Encouraging news

7 thoughts on “Encouraging news”

1. Forgive me for not believing them. In the end, they’ll get the Democratic votes they need and Pelosi herself will see to it. They always do and she always does.

   I read once that Tip O’Neill told Jimmy Carter that he won seats running against Richard Nixon and he could win seats running against Carter just as well (paraphrasing). It’s a vast understatement to say that Nancy Pelosi is no Tip O’Neill.

   Having said that, I’d love to be proven wrong. Unfortunately, predicting the “progressive caucus” will cave to Obama has yet to put me in that position.

2. I should’ve added that my complete lack of faith doesn’t mean it isn’t worth calling. It just means that I remember TARP, which was passed with Democratic votes after Obama whipped for it and after it had already failed to pass.

3. They’re going to changed the COLA CPI and say it isn’t a cut for SS. And the media will go along with that, and handle it as not being a cut. Here’s a run down on it someone just sent me from the WSJ:

   http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/07/07/switching-government-inflation-measure-could-yield-big-savings/

4. General strike? It would seem like this would be a good time.

5. Here’s a good comparison of the ‘chained CPI’, one that will refute the Obamabots and their chumps in the Progressive Caucus as to whether it’s a cut or not:

   http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/07/cost-of-living-and-cpi-chained.html

   The thing is, your COLA each year automatically becomes part of your basis, like your ‘base pay’, so that each years reduction is a multiple of last year’s reduction, and makes the prior year’s reduction larger.

6. Bastille day is July 14th.

7. NewsHour tonight NewsHour tonight had a segment with Andrew Kohut, pollster, and Naftali Bendavid, congressional correspondent for the WSJ, discussing Obama’s grand bargaining. Video and transcript here. There are some good points to use with our spineless Dems.

   Kohut pointed out several times that Obama and the Republicans are proposing things almost completely opposite what the public wants to have done. The public by two to one favors tax increases, some cuts, but not messing with the social safety nets (SS, Medicare and Medicaid). Affluent Republicans don’t mind if SS and Medicare are screwed with, but middle, lower, and poor Republicans do not want these TOUCHED.

   ANDREW KOHUT: Well, surprisingly, when you ask about what is more important, preserving benefits for Social Security and Medicare, by 2-1 — or reducing deficit or the debt — 2-1, people say, preserve — preserve our benefits.

   There is very little give there. Now, Republicans are of the view — more of the view that reducing the — reducing the deficit should be given high priority. But even among Republicans, it’s really interesting. There is a big income divide. Affluent Republicans say it is more important to reduce the deficit, but poorer Republicans, middle-class and lower-middle-class Republicans say, no, no, protect our benefits.

   JUDY WOODRUFF: And have — are these attitudes, Andy, that have changed over time, with all the attention that’s now being given to the size of the debt and the urgency of the problem?

   ANDREW KOHUT: Well, a lot — people are willing to do a lot of things to reduce this deficit. Concern is at an all-time high.

   But when it comes to entitlements, there’s no movement. It really is rock-solid when we see 2-1 margins.

   JUDY WOODRUFF: And, again, entitlements meaning Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.

   ANDREW KOHUT: And even Medicaid. Having states raise the — make it more — reduce eligibility for Medicaid, not 2-1, but a solid majority say, no, let’s not do that.
   SNIP
   ANDREW KOHUT: And that is completely opposite to public opinion.

   When we say, if push comes to shove, if you have to do something, what would you rather see with respect to these entitlements, revenues increased, or taxes increased, or benefits cut? People say, raise taxes, raise costs, but don’t cut those benefits.

   JUDY WOODRUFF: And you see that across the board?

   ANDREW KOHUT: See that across the board.

   JUDY WOODRUFF: Republican — what about Republican vs. Democrat?

   ANDREW KOHUT: Well, there is a gap on this, but when you get such large 2-1 margins and you have this class division within the Republican Party, that is potentially big stuff come election time. There will be a huge cry and howl if benefits are seen to have been — to have been cut here.

   JUDY WOODRUFF: And so I hear you saying some of the public reaction is going to depend on how this is packaged, how it is described to the American people, whatever — if they come up with an agreement.

   ANDREW KOHUT: Right.

   I mean, there is support for raising the contribution cap, of doing some things like that. But the notion that the retirement ages will be delayed or in some way people are going to have to pay a larger share of their Medicare costs out of their pocket, all of those things are very, very unpopular.

   (My emphasis, and please note how Woodruff reacts to Kohut saying people want one thing, Obama and R’s are doing the opposite, so the takeaway is — that it needs to be SPUN, “packaged.” Oh, she is a true Versailles courtier.)

   Obama does not work for us. Repubs do not work for us. ConservaDems do not work for us. Who does?

   We do not have the wealth of the Top One Percenters, so we are useless — except for getting fooled to give them our votes.

   Ah, charts for the poll results are at this FDL diary by Jon Walke.

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