TPMDC Saturday Roundup
Obama's Weekly Address: Budget Keeps Promise Of "Sweeping Change"
In this weekend's YouTube address, President Obama declares that with his new budget he is keeping the promises he made during the campaign on issues such as the tax code, education, energy policy and other issues -- and that he expects a fight in Washington to get it passed:
"The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don't. I work for the American people," says Obama. "I didn't come here to do the same thing we've been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November."
GOP Response: Senator Burr Blasts Deficit Spending
In this weekend's Republican response, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) -- who voted for the Bush tax cuts and expansions in entitlement spending -- denounces the deficit spending being conducted under President Obama:
"Looking at the spending priorities of Democrats in Washington in the proposed budget and over the past month, it's hard to escape the reality that for the first time we could see the American Dream vanish," says Burr. "Now, instead of working hard so our children can have a better life tomorrow, we are asking our children to work hard so that we don't have to make tough choices today."
CPAC Honoring Limbaugh
The 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference third and final day is today, featuring such speakers as Rick Santorum, Tim Pawlenty, Phyllis Schlafly, Bill Bennett, Ann Coulter, David Horowitz and others. The crowning moment will come at 5:30 p.m. ET, when the "Defender of the Constitution Award" is presented to Rush Limbaugh.
No Obama Or Biden Events
President Obama and Vice President Biden do not have any public events scheduled for today.
Pawlenty: GOP Must Reach Out To 'Sam's Club Voters'
During his speech at CPAC, Minnesota Governor and possible presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty made the case that the Republican Party has to reach out to working-class "Sam's Club Voters." Pawlenty declared that the GOP must speak "with a feel and concern and tone and an understanding of the importance and the challenges of the working class of this country," also adding: "And it doesn't mean we have to sacrifice our principles to do it."
Romney: Bush Should Done A Stimulus; GOP Needs A Spokesperson
In an interview with the Politico, Mitt Romney criticized George W. Bush for failing to propose his own stimulus plan last fall, "so that in September, October, November, December, there would have been a stimulus plan," rather than the one eventually passed by President Obama. Romney also got to the bottom of the problem now facing the GOP: "What's challenging about being in the minority is we don't have a spokesperson for our position who lays out a plan."
Labor Unions Aiming For Reconciliation, New Federation
The Associated Press reports that the top labor unions are negotiating to re-forum under a single new federation, four years after several AFL-CIO member unions broke away to form Change to Win. "There's obvious benefits in terms of efficiency, message delivery, financial savings and a host of other reasons," said former House Dem Whip David Bonior, who has been brokering the discussions. "You can always be more effective if you're talking in one house as opposed to three."
Bunning Denies Story About Threatened Resignation
Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) is denying reports that he threatened at a Washington fundraiser to resign his seat -- and thus let the Democratic governor appoint his replacement -- if Republican leaders keep trying to pressure him into retirement. "It's not true," he told Roll Call in a statement. "I intend to fulfill my obligation to the people of Kentucky. If you are going to write something like this, you'd better make your sources known because they are lying."
Josh
Elana
Matt
Eric
February 28, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gotta love the fight in Obama's weekly address. Give 'em hell, Mr. President!
February 28, 2009 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mitt the flip: "What's challenging about being in the minority is we don't have a spokesperson for our position who lays out a plan."
Fact: Republicans have many spokespeople, hundreds. The problem is no plan. What's the plan?????? What's the alternative to address this crisis? Nothing. Silence. That's the problem.
February 28, 2009 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gotta love it! CPAC gives their highest honor to Rush Limbaugh, the drug addict, who goes on sex vacations to third world countries.
February 28, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
More ammo for the GOP being "The Party of Limbaugh"...
February 28, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama really puts it out there. I'm a hardened old cynic whose political education began with the assassination of JFK, proceeded through LBJ & Nixon's disastrous prosecution of the Vietnam War, and on into the Reagan / Bush years. Barack Obama is the first person to occupy the office in my lifetime who thinks that my well-being is as important as that of what used to be called the Titans of Industry (more recently Wall St. CEOs); when Obama says that he works for the American people, I believe him. The cynic in me, of course, whispers that he will be thwarted by the wealth lobby. But maybe not. We may just have a chance. Out of crisis may emerge a new understanding of what it means to be a country -- united by more than jingoism and the politics of resentment.
February 28, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
We may just have a chance.
With Obama at the helm, I'll take our chances any day.
Our president is a man on a mission and I wouldn't bet against him.
February 28, 2009 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
A Sneak Peek at 'One Flew Over the CPAC's Nest'
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=6381
February 28, 2009 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Message to Senator Burr;
That train left the station about eight years ago. And you were one of the conductors.
February 28, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously, senator. You know that $10 trillion national debt you are now so worried about? The two people most responsible for it are Reagan and Bush.
February 28, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope Burr enjoys his single term in the senate. In 2010, Roy Cooper will mop the floor with Burr.
Heath Shuler wants to run for the Senate but there's no way that dumb-as-a-post winger will survive a primary against Cooper.
February 28, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't that Pawlenty quote sound like he's telling the GOP to fake it? How could they try and sell the Republican agenda to the working class with a straight face?
I think the Democrats need to give up their attack on guns. It's part of the culture now, it makes folks feel tough and powerful - it's psychological really. I think the gun issue is really the only clout the Republicans have with "Sam's Club" voters.
February 28, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. The more sane among the GOOPers still keep talking about having a problem of branding, message, tone, P.R., fundraising, etc. No mention of a possible substantive problem.
The less sane talk about stuff like secession and hoping the country crashes.
February 28, 2009 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
What attack on guns? Most Democrats are in favor of gun ownership rights. In my two-state area, the Democratic "opposition" to guns is that you shouldn't
1) Carry them concealed.
2) Take them out to church, the mall, or the bar.
3) Bring them into a college classroom.
4) Have armor-piercing ammo.
5) Have fully automatic weapons.
6) Have your own personal howitzer.
I think we're on the same side on this, but let's not equate "opposing the loonies in the NRA" with attacking gun ownership.
February 28, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
But the loonies in the NRA have a huge war chest lobby and have won the frame war on this issue.
February 28, 2009 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am a Democrat.
I am for responsible gun ownership.
I support the legal rights of all who wish to own guns.
I am pro-hunting.
I support the reasonable positions of most law-enforcement organizations in the country regarding gun ownership, namely,
I am for keeping guns out of the hands of felons and convicted abusers.
I am for background checks for, and registration of, all handguns.
I am against cop-killer bullets.
I support the efforts of law enforcement officials to keep concealed handguns off the streets.
Repeat after me. Do not repeat the false framing of the NRA. They only win the frame war when you agree with them -- that the positions I have stated make me and other Democrats weak on guns.
February 28, 2009 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mittmemtum:
What's challenging is you don't have a plan to have a spokesman for.
February 28, 2009 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops. Michael said the same thing but better. Right on, Slim!
February 28, 2009 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. All in one room? What a waste of oxygen.
February 28, 2009 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm wondering what feat of engineering allows the ability to pack so many egos into one room.
February 28, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worry, their brains ceased to require oxygen decades ago.
February 28, 2009 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where the heck have you been, Burr, for the last year and a half?
People are under water. Students will have to accumulate sick amounts of debt to attend college. Retirement savings are vanishing. Jobs have been disappearing.
And YOU'RE JUST NOW BEGINNING TO REALIZE THERE'S A PROBLEM?
As others have already said: the problem with the Republicans isn't that they don't have someone to communicate a message, it's that they have no message at all for the majority of sane Americans.
Joe the Not-Plumber and Rick the Not-Populist are their audience at this point.
February 28, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't bother. He doesn't actually believe it. He doesn't actually believe much of anything. They just open up his head and pour in the tired old Republican platitudes and then they pour back out of his mouth whenever he's near a camera or a fundraiser. He's worse than Liddy was that way. Hopefully, he's headed down Liddy's career trajectory.
February 28, 2009 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Liddy Dole, I mean, not G. Gordon.
February 28, 2009 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
We will assume this report discussing red state family values voters spending habits becomes a podium pounding topic at CPAC
http://people.hbs.edu/bedelman/papers/redlightstates.pdf
The report's analyzation of credit cards used to purchase porn:
Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don’t explicitly restrict gay marriage.
Am thinking: the screaming banshee Southern Senator who exhibited his Christian Compassion this week in his public demands that pregnant women be refused AIDS tests just so their AIDS infested babes are a lifetime of shameful punishment . . is a frequent flyer of those porn sites.
To get a better handle on other associations between social attitudes and pornography consumption, Edelman melded his data with a previous study on public attitudes toward religion.
States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed.
A similar difference emerged for the statement “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behaviour.”
February 28, 2009 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I read that article earlier. Wasn't Utah at the top of the list. Seems all red state conservatives have that secret voyeur urge while in the privacy of their homes.
February 28, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you talking about this Southern Senator?
http://coloradoindependent.com/22701/schultheis-hiv-testing-for-pregnant-moms-rewards-sexual-promiscuity
I think that this is probably who you are talking about. He is a State Senator... from Colorado Springs, no less.
It is not the 1st time that he has made a fool of himself on the Senate floor.
I am in Colorado and don't consider it a Southern state, however, we do have our share of nuts.
February 28, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Afternoon all!
I managed to snap off this photo of Rush, Ann and Rick Santorum shortly after they rolled Rush out on his platform.
You can bring this to CPAC and get it autographed by them if you want...cheers.
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m285/mellis28/rushannandrickatCPAC.jpg
February 28, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Which constitution is rush defending? That's all I want to know....
It sure as heck is not the one we're defending!
February 28, 2009 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's /bin/sed s/tu/pa/
February 28, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rush Limbaugh winning the "Defender of the Constitution Award"-- Those CPAC morons are just so abjectly awful. Defender of the Constitution--this is a man who firmly believes the only purpose the Constitution serves is as toilet paper.
February 28, 2009 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a better way to look at that.
Rush, like most wingers, Only 'defends' (his version of) the Constitution when the GOP is out of power. The rest of the time, it doesn't actually exist. And now? Like the Fundies with the bible, Rush and the GOP look at the Constitution with a strict literalist approach- what the words say is all that is real and there is no possibility for nuance or 'original intent'
February 28, 2009 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sen. Burr needs to pull his head out from Rush Limbaugh’s ass long enough to witness reality to realize we are not living in a vacuum. All that’s being done by Obama are measures designed to fix the highly destructive and disastrous mess Burr as his fellow asshole hypocrite republican created.
February 28, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is talking about taking on a de facto aristocracy:
"The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don't. I work for the American people," says Obama. "
I wonder if 'aristocracy' will make it into the mainstream of what passes for debate and culture.
The French had the guillotine, we have a Congress which has at least one foot in the aristocracy.
February 28, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you bring the tar, I'll donate the feathers.
February 28, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't trade much in petro-derivatives, would you settle for eco-friendly ersatz tar (and I don't mean epoxy resins)?
February 28, 2009 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Go Franklin Delano Obama! While actual policy is obviously the most important thing, it would be a big mistake to underestimate the importance of this kind of rhetoric in marshaling the support to get the right policies implemented. It's like a bugle call to rally the troops. This speech was highly encouraging. And the way Obama can say these things without a ruffle in his usual dead-calm manner makes him sound all the more like he really means business.
February 28, 2009 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I agree that rhetoric can contain the margins and even move molehills if not mountains, politically speaking. (for me, rhetoric == effective use of language)
I'm not sure what troops were being rallied and which opponents were to be cowed or seduced, but so far I'm glad Obama is President even though I have plenty of mostly minor criticisms.
March 1, 2009 2:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have plenty of those too- to the chagrin of some people around here- but both the actual content of the budget proposal (especially the aggressive push on health care reform) and the unabashed progressive rhetoric surrounding it (as in this address) are frankly better than I was expecting from him. Which is encouraging.
March 1, 2009 9:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
They are what I would have expected before the inaugural, and more than what I was beginning to expect since then. That is, my expectations were dropping as a litany of minor disappointments began to grow.
As a fiscal conservative progressive, I'm still concerned about how we pay back borrowed wealth - inflation can reduce some debts, default is painful, and net productivity (required in principle to pay off interest and principal) seems elusive in the near future. If we could only work more, and work more effectively, ... but right now I'm seeing costs continuing to exceed benefits for a long time. So I'm a pessimist to that extent.
March 1, 2009 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worry about it. This is the time for the government to borrow money almost for free- interest rates are rock-bottom. And history has shown that it's pretty easy to reduce deficits once the economy is doing well (unless there's a Republican in the White House!)
March 1, 2009 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
That hope is why I'm a progressive instead of holding my nose and joining the jerks on the right to fight Obama.
The problem is this: Right now short term interest rates are very low and even longer term bonds are priced only modestly. If we could borrow $5T at 1% for 5 years, I'd say go for it. But there is no guarantee that rates will stay there. Whether we borrow for 3, 10, or 30 years, at some point it gets paid off, inflated away, or refinanced, if we cannot pay it off. I can easily imagine interest rates 5% higher than today, and I do worry that at some point the government will want to borrow and find that even 10% won't attract money.
I have not reviewed the budget proposal. I understand it outlines 10 years at least somewhat. But I also understand that the minimum expected deficit will be $500B each year for ten years.
As an aside, I'm interested in Interest Rate Contracts, aka swaps and their impact on the credit market. Last year the market value was about $9T (notional value $460T or so). That seems like a huge load/leverage, but I need to read up more.
March 1, 2009 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink