Can the Dem Base Do What the Reepo Base Did to Cantor in VA?

The fear and trepidation in the Beltway is almost palpable this morning after the stunning loss of Eric Cantor in Virginia to a Tea Party favorite, Dave Brat.  The fear extends not only to legislation likely now tabled this year for good (e.g. immigration reform) but also migrating to other issues the Teepees felt that Boehner's House got too lax on: e.g. raising the debt ceiling. In other words, Brat's win possibly foretells more gridlock in Washington after the November mid-terms.  Make no mistake that as one commentator remarked on 'Morning Joe' this a.m., the Republican establishment is once more trembling as its angry base rears its 'Don't tread on me' head.

The question obviously becomes why can't the Democratic Left base do the same, to punish the Neoliberal Demos who talk left populist out of one side of their mouths and talk Neoliberal (as well as act Neoliberal) on the other?  Why, in other words, can't we get the Democratic establishment to fear its base (as well as respect it) like the Reepos do theirs? The fault, I suspect, is not in our "stars" but in our embrace of pathetic 'hope' as opposed to courage, see e.g.


http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2014/05/hope-is-for-dummies-and-sissies-what-we.html

We need, in other words, the courage to support genuine Left populists as opposed to Neoliberal poseurs. To do this we must have the courage to acknowledge 'lesser of two evils' in the proper context. In this, the lesser of two evils can only be the non-Neoliberal. Sadly, as per a recent op-ed in the WaPo, most Democrats remain committed to the Neoliberal model of "free markets über  alles". We must find a way to punish them for their fecklessness and embrace of this idiom, while not gutting the party itself. (Which is the only practical counterpoise to the ever more far Right Reepos.)

A recent piece in 'Democratic LEFT',  the Democratic Socialists of America Newsletter, described one way in which Demo candidates are sized up in each district in terms of their Neoliberal votes. If they heel too excessively to Neoliberalism, at the expense of their districts,  then opposing candidates who are genuinely Left are chosen to primary the bastards. This is the only way we can clean house of the Neoliberal cancer over time.

"But they will outspend us and blow us away!"

Not so! For the record, Tea Party favorite Dave Brat spent an estimated $122,000 while Eric Cantor spent nearly FORTY times more, this according to Frank Luntz - GOP pollster and analyst this morning. So what was the deal on how Brat did it? It is because his supporters never flinched, they ditched the false hope and had the courage to vote their conscience and beliefs - never mind how perverted and skewed they were.

Brat's platform might be called "standard Confederate": gut all federal spending (even for the sickest and neediest), kill Obamacare, chisel out Social Security and Medicare, and no more debt ceiling increases without capitulation on multiple other fronts, and no regulation of automatic or semi-automatic weapons, not to mention a visceral embrace of "free markets" so what we have in Brat is a Confederate Neolib.

This, even as the media mouthpieces kept echoing this morning:

"The lesson from this is: Don't get too far from what your base wants!"

Maybe for the Repukes, but the Dems dismiss their base with impunity. Let us not forget the infamous meeting several years ago in the White House with several Left groups. At one point, Obama Consigliere Rahm Emmanuel grew so frustrated with the demands made, that he unleashed a string of epithets and referred to the gathered base as "morons". Really? Maybe, a lesson needs to be taught Dems like Emmanuel? (Of course, such lessons presume Dem voters arrive to cast ballots in primary elections!)

I got fed up with the Dem Neoliberal poseurs long ago, which is why I left to become an independent and join the Democratic Socialists of America. No, we may never win the White House, but we can raise enough hell to make the Neoliberals pause and not think they've conquered everyone's brains.

I could tick off a long list of where the Demo Neolibs are wrong:

- Going after Edward Snowden as a "traitor" (Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, John Kerry et al)

-  Voting for a misbegotten FISA law that actually retrospectively legalized Bush's illegal wiretapping

- Voting for the Military Commissions Act in 2006, to repeal habeas corpus

- Vigorously pushing natural gas fracking on communities that want no part of it, and fobbing it off as a "blessing" and "safe for the environment" (Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colo.)

- Proposing a chained CPI to cut Social Security - and offering it as a bargaining chip to the Reep rats

- Proposing a means test for Medicare beneficiaries at the ridiculous level of $47,000/ yr.

- Fueling unrest in the Ukraine in order to establish a Neoliberal'/NATO foothold, thereby provoking Russia to respond, and then blaming Russia for protecting its own geopolitical interests

- Continuing to fund military expansion and being bought by defense contractors' lobbyists

- Supporting the TPP (Trans -Pacific Partnership) for trade, as they did NAFTA - which will see American jobs outsourced.

- Cutting food stamps by $9 b in a farm bill, while allowing Reeps more military spending in a bill passed in December last year.

All of these ought to outrage a serious citizen - who is educated enough to grasp that rampant Neoliberalism is at the root of this country's metastasizing inequality.  In turn, they all - in concert - ought to spur people of the Left to action, much the same way doing all the opposite has spurred the Teepee crowd as in ousting Cantor.

We need a new vision. We need courageous people - citizens to step forward to enter primaries and unabashedly advocate for an anti-Tea Party platform that fundamentally acknowledges the prime precept in the Constitution to "promote the general welfare".

Beyond all that, we need Democratic Left voters to get up off their asses and VOTE in primaries, not just in general elections. One huge reason the Dem base isn't taken seriously is because of its absence in primaries - not to mention mid-terms. This needs to stop.

If it can, then for every step the Tea Party Reeps make to reduce this general welfare, we take two in the opposite direction to advance it. If that means removing Neolib Democrats - who've grown too comfortable with their lobbyist perks and campaign donations - then so be it.

One thing for sure, the status quo cannot go on if we hope to keep any semblance of a country of the people, by the people and for the people!

See also:
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/11/cantors_demise_brings_huge_lesson_heres_why_the_tea_party_is_so_coddled/

"Spending Cuts?" REPUKES Need to Make 'Em!

As noted in multiple prior blogs, despite all the palaver over the national debt, and $16 trillion deficits, it has really been the GOP, aka the Repukes, that created it over the past 11 years. The charts shown illustrate the primary contributors to the massive debt, and where we'd really be minus the "wars" (actually prolonged occupations) and Bush tax cuts. And yet, the obscene narrative promoted by Neoliberal stooges and hacks in the Beltway is that it's been "entitlements" such as Social Security that have caused the massive deficit, and debt. Not by a frickin' longshot!

Looking at the left side chart we see that (current)  debt without the tax cuts and the wars would have been about 40% of GDP.  Without the tax cuts, wars plus the 2009 stimulus the debt would've been around 37% of GDP. I have always argued that the stimulus was needed, to help us escape another Great Depression, so I don't deem that factor as useless like the other ones. (Military types might argue that the "wars"-occupations were not useless additions to the debt but my point is they ought to have been paid for by higher taxes as all other wars have. Real wars, that is!)

On Friday, I wanted to punch Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) right in the face for saying on national TV (MSNBC, Rachel Maddow show with Ezra Klein standing in) that the debt was now "160% of GDP" thereby arguing for major entitlement cuts. The truth is disclosed by the chart at the right, which shows in fact the total of all contributors to be roughly 68% of GDP at 2012 - with two of the contributors (again tax cuts and "wars") unjustified. Factoring in the stimulus, which was justified, one arrives at debt at about 42% of GDP. Add in Medicare ongoing over -expenses, and it rises to about 50% of GDP. (Over -expenses means the money Medicare must shell out over and above what the beneficiaries themselves pay for treatments, etc. Much of this arises from the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act and introduction of Medicare Advantage plans which yearly runs higher imbalances than standard Medicare.)

See also:http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-johnson/47383/deficits-were-on-purpose-to-cause-this-crisis


All of the above discloses that the hair-on fire screeching of the Repukes to cut "entitlements" is so much PR codswallop fueled by the shameless Neoliberal media and politicos. It is not entitlements - other than the misbegotten "Medicare Modernization Act" of 2003 (which essentially sought to privatize Medicare and increase premium costs on standard beneficiaries) that have contributed to the massive debt load but rather unpaid for wars and military expenditures- many of which have actually siphoned off Social Security monies to try to make deficits appear smaller.

Let's also recall here that the end-of-decade $5.6 trillion surplus forecast by the Congressional Budget Office in 2000 was more than eviscerated by the two unfunded "wars",  plus two indefensible rounds of Bush tax cuts, and the unpaid for Medicare prescription drug benefit along with the TARP bank bailout. By all standards of reason, NO tax cuts ought to have been implemented once two invasions and occupations had been planned, as we now know ad been the case even before Bush Jr. entered the WH.

Lastly, please recall that in order to accommodate those "spend and not tax" (e.g. massive credit increase) policies, Bush and his GOP allies in Congress voted seven times to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. As it turns out, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) voted for all of it. And yet now, the Repukes - dastardly vermin that they are - plan to use the debt ceiling to take the country hostage as they did last year. Refusing to raise it unless Obama and the Dems give in to them! (Which is why I say this time Obama must cease showing them any "respect", or treating them as rational equals, thus invoking the 14 th amendment to raise it on his own. Thereby for once acknowledging his Reepo opposition in the House as economic terrorists!)

Given this, it makes sense that a last ditch effort by these shameless Reep-turds to interject Social Security cuts into a late, limited "fiscal cliff" deal  (via the chained CPI)was shot down by the Dems.

At least it shows they have some cojones. As I've said before, if a terrible deal is on the table, it's better to dive over that cliff one time and let all the tax rates rise - since there's no way the Repukes would ever have willingly voted for them with Norquist holding a phoney no-tax pledge gun to their heads.

Brace yourselves people, and be ready for whatever comes next!

Why Eric Cantor is an Insane Nut.

Watching the devastation in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, wrought in the reeling counties of Vermont (where I visited at least 3 times between 1997 and 1999,) brought a knot to my stomach and a heavy heart. Even one of my favorite small VT towns, Rochester, is now cut off from the outside world because of raging waters. The devastation in this tiny "Green Mountain" state is epic, with 210 roads washed away, towns ravaged from "once in a century" floods, and people in the midst of mind boggling misery. Their last place to turn is the federal government.

But what do we hear in the midst of this horrific storm damage and appalling misery? Diatribes from nincompoop and über-Tea bagger clown Eric Cantor, to the effect NO federal or FEMA assistance- funding will be forthcoming unless "offsetting spending cuts" of equal magnitude are made to other programs, whether Medicaid, Medicare, or to other towns still cleaning up, re-building after the Spring tornadoes, such as Joplin, Missouri. Is this man a degenerate, insane or what? Offsetting cuts in a time like this? With tens of thousands of people barely hanging on? With classic old covered bridges washed away, such as in the photo? What is he, nuts?

Cantor's cant is based on myths and outright lies propagated by him and his illustrious Gooper cohort, in particular that Obama has "overspent" and put us in a deficit hole of major proportions. This is all bollocks and codswallop and people need to know the truth! Cantor can't be allowed to deny critical aid to people in their greatest hour of need based on despicable lies!

To fix ideas, let's focus on two factors that Cantor harps on most in regards to President Obama: budget deficits, and his spending. To assist readers I have appended the relevant charts for each, respectively.

The numbers in these two charts come from Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2012. They are just the amounts that the government spent and borrowed, period, Anyone can go look then up. People who claim that Obama "tripled the deficit" are either misled or are trying to mislead, or outright lie to gain specious political advantage.

In the Deficit chart, one can easily see that over his tenure Bush's deficits consistently increased and at his last budget showed a $1.4 trillion deficit. This was fobbed off directly onto Obama. Nonetheless, despite a small uptick, Obama's projected deficits are in decline and his last budget showed a SURPLUS of $128 billion.

Next we come to the chart for Spending, on which Cantor bases his austerity arguments and refusal to assist current disaster areas of the country unless offsetting cuts are made elswhere. As may be seen on inspection, Bush's overall spending increase was 88% over his time, vs. 7.2% for Obama. If anything, Obama's spending immediately after he took office wasn't enough, and we ought to have had at least double the stimulus he implemented and with NO tax cuts! Had he done that, as opposed to the timid $797 billion deal laden with one-third tax cuts, we'd likely now be seing 8% or less unemployment as opposed to 9.1%. And Obama might be well on his way to a major election conquest.

Indeed, looking back, it has been Obama's consistent timidity in his policies which has thwarted a full economic recovery at every interlude. The latest was the cave-in on the debt-ceiling increase which included: 1) ceding critical ground to the Repukes by accepting only spending cuts with no tax increases, and (2) putting bothSocial Security and Medicare on the cutting room table. This a DEM president does not do, and even a neophyte needs to grok that! It may also explain part of his 38% approval rating and why he's losing support from all segments of his 2008 coalition. (Yes, jobs are important, but certain segments - such as women, 50% of whom in a recent poll now say he doesn't merit re-election, are more tuned into social service issues since they are the nation's primary caretakers)

As WaPo's Eugene Robinson put it, Obama needs to go big and bold in is jobs plan or face the political consequences - which might possibly translate into being a one termer. If he merely does more timid programs, advocating no more than payroll tax holidays or cuts, we're in deep shit. Or rather, he is.

As for Cantor, I am looking forward to him going back to his own constituents in Virginia and telling them that they can't expect any money to rebuild their damaged homes and properties...because, well,...."Washington spends too much".

Hopefully they'll respond by getting rid of this political idiot once and for all.