Obama's RW appeasement: cut progressive programs now so you can propose progressive programs later

[nashville_brook]

Obama's appeasement: cut progressive programs now so you can propose progressive programs later
Everyone but the president knows that Republicans are NEVER going to bargain in good faith


Sacrificing democratic principles in order to take GOP issues "off the table" just never gets old for some people. I hoped that after the endless impotent triangulations of the Clinton Administration that our party would never let this empty maneuver be played on us again.

But my hope was wrong, as it's exactly what Obama is proposing now:

(from yesterday's presser)
You know, if you care about making investments in our kids and making investments in our infrastructure and making investments in basic research then you should want our fiscal house in order so that every time we propose a new initiative, somebody doesn’t just throw up their hands and say more big spending, more government.

During campaign season we're told that we must elect a Democratic President in order to have our principles enacted in policy, and to have our issues at the forefront of debate. But after we send in our money, knock on doors and GOTV, we find that the priority of our democratic president is exactly the opposite. Suddenly we're bad progressives if we're not extending the Bush Tax Cuts, eliminating the mortgage interest tax deduction, and slashing Social Security (which has ZERO impact on the deficit), because, he says, we must do this in order to (hopefully) see progressive programs proposed without Republicans whining about "tax and spend" liberals.

The president appears to be in a fugue state where he believes the deficit is magic wand which he'll wave to tongue-tie the GOP. What, in your experience of Republicans, gives you the impression they'd give up their rhetorical H-bomb: "tax and spend liberal?" Moreover, once you tell them you're handing them the massive victory of cutting Social Security, for fear of being called a "tax and spend liberal," they'd be stupid not to continue using since it's obviously useful weapon.

Recall the Clinton administration. Courtesy of the Reagan-Bush years, Clinton inherited the largest deficits in this country's history, and then erased them largely by destroying welfare, while wet-nursing the dot-com bubble. If Obama's deficit wager had any merit, supply side neoliberalism would be a distant memory as we'd be living in a utopia of shiny new bridges, (to the 21st Century) high speed rail, universal healthcare and education for all.

Once Clinton took the deficit "off the table" what giant progressive programs were proposed during his second term? Does anything leap to mind? Or, is Clinton's second term now remembered for the 11th-hour repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which is one of the main reasons the world economy crashed in 2007?

This progressive is too old and too tired to fall for this smoke and mirrors bullshit again. Not with so much at stake. Cutting Social Security won't make a penny's difference to the deficit. Other proposals, such as means-testing Social Security and Medicare is the surest way to see these programs eliminated as 'welfare' programs. Raising the age of Medicare is a sure way to kill off grandparents, for real this time. Eliminating the mortgage interest deduction will surely cripple our housing markets for generations to come. And rejiggering the COLA calculation to assume that if people can't afford coffee, then they'll just drink water, is simply criminal. Social Security is our money -- we paid into it for our entire working life. It's not a welfare program that some fatcat gets to slash when he wants more money for wars in the Middle East.

Despite the hallucinatory quality of the notion, Obama sees his challenge as having to "sell" progressives on cutting progressive programs now, in order to sell progressive programs in the future. Here's more from Obama's presser:

(I must) sell some of our party that if you are a progressive, you should be concerned about debt and deficit just as much as if you’re a conservative. And the reason is because if the only thing we’re talking about over the next year, two years, five years is debt and deficits, then it’s very hard to start talking about how do we make investments in community colleges so that our kids are trained.

To which progressives must reply: Given your track history of fighting for our issues, Mr. President, how are we to take you seriously when you promise progressive action in "a year, two years or five years."

Stealing from senior citizens is not how you invest in the future. Holding community colleges hostage is not a progressive value. And slashing Medicare and Medicaid by putting the uninsurable in a voucher insurance program is nothing but a GOP talking point.

This progressive is not buying what Obama's selling.