I’ve rarely been as annoyed with the Obama administration as I am right now. Watching his weekly address this morning basically curdled my stomach. I mean, Jesus, please don’t talk about the stupidity of the sequester and the inanity of trying to fix it with patches and band-aids when you have just let Congress head for the airports after voting to end airport delays.
I know the president is busy with Syria and Boston and Texas and a hundred other pressing issues, but the administration totally dropped the ball this week by not having a strategy for the Democrats in Congress to execute.
The entire point of sequestration is that it is so awful that the Republicans will eventually concede that that have to make concessions that they don’t want to make. Yet, when the pain finally got to the point that it was affecting Republican lawmakers directly by threatening to shorten their vacations with delays at the airports, the Democrats raced to provide a band-aid. The White House appears to believe that a veto would have been promptly overridden, splitting the Democrats and handing the Republicans a giant victory. That’s probably true, but only because the Democrats in Congress didn’t fight on the front-end.
They never, ever, ever should have allowed a FAA patch to land on the president’s desk without patches for Head Start and emergency housing and long-term unemployment. If we can’t force a deal, we can at least help the neediest people at the same time that we are helping air travelers.
Forcing people to languish at airports is bad politics in the short-term, but so is denying the people of the Mid-Atlantic disaster relief for weeks after Superstorm Sandy. It’s precisely because people would have been so angry that the Republicans would have felt immense pressure to fix the problem under any available terms.
If you are just going to fix all the things in the sequester that aggravate rich people, you will never fix this and the poor will bear the entire brunt of the pain.
I am angry.
You use this lick as your sig, Booman. The least that you could do is to try to remain conscious of its accuracy.
Is above, so below. It’s just a matter of scale.
It’s the National League vs. the American League.
It’s the Red Sox vs. the Yankees.
It’s the Republicans vs. the Democrats.
It’s a game. You been gamed. The drama!!!
Meanwhile Major League Baseball/The PermaGov and the corporate owners of same get obscenely rich on credulity of the fans.
Riiiiiight…
Riiiiiight…
Riiiiiight…
And the scam continues.
Don’t feel too bad, though. You’re not alone. In fact, the real “1%” consists of those who no longer believe the scam. There’s comfort in numbers. Buck up…tomorrow or the day after or whenever your team will win another game and then you’l be able to be a loyal Yankee/Democrat fan again.
And the game continues.
The real American pastime?
Credulity.
On plentiful evidence.
Credulity.
WTFU.
Later…
AG
Do you know what my sig refers to, Arthur?
You need to change up your shtick, dude. It’s actually starting to get LESS annoying.
Hah.
Especially because the entire riff is based on a seeming misunderstanding of my sig.
He thinks it means that politics is hardball, when what it really refers to is this: “Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?”
And later in the same film there is a great exchange between Walter and the nihilists where is says something to the effect that without a hostage there is no ransom – those are the fucking rules. That clip – and arguably the entire film to which you refer – should be required viewing for anyone aspiring to be a Democratic Party candidate or elected official – would improve the party considerably. 🙂
No, that’s not what I “think” it means, Booman. I’m not much of a fan of “The Big Lewbowski” myself, although Jeff Bridges certainly tears up the scenery in his role. But I think that it means…to you (and is meant to mean to your readers)…that alla this PermaGov shit is in some way important; that there is a right way and a wrong way and that you know which is which. You consistently seem to think that your party…your team…is basically “right” and the other team is basically “wrong.” Sure, once in a while you begin to smell a little daylight and criticize some tactical part of your team’s approach, but overall? Please.
As far as I am concerned the entire league…so-called “rules” and all…is shit out of luck. Ain’t nobody…including the refs…paying any real attention to the rules because they have been rendered absolutely toothless by 50+ years of Permanent Government.
Yeah, it’s a “league game.”
But the entire league is rotten to the core.
Reform it?
Great.
How?
First we have to realize the scope of the rot. We have to understand that…within the current two league system and the network media coverage of it…there are no rules except “We win…you lose.” By any means necessary, from individual assassinations right through to massive wars, covert operations around the globe (including domestically), media mind-control and the arrest and imprisonment of anyone who effectively blows the whistle. (Read…”Bradley Manning,” just for starters.)
Read my sig for my own position on this matter.
You can’t dance backward forever, Booman. Someday you will have to hold your ground. This system is coming apart at the seams.
This is “a league game?”
Well then, brother…we need a new league and a new game.
Pronto.
AG
Shit, Arthur, everything that needs to be understood can be understood by examining The Big Lebowski. It’s better than The Talmud that way.
Hell, you should empathize more with Walter. After all, he’s wrong about everything, he’s the moral voice of the picture, and he’s ultimately proven right about the only thing that matters. She kidnapped herself.
The point is, there is a line that you do not cross.
One of the predicates of your thinking, and it’s one you share with conservatives, is that there was a time before everything was fucked up. There was a rug that really tied the room together before a gaggle of reactionary intelligence officers designated themselves king-slayers and kingmakers and threw this country into turmoil. You’re wrong of course. The tide comes in and then it goes out and then it comes back in again. We end Jim Crow, MLK gets assassinated, cities riot, we have white flight, tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we’re finally on our own.
This permagov of which you speak is both something and nothing. America is both good and evil. It has accomplished some of the most important things that humans have accomplished in the last two and a half centuries, and it has done some of the most terrible things- to itself, and to others.
The Dude is nothing without Walter because although we can all take comfort in how The Dude abides, but we need action. Without The Dude, however, Walter is just dangerous. He needs ballast.
That’s the good and bad of America, right there.
And here:
There is a line that you do not cross. Someone has to give a shit about the rules. Otherwise you are just a nihilist, and nihilism isn’t even an ethos.
Perhaps more to the point, you should identify with known-poronographer Jackie Treehorn:
Porn, the music industry, it’s all the same.
Standards have fallen. On that, you and Jackie are correct.
But there is a side of light and side of darkness, and you’re wrong if you think that I divide those sides neatly between Democrats and Republicans. When you find me the light on the Republican side, I will stop doing what I can to prop up the only instrument at hand to combat them.
That last paragraph is perfectly expressed. That’s why I’m here. Thank you.
Hollywood.
C’mon.
Booman…do you actually believe that PermaGov Media Central is going to approve a film that tells the truth about what is happening here?
That fim is all okey-dokey bullshit about how “nothing is real.”
Bullshit.
An IED upside the head?
Real like a motherfucker.
A drone strike on your mama? An intelligence establishment-created so called “attack” on Fortress America that blows back on the perceived enemy and further allows the Great Game blood-for-oil hustle?
Ditto.
Hollywood doesn’t deal with that shit.
Don’t talk to me about The Big Lebowski. The Big Fix is where it’s at.
WTFU.
AG
You’ve had to do more propping for Obama than should be asked of you.
Me, and nearly 66 million other Americans.
>>the only instrument at hand to combat them
what if the only instrument at hand is completely incapable of doing the job?
If I need a wrench and the only tool I have is a screwdriver, clinging loyally to the screwdriver because it’s all there is will NEVER get my engine fixed.
Or…you are beginning to understand the depth of the problems that I have been pointing out for years.
Less annoying?
The guy who yells “FIRE!!!” in a crowded theater is annoying.
Unless there really is a fire.
Then he’s just telling the truth. Any way he can.
AG
Arthur, I am probably more of a pessimist and cynic than you, but, man, it’s Saturday. Go out and feel the breeze.
I am working today, Bob. Preparing for a hard recording session on Sunday and recovering from other hard work last week. It’s physical, what I do. Bet on it. When I take a break I look into the web…lots of places, lots of interests. I don’t live a regular life…working musicians almost never do. Enjoy the air yourself. I’ll get mine and you get yours.
And…thanks for the kind thought.
Later…
AG
Booman
Considering that the FAA patch bill was not to give them new funds, but instead to allow them flexibility to shift funds around, how would same type of bill restore funding to meals on wheels, Medicare cancer treatment etc.
The congressional cop out re FAA is not even worth the paper that POTUS will sign. It’s just a bipartisan PR stunt that simply shifts responsibility for sequester cuts from lawmakers to FAA administrators who are now totally responsible for what gets cut. How would meals on wheels etc have benefitted from a similar “solution”?
Everything the government does is paid for by a specified fund. Money for meals on wheels is in specific bank account. When they money is gone, it’s gone. Money cannot be shifted into it from another account that may have a surplus.
It’s the same exact principle as the FAA.
It seems you didn’t grasp my question. The Sequester cuts to FAA are still intact, part of the 2% across board cuts. Only thing new bill changes is is how those cuts are implemented within FAA. So how would Meals on Wheels implement a “flexible” 2% cut? I’m trying to figure out how well the Congressional cop out bill would have worked for programs that benefit he poor without the cut funds being restored in the first place?
Appropriations for Meals on Wheels and other nutrition programs are made first to the Department of Health & Human Services, which then assigns them to sub-departments like the Administration on Aging. Then the OAA assigns them to subgroups: Congregate Nutrition Services, Home-Delivered Nutrition Services, Nutrition Services Incentive Program, etc.
At the FAA, there is a fund for employee pay that must be cut. At HHS, there are funds for nutrition that must be cut. Flexibility works the same in both instances. Money from other funds with lower priority or surpluses can be shifted to nutrition, just as money at FAA is shifted to avoid furloughs.
I don’t think this is something to get unhappy about, the problem is with this Congress any action takes center stage and becomes bigger than it normally would be with an actual functional Congress.
I agree. So discouraging. We throw away our leverage with both hands. I’d like to say it’s baffling because that feels better than to say Dems are cowards.
On this one I’m actually much more angry at the Congressional Dems than at Obama. It’s painfully obvious to me that more than enough of those weasels would have fallen all over themselves in their rush to override a veto. I can’t really expect Obama to go into battle with troops that are itching to frag him.
It’s things like this, that makes me disgusted with myself for being a Democrat.
Though most people like the Democratic Parties policies, they hate that the politicians rarely stand up for their supposed “principles.”
People who like Repubicans, like them because they’re resulute.
Sure, they may be sociopathic @$$holes, and stupid/ignorant beyond measure, and religious-freaks, but they walk that walk – and not just talk that talk, like the Dem’s.
Republican’s spines are made of steel.
The Democrats spines are made of Jello, in a Cowardly Yellow shade.
In the very best of times, they still waver, and jiggle, and shake.
But when they feel any heat or pressure, they melt into a Cowardly Yellow goo on the respective floor of their house in Congress.
This, THIS, was the issue that might have finally made the point to voters of how indiscrimantly stupid this Sequester is!
And the Democrats, unsurpisingly, melted.
Programs for the young, the old, the sick, the poor, all got cut.
But, the minute both parties rich donors bitched about flight delays, Congress acted as fast as it has in years!
Oh, and of course, since in the last few years, our politicians can’t just hop on every personal or corporate jet flight they want to take, and have to be around us plebes at the airports and the flights, their was more than a bit of self-interest involved here.
Neither parties politicans wanted to stand at the airport and explain to us icky plebes what the feckin’ point of the Sequester was/is.
Is it any wonder you can still bring hand-sanitizer onto flights, and not much else?
I think not.
The politicians are afraid of getting plebe cooties.
Well, at least now that there’s a better chance of the Consesscritters and Senators flights leaving on time, they can spend less on hand-sanitizer.
Is it that the administration didn’t have a strategy or that they’re playing a different game? You’re better at this than I am, but let’s suppose for example that Obama is only interested in a grand bargain. Negotiating a patch for Head Start etc. wouldn’t get him to that goal. Is it possible he thought that giving Republicans this bone would make them more willing to come to the table, like the brilliant Chained CPI gambit? I’d need to understand why Senators like Sanders and Warren voted for this.
The thing is, there’s nothing new with this turn of events. I no longer care whether Obama’s actions are the result of bad negotiating skill or ideological position. He’s not doing what’s needed for us to win the House in 2014.
I’m sorry that you feel angry.
They voted for it because it’s people’s jobs. Ending furloughs in any way, should the vote come up, SHOULD be voted for. The problem was leadership’s lack of strategy to tie it to something else.
And besides, it was unanimous consent in the Senate. Would you want to be the one to ten (tops?) Senators who said, “I voted against unanimous consent and then proceeded to vote against it because I want other stuff to be fixed along side it?” That’s dumb politics, and it hurts your constituents. You’re left explaining your vote, and you look like a dick in the media. Not to mention the Republicans have been trying to say it’s been a conspiracy that the FAA has been forced to cut this way, and that Obama is only doing it to maximize pain — whether they’ve been successful or not with this framing I cannot say, as I don’t watch MSM. Voting against it would only build that theory credibility.
That’s an up side to the bill. It’s not a reason to throw away your leverage.
Oh I agree. But that’s on leadership.
Obama’s fixation on a Grand Bargain is the reason for much of this. The debt ceiling fiasco of summer 2011 was mishandled due to a desire to get one. Subsequent events show a persistent effort to reach one. Obama is aware of the criticism, and he doesn’t care. This week:
Thus, the Superlative-CPI gambit (what the WH calls Chained-CPI), softening of the sequester, failure to stake out hard lines publicly, etc.
Finally, in his own words, what us so-called Firebaggers and Emo-progs have been saying!!
The system is broken. QED. The story on the recent book about Washington culture upstairs on the front page is probably more relevant in that widespread reading of that book might force a change in the culture of the political establishment. Because of colluding media, they have gotten a free ride for way too long.
But don’t worry, the Democrats in Congress who think that it’s smart to sabotage the President’s more progressive moves are going to go down in 2014. Baucus smells it and got out just as Kent Conrad did in 2012 after starting the catfood commission rolling.
I think we need special legislation that requires Baucus to receive Obamacare without subsidies instead of any cushier healthcare plans.
What the President has been doing since taking office is weakening the Democratic Party at the state and local level. Lots of local Democrats are now believing that that is from design instead of being outmaneuvered by the GOP and the Democratic Congress. Folks who were thinking “rope-a-dope” last fall are getting tired of waiting for the sucker punch that undoes the GOP. They think he’s throwing them life vests instead of anchors.
And I don’t buy the distraction alibi. It’s a failure once again of the White House staff to act on behalf of the people. The West Wing sucks with the very DC culture that is now being taken to task. And with information processing, garbage in-garbage out.
By the way, Eric Cantor is dancing a victory dance.
So?
Exactly.
Cantor and Boehnor proclaim themselves conquering heroes every time they manage to walk out of the White House with their faces still attached to the front of their heads.
For once, I agree with Jon Chait. He’s just stating the fucking obvious:
Obama’s mistake wasn’t the design of sequestration. It was finding himself in that negotiation to begin with. Earlier this year, Obama refused to negotiate over the debt ceiling, and Republicans caved and raised it. If he had done that in 2011, they would probably have done the same thing. Instead, Obama took their demand to reduce the deficit at face value and thought, Hey, I want to reduce the deficit, too — why don’t we use this opportunity to strike a deal? As it happened, Republicans care way, way, way more about low taxes for the rich than low deficits, which made a morally acceptable deal, or even something within hailing distance of a morally acceptable deal, completely impossible.
By the point at which Obama figured this out in 2011, the debt ceiling loomed and it was too late to credibly insist he wouldn’t negotiate over it. Sequestration was a pretty good way to escape fiscal calamity. The mistake was getting jacked up over the debt ceiling in the first place.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/04/democrats-lost-sequestration-two-years-ago.html
…because the immediate aftermath of a huge Republican electoral victory, and the immediate aftermath of a huge Democratic electoral victory, are exactly the same environment, and we can just assume that the politics would have played out the same way.
Don’t forget this (from The Hill): 22 Apr 2013
There you have it. The White House is softening the blow to the military sequester. The blow that was supposed to be the biggest hammer to hit Republicans with.
The administration isn’t interested in using the sequester for maximum political advantage. Sure, there will be complaints now and then (like in today’s weekly address) but that’s to keep the allegiance of Ezra Klein and other diehard Obama supporters. The rest of us have moved on, unconvinced that the president is a firm supporter of progressive policies.
The White House is softening the blow to the military sequester. The blow that was supposed to be the biggest hammer to hit Republicans with.
Since the Republicans already called that bluff in the SuperCommittee (back in 2011) and during the fiscal cliff deal, it’s a bit implausible to claim that it is a “big hammer.”
It turns out the Tea Party Republicans are, unlike their predecessors, willing to eat the defense cuts in order to get other cuts and avoid raising taxes.
I suppose you could criticize the administration for thinking those military cuts were a bigger hammer than they actually turned out to be, but the idea that they are a big hammer and Obama is giving it up has been overtaken by events.
On the bright side, maybe this will delay boots on the ground in Syria for a couple months.
there are how many Democrats in Congress?
they are not children..
how come they couldn’t come up with their own damn plan.
damn…there are 3 branches of government…how come everyone wants to let the legislative branch off the hook for not doing their fucking job?
And what are you supposed to do if they won’t do their fucking jobs? Blame the President of course. Republicans can’t even pass their OWN FUCKING BILLS and somehow the Democrats are supposed to have leverage? Somehow the President is supposed to cut a fucking deal with people who can’t even agree with themselves? And the natural response from the purity patrol is that the President must not alleviate suffering where he can because winning a fucking argument is more important than doing what you can to ameliorate suffering where you can.
Elizabeth “you didn’t build that” Warren, Alan “I’m a fighter with guts” Grayson, Socialist Bernie Sanders, et al. all voted for this.
yet do they get any blame for casting a bad vote? of course not.
lemmings.
There is such a thing as a pocket veto, should the President decide to actually play hardball.
The system is broken. Period. The West Wing is in a lobbyist bubble. The Congress is totally sold out. And the President is in a Secret Service bubble. No real communication from ordinary citizens can break through the Beltway mindset.
And the West Wing’s unforced errors have exacerbated that. And no doubt the recent ricin letters have had a chilling effect on controversial stances.
We are looking at total systematic failure of “democratic” government because the elites cannot agree how they want to shaft us next.
Seems to me a pocket veto would only escalate this into a matter of national security in about.. oh,I don’t know, 24 hours forcing him to have to cave and sign the bill, making him look even weaker than you obviously think he is.
You suggest that the system is broken but expect results nonetheless.
I don’t go with a hypothesis of weakness. I go with a hypothesis of total systemic dysfunction. If one could disconnect K Street from the Congress and get the White House out of the Wall Street bubble, you might see governing. But right now everything is posturing. The political system is caught between betraying the people and betraying the moneybags.
That’s not weakness. That’s rational self-interest. And it’s at a stalemate mostly because the people are watching.
Pocket vetos are rare because they can only be used at one time – when Congress adjourns. Not go home for the weekend – adjourns. All other times, the bill becomes law without a signature – it just takes 10 days to do it.
Even the liberal Alan Graysom, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren voted for this.
is that obummer’s fault?
Since when does Sanders need obummer to tell him to do the right thing?
Grayson’s whole schtick is how he’s a “fighter” with “guts”. He constantly criticizes obummer for not being liberal. And yet he needs obummer to hold his hand to vote the right way?
what a joke.
these guys are all in rock sold safe seats and they still voted against you. but somehow that’s obummer’s fault for not providing an eleven-y dimensional chess move for Warren, Grayson, and Socialist bernie?
the baggers love mocking the silly 11th dimensional chess crap, unless they need it to deflect the failures of their liberal saints, then they embrace it.
what’s the use in sending warren $42.5 million dollars in contributions if she can’t vote without being led by the nose by obummer?
blame obummer first, what a fucking joke
Even the liberal Alan Graysom, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren voted for this.
is that obummer’s fault?
Since when does Sanders need obummer to tell him to do the right thing?
Grayson’s whole schtick is how he’s a “fighter” with “guts”. He constantly criticizes obummer for not being liberal. And yet he needs obummer to hold his hand to vote the right way?
what a joke.
these guys are all in rock sold safe seats and they still voted against you. but somehow that’s obummer’s fault for not providing an eleven-y dimensional chess move for Warren, Grayson, and Socialist bernie?
the baggers love mocking the silly 11th dimensional chess crap, unless they need it to deflect the failures of their liberal saints, then they embrace it.
what’s the use in sending warren $42.5 million dollars in contributions if she can’t vote without being led by the nose by obummer?
blame obummer first, what a fucking joke
Congressional Democrats are not ducklings who line up behind Obama and follow his script.
I think the Congressional Dems have blown this, too, but I don’t see how Barack Obama should take the hit for that.
Ha, ha, ha.
Won’t be so funny if shorting those ATC funds for systems, equipment, and maintenance lead to an “accident.”