As I write this, Ben Bernanke is going on about the deficit being unsustainable. There’s no conversation in Washington other than what to cut. And we have tangible proof of how that will turn out: austerity budgets are lowering growth, causing needless human suffering and INCREASING deficits across the globe.

amen.

we should be talking about spending priorities: increasing medicare by eliminating the copays or instituting an out of pocket max and decreasing the eligibility age to 55. increasing SS benefits, making them universal and lowering the full eligibility age to 55.

and lots lots more. after all we have an entire energy sector to restructure.

WP: 81 percent of Democrats now say the federal budget is a major problem that must be addressed now

And this is a smart tactical move, from an electoral standpoint. The problem comes in the pivot to what Democrats are selling, which is an austerity budget.

Uh, I’m not getting this.

So, we will get to see how many Vichy Dems we have in the Senate?

Can’t wait.

So Nancy Pelosi passes bill after bill with a Democratic congress, hardly any of which see the light of day under Reid’s Senate. But John Boehner gets to put Republican legislation in front of the Senate for a vote?

Yah I know Reid is hoping to play some political game in which [hopefully] the bill doesn’t pass but somehow this makes Republicans look bad. It’s still stupid to be using congress to play games rather than pass legislation.

Reid wants to stick Republicans with the Ryan budget to create a clear alternative for the next election.

I think this is a very dangerous strategy. Especially by a guy who can’t grab his ass with both hands.

Washington other than what to cut

Yep, cuts for Main Street and nothing about DOD and vendors or taxes on corp. or elite.

Everything is on schedule, please move along.

If they feel that the Ryan budget won’t pass the senate, couldn’t the Rs just vote present like the dems did the other day?

Maybe the Congressional Members and the White House should read the following:

Cheney Was Right About One Thing: Deficits Don’t Matter

Republican Senator Susan Collins has already said that she would not vote for the Ryan budget. And several other Senators, such as Olympia Snowe and Scott Brown (both of which are up for re-election in 2012) will have a difficult decision to make. More broadly, Reid wants to stick Republicans with the Ryan budget to create a clear alternative for the next election.

Any GOPer does not vote for Ryan’s budget better retire before the next election the Tea Baggers will Primary them. Or they can flip flop and surprise Harry Reid chances are the Baggers scare the GOPers more than Harry does if that happens Reid just failed again.

Indeed! Especially when over half of America is unemployed or under employed, or temp agency employed.

Me neither. WTF?

Meanwhile, Obama’s busy rounding up Democrats behind the scenes, convinvcing them to compromise with Republicans and get as much of the Ryan Plan passed.

As I write this, Ben Bernanke is going on about the deficit being unsustainable. There’s no conversation in Washington other than what to cut.

Cutting war spending id off the table, cutting military spending to twice what China spends off the table. Why must government cut give us National Healthcare with the same lower costs per person like France has and you have how much savings going into the American economy?
Private Industry can cut the profits they rake us with.

Fulltime McJob is not really a benefit either:)

With both sides emphasizing the deficit over job creation, it’s no surprise that the public has received the message that the deficit is the major problem in the country.

deficit = big. shiny. object.

defict != a problem.

problems = jobs, energy, environment, banksters…

sh*t. that’s what i get for using twitter.

You are forgetting the systemic corruption rampant in Congress.
Anything good and right for the people will never happen anymore.

They only serve their paymasters, now.
Please, give it up!

A “smart tactical move …”? Considering that the co-dependent “strategy” of BOTH political parties is NOTHING but kabuki, you may consider it “smart” kabuki, David, however, if this behavior is “smart” and broadly perceived as such, then let us NEVER experience ANYTHING closer to “stupid” than current “policies” and attitudes.

Frankly, it is obvious that “we” are going to descend well past stupid … into feeble mindlessness and a total disregard of humanity and what used to be understood as reality.

NONE of our so-called “leaders” would recognize actual “wisdom” if it walked up and kicked them in the shins.

This is the level of “smart” exemplified by such notions as an “eye for an eye” … which merely ends up with everyone blind. If this is “smart”, then “brilliance” must entail the extinction of conscience, reason, understanding, humanity, and the featherless biped that considers itself to be “intelligent man”.

Forgive me David, but real smarts would not jettison those things whose extinction I’ve just delineated, it would embrace and enlarge upon them.

I simply cannot imagine a bunch of idiots bashing each other with garbage cans being held up as “smart” … it offends reason beyond ANY measure which I am capable of imagining, it reduces everything to lies, damned lies, and utter depravity.

DW

… what Democrats are selling, which is an austerity budget.

just because i’m extra pissed off at the dems today… from the boston globe: House votes to restrict unions. Measure would curb bargaining on health care

the vote was 111-to-42 in the MA house.. and get this, they voted last night at 11:30 pm, when no one was around, the cowards.

edit to add: for readers who don’t know MA. our house is 128 D, 32 R.

77% D

Lack of good jobs less consumer demand economy sucks business fails bank loans go into default. Helicopter Ben has failure all planned out assuming he has Thantos or a death wish admitted its not conscious.

Lovely news! Nice to see that Reid’s allowed to be Reid and not being held back by the White House (which I guess is too busy shivving Nancy Pelosi).

By the way: The guy the Wisconsin GOP paid to gather signatures for their anti-Dem recall efforts is a known fraudster and forger, which may account for the fact that hundreds if not thousands of the signatures gathered are invalid.

I am just pointing out we have options the Dems and GOP are all pretending we don’t first rule never let your enemy pick the battle field.
We need to redefine this fight to do that we point out that yes we have options.:)
They are so scared they can’t even mention our options because then they lose the debate. When the enemy retreats we attack.
I smell fear:) We advance.

i used to joke — like 5+ years ago — that it looked like the elite’s solution to climate change would be global demand destruction.

not making that joke any more….

Making the GOP own this bill is a good thing, DW. If you haven’t noticed, they’re already trying to run away from it. Even their defenses of it don’t actually mention it other than obliquely, because they don’t dare defend it straight up. Even Susan Collins has already said she’s voting against it.

We already know. 51.

Yes we are not paranoid enough it seems.

right. because point scoring in the beltway’s equivalent to a weekend soccer game is what counts. not jobs. not healthcare. not, well, anything i care about.

The way to win this is to make certain the tax breaks are not extended. That takes care of the deficit problem altogether.

I think the front pagers need to do follow up this news is great we need to do follow through on this!

Simple. population. control.

Message to the people of the world from on high: “Go drop dead … and do it quietly … or else!”

selise, you’ve got “their” number, precisely.

DW

yep, take a look at my comment @16.

the 77% D house in MA just voted to take away municipal employees’ collective bargaining rights on health care

This is the new neo-liberal Democratic party. Pretend that you have the interests of citizens so you can continue the “lesser of two evils” game. Congress and the White House answer to lobbyists with big monied interests first and only. They continue this illusion so that citizens will “believe” we are still a democracy. Meanwhile, the “wealth” of the citizens as a whole is being transferred to special interests through legislation, tax loopholes, etc.

The slowdown actually has been good for the environment. It slowed Chinese production and electricity usage (both of which are still largely coal-driven there as here, but without even our weak controls) to the point where it’s bought the globe (mainly China, the US and Japan) about an extra year and a half to make the transition to wind and solar. (In fact, part of China’s $586 billion stimulus package includes hefty sums for transitioning to wind and solar.)

The way to win this is to make certain the tax breaks are not extended.

Raise taxes in a recession? In an election year? /s

IF the dems were standing up for humanity and not mouthing the same, exact “deficit”, “endless war”, “bail-out the rich” bull shit, PW, I’d readily agree.

How long has it been since that was true?

I’m talking action, not empty, meaningless, good-sounding hopey-changey words.

The ENTIRE political class is engaged in a war on the people AND on reason.

THAT is the simple, observable truth, not merely my less-than-humble opinion.

DW

The point is to make the Republicans choose between sticking to that budget and choosing to win re-election. Can you think of a better way to make sure that budget never becomes law?

So many people here want the Democrats to get tough. Well, here it is — they’re getting tough. They’re forcing the Republicans to either own Paul Ryan’s incredibly unpopular fantasy budget or save their own skins. This will help shift the conversation leftward again, as Ryan’s budget will no longer be considered “acceptable”, much less desireable.

Republican Senator Susan Collins has already said that she would not vote for the Ryan budget. And several other Senators, such as Olympia Snowe and Scott Brown (both of which are up for re-election in 2012) will have a difficult decision to make.

Oh, shit, this is starting to sound familiar. Get out the K-Y.

Citizen selise:

This action by the Massachusetts legislature is consistant with the corporate strategy of creating a depression-like negative feedback process out of the public economies in various states. It goes like this: create a phony public “debt” crisis or budget crisis by cuttin’ taxes on corporations and the wealthy, decertify unions, slash revenue sharing to counties and localities,reduce or eliminate incomes from public workers, put caps on local property tax rates, and then announce another budget crisis for the next cycle due to the reduction in income and sales taxes and force counties and localities to eliminate public services because they can’t tax themselves to make up the state shortfall.

This is what is happening here in Cheeseland and people are gettin it…the conversation that has started in the senate districts being recalled is a huge economics and history lesson. People are gettin’ it and it ain’t just the “usual suspects”. I think ObamaRahma really did us a favor by standing mute during all this because we are registering and mobilizin’ voters who aren’t gunna disappear in 2012.

Uh, not vote on it?

So China’s paying attention, how about the YouEssAy?

Or is the pain that many are feeling merely the reflection of the virtues of the powerful and wealthy?

Sorry, PW, unintended “consequences” of even real value, when society is being destroyed for the benefit of the few, is NOT serendipity … it is a tragedy, unless you wish to postulate that our “leaders” have no other path to bring about worthwhile and necessary “change”?

DW

I really do love these weaklings posturing as if it means anything. I have news for you Harry, Most of the Democrat base is completely wise to the fact that both sides are bought. You now have to PRODUCE real results on a sustained basis to remotely impress your former base. Democrats are done with you clowns. Independents are done with you too. Real results, Harry. Tax the rich. End oil subsidies. Shut down the destruction of Medicare and Social Security. End the wars. Close Guantanamo. Prosecute the bankers. Regulate the bankers. Regulate oil speculation. Get the picture? No one is fooled anymore, our eyes are WIDE OPEN Harry. YOU are on the defensive, YOU have to prove to US that you have any value. We don’t want or need your CRUMBS. Game time, bitch.

It’s a WaPo poll, meaning its biased to the point of uselessness. So useless in fact that I wouldn’t wipe my ass with it.

Exactly.

Let’s repeat health care “reform” because that worked out so well for the citizens…no, must have been the majority…no, okay, the health insurance industry and pharmaceutical companies.

Look, we’ve seen this before. We know how it ends.

Forcing the Rs to vote on the Ryan budget will have absolutely no effect on election outcomes. Yeah, it might move the needle slightly to the left — halfway between Barry’s catastrophic plan and Ryan’s. But halfway between those two POSs is a fucking disaster.

This is about shifting the terms of the debate, DW.

Up to now, the GOP/Media Complex has been touting Ryan’s budget as this wonderfully brave, bold thing — and while a few voices have pointed out how messed up it is, those voices aren’t the voices most folks hear on the evening news shows or on the drive-time radio network news programs. Even NPR and PBS haven’t been attacking this turkey the way it deserves to be attacked.

But now, the Democrats are making it crystal-clear that this is simply unacceptable — and thereby pushing the Overton window back away from the far right, towards things like the People’s Budget. And the Republicans are freaking out because this bill is turning out to be a radioactive boat anchor for them. The Senate won’t pass it, obviously, and the House, if they do so, is going to be committing career suicide much as the HCR bill killed the Dems last year.

The thing to do now is to keep pushing the frame to the left. Go ahead, complain that the Democrats aren’t going far enough. But don’t do it here — do it in a letter to the editor of your local paper. Or make a call to a local call-in show. Don’t just sit in the relatively friendly “amen corner” of the FDL comments threads and preach to a converted audience — go out and spread the word to those places where the unconverted are likely to reside. (Yes, that means possibly talking to — eek! — Republicans. You can do it, you’re strong.)

Citizen Phoenix Woman:

You are absolutely correct, the Ryan budget has helped folks here immensely in connecting the dots. Once people see what the Walker budget is doin to their local economies and their livlihoods they don’t even hafta look at the details of the Ryan plan to recognize the game plan. Once the people here understood what the tax cuts have meant to them state-wide, they have begun to take the attacks on Social Security and Medicare even more seriously.

When the President AND Democratic members of Congress consistently talk about Debt reduction, that moving the conversation “leftward” has already been compromised. We are already “beginning” the conversation with “where do we start the cuts?”. Did I miss the discussion where the President and Democratic congressional members forcefully made the case for improving the economic situation for the average citizen and that austerity measures weren’t the answer?

Here’s the deal:

The Senate’s going to vote this thing down anyway — Susan Collins is already against it. The point is to get the attention of Joe and Jane Average, the folks who don’t follow politics beyond what they see on the CBS/NBC/etc. evening news, and show them that Paul Ryan and the GOP want to kill their Medicare.

That’s where YOU come in.

Don’t just sit in the FDL Amen Corner. Be brave and venture into things like newspaper comments threads, or local radio comment shows.

Preach your message to the unconverted and shove the windows leftward.

So Reid holding up the Ryan budget for ridicule is the right tactical move for Democrats

Bullshit. Until the Vichycrats vote for the Ryan plan.

I just don’t trust the entire “Democratic” caucus to vote against Ryan’s plan. In fact, I think there is a strong likelihood of enough defectors so the thing actually passes. Face it, they haven’t given us any reason to trust them to do the right thing. Quite the opposite.

I wish wish wish that some brave Senator or Congresscritter or Journalist would have the cahones to tell the truth about Jobs and Deficits – to wit:

1) The more people who have jobs, the more people who pay taxes.
2) The more people who pay taxes, the lower the deficit.
3) The more people who have jobs, the less people need “entitlement” programs for rent, health care, food, etc.
4) The less people who need “entitlement” programs for rent, health care, food, etc., the lower the deficit.

Therefore – the more jobs, at the best wages, the larger the revenue stream, the lower the deficit. QED

Unfortunately, some old lady from Illinois posting on a message board or 6 and writing personal blog posts isn’t going to get the Word to TPTB, the GOTP or the MSM.

Proof, if any more was actually needed, that Reid will take a vote on whatever he pleases, 60 votes be damned.

I understand your point. But doesn’t it seem a little strange to you that a strategy that was used successfully by Reid against scads of legislation that Pelosi passed is no longer even an option? Not voting on it at all. All of a sudden, we need to honor the Ryan budget with a vote — in order to embarrass Rs who vote for it.

You’ve been at this a lot longer than I have, but this seems to me to concede the erroneous point that deficits matter in a rather grand way. And, while it may result in a push leftward, that push will not go beyond halfway between the Ryan budget and Obama’s — a midpoint that Krugman has termed wholly unacceptable.

I’m with you on the “People’s Budget.” But Barry’s has rendered it moot IMHO.

Spot on. He can’t round up 60 votes to pass half ass decent legislation when he supposedly has 60 caucus members but when the wingnuttiest of budget proposals come out of the teabagging House, he can’t wait to vote on it.

Exactly, and just like with HCR – where we f*cking r*tards were told to STFU bc HCR HAD to be passed because O said so, and anyway, once passed HCR could “fixed” later. We dfhs get what the “fix” was: the FIX was in for BigIns/BigPharma, and the taxpayers got the fix right up where the sun don’t shine. And nothing else will be “fixed,” unless it’s give CEOs even more of the serfs’ tax dollars.

Once the Genie is let out of the bottle, it’s next to impossible to push it back in.

Reid is simply doing his job per what his corp. masters demand. Pass Ryan’s frackin’ budget but make it look like Reid is somehow doing something “Democratic-y.” BAH-loney. I’ve seen this movie too many times before….

But doesn’t it seem a little strange to you that a strategy that was used successfully by Reid against scads of legislation that Pelosi passed is no longer even an option?

I think I “get” what you’re saying, but no, it doesn’t seem “strange” to me at that Harry Reid is right on target to push through Republican legislation, when, previously, alleged “Democratic” Harry Reid was allergic to almost any “Democratic” legislation came his way when there was a full-proof “Democratic” majority in the Senate.

I think that Reid is being quite obviously transparent in who he works for. Clue: Reid ain’t working for serf taxpayers.

Reid: champing at the bit to vote FOR Tea Party legislation.
Go, Harry! /s

Is Reid going to do this without allowing amendments?

If so I think you’ll see the GOP make a big stink.

If not some smartass is going to offer the Obama proposal as a substitute, which will create a real mess for Dems.

Is Reid going to do this without allowing amendments?

Really good question.

how many kids aren’t getting the nutrition they need?

keeping the world clean for the banksters with policies that destroy the lives of ordinary people is, imo, unsupportably evil.

so do the Ds. they just want the Rs own it by proposing something slightly more draconian than the under cover D austerity budgets

I agree. I’m getting very nervous about this. And I think we can count on Benito to work behind the scenes to get it passed.

Good call!

Have you been secretly taping WH strategy sessions?

I wonder where Bill and Kelly are with respect to justifying the foldo by Dems in the MA House over the employee collective bargaining bill.

Busy working against vicious people who advocate for prison rape as a form of justice.

Okay, so prison rape is overboard. What is your solution for a legal system that lets all the elite off, either with no penalty at all or just a token slap on the wrist? I mean, a practical, achievable solution, not some pie-in-the-sky idea?

Also –

Nice move, the way you skirted the issue of the sellout Dems in MA.

Not a smart tactical move. Looks to me like they’re getting ready to go,”Oops! Soree!”

Looks a lot like that.

WTF ‘prison rape’?

128 + 32 = 160

128/160 = 80%

128 = 8 x 16

32 = 2 x 16

thank you! 80% it is.

i’m an idiot — i must have been so mad that i typed 166 instead of 160.

thanks again!