From the debt debate to a hostage revolt
“That reality will drive new, independent citizen mobilizations challenging both Republican zealotry and Democratic cravenness.”
Katrina vanden Heuvel
In the melodrama that is consuming
The debt-ceiling debate has lasted long enough for most Americans to start paying attention and to realize just how divorced both parties are from basic common sense. With the economy faltering and 25 million people in need of full-time work, most Americans want
Equally inexplicable is the president’s apparent eagerness to negotiate with a legislative faction willing to hold the entire economy hostage — and one prepared to extort concessions in backroom deals that it could not achieve in any normal legislative process. Negotiating with fiscal terrorists only encourages them.
On National Public Radio last week, Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican deputy whip, was giddy about the potential for calamity. Asked if it was a mistake to try to cut spending by threatening the
Whatever the terms of the eventual agreement, we know they will be remarkably cruel. As Robert Greenstein, the respected director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, noted last week that every plan on the table now is far worse — cutting more from programs for the poor, exacting pain on the most vulnerable in our society — than anything Jim DeMint, the most extreme right-wing senator of all, was demanding last year.
The emerging compromise plans cut around $1 trillion over 10 years from programs such as schools, clean water, mass transit, clean energy and public health with no — zero — contributions from the wealthy or corporations through increased taxes or the closing of loopholes. They set up a congressional super-committee armed with expedited voting powers and with the explicit mandate to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
It is astonishing how out of touch these plans are with what people seek in these tough times. The vast majority of Americans want Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid protected, not cut. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that nearly three-fourths of Americans oppose cuts in Medicare. Majorities reject raising the eligibility age for Medicare or cutting the Social Security inflation rate, two reforms President Obama has apparently embraced. For Americans, the most popular reforms to deal with the deficit are increased taxes on those making more than $250,000 (72 percent), hedge fund operators, and oil and gas companies.
And Americans now better understand just whom Republicans represent. When asked to choose who cares more about defending the economic interests of different groups, Americans thought Republicans cared more than Obama about Wall Street financial institutions (59 percent to 26 percent) and large business corporations (67-24), while picking Obama as caring more about “you and your family” (47-37), small businesses (48-39) and middle-class Americans (53-35).
But after signing off on a skewed deal that targets Social Security and protects corporate tax havens, Democrats and the president will have a harder time convincing working Americans that they are on their side.That discontent is already seeping into Obama’s base. The same Post-ABC News poll showed the president’s poll numbers falling, even among liberals and African Americans — his most loyal backers. Only 31 percent of liberal Democrats expressed strong support for Obama’s record on jobs, a severe drop from 53 percent last year.
With the economy weakening, wages stagnant and families struggling, this bipartisan agreement will only stoke public anger. Certainly, the Gang of 12 on the congressional rump committee will hear the rage. Americans will not allow Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to be cut without a fierce battle.
Already, various groups have come together to forge an American Dream Movement dedicated to challenging the corporate corruption of our politics, demanding that those who’ve done well do right by their country and fighting for the broad middle class. In recent weeks they’ve organized hundreds of demonstrations at congressional offices nationwide.
In the August recess, the heat legislators encounter back home won’t come from the weather alone. The Tea Party captured the populist anger in 2010, representing a small fraction of the population. In 2012, legislators in both parties may just encounter a populist uprising that represents an American majority.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation magazine. She writes a weekly online column for The Post.
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Biden Compares Tea Party to Terrorists; Al-Qaeda Demands Apology
‘Bad for Our Brand,’ Madmen Claim
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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – Vice President Joe Biden ignited an international incident today when he called the Tea Party “terrorists,” causing the leader of al-Qaeda to demand an apology.
Just moments after Mr. Biden made his controversial remark, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared in a video to condemn the comment, which the terrorist called “hurtful.”
“I demand that the Vice President take back his offensive comment immediately,” Mr. al-Zawahiri said in the video, broadcast on Al-Jazeera. “It has been very bad for our brand.”
Mr. Biden attempted to clarify his remark later in the day, telling reporters, “I in no way intended to insult the members of al-Qaeda.”
“Both al-Qaeda and the Tea Party tried to destroy the
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