Democrats are finally taking charge and controlling the message. It wasn't that long ago when the republicans made the debt and the deficit the number one problem. The democrats have stuck with their job's message, and it's working,now all they have to do is hold it for dear life, for the next fifteen months.
I don't know whether President Obama intentionally upstaged the GOP's September 7th debate by asking for a televised joint session speech on jobs and the economy on the same night of their debate.. The president's spokesman said we only have one president, and the GOP will have about 20 debates, besides, they can schedule the debate after the president's speech. Yes, the GOP debate was scheduled a long time ago, but it's not easy to get national air time for a presidential speech. The Republican presidential candidates all have a chance to rebut the president's speech, and tell the country how they would create jobs. Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have job's plans, but they are the same republican boilerplates plans; cut corporate taxes, zero taxes on dividends and capital gains, and repeal EPA regulations and Dodd-Frank. I still don't know how those plans will make consumers spend more because we have a housing crisis and a demand problem.
This August recess republican town hall meetings have been disrupted by people announcing their displeasure over Social Security and Medicare cuts while not asking for the top 2% to contribute more. A couple of nights ago one constituent stood up and asked a prominent republican to lift the cap on the Social Security wage tax on the employee and employer, in contrast to cutting benefits or raising the retirement age. Constituents all over the country are making their views known to the representatives, especially those that will serve on the super committee.
Most of the president's supporters want him to go for it all, knowing that the republicans won't pass his proposal, but it will give them an issue they can campaign on. The republicans will deny anything short of tax and spending cuts. The democrats will make their case that you can't lower the deficit and create the environment for more jobs at the same time. They will make the case that more jobs will create the tax revenues necessary to lower the deficit. The democrats will answer the demand problem by putting more people to work so they can afford to buy the big-ticket items, like cars and homes.
This morning Joe Scarborough was talking about in FDR's social programs, infrastructure projects, and a message of caring brought us back to prosperity. He said while not as severe, Ronald Reagan's policies brought us back from financial ruins of the 1980s by lowering taxes. That leads me to believe that economics' is not really a science because human beings can be manipulated. It's certainly not proof that Keynesian economics' does not work because a good percentage of the stimulus package was tax cuts. It may not be popular to say, but I think America is a hybrid nation with the basis being capitalism mixed in with a little of socialism. Since we have a central banking system, we will never have a true capitalist society because we like our VA medical care, Social Security and Medicare, we just don't like to take the steps to pay for them.
It's still early but the pundits are already saying Rick Perry is running away with the nomination because the Tea Party will never back Mitt Romney. Governor Perry cannot run away from what he wrote in his book 10 months ago; he took a pretty radical stand by calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme. I don't know what caused Ron Paul's fall to fifth place, but I suspect his interview with Anderson Cooper might have had something to do with it. They both argued over the role of FEMA where Ron Paul finally had to admit that government does have a role to play in rescue efforts. It didn't surprise me that kinky Friedman is now supporting Rick Perry; I listened to his message and knew instantly that he was not a Democrat.
It's still early in the whacky world of national politics.
5 comments:
As I suspected, speaker Boehner will not honor the request.
"Boehner urged in a letter to the president that the speech be moved from Wednesday Sept. 7 to Thursday Sept. 8. His reasoning was not that the speech will conflict with the Republican presidential debate scheduled to take place that night. Rather, he argued that the House of Representatives won't have enough time to pass the resolution and conduct the security measures necessary in order to officially invite the president to a joint session on Wednesday -– an explanation that is perhaps hard to swallow,considering Congress' ability to pass massive pieces of legislation at the last minute."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/obama-joint-session-jobs_n_943471.html
It's still under consideration but is it really?
Didn't I tell you it was whacky? You write about you hear on the midday news,then in two hours it changes....It might change again.
Don't you think we are going to see a lot of crazy between now and the primary? I do!
Personally, I would have skipped the President's speech in favor of the debates. I think they are going to be full of venom and scratching and clawing and between Bachmann and Perry--hair pulling!
Maybe the lessening of voter apathy is in sight after all. And maybe it is not just lessening at the local level. It's about time, and it was about time for the Democrats to wake up and get with the program.
EA
We are already seeing crazy, but we'll see crazier.
I think the republican debate would have come on after the president's speech ; if they didn't have another choice, but I still would have recorded one and watched the other.
You might be right about the hair pulling but I don't see it that way because we have a long way to go and Mitt Romney and especially Jon Huntsman might want that vice- president position. The other candidates shouldn't be on the stage but that's the GOP's choice.
It's hard to gauge local voter apathy from the few that post at the VA forum because it's usually the same people. On the national front, people are very angry and this childish bickering between the parties makes them angrier.
I guess I can't blame Joe Scarborough and Micah Brzezinski for not going after Dick Cheney this morning. I would be scared he would have a heart attack but as usual he got away with the same lies he's been telling for years.
Isn't Cheney a piece of work!
Where did I see someone say they sure hoped his book did not end up in the history section of the local library.
EA
It's no wonder that Tom Ricks called his book about Iraq " Chaos."... Dick Cheney has this version of the facts, President Bush has his, Rumsfeld has his, Condoleezza Rice,George Tennet, and Colin Powell have theirs.
Fox can't complain that MSNBC went after Dick Cheney because it was like a Larry King interview but it doesn't matter because Cheney will give his answer..... The other day when Matt Lauer asked Cheney if the lives and money wasted on Iraq was worth it, he replied “I don’t think that it damaged our reputation around the world,’’ he told Matt Lauer. “I just don’t believe that. I think the critics at home want to argue that. In fact, I think it was sound policy that dealt with a very serious problem and eliminated Saddam Hussein from the kind of problem he presented before."
“What would’ve happened this week if Moammar Gadhafi had still been in power with a nuclear weapon in Libya? Would he have fled? I doubt it.’’
You see how he deflected,the question had nothing to do with Libya?
I heard that remark about the library but I can't remember who said it.
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