Byron Dorgan gave a barnburner of a speech on our broken fiscal policy, trade policy, and regulatory crisis. He went after hedge funds and called our fiscal policy reckless, and then added the following: "The world see it. The markets see it. We're acting like a drunk who pretends that no one sees him drink."
More Byron! Incidentally, Dorgan is the bulldog who championed net neutrality from 2005-2006, and he along with Ron Wyden advanced our goals substantially. He also has a book out titled 'Take this Job and Ship It'.
Sherrod Brown then spoke, and he talked about how more progressives in the Senate are auguring a new progressive era. He's intensely focused on the middle class and plant closings, continuing on the theme from his election campaign.
Schumer also spoke, and discussed how the Reaganite era is dead. In 1980, people felt they could do it on their own, and Reagan, backed by very wealthy 'economic royalists', convinced them he was their leader to get the government off their back. Today they no longer believe this, so the Reagan model of eliminating government no longer has popular support. A lot of people don't realize that Schumer is a Reaganite Senator, whose thinking is organized around the 1980 and 1982 class of Democrats who were elected in spite of a severe anti-liberal tide.
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