There is no "deal" (0.00 / 0)

You keep talking as if the final legislation has been passed. The "deal" you refer to is the opening gambit from the Bush Administration, and many Dems have already publicly stated their objections.

What alternative do you propose? Do you propose a sweeping comprehensive bill? How long will that take to write and pass? Do you propose doing nothing? Putting people in jail is a great idea, but by itself it doesn't solve anything.

---

by: Semblance @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 00:40:12 AM UTC

What Dems have publicly stated objections? .. (0.00 / 0)

which ones with voices who will be heard?

---

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 00:53:56 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

"Whenever I'm feeling blue" (4.00 / 1)

as the song goes, I watch this video.

Truly inspiring.  Thanks Matt.

Incidentally, how do you hold those responsible for the subprime disaster accountable?  

As Grayson says, "you take away the thing that it most important to them: their money".  

How do you do it?

80% wealth tax on intangible assets above $50 million.

---

by: John Halle @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 00:48:37 AM UTC

Not a candidate, but (0.00 / 0)

Bernie Sanders is on the case:

The current financial crisis facing our country has been caused by the extreme right-wing economic policies pursued by the Bush administration.  These policies, which include huge tax breaks for the rich, unfettered free trade and the wholesale deregulation of commerce, have resulted in a massive redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthy.

The middle class has really been under assault.  Since President Bush has been in office, nearly 6 million Americans have slipped into poverty, median family income for working Americans has declined by more than $2,000, more than 7 million Americans have lost their health insurance, over 4 million have lost their pensions, foreclosures are at an all time high, total consumer debt has more than doubled, and we have a national debt of over $9.7 trillion dollars.

While the middle class collapses, the richest people in this country have made out like bandits and have not had it so good since the 1920s.  The top 0.1 percent now earn more money than the bottom 50 percent of Americans, and the top 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.  The wealthiest 400 people in our country saw their wealth increase by $670 billion while Bush has been president.  In the midst of all of this, Bush lowered taxes on the very rich so that they are paying lower income tax rates than teachers, police officers or nurses.

He then outlines some principles that a deal would have to have for his support.  They're good:

a)  Impose a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers.  That would raise more than $300 billion in revenue;

---

by: Daniel De Groot @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 00:56:06 AM UTC

Almost (4.00 / 1)

But it should be a wealth tax-not an income tax-since it needs to hit those who have already looted everything that has not been nailed down.

---

by: John Halle @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 01:01:51 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Good job (0.00 / 0)

This election I have never seen so many ads and talking heads and even websites that tell you.....absolutely nothing on a host of issues.

Get them to spit it out and on this one, which is positively critical to the economic health of the United States..
if they want to actually represent the people they better real quick show they have a clue and say something!

NoSlaves.com  


The Economic Populist

---

by: Robert Oak @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 01:06:24 AM UTC

Will Obama support it? (0.00 / 0)

That's the million dollar question; this blog and much of the progressive blogosphere is going to resemble the progressive blogosphere during the FISA debacle.  HRC is probably going to come out against it, hopefully Biden can get into Obama's ear on this one as I think he would have opposed it if he weren't the VP candidate.

Any bets on what McCain does?  

---

by: OklahomaSonics @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 01:14:00 AM UTC

I'm a Candidate... (0.00 / 0)

but not on the ballot until 2012. (US Senate, WI)

This package puts off the pain a few months, while ensuring that it'll eventually be deeper.

I wouldn't blame House Memnbers facing tough fights, or challengers facing the voters THIS FALL for papering things over. but it should not go through, as a matter of policy. Let housing prices find there natural bottom, and the banks suffer the consequences. Then let govt buy buildings, nlot paper, on the cheap, and resell tlo new owners on realistic terms.

This is a Test of the Emergency Free Speech System. This is only a Test. In an actual Free Speech Emergency, I'll be locked up.

---

by: Ben Masel @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 01:19:15 AM UTC

the opposite of what you're looking for (0.00 / 0)

but interesting:

There are some members of Congress who are queasy at the thought of the taxpayer taking on hundreds of billions of dollars of currently worthless debt, he says.

But the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Steney Hoyer, said he expected quick action.

So what's Pelosi's job, then?

not everything worth doing is profitable. not everything profitable is worth doing.

---

by: tatere @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 01:31:54 AM UTC

Hate To Break It To You Matt (0.00 / 0)

but whether or not this bill passes or not, Obama will spend the better part of his first couple of yrs as President cleaning up Bushes mess.  It is like 1993 and Bill Clinton but unfortunately for Obama, Bush II did not have the same sense of fiscal responsibility his father did.  The 1990 budget deal, which probably cost Bush I his second term, made Clinton's job a lot easier.

Obama will have no such basis to start turning things around in 2009.  He is inheriting an absolute mess.

As much as I would like to think otherwise, there is not going to be much money for a lot of the progressive things we want accomplished. Sad but unfortunately true.

---

by: jmnyc @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 01:38:05 AM UTC

this is a significant piece of Rovian Strategy... (0.00 / 0)

...the way Presidential Campaign politics have evolved in the era of "instant, invasive and not necessarily honest media" a First Term President has only 14-16 months to achieve something and create a strong bond with the voting populace to have a chance at a 2nd term.  The window is defined by several key components, the expanding of election campaigning - before President Obama is even sworn in, several candidates will have already announced intent to seek House or Senate seats in 2010.  Most of those folks will be relatively quiet for the first year, fund raising and sticking to their own base and going where the money is kept.  By January of 2010 there will be several intensifying primary races, developing intensity in Challenger vs Incumbent races, etc.  This will potentially alter behavior in the Congress, if the minority party has not already gone into full power stall mode trying to inhibit the President from making progress without the Majority (that's our party, right?) effectively calling them out as the obstructionist, malicious, greedy crooks they are.

So Feb 2010 through Nov 2010 not much happens - except 435 House Races, 20ish Senate races (not counting the truly uncontested ones) and the DNC meets somewhere in there and declares the calendar for the 2012 Presidential primaries...will it look like what was planned for 2008, or like what actually happened in 2008, or something completely different?  The outcome may trigger an early entrant into the "primary challenge of a sitting President" game.  A Republican candidate may emerge early campaigning against the President, attacking him and his Administration every day with no check, as their is no counter-campaign running...this could be good, could be bad...who knows...

The end of it is...President Obama will have to hit the ground running, get several simultaneous operations analyzing and preparing solutions for all the problems the Bush Admin has created on separate tracks and then in some logical order turn those solutions into law/policy.  The first few months will be Cabinet appointments/confirmations etc for the most part, I would hope to see a flurry of impacting actions and major legislation introduction beginning in early summer 2009, with a strong campaign effort for those initiatives during the summer recess and resulting in passage in September/October.

The Rove/Cheney/etc plan is to bury President Obama in such a mess that after a year he will have no noticeable accomplishments other than finding where they keep the office supplies in the West Wing.  On campaigns we talk about staying on focus a lot...it is hard to imagine the Obama White House being able to maintain any kind of focus given all the chaos they will be dealing with, and yet we've seen them demonstrate some impressive focus amid the chaos of caucuses, so maybe there is a reason for Hope(tm).

---

by: mp @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 04:41:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Worse than you think (0.00 / 0)

Obama will have an administration riddled with Bushie moles, leaking embarrassing information like a sieve to the media.

If he's smart, he'll go on the attack.  Keep Rove et al too busy talking to lawyers to harass him.

His first act should be to appoint to Patrick Fitzgerald as A-G.  Fitzgerald is by all accounts a Republican in his politics, so it would fit with his "post-partisanship."  And just to make sure there're no allegations of partisan witch-hunts, he could ask Fitzgerald to see what he can dig up about Hoyer.

---

by: Taylor @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 09:21:49 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Not a candidate yet but ... (0.00 / 0)

... I'll be watching my representative (Tauscher D-CA-10) closely for a 2010 primary challenge.  

Also, now is a good time for everyone to take a Basic Accounting course (or two or three) from their local community college.  A course in Finance would also be useful.  The GOPigs are counting on us to be ignorant.  If more Americans had a knowledge of accounting and finance, the Great Treasury Robbery of 2008 would already have been jeered out of town.

---

by: Airpower @ Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 06:34:38 AM UTC