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In reply to the discussion: Duped into voting for President Obama? [View all]ProSense
(116,464 posts)17. Maybe it has something
"Barack Hussein Obama will go down as one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen!!!"
...to do with the caliber and determination of his critics.
While the New Deal did much to lessen the worst affects of the Great Depression, its measures were not sweeping enough to restore the nation to full employment. Critics of FDR's policies, on both the right and the left, use this fact as a reason to condemn it. Conservatives argue, for example, that it went too far, and brought too much government intervention in the economy, while those on the left argue that it did not go far enough, and that in order to be truly effective, the Roosevelt Administration should have engaged in a far more comprehensive program of direct federal aid to the poor and unemployed. But the New Deal's greatest achievements transcend mere economic statistics, for in a world where democracy was under siege, and the exponents of fascism and communism flourished, the New Deal offered hope and restored the faith of the American people in their representative institutions. It also transformed the federal government into an active instrument of social justice and established a network of laws and institutions designed to protect the American economy from the worst excesses of liberal capitalism.
http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/policy-and-ideasroosevelt-historyfdr/new-deal
http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/policy-and-ideasroosevelt-historyfdr/new-deal
<...>
http://books.google.com/books?id=vC5HJloBWugC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA159#v=onepage&q&f=false
Report: Wall Streets Opposition to Dodd-Frank Reforms Echoes Its Resistance to New Deal Financial Safeguards
Bedrock Consumer Protections Once Were Flogged as Exceedingly Dangerous, Monstrous Systems That Would Cripple the Economy
WASHINGTON, D.C. As the nation approaches the first anniversary of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, opponents are claiming that the new measure is extraordinarily damaging, especially to Main Street. But industrys alarmist rhetoric bears striking resemblance to the last time it faced sweeping new safeguards: during the New Deal reforms. The parallels between the language used both then and now are detailed in a report released today by Public Citizen and the Cry Wolf Project.
In the decades since the Great Depression, Americans acknowledged the necessity of having safeguards in place to prevent another crash of the financial markets, including the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and laws requiring public companies to accurately disclose their financial affairs. Although these are now seen as bedrock protections when they were first introduced, Wall Street cried foul, the new report, Industry Repeats Itself: The Financial Reform Fight, found.
The business communitys wildly inaccurate forecasts about the New Deal reforms devalue the credibility of the ominous predictions they are making today, said Taylor Lincoln, research director of Public Citizens Congress Watch division and author of the report. If history comes close to repeating itself, industry is going to look very silly for its hand-wringing over Dodd-Frank when people look back.
<...>
In fact, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is designed to prevent another Wall Street crash, which really made it tough on everyone by causing massive job loss and severely hurting corner butchers and bakers, as well as retirees, families with mortgages and others. The Dodd-Frank law increases transparency (particularly in derivatives markets); creates a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ensure that consumers receive straightforward information about financial products and to police abusive practices; improves corporate governance; increases capital requirements for banks; deters particularly large financial institutions from providing incentives for employees to take undue risks; and gives the government the ability to take failed investment institutions into receivership, similar to the FDICs authority regarding commercial banks. Much of it has yet to be implemented.
- more -
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/07/12-0
Bedrock Consumer Protections Once Were Flogged as Exceedingly Dangerous, Monstrous Systems That Would Cripple the Economy
WASHINGTON, D.C. As the nation approaches the first anniversary of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, opponents are claiming that the new measure is extraordinarily damaging, especially to Main Street. But industrys alarmist rhetoric bears striking resemblance to the last time it faced sweeping new safeguards: during the New Deal reforms. The parallels between the language used both then and now are detailed in a report released today by Public Citizen and the Cry Wolf Project.
In the decades since the Great Depression, Americans acknowledged the necessity of having safeguards in place to prevent another crash of the financial markets, including the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and laws requiring public companies to accurately disclose their financial affairs. Although these are now seen as bedrock protections when they were first introduced, Wall Street cried foul, the new report, Industry Repeats Itself: The Financial Reform Fight, found.
The business communitys wildly inaccurate forecasts about the New Deal reforms devalue the credibility of the ominous predictions they are making today, said Taylor Lincoln, research director of Public Citizens Congress Watch division and author of the report. If history comes close to repeating itself, industry is going to look very silly for its hand-wringing over Dodd-Frank when people look back.
<...>
In fact, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is designed to prevent another Wall Street crash, which really made it tough on everyone by causing massive job loss and severely hurting corner butchers and bakers, as well as retirees, families with mortgages and others. The Dodd-Frank law increases transparency (particularly in derivatives markets); creates a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ensure that consumers receive straightforward information about financial products and to police abusive practices; improves corporate governance; increases capital requirements for banks; deters particularly large financial institutions from providing incentives for employees to take undue risks; and gives the government the ability to take failed investment institutions into receivership, similar to the FDICs authority regarding commercial banks. Much of it has yet to be implemented.
- more -
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/07/12-0
Why Republicans are So Intent on Killing Health Care Reform
by Richard Kirsch
Its not just about expanded care. Its about proving our government can be a force for the common good.
Why are John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell so intent on stopping health care reform from ever taking hold? For the same reason that Republicans and the corporate Right spent more than $200 million in the last year to demonize health care in swing Congressional districts. It wasnt just about trying to stop the bill from becoming law or taking over Congress. It is because health reform, if it takes hold, will create a bond between the American people and government, just as Social Security and Medicare have done. Democrats, and all those who believe that government has a positive place in our lives, should remember how much is at stake as Republicans and corporate elites try to use their electoral victory to dismantle the new health care law.
My enjoyment of the MLB playoffs last month was interrupted by ads run by Karl Roves Crossroads front group against upstate New York Rep. Scott Murphy, who was defeated last Tuesday. Roves ads rained accusations on Murphy, including the charge of a government takeover of health care. Some might have thought that once the public option was removed from the health care legislation, Republicans couldnt make that charge. But it was never tied to the public option or any other specific reform. Republicans and their allies, following the advice of message guru Frank Luntz, were going to call whatever Democrats proposed a government takeover.
Theres nothing new here. Throughout American history, health care reform has been attacked as socialist. An editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 1932, just after FDRs election, claimed that proposals for compulsory insurance were socialism and communism inciting to revolution. The PR firm that the American Medical Association hired to fight Trumans push for national health insurance succeeded in popularizing a completely concocted quote that it attributed to Vladimir Lenin: Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the Socialist State.
<...>
President Obama and Democrats in Congress understood the historical importance and profound moral underpinnings of the new health care law when they enacted it earlier this year. And they knew that the right-wing attack had soured the public in swing Congressional districts and states on reform. They stood up then. They will have to stand up again, understanding that if they give way to Republicans, they lose more than the expansion of health coverage. They lose the best opportunity in half a century to prove to Americans that government can be a force for the common good.
http://www.nextnewdeal.net/why-republicans-are-so-intent-killing-health-care-reform
by Richard Kirsch
Its not just about expanded care. Its about proving our government can be a force for the common good.
Why are John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell so intent on stopping health care reform from ever taking hold? For the same reason that Republicans and the corporate Right spent more than $200 million in the last year to demonize health care in swing Congressional districts. It wasnt just about trying to stop the bill from becoming law or taking over Congress. It is because health reform, if it takes hold, will create a bond between the American people and government, just as Social Security and Medicare have done. Democrats, and all those who believe that government has a positive place in our lives, should remember how much is at stake as Republicans and corporate elites try to use their electoral victory to dismantle the new health care law.
My enjoyment of the MLB playoffs last month was interrupted by ads run by Karl Roves Crossroads front group against upstate New York Rep. Scott Murphy, who was defeated last Tuesday. Roves ads rained accusations on Murphy, including the charge of a government takeover of health care. Some might have thought that once the public option was removed from the health care legislation, Republicans couldnt make that charge. But it was never tied to the public option or any other specific reform. Republicans and their allies, following the advice of message guru Frank Luntz, were going to call whatever Democrats proposed a government takeover.
Theres nothing new here. Throughout American history, health care reform has been attacked as socialist. An editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 1932, just after FDRs election, claimed that proposals for compulsory insurance were socialism and communism inciting to revolution. The PR firm that the American Medical Association hired to fight Trumans push for national health insurance succeeded in popularizing a completely concocted quote that it attributed to Vladimir Lenin: Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the Socialist State.
<...>
President Obama and Democrats in Congress understood the historical importance and profound moral underpinnings of the new health care law when they enacted it earlier this year. And they knew that the right-wing attack had soured the public in swing Congressional districts and states on reform. They stood up then. They will have to stand up again, understanding that if they give way to Republicans, they lose more than the expansion of health coverage. They lose the best opportunity in half a century to prove to Americans that government can be a force for the common good.
http://www.nextnewdeal.net/why-republicans-are-so-intent-killing-health-care-reform
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Nope i was not duped into voting for Obama but really we did not have a choice.
Thinkingabout
Mar 2013
#2
But.but.but..he only did 99.5% of what we want - where's the other half %? Seriously, excellent...
George II
Apr 2013
#43
Sacrilege! You are only supposed to post positive spin in the altar threads!!!
Dragonfli
Apr 2013
#34
Some balsa, but to be fair the villains are made of straw, poppits of "haters"
Dragonfli
Apr 2013
#58
Went in fully informed. And, continuing to kick the asses of the haters who choose to be blind.
NYC_SKP
Mar 2013
#10
Barack Hussein Obama will go down as one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen!!!
Liberal_Stalwart71
Mar 2013
#14
Unemployment dropped by 40% and GDP grew 9%+ per year during FDR's first term
MannyGoldstein
Mar 2013
#29
thanks for tacitly conceding the validity of my observation and remarks again
stupidicus
Apr 2013
#90
admissions as to your struggles with plain and simple english are welcomed as well
stupidicus
Apr 2013
#94
Not I. Unlike some, I can see both sides. To me, his positives are weighted by what he had to
patrice
Apr 2013
#36
Nope. I tagged him as just another 3rd Way politician when he promised to escalate the war
Tierra_y_Libertad
Apr 2013
#52
I feel duped as hell. I heard him say with my own ears at a rally I attended that he
forestpath
Apr 2013
#55
Common mistake you made, not learning the the 3rd way euphemisms for cutting,
Dragonfli
Apr 2013
#62
Yes, in thirdwayspeak, "sacrifice" means it's the poor/middle class/elderly/sick who must suffer.
forestpath
Apr 2013
#65
Never felt duped. I'm as proud of him today as I was when he announced his first run.
Tarheel_Dem
Apr 2013
#77
Unfortunately I think he'll go down as another Bill Clinton - brilliant man, mediocre president.
nomorenomore08
Apr 2013
#107