Obama and Reagan: Separated at birth

[Crewleader]

by Mike Whitney | December 6, 2009 - 2:32pm

Barack Obama's "Job's Summit" is a public relations boondoggle intended to create the impression that the administration takes double-digit unemployment seriously. It's a joke. Obama made it clear from the very beginning, that tax incentives and other goodies for private industry were being prepared, but that New Deal-type jobs programs were off-the-table.

We will consider, "every demonstrably good idea" Obama boomed. "But our resources are limited."

Obama's caveat was designed to send a message to his liberal base that--while it is perfectly dandy to use $11.4 trillion in public funds to shore up a ramshackle and hopelessly corrupt financial system--providing a few hundred billion for government jobs for the victims of Wall Street's Ponzi-swindle, would be "fiscally irresponsible." Of course, Obama is merely voicing the views of his chief advisors, Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner. Both men played key roles in creating the financial crisis, and are now using it to put downward pressure on wages, force states into insolvency, and accelerate the privatization of public assets. Summers and Geithner are both industry insiders and neoliberal carpetbaggers.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/25349

[Gman]

1. Why is this shit allowed on DU?

Why?

[FrenchieCat]

2. Bunch of shit for those who don't have shit else to do......

they look upon name calling as "solving problems"....when it ain't.

This only points to the fact that these folks ain't doing shit but what you see there;
talking a bunch of shit on the Internet cause they can.

I'm starting to see some real parallels with some on the Left and the wingnut crazy ass Right....
and the Corporate media ain't far behind.

[snagglepuss]

11. What's with the ain't schtick?

Condescension is never attractive.

[IrateCitizen]

22. And then there is the cult of personality of Obama...

... who close their eyes and cover their ears, believing that he could never do wrong, and refusing to acknowledge the possibility that he might, no matter how many facts are thrown in their faces.

THAT is also a real parallel between the left and right on display on these boards.

[SlowDownFast]

24. +1000. n/t

[Dragonfli]

27. +1000

[truedelphi]

30. I know that I (for one) am willing

To wait and see.

After all, he won't even be in office a full year until the twentieth of HJanuary.

So those of you who may be disappointed that we haven't bombed Iran or Venezuela yet - just wait and see! It could well be the next big thing in the works.

[Gman]

25. Wingnuts on the left share a lot of characteristics with wingnuts of the right

and it's very clear to anyone that cares to observe. We don't need either. Fortunately, the left wingnuts are nothing more than splinter groups. They have no value to the Democratic Party or to general progress in this country. And, fortunately the left wingnuts are not dangerous like the right wingnuts.

[jgraz]

29. Yes those nasty splinter wingnuts who want healthcare and equal rights for gays

and respect for the rule of law and regulation of finance companies an end to our illegal wars.

You know, that 70-percent-of-the-country splinter group. :eyes:

[tekisui]

4. Can you be more specific?

Is it the site, the author, the title or the article?

The first two have been accepted here as long as I have been here.

[Tansy_Gold]

5. Maybe because it's the truth?

I realize that there are people who do not want to see the truth or even question their own version of reality, but some of us aren't afraid.



Tansy Gold

[Crewleader]

9. Thanks Tansy Gold

Mike Whitney's articles have been posted here since the start and many of us are interested in what he has to say.

Watch out for Monday when Jim Kunstler expresses himself, always a good read.

[sandnsea]

15. I am really surprised at the shit you've been posting

You used to post jobs and economy stories and keep some objectivity. That post is pure shit. The majority of the stimulus went directly to the people and public works projects.

• $275 billion in tax relief ($1,000 tax cut for families, $500 tax cut for individuals through SS payroll deductions)
• $ 90 billion for infrastructure
• $ 87 billion Medicaid assistance to states
• $ 79 billion school districts/public colleges to prevent cutbacks
• $ 41 billion for additional school funding ($14 billion for school modernizations and repairs, $13 billion for Title I, $13 billion for IDEA special education funding, $1 billion for education technology)
• $ 15 billion to increase Pell grants by $500
• $ 6 billion for higher education modernization.
• $ 54 billion for alternative and renewable energy
• $ 24 billion for health information technology
• $ 10 billion for science/technology facilities and research
• $6 billion to expand broadband to rural areas

[Crewleader]

16. Most of the time, it's the same writers....

I guess it depends on what they saying that upsets you...avoid it if it bothers you.

I post for truth and what I feel others here would be interested in, always have and always will.

[New Dawn]

38. +1

[sandnsea]

10. And ABC does a story about the jobs created

by the stimulus - and that's proof that the media is in the tank for Obama. So jobs or no jobs, Obama's wrong.

And they wonder why they aren't taken seriously. :crazy:

[SlowDownFast]

23. 'Cause it's true. n/t

[HughMoran]

26. This is the new DU

Obama=Bush=Reagan dontcha know?

[sendero]

35. Because..

.... it is essentially true. And at some future point in time even folks like YOU will have to admit it.

[dflprincess]

3. No money for jobs or health care

but there's always money for war.

[madrchsod]

21. for every dollar spent for the public good returns 5

military spending returns nothing.

[truedelphi]

28. Ssh! The MIC does not want the truth behind your statement to

leak out.

[timeforpeace]

6. Make bad words go away!

[NJmaverick]

7. This would be a text book example of Radical progressivism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x41921

[SpartanDem]

8. This jackass ever hear of the stimulus bill?

[cliffordu]

12. Maybe there is a lesson here.

and maybe my ass smells like bluebonnets.

:shrug:

[Skittles]

13. I WILL KICK YOUR BLUEBONNET ASS, CLIFFORDU

YES INDEED

[cliffordu]

17. Baby, I dig your style....

:loveya:

[girl gone mad]

14. “If we just increased our share of exports to Asia by 1 percent,”..

“If we just increased our share of exports to Asia by 1 percent,” he said, “that’s about a quarter million jobs right there. If we increased it by 5 (percent), that’s a million jobs. That fills a big hole, and it doesn’t cost money."

Obama's remarks indicate that the Fed will continue to trash the dollar to increase competitive advantage in global trade, regardless of its harmful effects on the life savings of pensioners and retirees. The statement is also a wink to Wall Street that the flow of cheap capital--which buoys stocks and beefs-up earning--will continue for the foreseeable future.

There is a greater case to be made that the weakening dollar will do little to improve our exports. Not least because of China's peg. Investors move capital out of countries with falling currency, favoring a greater return on their money. The countries with a rising currency use this new found capital to shore up infrastructure and boost internal demand, both of which contribute to a more competitive manufacturing sector. Our dollar would have to fall quite precipitously before we would even begin to be on par with the slave-wage countries, and that's assuming that our trade partners would disengage in their beggar-thy-neighbor games and limit taxes and tariffs (unlikely).

[madrchsod]

20. 25 cents an hour to make huffy bikes in china....i used to make huffy parts!

i worked at a forge shop in the 70`s and made the cranks for huffy bikes. good union job and good pay...i could have retired by now but my labor was replaced by the cheapest labor in asia.

[truedelphi]

32. Good retort. I think the remark is lost on

Those who need it most, but still good to try and bring some reasoning into the process.

[Statistical]

37. The goal isn't to "match slave labor" the goal is to get a cut of the $1.2T

China imports nearly $1.2 trillion in goods & services.

The US cut of that is a mere $70B.

While Germany ($102B), Japan ($160B), South Korea ($140B), and Taiwan ($88B) all have larger shares.
Falling dollar makes US exports to China cheaper than those from Germany, Japan, SK, and Taiwan.

Considering China needs large amounts of imports they can't produce locally that $1.2T will only grow over next decade.
It would be nice for a couple hundred billion of that to flow our way.

[Historic NY]

18. note GFYS..see thread........

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x410410

[madrchsod]

19. in the real world geithner and summers would have been fired

and they would never get a job in the same field. but they do`t live in the real world the rest of us live in.

that`s we are fucked.

[jgraz]

33. Hate to say it, but it's Geithner and Summers who live in the "real" world

It's us serfs who are fed the "work hard, obey the rules, get ahead" fantasy.

[jgraz]

31. There's no comparison.

At least Reagan was honest about where he wanted to take the country. I didn't like it, but at least we knew what was coming.

[Dragonfli]

34. Good point. /nt

[Mind_your_head]

36. carpetbaggers, yes INDEEDY!!!!!

kickety kick :kick: :kick: :kick: