Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Obama Mocks Democratic Base While Raising Money In Greenwich

The Obama operation wants to know why many in the Democratic base aren't so enthusiastic to vote in November.

Here is THE reason:

Last night, Barack Obama spoke at a $30,000 per plate DNC fundraising event at the "home of Richard and Ellen Richman, who live in the exclusive Conyers Farm development in Greenwich [Connecticut]'s famed 'back country' neighborhood," and said the following about liberal critics of his presidency:

"Democrats, just congenitally, tend to get -- to see the glass as half empty. (Laughter.) If we get an historic health care bill passed -- oh, well, the public option wasn't there. If you get the financial reform bill passed -- then, well, I don't know about this particular derivatives rule, I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with that. And gosh, we haven't yet brought about world peace and -- (laughter.) I thought that was going to happen quicker. (Laughter.) You know who you are. (Laughter.) We have had the most productive, progressive legislative session in at least a generation."

Got that, Democratic base?

If you have concerns or disagreements with what Dear Leader has done since 2009, you are seeing "the glass as half empty."

Because Barack Obama has had "the most productive, progressive legislative session in at least a generation."

Let's take a look at some of those productive, progressive items, shall we?

Obama passed health care "reform" that requires the uninsured to purchase health care insurance from private companies or pay a 2.5% penalty on their taxes. The health insurance industry will gain 31 million new customers. No public option was added to that "reform" to keep costs down, so private health insurers have already been raising their premiums.

In addition, Obama insisted that his "reform" be paid with a 40% excise tax on employees with employer-provided health care plans rather than a tax on people making over a million dollars. The excise tax is expected to hit many working and middle class people as employers drop them from coverage and force them to buy private insurance from the new "reform" plans passed and signed by Obama.

Gee, neither of those things sound so productive or progressive to me - a working class fellow with an employer-provided health care plan that will certainly come under the 40% excise tax.

Next, Obama used stimulus funds to ram through a Race to the Top education sweepstakes that forced cash-starved states to agree to unproven or disproven education reforms like additional charter schools, additional standardized testing and the tying of teacher pay and evaluations to test scores. He also used the economic crisis to get nearly 40 states to agree to a national curriculum known as the Common Core. The new assessments that are being created through the RttT funds will hold teachers and schools accountable for the new Common Core. Those teachers and schools that do not have high scores will be fired and closed respectively.

In fact, when some teachers in Rhode Island were fired as part of the new RttT guidelines, Obama applauded the move, saying teachers need to be held accountable.

Gee, that doesn't sound very progressive or productive. It sounds like the Bush education policy in quintuplet.

In addition, when Dems in the House tried to pass a teachers jobs bill that would provide $10 billion dollars to the states to rehire laid off teachers (as well as $13 billion in Medicaid aid to the states), they needed to find money from other programs they could cut in order to get the teacher jobs bill through the Senate. David Obey attempted to cut money from the Race to the Top program, figuring teacher jobs were more important than money for data systems.

Barack Obama disagreed and said he would veto any teachers jobs bill that cut money from Race to the Top. When Obey asked what offsets the administration wanted for the bill, Rahm Emanuel told him "Cut from food stamps - $11.9 billion."

And that's EXACTLY what happened - the teacher jobs bill was passed and $11.9 billion was cut from food stamps. Beginning in 2014, a family of three will receive $521 less in food stamps per year.

And here's the clicker - the states aren't even using the money to rehire teachers; they're using a loophole in the legislation to plug other budget gaps.

Gee, that doesn't sound very progressive or productive to me, not with more people living under the poverty level now than did under the Reagan administration. In fact, the 2009 poverty rate was at a 51 year high. And poor people might, you know, need food stamps to buy food. But I guess making sure states have data systems in place to track scores and fire teachers is more important than getting food or jobs to poor people.

Then take the mortgage relief program known as HAMP. Homeowners who enter the program actually do not receive relief. The banks do. The administration has admitted that the program hasn't helped many homeowners, who make an additional 9-12 monthly payments but still lose their homes to foreclosure, but they say they're sticking with the program because it spaces out the amount of foreclosures that hit the market at any one time.

Gee, that doesn't sound very progressive or productive to me. That sounds like another bailout plan for banks. It also sounds like some very cynical exploitation of desperate homeowners naive enough to trust the government.

The administration has engaged in many other anti-progressive measures - including forcing the UAW to take 50% pay cuts as part of the auto bailout ("Fuck the UAW!" said Rahm Emanuel), making sure AIG's counterparties got 100 cents on the dollar for the bullshit that was owed to them that was really worth less than 15 cents to the dollar, allowing bailout companies that received TARP and TALF money to hand out millions in year-end bonuses to executives, used stimulus money to help corporations outsource jobs, and has sat on its hands as the unemployment and underemployment rates continue to hover near 10% and 18% respectively.

None of these sound either progressive or productive to me.

But Dear Leader Obama doesn't want to hear any criticism from people on the left. Oh no, if you have any issues with his policies, you can STFU and get drug tested according to Robert Gibbs or just grow up according to Barack Obama.

Well, you know what, guys? Just wait until November when you get the wake-up call and a huge wave of Repubs come into office.

And guess what they'll have?

Subpoena power.

You're going to spend the next two years hiring lawyers and answering questions in every crazy investigation the GOP can think to launch.

And it didn't have to be this way.

You could have followed through on your campaign promises, you could have worked with the left and the base who put you into office in the first place and made sure that we would be ready to vote this November.

Instead you worked with the corporate whores, mocked the left as drug-addled or silly, and then came back to us and used the threat of Speaker Boehner and President Palin to get us to vote for you.

Well, it's not working with me.

I did not vote in 2008 for value-added test scores, Race to the Top, $11.9 billion in food stamp cuts so that McGraw-Hill and Scholastic could have RttT funds for tests, a 40% excise tax on my employer-provided health care plan, a mortgage plan that exploits desperate homeowners but provides gov't largesse to banks, or a continuation of the Bush TARP financial bailout.

You can bet I will NOT be voting for anybody of either party who supported ANY of those policies in either 2010 or 2012.

And with a little luck and some work, we'll be able to say to Obama in 2012 what we said to Adrian Fenty in 2010 - buh-bye.

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