I’m used to Maddow bending herself in a pretzel to avoid criticizing the president, so this was an interesting change of pace. David Axelrod spews his usual word salad in defense of the chained CPI, and Maddow politely tells him he’s full of shit.
By the way, the “carveouts” he’s talking about, at certain points to prevent a hit to the elderly in the chained CPI? The first one takes place at age 76. Guess which group doesn’t live that much past 76? Everyone except wealthy white men!
See the problem there?
When all the heavy hitters are visiting every news outlet then you just know that things aren’t going well for the political class. Obama’s chained-CPI proposal will bury him. And every Democrat who supports him.
If the NSA is reading that’s bury them politically not literally.
Um, “which group doesn’t live that much past 76? Everyone except wealthy white men” is overstating the case.
Population scientists tend to use terms like “non-deprived.” You don’t need wealth, you just need enough and without major stresses.
And then of course there’s gender. The champions of non-deprived longevity are very much women, not men. Handy graph: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/4/969/F2.expansion.html (data to 2000, but the pattern hasn’t totally changed in the last 12 years).
I know what you mean: deprivation kills. That’s way too true. Plus, since it’s women who live longer, and women who disproportionately depend on Social Security, the deprivation caused by chained-CPI crap lethally discriminates against that group enough to be worthy of a civil rights class action suit.
Gee, what would I rather be a rich white guy over 70? Or a poor white, black, Hispanic, Asian, etc. woman of any age? I know who the 1% would rather be. The greedy bastards.
Because the NSA IS searching this that is bury them in three pieces. Torso in the ditch, mendacious head in the pond, and unused heart in the incinerator.
Couple things – Highlight of the interview are the remarks by Maddow at the 6:45 – 6:55 time point – something about ‘if he thinks this is good policy, he is going to feel the ground give way under his feet’.
True. Very true.
And I think we should note Axelrod’s response on ‘what Obama is thinking’ heading into the 6 minute mark along the lines of ‘this isn’t trying to pick a fight with the left or some other group, but rather this is policy, not politics, as a means of getting us to where we need to go’.
You know, that is probably exactly what these guys think – and that’s where they are wrong. That line of thinking is bloodless; soulless – it treats people like abstractions, and way too often when this Administration enacts policy like bailing out banks instead of emphasizing jobs – people are just left holding a bag wondering what did the party that is supposed to represent them just do to them – again.
Axelrod was also talking about how, policy-wise – we have to get medical costs down.
Jumping JC on a pogo stick, they had their chance to do that if they had offered a public option as part of health insurance reform. But NO, they kicked that away – and now their “policy” to correct that mistake is to take it out of the hide of medicare recipients.
You keep emphasizing the abstract at the expense of things that appeal to the heart, things that are right or wrong, things that naturally appeal to your segment of the voting population – and pretty soon you start to notice “hey, where did everybody go?”.
I quit reading after Maddow.