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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMore from David Plouffe's warning "left" of tough times. How I feel about such warnings.
I just posted Ed Schultz's segment on David Plouffe in the video forum.
It was about Plouffe's visit to the campus of the University of Delaware. There he told the group that Medicare and Medicaid were the chief drivers of the deficit. He warned that the "left" would have tough times. In fact he said Democrats would have to do tough things on spending entitlement and be criticized by "their left." He did not say "our left", he could have at least made it a little more personal.
There are constant jibes at the left, the liberals. We are always talked about in the 3rd person. Like we are in a separate place or location in time and space from the rest of the party. We are referred to as they or them, never in the 1st person plural like we or us.
As we have moved to the right things have changed in this country. The wars are growing longer, the rich are getting richer, and now the poor are growing poorer.
Each time we get in power now we move right so as not to offend the Republicans, while they have no hesitation about offending us greatly and often.
The most annoying thing of all is the attempt to portray liberals as not very bright, not very politically savvy, unable to see the big picture.
I remembered a post at Daily Kos in 2010 about a diarist talking with David Plouffe at the Tom Harkin steak fry in Iowa. Apparently he showed those colors about the left and the future stances of the party even then.
Social Security and David Plouffe: An Action Diary (Updated)
When David Plouffe held out his hand, I introduced myself as a precinct captain, and told him I'm concerned about the future. I said that I fear that the debt commission will recommend cutting Social Security by raising the retirement age and messing with cost of living adjustments, and that the President will sign the bill.
..."Instead of responding on Social Security, Plouffe started talking about the deficit and how it had to be addressed, implying that it would justify changes to Social Security. I said that according to Krugman and other economists, Social Security doesn't affect the deficit, and people want to cut it just to make the bond market happy. He said they don't always agree with Krugman, and made a little face that said he isn't their favorite. Then he started talking about China and the trade situation, and a mixed salad of other "big issues" facing the White House. I don't remember everything he brought up because I was thinking that he was filibustering to avoid talking about Social Security, and it was frustrating. I think his point was that they have big problems to address, but he did not explain why any of it was relevant to raising the Social Security retirement age.
..."In 2012, he wants Iowa precinct captains on his side, so it would have been in his interest to reassure me when I declined to be distracted by GOP privatization threats and the trade deficit. It would have been easy, but he didn't even try. His body language was closed. He seemed uncomfortable or slightly irritated.
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)boomerbust
(2,181 posts)Listening to Pelosi claim chained cpi is not a benefit cut. If they vote for this my voting days are over.
Divine Discontent
(21,056 posts)if she's saying that, then yeah, what's the point.
Divine Discontent
(21,056 posts)talk, far too often it sounds like they're apathetic to what Democrats believe in, and like they're just pols who live and breathe campaigns, and nothing more. To say, "their left", does come across very coldly. And, it's not the popular belief on here at all, but I am under the belief they're going to be upsetting a lot of Dems with some concession in the end that really seems unnecessary. I want to be wrong.
DJ13
(23,671 posts)Third Way "policies" can be interchanged at will between the two parties.
Divine Discontent
(21,056 posts)and, referencing your DD avatar, I love this image
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iRkkrwsjLj4/ThcHnQicrqI/AAAAAAAAAkI/gSyMeME0cmQ/s1600/Donnie+Darko+%25282001%2529.jpg
DJ13
(23,671 posts)Loved the movie, saw that option in the DU avatars and chose it.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)All I want for Christmas is to hear honest talk instead of political games.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)Negotiate for drug prices.
Make the payments to health providers based on health outcomes rather than how many unnecessary tests they can bill for.
etc
etc
etc.
In other words, the problem is not Medicare. The problem is the cost of how we provide health care. Address the right problem and people will be willing to listen to what sacrifices might be necessary.
But don't just shove "austerity" bullshit in our faces at a time when the richest have never been richer and the biggest corporations have never been more profitable. Give them some austerity and then we can talk.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Just about the truth.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)This is the least Christmas-like Christmas I've ever seen.
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)Let them know of your displeasure. Whitehouse
progressoid
(49,999 posts)Called the left "crazy" or "fucking ret@%*ded " etc?
msongs
(67,441 posts)Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)and keep up the good fight. It seems like it's one step forward and three steps back sometimes.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)A merry Christmas to you in Alaska. I am getting some pictures up on Smug Mug after seeing yours.. I visit yours now and then. They are beautiful..
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Why does Obama balk at making the left accept changes in entitlements -- changes that have to be made?
(paraphrased)
Answer from panel: the left is stubborn on this. Yes, there must be changes to entitlements.
(paraphrased)
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Would have stressed me out. They have those talking points down pat.
dkf
(37,305 posts)They campaigned on the idea that taxing the rich an extra 2-4% solves all the problems of entitlements in perpetuity. What do they expect when they now try to explain the projected budget numbers showing entitlements, especially medicare and Medicaid are the drivers of fiscal insolvency?
I shook my head during the campaign and wondered how people who voted for Obama were going to circle this square. The answer seems to be they won't.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)"All these analyses tell the same story in one key respect, however. The primary drivers of the debt predate Barack Obama. The post-9/11 wars and security build-up, the Bush tax cuts, and the 2001 and 2008 recessions simply began before Obama became president. You can blame him for extending the Bush tax cuts till 2012, or for the stimulus (though the stimulus would never have happened without the 2008 financial crisis), but the structural of deterioration came in the Bush years."
dkf
(37,305 posts)No matter how ridiculous things were in the past, policy makers always understood the future challenges. The tragedy is we didn't put ourselves in a position to just have to cope with the future, but added past debt upon debt.
Completely inadequate planning...it's criminal what was done.
Realistic policy makers know the truth in both parties. But they rarely will tell you the truth because its too much for a hurting public to cope with.
Howard Dean would tell you the truth. He gets it.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)I believe his words were that she knows best. I think now and then he goes back to truthtelling, but then he goes right back to the party line talking points.
I am sorry but cutting all those taxes for the wealthy was obviously not the thing to do when juggling two wars. And both Bush and Obama share the blame there.
cecilfirefox
(784 posts)a Democrat. I like impressing this idea of a big tent.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)But I question, and it is others who don't deem that to be real Democratic.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)That's funny. I thought it was funding for unnecessary wars and the bloated military industrial complex. Why do they always conveniently leave that out? Happy Holidays to you!
Teamster Jeff
(1,598 posts)MjolnirTime
(1,800 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Plouffe said "their" left. Meaning belonging to someone else.
I believe many Democratic leaders think of us that way.