Step 2
Let's check in on the progress of the Medicare and Social Security sell-out, foretold by Glenn Greenwald, and a topic I blogged about three weeks ago.We've moved to Step 2, where political negotiations are now underway between Congressional leaders and the President, the latter of which got re-elected November 6th largely because of his promise to protect the social safety net. As predicted, news releases are starting to float out from the offices of the Democratic leadership suggesting that some entitlement cuts would not be that bad, and that cuts would actually be necessary to preserve the "long-term viability" of the programs.
Former budget chief Jacob Lew was removed as the top White House negotiator by President Obama just before Thanksgiving. In his place is U.S. Treasury Secretary and best friend to Wall Street, Timothy Geithner, author of the largest bailout to corporate banks in global history. During the budget face-off in 2010, Republicans reportedly thought that Lew was not flexible enough on agreeing to entitlement cuts, and Geithner, this week, has been called more "pragmatic" by the Wall Street Journal.
Next to come, step three of six in the Grand Obama Betrayal, where influential "progressives" come to the public aid of the president, insisting that the Republican leaders are too evil and powerful to bend, that a pronounced standoff and failure to give in threatens the entire Obama second term, and that liberals who claim otherwise are the villains of reform. Stay tuned.
---
Quote of the day: Velvet-voiced disc jockey I heard on the way home, as he faded out R. Kelly's hit single "Radio Message", "When you can sing like that, I'll play your radio message too."
Nice. And you thought disc jockey was a dead profession.
Quote of the day that was only in my head: Me, after I answered an escalation/complaint call at work from a pinhead. I must have said something to the guy that sounded fancy because he goes, "You sound like a politician." What I didn't-- and couldn't-- say in response: "You sound like a voter."
posted by CM @ 7:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home