The current healthcare legislative charade is drawing to an inconclusive conclusion.
The good ideas, single payor, public option, abortion choice, etc. etc, have all been stripped from the bill and now it goes into its final revisions. Has it really been worth it?. According to Sen. Tom Harkin it has. He stated that there is a great deal of progressive clout in the remaing portions of the bill. Many insurance caveats remain that are very worthwhile. Also it will provide a framework for future improvements. It is an important hurdle to get past the obstinate Republicans. To them it is a foot in the door, or the camel's nose in the tent.
Actually it is difficult to believe that things have gotten this far considering the vast amounts of money thrown at the legislators to prevent any real changes. Historically there are examples of hard fought battles for big issue bills. Civil Rights,Medicare, Social Security, even the WW ll G.I. Veteran's Bill. It has usually been the persistance and doggedness of a few die hards that pulled the fat out of the fire.
Fortunately Pres. Obama is able to juggle the several problems at hand in credible style. Despite the enormity of each project he is persisting in attempting to deal with them all. His most recent head to head is with the bankers (fat cats) that seem to be showing no appreciation for the public money that saved their hides. Now that thier heads are above water they want to be allowed to resume business as usual. The plea to them to now work to solve the economic crisis is answered by saying " the regulators won't allow us to make most of the loans called for". There is the catch 22. The banks got caught making too risky loans before the meltdown so the regulators are clamping down. Business plans that were very feasable in a good economy are not so good now. The consumer was a very poor saver previously but is now very tight with his money so the demand is not there. Banks can't create demand.
Until the consumer's financial condition improves he will restrict his consumption.
Until these conditions change it is going to be a matter of some time before the economy shows much life similar to pre-2008. Strangely the stock market is anticipating a recovery and advancing nicely. Hopefully it won't get too far ahead of itself and go into a double dip.
In another case of "catch 22" is the double war scenario. Can Iraq begin to take care of itself.? Are the Russians and Chinese scooping up the marbles early in the game? How is it best to deal with the Taliban and Alqueada? Can we actually succeed where the British and Russians failed so miserably. All riddles wrapped in conundrums.
The most I can say is I feel there is a steadier hand at the wheel than in the past eight years. Things are going to move much slower in the next few years than we would hope for.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The blather bunch
Title: Liberty and Tyranny - A Conservative Manifesto
Author : Mark R. Levin
Right wing talk show host Mark Levin has put together what he chooses to call A“ conservative manifesto”. To make it look scholarly he quotes from several sources and annotate his remarks in the “notes” section at the back of the book.
The author, I think, correctly assesses the plight of the conservatives as being in serious trouble. His summation, after stating 10 conservative positions on topics such as ; Taxation, environment, Judges, the administrative state, Gov’t education, immigration, entitlements, foreign policy and security, faith and the constitution, is a call to inculcate in the young the Ayn Rand philosophy of self sufficiency and the “tyranny” of a gov’t that takes your hard-earned dollars and gives them to some undeserving sluggard.
From the book : “For the conservatives, the civil society has as its highest purpose its preservation and improvement” That sounds good . “The modern liberal believes in the supremacy of the state Therefore he characterizes the modern liberal as a statist . Sounds bad
The implication is that the liberal agenda is a nefarious conspiracy to put in place a totalitarian dictatorship.
Interestingly the death of Senator Kennedy brought forth an outpouring of accolades for all the good things the Liberal Lion achieved in his lengthy tenure in the senate.
To see what Levin has to say on the 10 points he has selected just read the book and decide for yourself how his analysis sounds. To me, his demonization of all liberal ideas makes him an ideologue and not a rational person. He claims the liberal statist’s aim is “nascent totalitarianism”.
What he never addresses is the influence and control that corporations have over Republicans. “Corporations buy Republicans and rent Democrats” is all too true.
Several right-wing authors have written popular books recently. These books, such as: Glenn Beck’s, Michelle Malkan’s, Dick Morris’, are, according to Steve Almond, “ not psychotic, fact challenged rants of the mad, but carefully crafted meta-fictions in which the mundane terrors of cultural dislocation are recast as riveting epics of paranoia”. “….they’re about the incursion of sinister forces on an unsuspecting populace”. It is a sad fact that such books reach the bestseller list. That is the diabolical effect of bulk sales.
Levin attributes the current economic melt down, not to the “psychotic greed of Wall Street but the Statist’s deranged need to throw money at the poor and undeserving."
Levin states that the conservatives have a long way to go to regain power and the screed that his book contains is going to make the journey much longer.
Author : Mark R. Levin
Right wing talk show host Mark Levin has put together what he chooses to call A“ conservative manifesto”. To make it look scholarly he quotes from several sources and annotate his remarks in the “notes” section at the back of the book.
The author, I think, correctly assesses the plight of the conservatives as being in serious trouble. His summation, after stating 10 conservative positions on topics such as ; Taxation, environment, Judges, the administrative state, Gov’t education, immigration, entitlements, foreign policy and security, faith and the constitution, is a call to inculcate in the young the Ayn Rand philosophy of self sufficiency and the “tyranny” of a gov’t that takes your hard-earned dollars and gives them to some undeserving sluggard.
From the book : “For the conservatives, the civil society has as its highest purpose its preservation and improvement” That sounds good . “The modern liberal believes in the supremacy of the state Therefore he characterizes the modern liberal as a statist . Sounds bad
The implication is that the liberal agenda is a nefarious conspiracy to put in place a totalitarian dictatorship.
Interestingly the death of Senator Kennedy brought forth an outpouring of accolades for all the good things the Liberal Lion achieved in his lengthy tenure in the senate.
To see what Levin has to say on the 10 points he has selected just read the book and decide for yourself how his analysis sounds. To me, his demonization of all liberal ideas makes him an ideologue and not a rational person. He claims the liberal statist’s aim is “nascent totalitarianism”.
What he never addresses is the influence and control that corporations have over Republicans. “Corporations buy Republicans and rent Democrats” is all too true.
Several right-wing authors have written popular books recently. These books, such as: Glenn Beck’s, Michelle Malkan’s, Dick Morris’, are, according to Steve Almond, “ not psychotic, fact challenged rants of the mad, but carefully crafted meta-fictions in which the mundane terrors of cultural dislocation are recast as riveting epics of paranoia”. “….they’re about the incursion of sinister forces on an unsuspecting populace”. It is a sad fact that such books reach the bestseller list. That is the diabolical effect of bulk sales.
Levin attributes the current economic melt down, not to the “psychotic greed of Wall Street but the Statist’s deranged need to throw money at the poor and undeserving."
Levin states that the conservatives have a long way to go to regain power and the screed that his book contains is going to make the journey much longer.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Rebuilding the Republican party
If anything needed a redo it is the Republican Party. It has been too long the hostage of the ultra-conservatives.The disgusting spectacle of Cheney and Limbaugh holding forth at a "Republican" convention and being cheered as they proclaimed the necessity to see the Obama program fail demonstrates beyond a doubt the need to reject such blather.
Colin Powell recently called for the Republican Party to move more toward the center. Republicans claim their platform is Capitalism, smaller government, and lower taxes. We have seen very graphically what the neo-con notion of "smaller government" means, deregulation. Allowing the full force of greed and avarice to reign unfettered in our ecomomy. Greenspan, said in his bland defence, "I thought the market would have more sense than to kill itself" or words to that effect.
Undoubtedly capitalism and the entrepeneurial spirit has made our country great. It is the lack of personal responsibility on the part of those in key positions to live up to their responsibilities that creates or enables the unscrupulous to prosper. As an example of deriliction of duty the bond rating firms of Moody, Standard and Poor, etc. succumbed to the profits from giving triple A ratings to securitized mortgages that were totally deficient in soundness. So far that malfeasence has not been assessed.
The Republicans will have to own up to their failure to control their most rabid operators. This will require identifying the leaders who are at fault in their notions of what is allowable under the supposed platform of Republicanism. If the ultra conservatives want to hang tough let them haul ass and have their own party.
Of course, what is in a name? Any thinking person, despite registration in a particular party should feel free to decide who has the better ideas and vote acoordingly. I've been registered as Republican all my life but find I really should own up to being Independent.
Currently the Obama agenda is running into the realities of political recalcitrance.
Despite the overall necessity of maintaining a coherent plan the various components are being picked apart. If this goes too far the whole idea will be vitiated. Last night on Hardball I heard an analyst point out for the first time that the concerns over the high cost of the various programs always leave out the consequences of not funding the programs. Of course people don't like the spectre of high taxes but that doesn't obviate the necessity of fixing what is broken. The "broken" includes the health care system, the educational system, the entire enconomic system, the environmental system, as well as a great percentage of our infrastructure. That is just for starters so lets stop bellyaching about the cost and own up to the need.
Where will the money come from? Where it always has, us. If the Republicans continue to follow Norquist and his "cut taxes" mantra there will be no solutions to the problems of what is broken.
Colin Powell recently called for the Republican Party to move more toward the center. Republicans claim their platform is Capitalism, smaller government, and lower taxes. We have seen very graphically what the neo-con notion of "smaller government" means, deregulation. Allowing the full force of greed and avarice to reign unfettered in our ecomomy. Greenspan, said in his bland defence, "I thought the market would have more sense than to kill itself" or words to that effect.
Undoubtedly capitalism and the entrepeneurial spirit has made our country great. It is the lack of personal responsibility on the part of those in key positions to live up to their responsibilities that creates or enables the unscrupulous to prosper. As an example of deriliction of duty the bond rating firms of Moody, Standard and Poor, etc. succumbed to the profits from giving triple A ratings to securitized mortgages that were totally deficient in soundness. So far that malfeasence has not been assessed.
The Republicans will have to own up to their failure to control their most rabid operators. This will require identifying the leaders who are at fault in their notions of what is allowable under the supposed platform of Republicanism. If the ultra conservatives want to hang tough let them haul ass and have their own party.
Of course, what is in a name? Any thinking person, despite registration in a particular party should feel free to decide who has the better ideas and vote acoordingly. I've been registered as Republican all my life but find I really should own up to being Independent.
Currently the Obama agenda is running into the realities of political recalcitrance.
Despite the overall necessity of maintaining a coherent plan the various components are being picked apart. If this goes too far the whole idea will be vitiated. Last night on Hardball I heard an analyst point out for the first time that the concerns over the high cost of the various programs always leave out the consequences of not funding the programs. Of course people don't like the spectre of high taxes but that doesn't obviate the necessity of fixing what is broken. The "broken" includes the health care system, the educational system, the entire enconomic system, the environmental system, as well as a great percentage of our infrastructure. That is just for starters so lets stop bellyaching about the cost and own up to the need.
Where will the money come from? Where it always has, us. If the Republicans continue to follow Norquist and his "cut taxes" mantra there will be no solutions to the problems of what is broken.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)