Barney Frank: Republicans Don't Want the Economy or Obama to Succeed

[cal04]

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com//heather/barney-frank-republicans-dont-want-economy

After discussing the Republicans reaction to President Obama's speech laying out his proposals for job creation and their scornful reaction to the President mentioning that Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, Lawrence O'Donnell asked Rep. Barney Frank whether there was any chance of his bill passing through the House of Representatives. Rep. Frank stated the obvious reasons why it won't.

As Frank noted, Republicans do not accept the notion that government is capable of doing anything to improve people's lives, they don't believe in government, period, and they don't want the economy to get any better because that would mean President Obama's chances of getting reelected get better. And as Frank pointed out, the Republicans have already said their number one goal was to keep the President from being reelected.

O'Donnell asked Frank what he thought about the idea of President Obama going around to different Republican House districts and show the roads and bridges that need to be rebuilt there, the teachers that could be hired there and what not and whether that strategy might work or not.

(snip)
Frank also pointed out the other problem with that strategy, which is that the dominating force in Republican politics is their extreme right-wing base, that is pushing them further and further to the right and away from what most of the country wants in order to get Americans back to work, but they're the ones who show up to vote in the primaries, so the Republicans are beholden to them.


video at link

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. And he's right, of course.

I do believe, though, that getting the more moderate Republicans along with all the Democrats and independents out to vote, will overwhelm the numbers of the loonies.

GOTV is KEY.

[TheKentuckian]

2. Of course, as far as Obama goes it is a matter of record and to a very large degree

the economy is implied. It is foolish and dangerous for him to adopt their positions rather than repudiating them non-stop.

[DevonRex]

3. Franken nailed it. And, kinda lol...

In an aside, my phone changes Franken to Frankenstein. Every single time. I hope I haven't missed any since that would be quite a gaffe.

[chill_wind]

4. No, but they'll take his Free Trade Deals.

And other cherry pickings.


Nate Silver:

"As for whether Mr. Obama actually has a chance to score policy victories rather than political points: well, the smart money probably argues against his winning the cooperation of the Republican Congress, especially with his approval rating just above 40 percent.

I suspect, however, that in order of plausibility, Congress is most likely to approve the job-training programs, which are cheap and have a bipartisan lineage, followed by the payroll tax cuts, which Republicans may appear hypocritical in arguing against. An extension of unemployment benefits may be less likely, and substantial infrastructure spending less likely still."

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/jobs-jobs-jobs-versus-the-s-word/#more-15579

[MarianJack]

5. He tells the truth,...

...so the righties will pound him.

What a shock.

PEACE!

[provis99]

6. well yes, but

Republicans don't want the economy to succeed even when they're in charge; they'd just continue the same destructive conservative policies, regardless of the consequences.