A view from Main Street America by a congenital Democrat and truth-seeking attorney. Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community. Posting on the Internets since 2004.
If Obama tries to gut Social Security, I and every other liberal who supported him will rise up to kick his ass back to Chicago. Maybe back to Hawaii. Or, to the moon, Alice!
Don't even think about stealing the safety net from the people whose taxes have already been stolen to prop up the thieves on Wall Street.
Yesterday began with some devastating news with regard to our economic crisis. But I'm pleased to say it ended on a more positive note.
In the morning, we received yet another round of alarming employment figures – the worst in more than 30 years. Another 600,000 jobs were lost in January. We've now lost more than 3.6 million jobs since this recession began.
But by the evening, Democrats and Republicans came together in the Senate and responded appropriately to the urgency this moment demands.
In the midst of our greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the American people were hoping that Congress would begin to confront the great challenges we face. That was, after all, what last November's election was all about.
Legislation of such magnitude deserves the scrutiny that it's received over the last month, and it will receive more in the days to come. But we can't afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary. The scale and scope of this plan is right. And the time for action is now.
Because if we don't move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe. Millions of Americans will lose their jobs, their homes, and their health care. Millions more will have to put their dreams on hold.
Let's be clear: We can't expect relief from the tired old theories that, in eight short years, doubled the national debt, threw our economy into a tailspin, and led us into this mess in the first place. We can't rely on a losing formula that offers only tax cuts as the answer to all our problems while ignoring our fundamental economic challenges – the crushing cost of health care or the inadequate state of so many schools; our addiction to foreign oil or our crumbling roads, bridges, and levees.
The American people know that our challenges are great. They don't expect Democratic solutions or Republican solutions – they expect American solutions.
From the beginning, this recovery plan has had at its core a simple idea: Let's put Americans to work doing the work America needs done. It will save or create more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, all across the country – 16,000 in Maine, nearly 80,000 in Indiana – almost all of them in the private sector, and all of them jobs that help us recover today, and prosper tomorrow.
Jobs that upgrade classrooms and laboratories in 10,000 schools nationwide – at least 485 in Florida alone – and train an army of teachers in math and science.
Jobs that modernize our health care system, not only saving us billions of dollars, but countless lives.
Jobs that construct a smart electric grid, connect every corner of the country to the information superhighway, double our capacity to generate renewable energy, and grow the economy of tomorrow.
Jobs that rebuild our crumbling roads, bridges and levees and dams, so that the tragedies of New Orleans and Minneapolis never happen again.
It includes immediate tax relief for our struggling middle class in places like Ohio, where 4.5 million workers will receive a tax cut of up to $1,000. It protects health insurance and provides unemployment insurance for those who've lost their jobs. And it helps our states and communities avoid painful tax hikes or layoffs for our teachers, nurses, and first responders.
That's what is at stake with this plan: putting Americans back to work, creating transformative economic change, and making a down payment on the American Dream that serves our children and our children's children for generations to come.
Americans across this country are struggling, and they are watching to see if we're equal to the task before us. Let's show them that we are. And let's do whatever it takes to keep the promise of America alive in our time.
I read Atrios, so I know most of what the corporate media is shoveling at us about the bailouts is 100% pure unadulterated crap. Here's the real deal, from three of Duncan Black's posts today:
(a) For over a year the one point that I and others have been trying make is that the polite fiction that masters of the universe of Wall Street and their defenders in the media and Congress have been trying maintain, that this is liquidity crisis not an insolvency crisis, is utter horseshit. They made bad leveraged bets and lost immense amounts of money, and now they, and their buddies Geithner and Summers, want taxpayers to bail them out so they can go on living their opulent life styles while some of my neighbors wonder if their next food stamp card is going to show up. (b) The question all along has been who is still standing when the music stops, which sucker gets stuck holding the bag.
(c) Bailing out these institutions might be necessary, but bailing out executives and shareholders is not.
Since the people running Obama's economic team are Wall Streeters, it appears that we the taxpayers will be the bagholders.
The Shock Market is out of control!! Gall Street is crumbling!! Your savings have been 401KOD!! Just when you thought the economy has hit a low note, here comes a real chorus of gloom and doom. It won't take a degree in economics to enjoy this musical parody. Just a degree of humor. (Special appearance by John McCain.)
A source familiar with today's White House meeting tells NBC News that President-elect Obama focused on three economic issues during his conversations with President Bush this afternoon. The top topics: a stimulus package in the lame duck session, aid to the auto industry, and help for homeowners with adjustible-rate mortgages in order to prevent more foreclosures.
According to the source, Obama told Bush that action is needed on a stimulus package now - in a lame duck session - and cannot wait until after the inauguration.
Obama also urged help for automakers and encouraged the acceleration of the disbursement of $25 billion dollars for the industry.
On his third focus - housing - Obama voiced his concern that homeowners whose mortgage rates are about to go up will need aid to prevent more Americans from defaulting on home loans.
Merrill Lynch $349,170 Citigroup Inc $287,801 Morgan Stanley $249,377 Goldman Sachs $220,045 JPMorgan Chase & Co $206,392 AT&T Inc $183,663 Credit Suisse Group $175,503 PricewaterhouseCoopers $163,670 Blank Rome LLP $153,426 US Government $152,118 US Army $150,470 Wachovia Corp $147,456 Greenberg Traurig LLP $145,737 UBS AG $141,365 Bank of America $133,975 FedEx Corp $121,904 Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher $120,246 US Dept of Defense $118,125 Lehman Brothers $115,707 Bear Stearns $108,000
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.
But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received $54.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.
Another cracked calculation:
A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.
Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.
That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon!
This pledge to protect Social Security is being circulated by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. I pledge to oppose privatization of Social Security.
Some People Get a Golden Parachute... For Everyone Else, There's the Golden Promise: Social Security
Americans have lost nearly $2 trillion from their retirement accounts in the last 15 months* while Wall Street's financial elites are making away with billions.
Social Security is a golden promise guaranteeing Americans that if we work hard and play by the rules, we will earn the right to retire with dignity. We must not gamble this promise away on risky privatization schemes that guarantee only massive benefits cuts and turn our life's work into a chip for Wall Street’s elites to bet.
Therefore, I pledge to oppose privatization of Social Security -- the diversion of payroll taxes into private accounts -- by any name.
yahoo: A 'Palin Bingo' card sits on a counter at a debate watch party at a tavern in Seattle Thursday evening, Oct. 2, 2008. People watched the televised debate there between vice presidential candidates Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden and filled out game cards based on comments made by Palin. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
My real life keeps intruding on blogging!
Read elsewhere:
Palin screwed the pooch on the bankruptcy question last night. She said she and McCain weren't opposed to changing current bankruptcy laws regarding first mortgages. Problem? McCain does indeed oppose changing the law. Current bankruptcy law doesn't allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgage terms on first - primary - residences. But if you're a rich fuck like John McCain, bankruptcy judges have the power to protect your 2nd house, your 3rd house, your 4th house, your 5th house, your 6th house, your 7th house, your plane, your yacht -- but not the primary residence for millions of ordinary Americans. Palin basically adopted Obama's position in her answer, and McCain's camp is flailing. Smell the hypocrisy. Team of mavericks, my eye.
Washington Post reports that McCain has hired a new aide: Mark Buse, who was hired by Freddie Mac in 2003 and 2004 to lobby.....wait, this gets better....to lobby John McCain! Jane Hamsher skewers Wrinkly/Winky '08:
She does not know what "achilles heel" means. Watch it. She Does. Not. Know. What. It. Means.
Forget the tight stripper skirt, forget the metallic eyeshadow inappropriate for anyone over the age of 40, forget the cloying sitcom delivery, the lies, the cruel and calculated needling of Biden by calling his college professor wife a "school teacher" and saying "she'll get her reward in Heaven" (to a man whose first wife died in a car accident) -- she's an idiot.
I cannot believe that we are seriously thinking of placing this dodo bird within reach of the Presidency.
Yes, the bailout bill sucks. Yes, it sucks that Congress is going to throw $5000 of my hard-earned money at the Wall Street thieves that the Bush Administration let run wild over the past eight years.
But I support the bill. Why? Two reasons, mainly:
(1) I don't have a traditional pension, I have a 401(k) that is invested in the market, in bonds and stocks, in mutual funds and bond funds. I had a traditional pension 25 years ago, when my firm hired a smart MBA from Dartmouth who read the screw-the-workers financial papers and persuaded my employers that it would be cheaper to move the firm's pension plan into a 401(k) plan. Cheaper for them. Much more risky for me. So now I am exposed to the market. I'm in the market.
The bailout will cost me $5000, but a 20% drop in the market will cost me many times that.
(2) I don't know anything about macroeconomics except for a class I took in 1976. But Paul Krugman, an economist I respect, supports the plan. That's enough for me.
Side note, I turned on C-Span this morning to see my Congressman Jim McGovern running the House session from the floor for the Democrats. This makes sense; he's wildly popular in this liberal district and there's no way he loses his job for publicly supporting this hated bill. Plus he's got guts and does what he thinks is right.
Couldn't get on the interwebs for most of the day -- I think my crappy Verizon modem is near the end of its useful life.
So, here's my debate story. I listened to the middle third of the debate in the car on the way home from my class, watched the end on TV, then saw the economic part when it reran on C-Span a little later.
Listening in the car I was struck first by how old McCain sounded on the radio, his S's sibilantly extended, almost shushing each S sound. Like his dentures were floating around in his mouth. Second, he was so angry towards Obama. He kept saying "What Senator Obama doesn't understand" to start his arguments, spitting out each word with disgust. But both McCain and Obama stated their positions clearly and I didn't feel either made any huge mistakes or gaffes.
Obama was his usual scholarly, measured, rational self. Other than the "You were wrong" series he directed at McCain's predictions about the Iraq war in 2003, he was very even and level, but in full command of the facts and details of every issue. Presidential.
In the car I heard the debate as fairly even. But when I watched it on TV and put together McCain's angry voice with his rigid body language and his refusal to look at Obama, I thought this gave Obama the upper hand. McCain's anger seemed out of place. Just like his saying "What Senator Obama doesn't understand" seemed very out of place. It was very clear that Obama did understand the issues involved, so McCain's saying he didn't understand didn't seem right. He was angry about something, but it wasn't clear to me -- or to the audience -- what McCain was so angry about.
I used to have a problem questioning witnesses that I thought were liars, because I'd jump all over the witness before the jury knew anything about them. The anger I felt was my conclusion from what I knew about that witness. I learned from many excellent teachers that I had to allow the jury to form their own conclusions -- by showing them the facts about the witness -- rather than show my conclusions which made no sense to the jury who knew nothing about the person.
Rather than come to the jury with my conclusion (Liar!), I had to show them the facts and let the jury decide the witness was lying. You could always tell when the conclusion had been reached. Someone in the box would snicker at a ludicrous answer, or raise an eyebrow. You could feel people in the jury box looking at you, leaning towards you, telegraphing to you: Go for it. Get him. And then you could get angry. Get arch. Let out the sarcasm. Let him have it. But until that point, you had to be polite. Excruciatingly polite.
Most of the undecidedvoterpanels who watched the debates gave the advantage to Obama. I think this is why. No one likes angry people. Undecided people are people who don't really know anything about the issues at this point anyway -- if they did they'd have already picked a candidate -- so they're going to be much more swayed by the mannerisms of the candidates.
So why was McCain so angry? Partly it's just his personality. This is the guy who told that nasty joke about Chelsea Clinton, has said nasty things about his own wife, and more. But I think there's more to it than that.
Two theories from the 'net. One, McCain doesn't like Obama because Obama introduced ethics legislation two years ago & Mr. Reformer McCain was none too happy about that. Read this exchange of letters from February 2006.
Second, and I think this one is more plausible, is what happened at the White House on Thursday. Check out this passage from the Washington Post article today summarizing the bailout meeting at the White House:
Pelosi said Obama would speak for the Democrats. Though later he would pepper Paulson with questions, according to a Republican in the room, his initial point was brief: "We've got to get something done."
Bush turned to McCain, who joked, "The longer I am around here, the more I respect seniority." McCain then turned to Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to speak first.
Boehner was blunt. The plan Paulson laid out would not win the support of the vast majority of House Republicans. It had been improved on the edges, with an oversight board and caps on the compensation of participating executives. But it had to be changed at the core. He did not mention the insurance alternative, but Democrats did. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pressed Boehner hard, asking him if he really intended to scrap the deal and start again.
No, Boehner replied, he just wanted his members to have a voice. Obama then jumped in to turn the question on his rival: "What do you think of the [insurance] plan, John?" he asked repeatedly. McCain did not answer.
One Republican in the room said it was clear that the Democrats came into the meeting with a "game plan" aimed at forcing McCain to choose between the administration and House Republicans. "They had taken McCain's request for a meeting and trumped it," said this source.
Congressional aides from both parties were standing in the lobby of the West Wing, unaware of the discord inside the Cabinet room, when McCain emerged alone, shook the hands of the Marines at the door and left. The aides were baffled. The plan had been for a bipartisan appearance before the media, featuring McCain, Obama and at least a firm statement in favor of intervention. Now, one of the leading men was gone.
I can see this infuriating McCain. McCain the gambler went all in by "suspending" his campaign and going to Washington. Obama called his bluff and made him show his cards.
That's where "What. Senator. Obama. Doesn't. Understand." came from. Pure anger. McCain played the big bluff and got called on it.
Watch her look at the flash cards in her lap near the end, as she flubs her line and says the bailout is needed to bolster health care.
You will notice that in the Alaskan gubernatorial debates (I watched one on C-Span) she always had flash cards. I don't think she really knows anything about anything, but she reads cue cards like any good sports anchor wannabee. That's the experience I want in the White House. Whee!
One week after proposing an obscene $700,000,000,000,000 bailout for Wall Street, George W. Fuck announced that he would oppose a package of less than 10% of that to remedy his economic meltdown on Main St.
The White House will oppose a $56.2 billion dollar stimulus package, specifically opposing aid to the poor, including extended unemployment benefits for seven weeks, a 10% increase in food stamps, and $50 million to food pantries.
Golden parachutes for Wall Street thieves, golden showers for everyone else.
Fuck you too, asshole. Enjoy the ignominy of being remembered as the worst president in history.
Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening? Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicky and he's not. That's why. He's picking up some bargains. Now, we can get through this thing all right. We've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other.
- It's a Wonderful Life George Bailey tries to stop the panic during the run on the bank.
You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter! In the... in the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider.
In the past week, Warren E. Buffett put up nearly $10 billion to acquire Constellation Energy Group and a stake in Goldman Sachs. Japan's largest bank company has agreed to invest billions of dollars in Morgan Stanley. Private-equity firms, meanwhile, are lining up funds so they can pounce on assets that are priced to move quickly.
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