"What Everyone Should Know About The Debt Crisis In The United States"

[in_cog_ni_to]

<snip>
There was never any chance that the U.S. would actually default on its debt. The whole “crisis” was manufactured from the beginning, with Republicans in the House of Representatives using a technicality to win unpopular spending cuts that they could not win at the ballot box. It worked: They got an agreement that promises large spending cuts without any tax increases on America’s rich or super-rich, who have vastly increased their share of the national income over the past three decades.

The right won because President Obama chose to collaborate with them, also seeking to take advantage of the manufactured “crisis” to implement cuts that offended and hurt the people who voted for him. Of course he also wanted to increase taxes on the rich, but because he had accepted the legitimacy of the Republicans’ extortion, he lost that too.

The worst damage from this “weapon of mass distraction” – and President Obama’s capitulation to it -- is that the policy debate in the United States has been sharply altered. The phony “debt crisis” is seen as the main problem; and even more absurdly, a cause of the economy’s weakness. The U.S. economy barely grew in the first half of this year, and we have 25 million people unemployed, involuntarily working part time, or having dropped out of the labor force. We are more than one-third of the way into a “lost decade,” and the shift of the policy debate toward deficit reduction will increase the probability that we will experience the whole thing.<snip>

<snip>So the next time someone complains that most of South America is governed by left-populist presidents who fight too much with their countries’ traditional elite, remember there are worse kinds of leadership: the kind that commit political suicide for the sake of “bipartisanship.”<snip>



http://www.nationofchange.org/what-everyone-should-know-about-%E2%80%9Cdebt-crisis%E2%80%9D-us-1312469610

[sfpcjock]

1. They always said "deficits don't matter...

on the Republicon side. You can see how they might have half-way believed it: Alan Greenspan said so, and you pay off your mortgage in devalued dollars. You do not however, buy Chinese toxic toys with your mortgage money or casual war material that gets flushed down the john with no return. Your mortgage is for your main asset. Unless you are a Republicon.

I sort of agree with you because Obama got most of what he wanted: no debt ceiling rehash in 2012, protection of most of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and deferral of damaging cuts to the out years. Boehner claims the opposite on Fox--precisely because it ain't true. He lost, and he lost stature in Congress. You can't lose more than that. Obama outmaneuvered them in spite of the blackmail threat. When it was happening, tho, I was far from confident.

[jaxx]

2. Bunk.

“Nation of Change”, who are you and why are you spamming me?

Dear Nation of Change (along with Brave New Foundation),

<..> It’s not because you’re advocating positions with which I disagree. I haven’t actually looked carefully at your positions, but from what little I glanced at, I didn’t see anything I found particularly shocking or offensive. No, what’s bothering me is that I get the distinct impression that you’re trying to lie and deceive people. And if you think I want to see progressives emulating the Koch Brothers, boy, you’ve got another think coming.

<..> Like your email to me, your Web site is clearly and unequivocally designed to give the impression that you’re an entrenched, established organization. There’s nothing on the site about the fact that you’ve just launched, nor is there any historical information about you. Where did you come from? How long have you been around? What was the impetus for the creation of your organization? How long have you been working in progressive journalism? What are your progressive credentials? What are your journalism credentials? What are the biographies and qualifications of your leadership team and board of directors (neither anyone on your board nor your executive director have any easily found information about them on the Web)? All of this information is needed for people to be able to properly evaluate the credibility of your organization. Maybe after you’ve been around for a few years, your work will speak for itself, but it’s deceptive and slimy to pretend that it does when it really doesn’t.

http://blog.kamens.us/2011/07/28/nation-of-change-who-are-you-and-why-are-you-spamming-me/

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. Oh, that's cute. Here...Google 'til your heart's content: Progressive Journalism for Positive Action

http://www.nationofchange.org/about/board

http://www.nationofchange.org/about/organization

http://www.nationofchange.org/about/strategy

[jaxx]

5. Thanks, but I'm not interested in fringe groups.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Of course you're not.

:eyes:

[jaxx]

9. Right. I support the Democratic Party and

the Democratic President.

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. Well, the only reason Obama is now President is because Progressives voted for him. You had better

tread carefully when you choose to insult certain voters.

[jaxx]

11. Maybe they had better rethink their attitudes.

I'm not walking on eggs for anyone.

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. Neither are Progressives walking on eggs and I suggest Obama and his supporters

stop shitting on people who put the man where he is. Had Progressives not supported him...he'd be sitting in Illinois sweating to death...like I am! Without Progressives, he's finished. Just chew on that before you insult the Progressives. The same goes for him and his "distaste" for the Progressive wing of the party.

[jaxx]

15. I'm a liberal Democrat.

I voted for the President and my vote counts just as much as yours did. Same with my money and my time. Who do you think you are to act like you're the only people who do anything or the only ones who count? The only distaste is the manufactured kind we see on here daily and frankly, I'm fed up with the angst.

[in_cog_ni_to]

16. Impossible.

No real LIBERAL Democrat would be supporting what Obama has done. Seriously. As I said, without the Progressive wing of the party...BO loses.

[jaxx]

17. Now you are going to rate my liberal Democrat status?

I don't think you realize what you just did.

[KittyWampus]

3. If anyone believes the US wouldn't have gone into default they are fools.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. So last time it was "but the unemployed" and this time "but the full faith and credit"

and next time?

our Great Capitulator has demonstrated time and again that all they have to do is take a hostage, any hostage, and we will give it all up.

Why should they do anything else?

[treestar]

12. Umm, they do get to write the bills

And decide which ones they will pass. That is not "hostage taking" or "blackmail."

[girl gone mad]

7. It's foolish to believe we would have.

We can literally create money out of thin air. Why choose to destroy confidence in our system and throw things into disarray?

Default was never a real threat.

[Fire1]

14. More lies. n/t