Well Now It’s REALLY Dead
by Hal_10000
The Democrats are sounding a conciliatory tone on healthcare. Last night’s election was, of course, a part. But the biggest blow came today. The AFL-CIO said they won’t support the bill. Without Big Labor on board, the Democrats can’t do this thing.
While I’m happy with last night’s outcome and the likelihood that this has derailed a bad healthcare bill, I do think we need to get some perspective here. The Democrats still hold 59 seats. We are also at the peak of public anger. Unless the Republicans come up with a real agenda—and by that I mean something other than Sean Hannity’s program notes—they will not be able to sustain this success into November. They’ve given the public something to vote against; now they need to give them something to vote for.
Because at some point, the public is going to notice a few things. Breitbart runs down Obama’s first year, by the numbers. There are few things that work in Obama’s favor:
7,949.09—Dow Jones Industrial Average close on Jan. 20, 2009.
10,609.65—Dow Jones Industrial Average close on Jan. 15, 2010.
$296.4 billion—Federal spending from the financial crisis bailout fund before Jan. 20, 2009.
$173 billion—Federal spending from the financial crisis bailout fund after Jan. 20, 2009.
$165 billion—Amount of bailout funds repaid by banks and automakers.
34,400—U.S. troops in Afghanistan in January 2009.
70,000—U.S. troops in Afghanistan as of Jan. 12, 2010.
139,500—U.S. troops in Iraq in January 2009.
111,000—U.S. troops in Iraq as of Jan. 12, 2010.
152—U.S. military deaths in Iraq from January 2009 through Jan. 15, 2010.
We have a larger presence in Afghanistan. The Iraq War continues to wind down. The bank bailouts are tapering (and were far less than under Bush) and the hysteria about nationalization proved mostly unfounded. If unemployment turns around and/or Obama takes a serious stab at debt—the likelihood of which I leave to your imagination—the tide of public opinion could turn in a hurry.
The biggest concern out there, the one driving the tea parties and the one that croaked Martha Coakley’s senate run, is debt. The GOP needs to strike while the iron is hot and come with a serious plan to reduce the debt, short term and long term. I fear this will not happen. All I hear from them is mindless burbling about cutting taxes and protecting Medicare. We saw how well tax cuts and spending hikes worked in the last decade.
Last night showed that they have a chance to turn the country around. Will they blow it yet again? I think the next few months, maybe even the next few weeks, will give us the answer to that question.
Comments
Perfect metaphor, S8.
The problem is that there’s no one on the GOP side with the presence of a Newt Gingrich to provide any sort of real leadership. On the one hand you have the people who want a de facto third party operating out of the Tea Party movement; on the other hand you have the Republican establishment (in the form of Michael Steele) whining about why they don’t get no respect and to let them alone already.
I think 1994 was the result of a convergence of events that got Clinton to wake up and smell the public mood. Unfortunately, I don’t think Obama’s been humbled enough yet to do the same.
PS the one good thing is that if they do manage to pass health care the chances are it’ll look a lot more like something the Republicans wanted…
A lot of this:
$165 billion—Amount of bailout funds repaid by banks and automakers.
Has had to do with this:
7,949.09—Dow Jones Industrial Average close on Jan. 20, 2009.
10,609.65—Dow Jones Industrial Average close on Jan. 15, 2010.
It’s easy to pay back the government when they don’t force you to acknowledge the bad debt from all the toxic loans on your ledger, and provide you with taxpayer money to put into the Wall Street Fixed Casino.
For a long time, the DJIA formed the public perception of the state of the economy. The rocket ride it’s taken in the last year, when unemployment went through the roof on a similar scale, is starting to rub that gloss off. The stock market is so disconnected from reality right now that if things don’t improve damn fast, people will not treat it as the economic bellwether they have been the last several decades.
The Dow has stayed fairly steady since about November, which indicates that the banksters can’t keep this charade up forever. I think we are going to be due for a big damn correction sometime this year, because unemployment is not going to improve signficantly at all.
Hal,
why is it that any props you give to the right you seem to give begrudgingly?
You reminded me a lot of Robert Klein back when I used to read TIME, he would start his article with his right hand out and mid-point he’d be girl slapping with his left.
Oh well, Cap-n-Trade is off the table for the time being any way.
Don’t forget what’s left out of the calculations are up to 200 bil a piece that the government said would back Fannie and Freddie, and those caps have recently been removed, so going over 200 bil a piece is a real posibility. Much of that aid is outside of TARP. Also of note, no one from Fannie or Freddie showed up to the inquiry that was going on at the same time as the we want our money back bullshit Obama speech. Interesting that the biggest failure of them all wasn’t put on the stand. Of course then it would go from greedy banker to inept government. Strange too, because you’d think it would be a great opportunity since it was just strictly Bush that caused all this. Perhaps the GOP can harp on this and demand more interviews with Fannie and Freddie as the inquiries continue, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. It would just make too much sense.
The stock market is so disconnected from reality right now that if things don’t improve damn fast, people will not treat it as the economic bellwether they have been the last several decades.
HeartlessLib,
Actually the stock market jump isn’t really about a disconnect with reality, as much as it is the fact that the dollar has lost almost 40% of its value/purchase power in just one year because of the ridiculous policies of these idiots now in charge. All that never ending glut of government borrowing, spending, and money printing without anything to back it up is to blame for a massive devaluation. Banana republics make it habit of deflating their currencies so they can avoid the real penalties of accrued debt, and our current crop of collectivists and their economics are masterfully imitating the practices of such geniuses as Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and many of the old South American countries that gave rise to the term. Deflation sucks. With the dollar worth less, commodities that are not directly tied to that index will have an upward adjustment in value. Since most of stock’s value is in how much real assets a company holds, and most companies hold assets in commodities and not currencies, you have to adjust for that.
That adjustment is what has fueled most of the stock market rally. But it is horribly deceptive stuff, because while the stock market is up, and most people’s investments are too, the reality is that the real value of that stuff has nothing to do with what the stock market shows. I remember reading an economist that did this analysis and he pointed out that if you compared the actual value of the stock market today to that a year ago, you would see that the real value of what the stock market represents compared to what it was a year ago, is actually down. The lesson here I guess is that using the stock market as an economic indicator, when our political class is fast destroying the value of our currency, is a bad idea. It is up, but it is not really up at all.
Things are getting - pardon the pun - “progressively” worse…
Hey Heartless where have you been?
Next entry: Let's get another credit card to pay off this old credit card debt!
Previous entry: Uplift of the Day
Who's Logged In
Total Members: 8497
Total Logged in members: 1
Total guests: 42
Total anonymous users: 1
Malcom Hatstat,
,
Capitalism
Search
Search this site with Google
Search will take you to Google.com, which will display results from Right-Thinking and link you back here. Search using pMachineRecent Comments
How quickly they soured us on their ideology, huh?
(37 total, Last @ 10:02)
Miguelito: Not exactly sure what happened, but after a couple years on his own once he finished college and his tune changed. I think some of it was that his dad wasn’t there to fill his head with crap every day (union official) once he moved out of town. I'm guessing…
The Civil Rights Bully
(3 total, Last @ 07:04)
HARLEY: The differences between a government and a criminal cartel are generally pretty slight. They generally have more guns and the "moral right" to use them.
You Want to Make an Omelet, You Have to Break Some Eggs
(2 total, Last @ 06:51)
HARLEY: The miracle of the 1940s? You mean a World War that killed millions of people, and set the stage for even more global carnage in the post-colonial Third World? If this was true then when we should have gone into a boomtime with the Iraq and Afgan wars.
The Civil Rights Bully
(3 total, Last @ 06:13)
Seattle Outcast: The differences between a government and a criminal cartel are generally pretty slight.
The Civil Rights Bully
(3 total, Last @ 03:48)
HeartlessLibertarian: Note the middle paragraph, in which Perez is essentially using the power of government to blackmail his targets into donating to “qualified organizations” (a tactic that started under the last Administration). Rather instructive how the government has adopted the same tactics the Mafia uses, isn't it? And yet some people…
Last 30 Comments
As happy as I am with last night’s outcome, it’s going to be a long time before I get too excited about where we’re headed.
With these two parties, one is like having massive gangrene on your arm, the other is like chopping it off. You think you feel better, but then after a few days you realize your fucking arm is gone. Screwed either way.