Katrina van den Heuvel: populist revolt on debt issues

[MBS]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/from-the-debt-debate-to-the-coming-hostage-revolt/2011/07/30/gIQAZrDclI_print.html

In the melodrama that is consuming Washington this hot summer, featuring the spectacle of how much Tea Party Republicans will be able to extort for agreeing not to blow up the economy, the values and priorities of most Americans were early casualties. That reality will drive — no matter what the resolution this week — new, independent citizen mobilizations challenging both Republican zealotry and Democratic cravenness. The debt-ceiling debate has lasted long enough for most Americans to start paying attention and to realize just how divorced both parties are from basic common sense. With the economy faltering and 25 million people in need of full-time work, most Americans want Washington focused on how to create jobs and get the economy going, not on slashing spending for the rising number of poor children while sheltering tax havens for millionaires.

Equally inexplicable is the president’s apparent eagerness to negotiate with a legislative faction willing to hold the entire economy hostage — and one prepared to extort concessions in backroom deals that it could not achieve in any normal legislative process. Negotiating with fiscal terrorists only encourages them.
. ...
It is astonishing how out of touch these plans are with what people seek in these tough times. The vast majority of Americans want Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid protected, not cut. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that nearly three-fourths of Americans oppose cuts in Medicare. Majorities reject raising the eligibility age for Medicare or cutting the Social Security inflation rate, two reforms President Obama has apparently embraced. For Americans, the most popular reforms to deal with the deficit are increased taxes on those making more than $250,000 (72 percent), hedge fund operators, and oil and gas companies.
. . .

In the August recess, the heat legislators encounter back home won’t come from the weather alone. The Tea Party captured the populist anger in 2010, representing a small fraction of the population. In 2012, legislators in both parties may just encounter a populist uprising that represents an American majority.

[ixion]

1. "legislators... may just encounter a populist uprising that represents an American majority."

One can only hope.

[fasttense]

2. Not to mention a 2% tax increase on the working class.

Yup, the Social Security tax cuts are NOT going to be extended. I know that it hurts Social Security but a real Democratic President would have pointed out that the 2% could be taken out of something else. But no, not a word about the working class tax hike. No the idle rich still get to cut their taxes if they buy a private jet, but the working class gets a 2% tax hike.

Sounds to me like a RepubliCON President would have loved this deal.

[ellenrr]

3. People voting does not constitute a "populist uprising" C'mon Katrina

I know you are a centrist but... ???

"Populist Uprising" = Spain, Egypt, Libya, UK

Anyway, even if someone thinks voting is really a meaningful act, who ya gonna vote for?

You gonna vote for all those magnificent dems who showed such back-bone??


FEH!

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. Kick nom n/t