Saturday, December 11, 2010

Meet Tom Tomorrow's "MiddleMan," who may never understand why the famous "enthusiasm gap" just keeps growing

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[You know the drill: Click to enlarge.]

"Recovery begins with realism, and there is nothing to be gained by kidding ourselves. On the topics that I know most about, the administration is beyond being a disappointment. It’s beyond inept, unprepared, weak, and ineffective."
-- James K. Galbraith, in a speech at the Post-Election
Conference of Americans for Democratic Action's Education
Fund, at Harvard's Kennedy School, November 20

by Ken

Well, here we are again with all the messes left for the dying hours of the 111th Congress being poked at. The chiefest mess, of course, is what to do about the expiring Bush tax cuts.
as Digby explained to us, with groundwork laid by Profs. Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson in their book Off Center: The Republican Revolution & the Erosion of American Democracy, was a complex trap laid by Republican strategizers to play out in a series of "Heads we win, tails you lose" strategic moves, after the administration missed the one chance it had to take control of the issue at the height of its powers early in 2009.
People who do not get that the Republicans planned this --- and are thrilled to keep it going for another two years --- are failing to understand the political reality.

But more depressing than anything, the Democrats are now actively doing their dirty work for them and are on the verge of doing the same thing with the payroll tax. . . .

Once that window shut, thanks to the deadly combination of the economic meltdown left behind by the Bush regime and the inept Rahmist political maneuvering of the new administration, it was essentially beyond the administration's power to steer the fate of the sunsetted tax cuts to a more sensible outcome -- more sensible humanly, economically, and politically. What has been consistently astonishing is the political obtuseness of the Rahmists, who have seemed utterly clueless about how their "canny" political strategizing has been playing out in the real world outside the Beltway. When you get right down to it, about the only political strategy they have is jumping ugly on everyone to the left of their well-right-of-center cave.

Worse still, from their standpoint, though they give no sign of having noticed, is that the corporate masters they've served so faithfully, who were only too happy to accept all the gifts they offered. never for a second contemplated any long-term commitment to their benefactors. And why should they when they can buy pols who really believe in their "cause"? Of course giving away the store, and then some, without getting anything in return has has from the start been the Obama administration's secret negotiating trick.

Why, for example, should the predators of the financial-services industry -- who don't understand that they always need someone to save themselves from their own insatiable greed, and that when they don't get it, we get meltdown -- have to put up with the ever-so-modest limitations put on them by the Dems' compromise reform package when utterly shameless whores like John Boehner and Eric Cantor credibly assure them that they can have anything and everything they want?

I'm less optimistic that the administration strategizers will ever understand that, on the other hand, there really is a political price to be paid for spitting on the people whose earnestness and enthusiasm put Barack Obama in the White House, the people whose hopes and dreams were so powerfully and movingly on display on Inauguration Day. And what have they gotten in exchange for all their enthusiasm and effort? Contempt and abuse. (Hmm, come to think of it, does this behavior not ring a bell? Can you think of anyplace where the corporate stooges of the Obama administration might have picked it up?

And so, while I know I should be keeping track of the hour-by-hour developments in the frantic efforts to salvage the "compromise" tax package, but the sad fact is that we on the outside will have little or no effect on the outcome, which is going to be resolved -- or not -- in a back room somewhere. The overriding factor is that neither Dems nor R's want to risk the wrath of Americans if the tax cuts expire and they discover come January 1 that their paychecks have shrunk. So if they can work out a deal, they will. Of course it's likely to be even worse than the current one.

Whatever reason "Creepy Chucky" Krauthammer may have for making believe that "Barack Obama won the great tax-cut showdown of 2010" ("Swindle of the year"), even he can't really be that stupid, can he? On the other hand, I don't entirely dismiss Gene Robinson's argument that "Democrats have no choice but to accept an irresponsible tax deal." The way the whole thing has been rigged to play out, we may well be in the same position we were in with the final health care "reform" package -- just possibly not doing it is even worse than doing it. Robinson:
As much as I sympathize with the progressives who are ready to man the barricades, let's be real. Killing the deal now would mean a middle-class tax increase, no extended unemployment benefits and no payroll tax holiday. Voters would surely feel they had been robbed - and Democrats, perhaps unfairly, would get the blame.

We knew the White House's response to the impending 2010 electoral disaster was going to be bad. I don't know, though, that we knew it was going to be this bad, with the administration trying to out-neanderthal the neanderthals (cf. "E.P.A. Delays Tougher Rules on Emissions"). Meanwhile, the famous "enthusiasm gap" continues growing.
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4 Comments:

At 1:24 PM, Blogger Retired Patriot said...

Robinson has it wrong. Dems need not be blamed for the screwing that middle and lower class America takes in the event the entire deal unravels. They simply have to point out, ad nauseum, that they were just following the laws laid down by W and his supine GOP Congress.

Really, how hard is that?

Apparently, too hard for Dems. And even their staunchest supporters in the puditocracy.

RP

 
At 8:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The phrase "enthusiasm gap" hardly describes my evolving feelings about this administration. I've gone from "worry" to "dismay" to "anger" to "fury" to "utter revulsion."

I wonder if the president and his brain trust understand that they've managed to turn many an optimistic, life-long Democrat into demoralized and bitter cynics. I'll never believe in Obama or the Democrats again. And I hate them for that.

 
At 4:43 PM, Anonymous Dreamer said...

To me the political calculus is all messed up, there is little long term gain for anyone but Republicans and the wealthy from this. Both the public and the Democratic party will lose out ultimately.

Firstly most tax cuts in real terms are observed by the receiver in small increments. For a vast majority of people we are talking a under $10 a week... admittedly this is still significant given how underwater both low-income and middle-class families are, but it addresses the symptoms and not the cause. So if all of the tax cuts expired, most people would be angry at the concept of raised taxes, but just as the tax cut doesn't make their life better, its disappearance doesn't make it worse... it's still bad either way.

Letting them all expire will remove a chunk of money from the economy, and that's where people will ultimately feel pain, however that's really only half the package.

The thing is, the election is over... and what really matters to the short-memoried electorate is the 12 months leading up to the next one. As cynical as that sounds, if that weren't true then the Republicans would've faced more losses in 2010 rather than gains.

It follows that putting all that money toward something more useful, more likely to actually cause a sustained recovery, would not only come closer to positively affecting people's lives but also more likely to result in the environment where Democrats can regain the house and maintain their hold elsewhere.

The other thing that's been pointed out is that this is simply a trap. These measures would increase the deficit massively, would in turn strengthen the hand of 'Austerity' hawks to make calls for deep cuts in what effective programs or completely block any new stimulative measures (not that I think any are expected given the track record so far). So even if the tax cuts were extended, it could end up resulting in cuts that eliminating spending that may end up in stimulative effect losses that offset or even exceed those provided by the tax cuts.

The fatal flaw in my reasoning, or rather the most fatal flaw amongst the numerous, is it assumes that Democrats could pass new stimulative packages or even hold their ground against ill-advised cuts. Pain now is only worth it if it prevents pain in the future.

That of course is the opposite of the Republican philosophy, which is to let them eat cake now so that they don't realise that they'll be eating dirt next.

 
At 12:39 PM, Anonymous Marcel Kincaid said...

"Robinson has it wrong.

Uh, no, he doesn't. What he said was "Democrats, perhaps unfairly, would get the blame", and that's a fact.

"They simply have to point out, ad nauseum, that they were just following the laws laid down by W and his supine GOP Congress."

Even if that's all they would have to do, which is absurd ... point out where, how? The most important thing to understand is how information is transmitted, and where most people obtain their opinions.

"Really, how hard is that?"

You obviously have no idea. In your fantasy world, apparently, the Dems just go knock on every American's door and tell them "Don't blame us, it's Bush's fault" ... and that actually works.

"I hate them for that."

Take a little responsibility and hate yourself for what you have allowed yourself to become. Sure Obama is even more deeply disappointing than I had expected, but I'm not about to use my own Pollyannaism as a justification for being a fool. Bitter cynicism is a poor substitute for realism.

 

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