Tag Archives: economy

Political Rants

State of the Hoover.

Listened to Obama’s fifth State of the Union address Tuesday night and was not surprised to hear many of the same small-bore themes we’ve heard from this president many times before. I am not One-way ticket to Hoovervillesomeone you could describe as disappointed in the president: he is very much the kind of leader I expected him to be following his 2008 election. Probably the most prescient look at the then-early Obama presidency in 2009 was published in Harper‘s under the title Barack Hoover Obama. The author Kevin Baker pointed out that, like Obama, Hoover was a very intelligent, well educated, worldly, and highly capable man – that was the reason he was elected president.

And yet, Hoover failed miserably. Baker sums it up in this passage:

Hoover’s every decision in fighting the Great Depression mirrored the sentiments of 1920s “business progressivism,” even as he understood intellectually that something more was required. Farsighted as he was compared with almost everyone else in public life, believing as much as he did in activist government, he still could not convince himself to take the next step and accept that the basic economic tenets he had believed in all his life were discredited; that something wholly new was required. Such a transformation would have required a mental suppleness that was simply not in the makeup of this fabulously successful scientist and self-made businessman. And it was this inability to radically alter his thinking that, ultimately, distinguished Hoover from Franklin Roosevelt.

This is, in a nutshell, reflective of the tragedy of Barack Obama, who was elevated to presidency at a moment in our history when enormous economic challenges demanded solutions of similar magnitude; when every month upwards of 750,000 Americans joined the ranks of the unemployed; when our hopelessly corrupted investment banking system was imploding and homeowners faced with a tsunami of foreclosures. Yes, he stanched the bleeding, but for a variety of reasons – not least of which being a lack of willingness to try something different – he did not provide an alternative vision of society that would have place us on the road to full employment, environmental sustainability, guaranteed housing, single-payer health care, and secure retirement.

What do we have instead? A vague proposal for something called MyRA and other similarly lame initiatives. We need to drive a more progressive agenda forward. If God had intended voting to be consequential, s/he would have given us decent candidates. It’s really just up to us.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Let’s make a deal.

There are few things in life more certain than eventual bipartisan agreement on screwing large swaths of our fellow citizens. While I’m glad there won’t be a repeat of the government shutdown / debt ceiling self-immolation ritual, this pattern of gradually ratcheting up the austerity gets very tiresome after two or three cycles. This time, the unemployed get thrown under the bus. What a great way to save money – take food out of the mouths of people who have been down on their luck for more than a year. Freaking 7% unemployment and they’re acting like the jobless are just plain lazy. That’s a truly criminal level of ignorance on the part of elected officials.

One thing, though. Let’s dispense with this notion that the Republicans are somehow against raising taxes. This has been thoroughly debunked since the House went red three years ago. Even before they took office, they killed the “Making Work Pay” tax credit, costing families like mine another $800 a year. Just last year they canceled the payroll tax holiday – another hike. Thanks, Mr. Boehner. This year, it’s a “fee” on air travel. Not something I take personally, but still … a tax by any other name.

And yet they still cling to this label, and the corporate media repeats the myth because it’s the simple thing to do, the path of least resistance. We are supposed to see the disagreements between the parties as a clash of equivalent versions of extremism, when the positions Democrats stake out in this decade are almost identical, save marriage equality, to those held by the Republicans fifteen to twenty years ago. They were conservative then. Democrats, by and large, are conservative now. Republicans are now driven by their hard right, which is more delusional than ever. This week, their leaders chose not to take their lead, but the path they are cutting is a highly conservative one, an extension of the austerity narrative, and one that will keep our economy in stasis for the foreseeable future.

Well, no shut down. Something to give one cheer for. Then it’s back to work.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

One way out.

Let me preface this tirade with the admission that I am no fan of bipartisanship. I agree with Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) on the notion that nothing of any great value has come out of it in recent decades; in fact, quite the opposite. The Iraq War, the USA Patriot Act, etc. If that’s how sausage is made, we should consider eating something other than sausage.

That said, we are faced with some fundamental problems with respect to our rapidly eroding ability to govern ourselves at the national level. A handful of tea party House members, maybe 40, from heavily gerrymandered districts have become the tail that wags the Congressional dog, in essence. They have every incentive Discharge petition?to continue and even enhance their extremism, as that is the only way they can please their hard-right constituencies back home. Around that core is another probably 40-50 House republicans terrified of being challenged by tea party types in the next round of primaries. Boehner needs these folks to maintain his speakership, so he goes along as do most of what remains of the GOP caucus. Hence, a list of demands is attached to a 60-day continuing resolution – not even a budget – with the same treatment threatened for the debt ceiling vote in a couple of weeks.

What’s to be done to keep us from toppling over a more dramatic precipice than the one we encountered in 2008? I think it’s time for a coalition government in the House. Get a majority of Republicans and Democrats to support a centrist or even a center-right candidate for Speaker, one who will agree to advance the following objectives: (1) keep the government open and funded at whatever level; (2) raise the debt ceiling well in advance of each deadline; (3) negotiate on a budget deal to cover more than six months to a year (i.e. plan ahead).

This would not be a progressive coalition by any means. But given the current make-up of the House, it’s hard to see how else we can keep the lights on and prevent the collapse of our financial system. We need to put the tea party minority in a box; to wall them off from the levers of power. If we don’t, the current crisis will continue and will be repeated again and again. And given the fact that the best we can hope for in the CR debate is the continuation of sequestration-level funding of federal programs, a centrist coalition hardly seems like a worse outcome.

Though I’m not happy about it, I think this is the way out of this mess. Let me know what you think.

luv u,

jp