician can utter unless the increase is direction at the super rich. And unfortunately for this column, Jim Kramer on today's program said that same thing so now we have to agree with him on this point, something that gives us no pleasure.
The Administration has floated the idea of a second T.A.R.P. program, but taxing some one some where is a necessity for this to happen. And as Mr. Gregory pointed out via the op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, aren't we getting ahead of ourselves since we've only doled out 20% of the initial T.A.R.P. allocation? It is and people do cry about the size of the initial fund saying it was too much so how could you even consider another. Well, economist Paul Krugman has stated that the initial amount was too little. Realistically, the amount was too small, but politically it was way too much.
[It always strikes this column as funny to think that when the Obama Administration raised the richest 1% of the population's taxes from 36 to 39%, ordinary folks called him a socialist. If that's true then Eisenhower was a communist. Just plain silly.]
The other key question of the program was if the recovery, when it comes, would be a jobless one? Another question that no one is willing to answer because the inclination is that it will, in fact, be a recovery where many jobs are not replaced. Dr. Romer is disqualified from anything reliable as she was one of the ones who said with the T.A.R.P. enacted, unemployment would go above 8% - well, we're at 10. Knowing that Mr. Gregory asked her if unemployment would be a 5% within a year? Again, she didn't answer but THE ANSWER is no way - 7% if we're lucky.
But who the hell knows? If you ask a Democratic State Governor, like Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, she'll say the what the administration is doing is the right thing. She mentioned the Chevy Volt being in production putting Michigan residents to work along with re-tooling some manufacturing in the state from auto to wind turbines. However, if you ask Mitt Romney, former Republican Governor of Massachusetts, he tells you that the stimulus grew the government and not the economy - a jobless stimulus.
Actually, what he is saying is true, but he doesn't truly know why he's right. The stimulus didn't actually grow government as much as it headed off the municipal meltdown that many states would have experienced forced to lay off teachers, firefighters, policeman and countless others - hence sustaining the levels of employment. With giving this money, the federal government reached farther into the say of the states - thus expansion. You have to have a solid base before you can start the rebuilding of the structure. Jim Kramer (in this column's opinion he is completely discredit as a thoughtful economic analyst, reduced to a corporate shill) said that municipal and state worker compensation created no jobs, without ever finishing the sentence - that hundreds of thousands of those jobs were saved. It's a fact that get swept under the rug, but shouldn't be.
Even Alan Greenspan couldn't really give an insight on what to do. Keep in mind that looking back on his record more closely has not done much to bolster Mr. Greenspan's reputation or legacy for that matter. The one thing he said that struck us as comically ironic and that was that the Federal Reserve has done all it can do at this point. Let's just say, that yes, it has done enough. However, he did state a concern of his, which should concern us all. Mr. Greenspan pointed out that 38% of the total number of people unemployed has been so for over 27 weeks - over six months. How much of that 38% is ever going to make it back fully? As time goes on, the existing skills fade and retraining becomes more difficult. And then you have to consider the individuals coming into the workforce who can not find work. The 38% could easily increase.
But it's all so difficult to predict for anyone, no matter the extent of the expertise. It's really the only thing that you can take away from today's program.... Romer - non-answer; Alan Greenspan - discredited; Gov. Granholm - naively optimistic; Jim Kramer - irresponsible; and Gov. Romney - stupid.
Dr. Christina Romer who chairs the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, Governor Jennifer Granholm (D-Michigan), 2008 Republican Presidential Candidate
and former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, and the Host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer.
And you thought Afghanistan was a quagmire? Judging from every answer, or non-answer, from all of today's guests, the one thing we do know is that no one wants to get into this swampy mire of an economy above the hip. With all due respect to Dr. Christina Romer, she had the skill of a seasoned politician when it can to giving a straight answer, she didn't... or maybe couldn't. And that's the thing with the U.S. economy, it makes the Afghan War seem predictable.
However, when she said that the Administration hit this recessive economy with everything it could get through Congress, I take her at her word. The Obama Administration instituted a tax cut for 95% of middle class families. Then there was the first home buyer tax credit, small business tax breaks for hiring, and cash for clunkers of course to name a few. Staying with taxes for a minute, Mr. Gregory hammered Ms. Romer on the question of taxes because it is a key factor in how the government is going to pay for everything. The reason it is a non-answer because as Ms. Romer stated, you can not raise taxes during the recession we're in. However, you can not lower them to the extent the Republicans want, breaks in which only the top of the monetary food chain truly take advantage of. To fully recover, tax breaks in the short term are a good helping fixer, but eventually they are going to have to go up. It's a hard truth that no politician can utter unless the increase is direction at the super rich. And unfortunately for this column, Jim Kramer on today's program said that same thing so now we have to agree with him on this point, something that gives us no pleasure.
The Administration has floated the idea of a second T.A.R.P. program, but taxing some one some where is a necessity for this to happen. And as Mr. Gregory pointed out via the op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, aren't we getting ahead of ourselves since we've only doled out 20% of the initial T.A.R.P. allocation? It is and people do cry about the size of the initial fund saying it was too much so how could you even consider another. Well, economist Paul Krugman has stated that the initial amount was too little. Realistically, the amount was too small, but politically it was way too much.
[It always strikes this column as funny to think that when the Obama Administration raised the richest 1% of the population's taxes from 36 to 39%, ordinary folks called him a socialist. If that's true then Eisenhower was a communist. Just plain silly.]
The other key question of the program was if the recovery, when it comes, would be a jobless one? Another question that no one is willing to answer because the inclination is that it will, in fact, be a recovery where many jobs are not replaced. Dr. Romer is disqualified from anything reliable as she was one of the ones who said with the T.A.R.P. enacted, unemployment would go above 8% - well, we're at 10. Knowing that Mr. Gregory asked her if unemployment would be a 5% within a year? Again, she didn't answer but THE ANSWER is no way - 7% if we're lucky.
But who the hell knows? If you ask a Democratic State Governor, like Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, she'll say the what the administration is doing is the right thing. She mentioned the Chevy Volt being in production putting Michigan residents to work along with re-tooling some manufacturing in the state from auto to wind turbines. However, if you ask Mitt Romney, former Republican Governor of Massachusetts, he tells you that the stimulus grew the government and not the economy - a jobless stimulus.
Actually, what he is saying is true, but he doesn't truly know why he's right. The stimulus didn't actually grow government as much as it headed off the municipal meltdown that many states would have experienced forced to lay off teachers, firefighters, policeman and countless others - hence sustaining the levels of employment. With giving this money, the federal government reached farther into the say of the states - thus expansion. You have to have a solid base before you can start the rebuilding of the structure. Jim Kramer (in this column's opinion he is completely discredit as a thoughtful economic analyst, reduced to a corporate shill) said that municipal and state worker compensation created no jobs, without ever finishing the sentence - that hundreds of thousands of those jobs were saved. It's a fact that get swept under the rug, but shouldn't be.
Even Alan Greenspan couldn't really give an insight on what to do. Keep in mind that looking back on his record more closely has not done much to bolster Mr. Greenspan's reputation or legacy for that matter. The one thing he said that struck us as comically ironic and that was that the Federal Reserve has done all it can do at this point. Let's just say, that yes, it has done enough. However, he did state a concern of his, which should concern us all. Mr. Greenspan pointed out that 38% of the total number of people unemployed has been so for over 27 weeks - over six months. How much of that 38% is ever going to make it back fully? As time goes on, the existing skills fade and retraining becomes more difficult. And then you have to consider the individuals coming into the workforce who can not find work. The 38% could easily increase.
But it's all so difficult to predict for anyone, no matter the extent of the expertise. It's really the only thing that you can take away from today's program.... Romer - non-answer; Alan Greenspan - discredited; Gov. Granholm - naively optimistic; Jim Kramer - irresponsible; and Gov. Romney - stupid.
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