Why Aren't the Democrats Framing the Debate?

[louis c]

Here's my take. The facts are on our side and we're losing the debate in the public forum. Please let me detail a few of the issues that concern me.

On health care: every time a Republican office holder or critic of the public option says, "we can do better by letting the private insurance companies compete in the market place, including over state lines" why don't we reply "then you're in favor of repealing the anti-trust exemption on the insurance industry?"

On the economy: Why aren't the actual words of George W. Bush and Hank Paulson used to emphasize what a disaster we were looking at in the middle of September in 2008. That Capitalism was on the brink of collapse. How Democrats aided the then President to save this country, at our own political peril, because of the disastrous economic policies the Republicans had implemented. Instead of having pieces of shit asking "well, when does this economy become Obama's?" We should reply "I don't know, when did the economy in the thirties become FDR's". In other words, the Republicans own this disaster until we get them out of it


It was just 8 months ago, March of 2009 to be exact, that many ditto-heads and Fox News watchers were telling us that Obama was a disaster and cited as proof that the "stock market had dropped 2,000 points since he was elected". Remember that? Putting aside the fact that most of that drop was before he was Inaugurated, none of those assholes now point to the fact that the market has gained 50% since then. They wanted to blame Obama when he wasn't in office for the drop, but give him no credit for the increase when he is. This in not insignificant. Many working class Americans rely on their 401K's, and this increase will eventually increase people's confidence. We always fail to make them eat their words.

On the deficit: While the Republicans controlled the government, they got us into an ill advised war in Iraq. During their tenure, they called the war spending an "emergency" and used this accounting gimmick to keep that massive spending outside the budget, and therefore outside the deficit numbers. Obama has correctly included those numbers in the budget. Now we let those Republican assholes act like that extra spending is on our watch, and amounts to an increase. When am I going to hear this mentioned in main stream media? And why aren't Democrats singing this tune every time the deficit is used by the other side?

On unemployment: Those no good pieces of shit that ran this country into the ground for 8 years gave unemployment benefits for just 26 weeks to those who lost their jobs. Unemployment rates are dictated by those folks on those rolls. Now, a compassionate Democratic President and Congress, in the tradition of the FDR years, have extended benefits to as much as 96 weeks, meaning that no one has been dropped off the rolls since we took over. As a result, the rate will continue to increase, even though fewer Americans are losing their jobs now then under Bush. For example, the job loss during the last quarter of the Bush administration was 750,000 a month, now it is under 200,00 a month, yet the rate increases because we will not throw jobless workers on the street.

Why is a tax cut a tax cut when they do it, but spending when we do it? When those Republican Assholes cut taxes for the wealthy, they trumpeted their cause as letting American keep more of their own money. After all, you know how to spend your money better than Washington. Assholes. Now, one third of Obama's and the Democrat's stimulus package contains tax cuts for middle Americans, and the Republicans continue to refer to it as spending. For the first time since the Republicans repealed it in the eighties, the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits is not taxed. Everyone on unemployment got a $25 a week increase, and the aforementioned unemployment extensions. Every worker saw a cut in his payroll tax, about $18 a week for someone making $40K a year. There was a one time Social Security payment of $250 per person. A tax credit for first time home buyers. a tax credit to improve energy efficiency in your home. This is spending? giving money to the rich is OK, but helping out our middle class isn't?


Why aren't we framing the debate?