Obama's Pragmatism or "Don't Make Waves" Economic Policies Are Not Marks Of A Real Democrat
I've written often that President Obama is certainly no FDR and his so called "pragmatism" is almost the antithesis of true Democratic Party principles.
I also continue to insist that Obama's economic team selection, especially Geithner and Summers with Rubin hovering behind the curtain is and will continue to prove to be a disaster. He, unfortunately, chose those who are part of the problem, helping to cause this economic depression.
And this has been very frustrating and disappointing to me and other progressive Democrats.
Real Democrats believe that government should always be of, by, and for the people...always for the common good; but Obama's economic "recovery" steps have been timid not bold, protecting Wall Street not Main Street, catering to corrupt, greedy financial institutions and attempting to return to the damaging status quo of, by, and for that dishonest, laissez faire system.
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship write at Common Dreams that while Congress is controlled by the financial industry, Obama seems to be mortgaging the White House.
"In his first hundred days, FDR came out swinging. He shut down the banks, threw the money lenders from the temple, cranked out so much legislation so fast he would shout to his secretary, Grace Tully, "Grace, take a law!" Will Rogers said Congress didn't pass bills anymore; it just waved as they went by.
"President Obama's been busy, but contrary to many of the pundits, he's no FDR. Our new president got his political education in the world of Chicago ward politics, and seems to have adopted a strategy from the machine of that city's longtime boss, the late Richard J. Daley, father of the current mayor there. "Don't make no waves," one of Daley's henchmen used to advise, "don't back no losers."
"Your opinion of Obama's first 100 days depends of course on your own vantage point. But we'd argue that as part of his bending over backwards to support the banks and avoid the losers, he has blundered mightily in his choice of economic advisers.
"In choosing a man to manage the bailout of the banks who's so cozy with its players, and then installing as his White House economic adviser Larry Summers, who in the Clinton administration took a laissez-faire attitude toward the financial industry which would later enrich him, the president bought into the old fantasy that what's best for Wall Street is best for America.
With these two as his financial gatekeepers, President Obama's now in the position of Louis XVI being advised by Marie Antoinette to have another piece of cake until that rumble in the streets has passed on by.
"In fact, other Wall Street insiders -- many of them big contributors to the Obama presidential campaign, and progressive in their concern for the public interest -- privately are expressing serious concerns that Geithner, Summers and their associates are leading the president and America's taxpayers down a path toward further economic disaster.
"This week, as Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois unsuccessfully fought for a congressional amendment he said would have helped 1.7 million Americans save their homes from foreclosure, the senator told a radio station back home that, "The banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place."
"He could say the same of the White House."
Advice to Obama: Snap out of it and start channeling FDR. Quit being a pragmatist, another word for an economic Republican-lite, and be an FDR 21st century Democrat..
I also continue to insist that Obama's economic team selection, especially Geithner and Summers with Rubin hovering behind the curtain is and will continue to prove to be a disaster. He, unfortunately, chose those who are part of the problem, helping to cause this economic depression.
And this has been very frustrating and disappointing to me and other progressive Democrats.
Real Democrats believe that government should always be of, by, and for the people...always for the common good; but Obama's economic "recovery" steps have been timid not bold, protecting Wall Street not Main Street, catering to corrupt, greedy financial institutions and attempting to return to the damaging status quo of, by, and for that dishonest, laissez faire system.
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship write at Common Dreams that while Congress is controlled by the financial industry, Obama seems to be mortgaging the White House.
"In his first hundred days, FDR came out swinging. He shut down the banks, threw the money lenders from the temple, cranked out so much legislation so fast he would shout to his secretary, Grace Tully, "Grace, take a law!" Will Rogers said Congress didn't pass bills anymore; it just waved as they went by.
"President Obama's been busy, but contrary to many of the pundits, he's no FDR. Our new president got his political education in the world of Chicago ward politics, and seems to have adopted a strategy from the machine of that city's longtime boss, the late Richard J. Daley, father of the current mayor there. "Don't make no waves," one of Daley's henchmen used to advise, "don't back no losers."
"Your opinion of Obama's first 100 days depends of course on your own vantage point. But we'd argue that as part of his bending over backwards to support the banks and avoid the losers, he has blundered mightily in his choice of economic advisers.
"In choosing a man to manage the bailout of the banks who's so cozy with its players, and then installing as his White House economic adviser Larry Summers, who in the Clinton administration took a laissez-faire attitude toward the financial industry which would later enrich him, the president bought into the old fantasy that what's best for Wall Street is best for America.
With these two as his financial gatekeepers, President Obama's now in the position of Louis XVI being advised by Marie Antoinette to have another piece of cake until that rumble in the streets has passed on by.
"In fact, other Wall Street insiders -- many of them big contributors to the Obama presidential campaign, and progressive in their concern for the public interest -- privately are expressing serious concerns that Geithner, Summers and their associates are leading the president and America's taxpayers down a path toward further economic disaster.
"This week, as Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois unsuccessfully fought for a congressional amendment he said would have helped 1.7 million Americans save their homes from foreclosure, the senator told a radio station back home that, "The banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place."
"He could say the same of the White House."
Advice to Obama: Snap out of it and start channeling FDR. Quit being a pragmatist, another word for an economic Republican-lite, and be an FDR 21st century Democrat..
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