http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008114616/prepare-great-battle-2009#comment-9452
Before I go any further, I want to say something to my progressive friends on the left, and those more liberal than left, who were so adamant that we should all fall in line and give our uncritical support to Obama; and then go on to say in the face of Obama lining up what is obviously a pro-war, anti-democratic, anti-labor cabinet completely complicit in the repressive measures we have seen ranging from taking away signs from those attending Obama campaign rallies saying, “End the wars now!” to “We want health care not war fare; single-payer universal health care now” to remaining silent as black-suited police riot squads attacked people peacefully demonstrating their concerns during both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions:
Where are you now when things like this are being published? What has happened to your voices now that you know the economic facts were intentionally skewed and hidden from the American people and we were lied to about the economy by Obama and the Democrats the same way Bush lied about the wars? You must take us all for complete fools when you sing “Give Obama a chance.” What has happened to the great progressive sea-change of epic historical proportions? Where is that fight-back you promised? What has happened to the struggle for peace and social and economic justice you promised to participate in “after Obama gets elected?”
Where are your voices in response to these kinds of things being dished out not by the day, but by the minute from those who will do and say anything to save the Democratic Party from a real working class led challenge.
In not responding to these pieces you obviously have given up any hope for real progressive reforms like single-payer universal health care.
You wrote so eloquently and passionately condemning those of us who wanted no part of your Obama campaign; now you remain silent as these capitalist sooth-Sayers ply their trade, again, under the guise of “liberalism,” “progressivism” and even “socialism.”
Where are the Tom Hayden’s, the Carl Davidson’s the Eric Mann’s now that their voices are really needed in defense of working class interests. Where is that big-mouth labor leader Leo Gerard who boasted that he got ten-thousand steel workers out for Obama. We know where Ron
Gettelfinger is, holding up the dumb donkey’s tail begging for the sparrows to leave something behind for auto workers.
Just like these people always do, talk big and run for cover when their voices are needed.
Just a few days ago Leo Gerard wrote to Obama, “We are with you.” What did Leo Gerard mean, that he was with Obama in driving down the standard of living for the entire working class because if Obama gets away with these trillion dollar schemes, working people in the United States will be no better off than any poverty wracked country in Asia, Africa or Latin America.
DEBT IS POVERTY!
After I posted the response to this guy (see very bottom), I started thinking and I couldn’t help but add this:
By Alan Maki | November 17th, 2008 - 1:25pm GMT
You know, you people who boosted Obama act like you didn't know how bad the economy was or where it was headed.
If you really didn't know, why should anyone take your advice now?
The capitalists have become rich by creating all these problems as a result of stealing the wealth created by the working class… leaving working people with nothing but poverty and a mess to clean up.
And now you have the unmitigated gall to suggest that we should give up our future, the future's of our children and probably our great grand children to save this rotten capitalist system.
Barack Obama should have considered being more honest with the American people with where this economy was at while campaigning.
On numerous occasions he was asked how he was going to pay for that pitiful little social programs he advocated with the economy going belly-up.
At no time did Obama nor any of you who so enthusiastically supported him bother to inform the American people how bad the economy was... instead, you chose to plug along talking about what a great progressive "sea-change" was at hand.
And now we find that the only thing Obama is going to do is try to save this rotten capitalist system.
It looks to me like you and Obama have used up whatever goodwill and trust you gained by deceiving the American people as you have.
If Obama did not know the seriousness of the problems he should resign right now because he obviously isn't going to know what to do as far as solving the problems in the interest of working people he claimed to represent.
The Great Battle of 2009
Campaign for America’s Future STAFF
By Bernie Horn
November 16th, 2008 - 11:13pm ET
What will be the top priority for the Obama administration at the beginning of 2009? Enacting health care for all? Pursuing energy independence? Rewriting NAFTA?
None of those (I’m sorry to report).
The great opening battle—the one we absolutely have to win—is enactment of an economic recovery program of unprecedented size and scope. Without this, our economy will fall into a deep recession, putting all of our progressive goals in serious jeopardy.
This week's lame-duck Congress will do little or nothing to address the problem. January will find us facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Unemployment, foreclosures and bank failures are already going through the roof. The stock market, home values and consumer confidence are already going through the floor. And things will get worse.
Here’s the politically painful truth: The only way to save our economy is to commence a massive increase in federal spending—requiring as much as $1 trillion in deficit spending over the next two years.
Leading economists like Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Dean Baker—and even the great majority of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal—know that economic recovery will be expensive. But Americans don’t even know this issue is coming because it went unmentioned during the election campaign. That’s a political problem because deficit spending is widely unpopular.
Americans assume that deficits are bad and balanced budgets are good. One post-election poll found that 61 percent say “reducing the federal budget deficit” should be a “top priority” for the new president, and another 31 percent say it should be “important.” But in a severe recession, that’s bad economic policy. In fact, trying to balance the budget during a recession is the recipe for depression—it was Herbert Hoover’s recipe, to be precise.
Put in the context of economic recovery, Americans remain sharply divided about federal spending. A post-election poll sponsored by Campaign for America’s Future asked voters if they were “more worried that we will fail to make the investments we need to create jobs and strengthen the economy” or “more worried that we will go too far in increasing government spending and will end up raising taxes to pay for it.” The first statement won agreement from 49 percent; 48 percent agreed with the second. So progressives have work to do.
How do we begin to prepare Americans to support us in the coming battle?
First, keep up a steady drumbeat for an Obama “economic recovery program.” The same CAF poll found that most voters support the general idea.
Second, explain that the recovery program will help “make health insurance affordable and accessible to all Americans,” “end dependence on foreign oil,” and “make job-creating investments in America’s aging roads and transportation systems”—specific goals that are widely popular.
Third, don’t accept the argument that our economic recovery plan is too costly. Even if we spend $500 billion per year, it will still be far less than the cost of letting the U.S. economy plummet into a years-long, severe recession.
Finally, explain to people worried about the politics that while “deficit spending” is unpopular, it’s not a make-or-break voting issue. Voters didn’t punish Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush for their massive deficit spending, and voters didn’t reward Al Gore for the Clinton-Gore Administration’s success in balancing the federal budget.
Bottom line: Barack Obama needs your help. If progressives spend the next nine weeks building support for a robust economic recovery plan, the next president will have a much easier time enacting his top priority legislation.
Tomorrow, the Campaign for America's Future will kick off the conversation with a conference on "Real Investment in America" at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. For more about economic recovery and public investments, see our new Institute for America's Future economy webpage.
The writer is a Senior Fellow at Campaign for America’s Future and author of the recent book, Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People.
By Alan Maki | November 17th, 2008 - 12:46pm GMT
You write:
"Here’s the politically painful truth: The only way to save our economy is to commence a massive increase in federal spending—requiring as much as $1 trillion in deficit spending over the next two years."
First of all federal spending on "bailouts" to Wall Street bankers, coupon clippers and the Big Three is only going to make matters worse.
Who do you propose giving this government dole to?
Do you read the newspapers?
Today the headlines blare out at us:
"This is not your 'garden variety' downturn."
We are in the throes of a classic capitalist depression and "overproduction" is the culprit. This means economic depression has struck because workers cannot purchase back what they have produced because they have no purchasing power.
If you deny this is the case, then prove it.
Where are your proposed trillions of dollars going to come from?
Where are those trillions of dollars going to go?
You are assuming, like Barack Obama, that an economic philosophy has failed when it is the capitalist economic system that has failed.
Getting a trillion dollars (your figure) into the hands of working people to spend will require tax-payers putting up well over 6 trillion dollars because Wall Street coupon clippers skim the cream right off the top everytime this is tried.
Spending in this senseless way pushed the U.S. economy to the verge of a never-ending depression just before World War Two began. If not for the buildup to war we would still be mired in an economic depression and poverty just like most of the rest of the world.
And now you are proposing the exact same failed policy, eighty years later.
We need massive redistribution of wealth in this country and we need it fast. This is the only thing that is going to prevent massive human misery.
Rather than spending enormous sums as you propose... Obama should be looking at doing just the opposite of your "maximum deficit spending."
The first thing should be a drastic increase in the minimum wage to a real living wage. Raise the minimum wage so high it makes these Wall Street pigs squeal.
Raise Social Security three-fold to where it should be... we can pay this fund back as we reclaim our stolen wealth that has found its way into bank accounts in the Cayman Islands.
Implement socialized health care; forget about all other health care reforms... this puts trillions of dollars into the hands of working people almost overnite... real purchasing power.
Tax the hell out of business and let them cry.
In combination, begin the most massive infrastructure maintainance and rebuilding in world history... do it through the federal government public works program by-passing the private contractors who have been feeding at the public trough just like the Wall Street bankers and the greedy military-financial-industrial complex.
This is where the remaining "bailout" funds should be invested, in your proposed public works projects.
An emergency measure: Forgive all student debt... again, this frees up billions without having to go to the tax-payers.
We need to do everything possible to undermine the capitalist economy including letting the banks fail and pave the way for socialism so that we never again end up with this kind of mess.
Two massive capitalist depressions in the 1800's; one big one in the 1900's; now the grand-daddy of them all and you want to shore up a system that has been breeding this kind of massive human misery? And we haven't even considered the long-term, never-ending poverty of most of the rest of the world!
Stop these senseless wars for oil and dope and invest those funds in the kinds of social programs required to provide working people with the kind of decent life they are entitled to for having created such tremendous wealth now being squandered by a bunch of dumb clucks and being turned over to another bunch of dumb donkeys.
Forget about capitalist economics, forget about "free enterprise;" just do what is required for working people to live decent lives free from poverty for a change.
Give socialism the chance to see what it can do; capitalism has failed.
Alan L. Maki
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