DINOs In Washington Have Succeeded In Deliberately Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory
Disappointing, disgusting, dismaying, duplicitous, DINOs.
That pretty much describes the so called members of the Democratic Party elected to the US presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.
As Ken Silverstein writes in Washington Babylon at Harper's:
Meanwhile, Muhammed Cohen at Asia Times focuses on Obama: "On the economy, the top issue for most Americans, the administration has committed now-characteristic policy and political mistakes. Its first move, selecting Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary, was a bad idea that's gotten worse. Geithner's work as New York Federal Reserve chief made him one of Wall Street's top enablers as these masters of the universe crashed the economy. His failure to pay his taxes - twice - signaled that the Obama administration wouldn't demand the higher ethical standards it had promised.
"These political and public relations gaffes had serious policy implications. You could argue that it would take an insider like Geithner to give Wall Street the tough love it needed. But it hasn't played out that way. (We'll see how far the latest proposal to tax banks to cover the bailout gets.) Geithner didn't attach strings to the US$350 billion in bailout money the Obama administration controlled under terms of the 2008 bill crafted by former Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs chief executive officer. Given the players' pedigrees, it's no surprise that the bankers got their bailouts and bonuses without conditions, such as loosening credit, or any meaningful reform. Meanwhile, a year into the emergency fiscal stimulus package, Main Street is still struggling with unemployment. To voters, the Bush mega-recession has become the continuing Obama mega-recession.
"Moreover, Obama seems to have failed to show any real concern for the people who have lost their jobs. The stimulus package, despite its mind-boggling $787 billion price tag, has yielded disappointing results. Photo ops at factories and road projects do not convince anyone that the White House really cares. There haven't been appropriately grand policy steps to create jobs, though admittedly this is not an easy task. But Singapore, for example, is picking up a percentage of small business wage bills. China has targeted loans to hard-hit exporters. There are things the Obama administration could try, instead of acting as if passing the stimulus package and bailing out the banks had solved the problem.
"The stimulus package vote should have also given the Obama administration an important new page in its political script. When no House Republicans voted for the stimulus package, the administration should have realized that bipartisanship wasn't about to happen. At that point, the administration needed to adopt a new mantra on bipartisanship: Republicans helped make this mess, and they need to help clean it up. That line would have helped the White House keep control of the political high ground and the conversation, backed by overwhelming majorities on Capitol Hill.
"Instead, the White House let Republicans have a pass on the vote. This gave the opposition an opportunity to complain about the Republican-triggered recession and the burgeoning deficit, which is mainly the result of Bush's tax cuts, two wars and the unfunded Medicare pharmaceutical benefit. Under the White House's nose, the Republicans pretended history began with Obama's inauguration and channeled the electorate's anger at the new administration."
President Obama and his administration, and the Democratic majority in Congress have deliberately snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Only DINOs would do that, not true Democrats.
That pretty much describes the so called members of the Democratic Party elected to the US presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.
As Ken Silverstein writes in Washington Babylon at Harper's:
“Finally Americans will get the opportunity to see what it looks like when a filibuster-proof majority is squandered,” I wrote here last July, after Al Franken was declared the victor in Minnesota, thereby giving Democrats their sixtieth vote in the senate. But who knew how quickly they might squander it?
"Last night, Jon Stewart offered this analysis of what it would mean if Martha Coakley loses to Scott Brown: “ 'Democrats will only then have an 18-vote majority in the Senate. Which is more than George W. Bush ever had in the Senate when he did whenever the fuck he wanted to.' ”
"And this also from Stewart: “ 'It’s not your fault Democratic Party leadership — no one should have raised the bar of expectations for you. We should just leave the bar on the ground…[and] wait for you to trip.' "Meanwhile, Muhammed Cohen at Asia Times focuses on Obama: "On the economy, the top issue for most Americans, the administration has committed now-characteristic policy and political mistakes. Its first move, selecting Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary, was a bad idea that's gotten worse. Geithner's work as New York Federal Reserve chief made him one of Wall Street's top enablers as these masters of the universe crashed the economy. His failure to pay his taxes - twice - signaled that the Obama administration wouldn't demand the higher ethical standards it had promised.
"These political and public relations gaffes had serious policy implications. You could argue that it would take an insider like Geithner to give Wall Street the tough love it needed. But it hasn't played out that way. (We'll see how far the latest proposal to tax banks to cover the bailout gets.) Geithner didn't attach strings to the US$350 billion in bailout money the Obama administration controlled under terms of the 2008 bill crafted by former Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs chief executive officer. Given the players' pedigrees, it's no surprise that the bankers got their bailouts and bonuses without conditions, such as loosening credit, or any meaningful reform. Meanwhile, a year into the emergency fiscal stimulus package, Main Street is still struggling with unemployment. To voters, the Bush mega-recession has become the continuing Obama mega-recession.
"Moreover, Obama seems to have failed to show any real concern for the people who have lost their jobs. The stimulus package, despite its mind-boggling $787 billion price tag, has yielded disappointing results. Photo ops at factories and road projects do not convince anyone that the White House really cares. There haven't been appropriately grand policy steps to create jobs, though admittedly this is not an easy task. But Singapore, for example, is picking up a percentage of small business wage bills. China has targeted loans to hard-hit exporters. There are things the Obama administration could try, instead of acting as if passing the stimulus package and bailing out the banks had solved the problem.
"The stimulus package vote should have also given the Obama administration an important new page in its political script. When no House Republicans voted for the stimulus package, the administration should have realized that bipartisanship wasn't about to happen. At that point, the administration needed to adopt a new mantra on bipartisanship: Republicans helped make this mess, and they need to help clean it up. That line would have helped the White House keep control of the political high ground and the conversation, backed by overwhelming majorities on Capitol Hill.
"Instead, the White House let Republicans have a pass on the vote. This gave the opposition an opportunity to complain about the Republican-triggered recession and the burgeoning deficit, which is mainly the result of Bush's tax cuts, two wars and the unfunded Medicare pharmaceutical benefit. Under the White House's nose, the Republicans pretended history began with Obama's inauguration and channeled the electorate's anger at the new administration."
President Obama and his administration, and the Democratic majority in Congress have deliberately snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Only DINOs would do that, not true Democrats.
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