There IS An Alternative To The Obama-Ryan Conservative Consensus

Even as polling shows the American people recoiling from anti-working family Republican extremism in disgust, a dependably cowardly Obama has essentially embraced all their precepts. For him anything is better than a fight-- unless it's bombing innocent third world people from beyond the reach of their weapons.

43% of voters think that House Republicans are doing a worse job now than the Democrats did, compared to only 36% who think the GOP has brought an improvement. 19% think things are about the same. 62% of voters thinking that the Republicans have either made things worse or brought no improvement to an already unpopular Congress does not bode particularly well for the party.

46% of voters say that if there was an election for Congress today they would vote Democratic, compared to only 41% who would vote Republican. That five point advantage for Democrats is only a hair below the margin Republicans won by in the national popular vote last year. A victory of that magnitude for the Democrats next year would at the very least result in the party taking back a large number of the seats it lost last year, and it could be enough to take back the outright majority- hard to say at this point without knowing how good a number the GOP can do in redistricting.... [I]ndependents now say they'd vote Democratic for the House by a 42-33 margin if there was an election today, representing a 28 point reversal in a span of just five months.

Obama is rushing to use Ryan's highly unpopular-- not to mention potentially disastrous-- "budget" or "cause" or whatever it is as a way to pivot back to his failed Catfood Commission's not-quite-but-mostly-as-bad attack on working families.

No one who reads this blog-- and who realizes Blue America very conspicuously did not endorse Obama's run for the presidency in 2008-- should be surprised by Obama unmasking himself as a raging conservative. Did the reactionary Republicans have you hoodwinked by all their silly babble about socialism? Obama is part of the Conservative Consensus, bought and paid for by Wall Street. In fact, for all the money Ryan, Cantor, Miss McConnell, Boehner, Lieberman, McCain and that crew take from the plutocrats, Wall Street gave Obama more cash than any of them-- by far. Wall Street didn't finance Obama's short political career because they felt it was about time for America to have an African-American president or because they got taken in by Hope & Change. They knew exactly what they were buying-- and it's all in his Cat Food Commission blueprint:

Obama will not blaze a fresh path when he delivers a much-anticipated speech Wednesday afternoon at George Washington University. Instead, he is expected to offer support for the commission’s work and a related effort underway in the Senate to develop a strategy for curbing borrowing. Obama will frame the approach as a responsible alternative to the 2012 plan unveiled last week by House Republicans, according to people briefed by the White House.

Letting others take the lead on complex problems has become a hallmark of the Obama presidency. On health care, last year’s tax deal and the recent battle over 2011 spending cuts, Obama has repeatedly waited as others set the parameters of the debate, swooping in late to cut a deal. The tactic has produced significant victories but exposed Obama to criticism that he has shown a lack of leadership.

Like the House GOP budget plan, the Senate effort-- led by three Democrats and three Republicans known as the Gang of Six-- aims to cut about $4 trillion from the debt over the next decade. But the group is looking to reduce spending in all categories, while urging a rewrite of the tax code that would raise revenue. The Republican plan would cut spending on domestic programs while protecting the military and preserving George W. Bush-era tax cuts that disproportionately benefit high earners.

The work of the Gang of Six is modeled on recommendations of the fiscal commission Obama appointed last year. On Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the commission had “created a framework that may help us reach a deal and a compromise.”

“The fiscal commission showed that you need to look at entitlements, you need to look at tax expenditures, you need to look at military spending, you need to look at all of these issues,” Carney said. “You can’t-- you can’t simply slash entitlements, lower taxes and call that a fair deal.”

“Everyone,” he said, must “share in the burden of bringing our fiscal house into order.”

Sharing the burden? Is that why Obama and his conservative allies expanded the Bush taxcuts for the rich... so they could give that up as "their share of the sacrifice"? Rachel Maddow's perspective-- which is exceedingly kind to the president-- is in the video above. Democrats in Congress will mostly just go along with Obama, the same way so many of them went along with Clinton on NAFTA (even after opposing Bush on it). Not every Democrat is that kind of a Democrat. It's why Blue America loves Marcy Winograd and Deb Bowen and detests Machine hacks like Janice Hahn. It's why our heroes are principled leaders like Bernie Sanders, Alan Grayson, Raúl Grijalva, Keith Ellison and Donna Edwards. It's why we're endorsing Norman Solomon today and it's why we endorsed Nick Ruiz as our first candidate for 2012. Nick continues to provide a model of alternative progressive leadership to the drivel Obama is passing off as happily centrist. This morning he promised to not let us down:

The one thing we can no longer do-- that too many Democrats continue to do in this country-- is suffer fools on the right. And the one thing Democrats must do is remember who they are... remember when everything was possible. It still is. But we must work together to reject everything that is foolish about the Republican agenda, and Democrats that assist them. Our time has come: to replace that agenda with a progressive one of our own making, not simply talking points, or slogans about change and the future but a substantive, comprehensive public policy that makes a better way of life for all of our people our priority. Truly progressive Democrats will offer ideas on how to make our country a better place for us all, rather than simply better for a fraction of our population.

By supporting a progressive Democratic campaign like Nicholas Ruiz for Congress, you are saying, "I want better times for more people in America."

Today, Grijalva and Ellison are presenting the alternative to the Conservative Consensus vision of governance that is embodied by Paul Ryan and Barack Obama-- two Wall Street unabashed hirelings, the People's Budget. This is what their proposal seeks to accomplish:

• Eliminates the deficits and creates a surplus by 2021

• Puts America back to work with a “Make it in America” jobs program

• Protects the social safety net

• Ends the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

• Is FAIR (Fixing America’s Inequality Responsibly)

Columbia University economist Jeffery Sachs describes it as "humane, responsible, and most of all sensible, reflecting the true values of the American people and the real needs of the floundering economy. Unlike Paul Ryan's almost absurdly vicious attack on the poor and working class, the People's Budget would close the deficit by raising taxes on the rich, taming health care costs (including a public option), and ending the military spending on wars and wasteful weapons systems."

We're not going to have a better president than Obama in 2012. It's either him-- a conservative-- or one of the Republican reactionaries. In any case, a fighter for the privileged ruling elite. If you want to see someone standing up for working families... fight like hell to elect real progressives to Congress, men and women like Bernie Sanders in the Senate, Raúl Grijalva in the House and congressional candidates like Deb Bowen, Norman Solomon and Nick Ruiz.