The readers' responses to this article: "All the President’s Captors By FRANK RICH" make some good points
nytimes.com
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Republicans are playing Mr. Obama like a cheap violin, and it’s embarrassing. One gets the image of high school bullies playing keep-away with his lunch box, which is not the image one wants to have of the president of the United States. I’m not sure if Stockholm Syndrome really applies, as the Republicans are incapable of showing any kindness, even of the bogus variety. It was particularly distressing to witness Mr. Obama offer the federal salary freeze concession, as he might as well have tossed it into a black hole. It is not a mark of honor, nor does it set a good precedent, to willingly give your lunch money to bullies. They don’t “respect” you for it. They laugh at you behind your back.
It’s sad but true that the electorate does not respond well to weakness, and will not rally ‘round an alpha male who appears unable to defend his territory, or worse, seems not to know that he’s under attack. It’s loathsome that aggressive loudmouths with idiotic ideas can co-opt political discourse, while an intelligent but timid voice is drowned out in the din. It also says a lot that the electorate can be swayed by things that they don’t believe in, if they’re said with gusto. We have many bellicose candidates waiting in the wings, and there will be lots of gusto in the run-up to 2012. Without strong leadership, socially and fiscally responsible ideas will not stand a chance, and we will almost certainly devolve back into a feudal society. We will then be the ones held hostage to the greedy whims of our corporate Lords. I hope Mr. Obama wakes up and finds his courage before then, and gives us some of the reason to hope that he can clearly command when he wants to. The stakes could not be higher. We can make do without a chicken in every pot, but we can’t manage with one in the Oval Office.
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December 5th, 2010
6:19 am
I work on Wall Street, I'm a Democrat, and I read the financial news each day. I understand what Republicans are doing to the bottom 98% percent of Americans better than most. They are destroying democracy itself and our children's future and turning this country into an anti-democratic oligarchy.
It troubles me greatly that liberal media does not grasp how conservative financial propaganda (a la Milton Friedman) is being used as a blueprint for the cruelties dealt upon the American people by Congressional Republicans.
And it's clear the White House hasn't a clue.
For instance, Friedman/Republican propaganda preaches that government assets should be privatized. Hence, Gov. Christie in New Jersey, like the national Republicans, is searching for ways to privatize as much of what is currently held, and done, by government as possible.
Privatizing assets held by government simply means that one rich person, or one wealthy corporation, will make and keep the profits by operating what was formerly a public asset instead of the people at large. Privatize the New Jersey Turnpike? If so, one person or company makes a profit from commuters using it every day to go to work instead of the government, i.e. you and me. Oh, you say, the turnpike's not making a profit now and so is costing the state money instead of adding to our coffers? Okay, so increase revenues and fix the situation, don't sell it! The same is true for social security, Medicare, health care, etc.
Republicans want your government privatized because they know the few will get even richer as they exploit the people and it is only those few--the top 2% in net worth--that they serve.
Warren Buffet appeared on CNBC recently and said the 400 richest Americans listed in Forbes magazine earned an average of $ 348 million EACH last year, and paid individually an average of 17% each in federal taxes. Despite the fact that they were all in the highest NOMINAL federal tax bracket, after deductions, their average EFFECTIVE tax rate was 17%! (Buffet's comments were reported...nowhere...outside of CNBC.)
That means an individual American earning $ 60,000 annually shares his effective tax rate with the 400 richest Americans. Yet the Republicans say the rich pay too much in taxes and the American people nod their collective heads and agree. Lies!
Tax policy is about how much you keep AFTER taxes, not how much you pay. By promoting propaganda that focuses on how much in taxes the rich pay, Republicans distract you from seeing how much they keep.
Raising the effective tax rate on multi-billionaires to 50% means they would have to subsist on an average of $ 174 million per year. Such an increase would bring in an additional $ 45 billion into the federal treasury--from just 400 people! If we raised the effective rate to 50% on the richest 2% of Americans--six million in all out of 310 million people, i.e. those who earn $ 1 million or more from all sources, we could erase our annual deficits and run surpluses immediately. And we would not have to raise a dime from those who earn $ 999,999 per year or less.
Major American corporations--the Fortune largest 1000--pay only 10% of all tax monies paid annually into the federal treasury, or 2% of GDP. That is down from 6%, or 32% of all tax monies paid into the federal treasury in 1952. This amounts to a great "opting out" by major corporations from funding the federal government. The result is we now borrow an average of 15% of all monies taken in to fund the federal government (which, of course, covers the amount no longer taken in from major corporations), and which forces us to pay interest-on-interest as we sell greater amounts of US treasuries to foreign sovereign funds and wealthy individuals to finance our annual shortfalls.
This payout of interest on borrowing redistributes wealth UPWARD from the poorest 98% of Americans to the richest 2% since they are the principal purchasers of treasury debt. It also represents a bleeding of wealth out of the country to China, Japan and the Middle East, which is where most of our national paper is held. Finally, since much of the activities of the US departments of State and of Defense have been privatized, corporations and contractors principally benefit from the
$ 768 billion spent on defense and foreign activities, meaning that fully 40% of federal outlays flow UPWARD to the richest 2% of the population (since the richest 1% among us own 83% of all stocks).
The federal government has become an enormous engine for redirecting taxpayer monies up to the rich, who contribute only 17% of their income to inflows. Hence, the enormous spread between rich and poor.
We must stop Republicans from cutting/privatizing discretionary govt. spending and we must RAISE taxes on rich individuals and wealthy corporations NOW or the bottom 98% will just get poorer.
Oh, and someone please wake up the White House, the media, and Democrats. Nap time is over.
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President Obama, do not seek a second term.
Being President, done properly, is one of the toughest jobs in the world. No one has ever come close to being a perfect President. Some have achieved greatness by the swell of public opinion, courage, and good luck, such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower. Richard Nixon, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Jimmy Carter were outstanding but not great Presidents. Because of the impact of their fiscal policies beyond the short span of their Presidencies, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton don't make the cut because they were not good stewards. They put not only their thumbs but their whole hands on the scale used to measure balance between the wants of the super wealthy and the good of America.
Obama and his team have been hopelessly inept at dealing with Republican propaganda and their strategy of making Obama a one-termer. It is particularly sad because Obama had such great promise and opportunity.
I am mindful that Obama may have hamstrung his own staff, but it doesn’t really matter. What is important is that Senator Minority Leader McConnell and soon to be Speaker of the House Boehner have played and continue to play the President and his advisors like a fiddle—the Charlie Daniel's devil's fiddle.
If the President is unwilling or unable to learn from his colossally ineffective interactions and negotiations with the rapacious Republican leaders, for the sake of the Country, he should not seek re-election. The Democrats, America, and indeed the World need a politically savvy, strong, resolute, charismatic leader and that person is not Barack Obama.
I have no doubt that Obama could be a brilliant leader of a University or some not-for-profit institution, but he is clearly the wrong man for the job for President of the United States. He should not run for re-election. Democrats should work diligently to surface a potentially great leader for these times.
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Stockholm Syndrome is one explanation for Obama's apparent meltdown. I've also heard speculation about blackmail or threats of bodily harm. But the most likely answer is that the president was, is, and ever shall be a neo-con. By that, I mean a new kind of con man who won the presidency of the United States, the adulation of the world and the Nobel Peace Prize all in the space of a year - by pretending to be something he wasn't: a Democrat who values people over corporate interests.
Finally, there are some rumblings among some Democrats in Congress who are less than pleased with Obama's performance. If anyone is a wimp, it's the Senator or Representative who still doesn't dare speak against him on the record. But time is of the essence. It has become painfully obvious that Obama is the tool of Republicans and their filthy rich constituents. The sooner he is faced with a primary challenger, the less the danger this country will move so far to the right that we all fall off a cliff.
Here are a few suggestions: Russ Feingold, Alan Grayson, Jan Schakowsky, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, Elizabeth Warren - and many other true progressives who have proven their competence and allegiance time and time again. Even Eliot Spitzer, despite his character flaws, could be counted on to go after the banksters.
Obama is probably expecting a 2012 contest with Sarah Palin and an easy ride to reelection.
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