Friday, March 27, 2009

Ruben Navarrette: Obama is "Flunking" Economics

CNN contributor Ruben Navarette posted a wide-ranging piece today in which he claimed president Obama is "Flunking" economics
But to many of the rest of us, it's clear that President Obama is flunking economics. He is trying to do too much at once, and so he is not doing any of it well.
He also claims that anyone who criticizes Obama is simply attacked, a clever rhetorical ploy to avoid criticism to himself.
They won't tolerate any criticism of the president or his administration, finding it easier to simply attack critics. And whatever goes wrong that they can't defend or deflect, they just blame on George W. Bush.
Y'know, there is a point to everything you are saying Mr. Navarrette - but I wonder whether some of the criticism has less to do with the President's economic credentials than with the other many ways in which you disapprove of his performance.  The article is less about the ways you would improve Obama's economic proposals and more about the way you apparently dislike him.

Its also strange to hear this claim about defenders of the President in such a negative light.  Most people I've heard defending Obama's agenda are pretty smart, and make intelligent arguments.

Is this piece really about Economics?  Or is this about something else?  Perhaps Navarrette simply does not want to go down the road a large majority of Americans chose when they elected President Obama.  To them Obama is neither moving too fast, nor is he trying to do too much!  He's doing what he was elected to do.

A large majority still support the wide-ranging economic and political Change the President is trying to bring about.  Of course its expensive, and of course its big.  We are trying to pull out of one of the worst economic catastrophes in history!

What I don't understand is the growing plethora of people publicly casting doubt, when we are only 2.5 months into the presidency.  Bringing Change with a big "C" to Washington is going to be difficult as it is without so many naysayers so early in the process.  It's going to take time.

Do we face risks?   Yes, but the rewards are high.  And frankly we have tried the way of the GOP and it has failed.  They are offering the same recycled dishwater plans of tax cuts for the rich but health and education cuts for the poor, and no regulation of Wall Street. The same bad ideas that led us to where we are now.

No we need to do more, and most of the country seems to agree.  We need more than the same recycled ideas, we need BIG changes to healthcare, taxes, wall street, and war.

It is time to put progressive ideas to the test. 


Thanks for reading,
D. Tree

What to Do About Do-nothing Republicans

What remains of the Republican Party has been doing a lot of posing before the camera lately.  Merely 2 months into our new president's term and this band of so-called patriots are doing everything they can to prevent our country from recovering from one of the worst disasters of a presidency we've ever seen.  Several of these self-serving servants of the rich have even publicly hoped for the president to fail in leading our country out of this financial crisis.

Clearly, these Republicans are still working for the very same special interests that got us into this mess.  All that tough talk from the GOP about AIG?  Well, how do you think AIG got us into this mess in the first place?  Through the actions of these same self-righteous republican stooges of the rich who are now complaining loudly about spending and "responsibility."

Well, let me tell you something about responsibility Mr. Boehner, Ms. Bachmann, Mr. Jindal, and Mr. Cantor: take it for your own actions over the last few years.  Your cheerleading of Bush & Cheney for trillions of dollars and thousands of lives in the Iraq war; your irresponsible "look the other way" republican philosophy that allowed Wall St. to destroy our economy so you could pad your pockets with Lobbyist money!

I've been away from blogging since the election, and this is my first post since.  Let this serve as an introduction for a new series of posts entitled "Help our Country Move Forward or Get Out of the Way."  Over the next few weeks, when I have time to post I'll be using the opportunity to call out these obstructive and negative republicans who are holding back progress and who are standing in the way of fixing our broken economy.

Thanks for your time,
D. Tree