Mad At Obama? Here's A Way To Express It... Safely

Wall Street created this monster to destroy the social fabric of America

President Obama has singled out clueless Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, new chair of the House Budget Committee, for public praise on a number of occasions. Wall Street has been very supportive-- extraordinarily supportive-- of both men's political careers. Though relatively young, both men-- one Democrat and one Republican-- have been singled out by Wall Street for the kind of financial support required to go all the way in American politics. Obama has only been in federal politics for a very short time by the finance sector doled out $42,285,749 towards his one Senate campaign and his first presidential race. When McCain's mobster father-in-law bought him his first House seat, Obama was still a student at Columbia University but McCain, who has been a complete whore to the banking industry for his entire career, only managed to squeeze $34,066,987 out of them in 3 decades! Ryan first ran for the House in 1997 but he's already gotten more money out of the banksters-- $2,127,615-- than any other politician in the history of Wisconsin. Ryan and Obama are prominent figures in the Conservative Consensus that goes beyond Democrat or Republican-- beyond Right or Left. They work for the ruling elite-- and they're paid handsomely for their services. Each was fingered by Wall Street as a comer early on and each has been nurtured so they would be able to perform necessary services in times to come.

Obama won Ryan's district in southeast Wisconsin and the district is brimming with high-powered local Democrats, including the Speaker of the Assembly and nearly half the legislative leaders in Madison! But Ryan has never had a serious reelection opponent. In fact, Dave Obey, the state party and the DCCC have gone out of their way to protect Ryan and make sure he would never have a real contest. Remember how Jim DeMint was able to get Alvin Greene onto the ballot as an opponent in November? Ryan's opponent was just as ridiculous and implausible-- and it was the DCCC who did the honors of making sure he was the candidate. Ryan raised $3,922,760 for his reelection campaign. After torpedoing the grassroots candidate, Paulette Garin, and making sure Ryan would have no competition, the DCCC bowed out of the race and left John Heckenlively to his own devices. He raised $12,066 and wound up-- remember, in a district Obama won-- with 30% of the vote-- 179,702 to 79,350.

Ryan beat him in all six counties in the first CD and Heckenlively's nonexistent campaign helped insure a win for Ron Johnson over Senator Russ Feingold. County breakdowns for the 3 counties totally within the congressional district:

Kenosha

Ryan- 29,879 (62%)
Heckenlively- 17,485 (36%)

Johnson- 25,477 (52%)
Feingold- 22,995 (47%)

Obama, 2008- 45,836 (59%)

Racine

Ryan- 46,584 (65%)
Heckenlively- 24,366 (34%)

Johnson- 40,753 (56%)
Feingold- 31,800 (43%)

Obama, 2008- 53,408 (53%)

Walworth

Ryan- 23,678 (75%)
Heckenlively- 7,227 (23%)

Johnson- 22,429 (64%)
Feingold- 12,379 (35%)

Obama, 2008- 24,177 (48%)

Once Obama put Ryan on Paul Krugman's radar last year, Krugman has been offended by the man's (Ryan's) willful, unabashed ignorance, Today, in a third column dedicated to Ryan in less than a year, Krugman referred to it as peacockery.

Greg Ip is too kind in this article, in which he questions why Paul Ryan should have received an award for fiscal responsibility. Ip makes it out as if Ryan is a former good guy who has fallen astray; but there was never any reason to take his claims of being a deficit hawk seriously.

In particular, why would anyone consider a plan to replace Medicare fee-for-service with vouchers an effective way to curb future expenses? We’ve already done that: it’s called Medicare Advantage. And it has been a fiscal disaster: instead of unleashing the magic of the marketplace to reduce costs, it has ended up being a serious drain on the budget. (Undoing that drain is one of the main cost-savings features of health reform).

Now, Ryan created apparent savings by coupling a plan for vouchers with an arbitrary limit on the size of these vouchers. Hey, I can write down a plan like that, too. But what happens when it turns out that the vouchers aren’t enough to buy adequate insurance?

The point is that it takes more to be serious about deficits than to scribble down some numbers and claim that you’re being tough. Tell me what you’re actually going to cut and/or how you’re going to raise more revenue, and then let’s talk. This award basically ended up demonstrating that the various groups behind the award are themselves deeply unserious, more interested in posturing than in real policy.

As we mentioned, the DCCC has a long sordid history of protecting Paul Ryan's seat. With Center Aisle corporate shill Steve Israel now heading the DCCC there's no reason in the world to suspect any change in policy towards Ryan. Israel will certainly try to make sure he has no competition in 2012. Blue America is working on recruiting a reasonable progressive to run a real race against on of the craziest of the Ayn Rand acolytes in Congress. It's not going to be easy but if there's a swing of revulsion away from right-wing excess in 2012, we want to make certain that WI-01 is a district that benefits from it, putting us at cross purposes with the DCCC, the NRCC and, apparently, Barack Obama. I know there are exceptions, of course, but if you're a regular DWT reader, there's at least some chance you're angry at or disappointed in Obama for pursuing such a middle of the road, pro-corporate course instead of the Hope and Change agenda we thought he was campaigning on. But you're not a child and you know that what the Republicans are going to put up against him-- whether the full crazy like Palin, Bachmann or Huckabee or just a cardboard cutout like Romney, Thune or Pawlenty-- it's going to be much worse than Obama. For now, though, there's a very constructive way to express some anti-Obama emotions-- help defeat his favorite Republican ally. You can do it here.