TPMDC Saturday Roundup
Obama Promotes Budget In New Web Address
In this weekend's YouTube address, President Obama lays out the priorities of his budget on issues such as energy, health care, education, and fixing the deficit:
"I realize there are those who say these plans are too ambitious to enact," said Obama. "To that I say that the challenges we face are too large to ignore. I didn't come here to pass on our problems to the next President or the next generation - I came here to solve them."
Barbour: Obama Budget "Massive Government Spending Spree"
This weekend's RNC YouTube address is delivered by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, blasting the proposed Obama budget for taxing and spending:
"While families are cutting back, President Obama has proposed a massive government spending spree," said Barbour. "It reminds me of how one of our old senators used to joke about the federal budget. He said it was like a newborn baby: insatiable appetite at one end and total irresponsibility at the other."
Obama At Camp David, Biden At Gridiron Dinner
President Obama is spending time with his family this weekend at Camp David, instead of attending the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington. Vice President Biden and his wife Jill will be attending the dinner, where Biden will be speaking.
Obama Activists Signing Up Budget Supporters This Weekend
Organizing For America, the pro-Obama activism group that has been formed out of his presidential campaign's infrastructure, is launching its first nationwide canvass today. Volunteers will be going door to door to promote President Obama's budget, and taking down signatures of support for it.
Coleman Manager: Fundraising More Difficult As Public's Interest Goes Down
Norm Coleman's campaign manager Cullen Sheehan told the Washington Post that fundraising has become "much more difficult in the new year" as the public's interest in the Minnesota election dispute has declined. "As time progresses and legal bills mount, we've gone from 30 people to 10 or fewer," said Sheehan. "The general public has over time become less and less interested, and they're just wondering when it's going to end."
Iran's Supreme Leader Dismisses Outreach From Obama
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, is dismissing the overtures made in President Obama's Iranian New Year message. "He insulted the Islamic Republic of Iran from the first day," said Khamenei. "If you are right that change has come, where is that change? What is the sign of that change? Make it clear for us what has changed."
DNC Raises $3.2 Million In February, Less Than RNC
The Democratic National Committee raised $3.2 million in February, less than the $5.1 million taken in by the RNC under Michael Steele. The DNC consistently raised less money than its GOP counterpart during the last cycle -- Dem money generally went more to individual candidates or the Congressional campaign committees -- and this could be a sign that such a setup will continue under a Democratic president, as well.
Dems Organizing Pro-Obama Business Group
Roll Call reports that Democratic operatives are working to organize a new group set to launch as early as this week, called Business Forward, a progressive alternative to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for pro-Obama companies and trade associations. A Dem lobbyist praised the idea: "There has been a void for business organizations that want to play the Democratic field."
Josh
Elana
Matt
Eric
What is the point of even repeating the negativity of the republicans. You know anything Obama says, they are going to take the opposite position. Comparing the 2 statements is an insult to the president.
March 21, 2009 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama needs to frame his budget as investing - Investing in America. The GOP is running around saying it's a librul spending spree, he needs to use the Tuesday night Press Conference to explain exactly what it does. It is a lot of spending now - but that what the economy needs anyways, and down the line it will pay for itself. Explain it's like putting installation into your house, the up front costs are high, but over 5-6 years the savings in heating and cooling costs pays for it, and then after that you're saving all of that money.
Prudent folks make these types of decisions all of the time in their daily lives - explain that is what he's doing with his budget and I think folks would get on board.
Regarding Iran, Obama wasn't talking to it's leaders, but to it's citizenry. They have an election in June and it was a message to elect a moderate who could work with America and together they could have a fresh start.
March 21, 2009 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mullahs the world over are finding Obama's politics toxic. James Dobson has stepped down. Tony Perkins demurrers a Senate run. Brownback retiring. The self-ordained leader of the GOP is hardly a religious zealot.
I go back to Sen. Macaca, and the how the Pen (now, the Keyboard) knocked George Allen right off his game and into oblivion. Even Bubbuh could not withstand the exposing of his good ol' inconsistencies. I watched this blog (and others) vet Sarah Palin over Labor Day weekend because gaad knows McCain hadn't done it.
So Iranian Mullahs really can't have any of this "change" nonsense. And it's clear the new President is just getting started. Masterful stroke, reaching out as he does.
Pax,
M.
March 21, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kiss our ass, hick.
March 21, 2009 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama does not need to frame his budget as some alternative version of conservatism. Embrace the wild left side. Simply tell people that serving the insider top 5% at the expense of 95% is immoral and change starts with his budget. Every time that Barbour creeps opens his trap blast him with a few stats on the 3rd world state of Mississippi.
If Dems are raising less money, it's because the base, totally ignored since the election, is not exactly inspired.
March 21, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh man, you made me laugh today. It couldn't be that the base is broke or that the DNC is pretty lame at fundraising? I actually never thought to donate to the DNC since Obama won. I'll see how much is left of my unemployment check after I pay my rent - then I might drop them a few coins.
March 21, 2009 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
What? Another unemployed Republican? I keep running into them. At least you are getting what you deserve!
March 21, 2009 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
You figure I'm a Republican because......? You get a kick out of someone being unemployed because....?
Your statement was pretty cold. Whatever your politics you should not wish that on your neighbor.
Seriously, you are an ass.
March 21, 2009 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, if you're over 40 with several children to support I feel for you, otherwise it's a learning experience. Happens to all of us sooner or later and will continue to happen if nothing significant changes in our currently "free market" (otherwise known as the global casino). I've been ranting about this since it happened to me in the last recession and it all became suddenly clear that we've been totally screwed.
As to the other screechers here abouts, it's not us lefties who are going to defeat Obama's budget, it's the damn Blue Dogs as always.
If you want to know why you are unemployed, ask all those Democrats who enabled the Republicans to kill the economy. If you want job security, better elect a few more people who believe labor matters as much as Wall Street.
All this patchwork moderation carefully nuanced to inspire 6 votes in Indianapolis isn't going to fix the system. I don't know if anyone is smart emough or wise enough to get his mind around the present mess, but it isn't going to be fixed by following the same people who got us into this mess in the first place -- can you hear me Evan Bayh?
March 21, 2009 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cold. Just cold.
March 21, 2009 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Totally uncool.
March 21, 2009 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worry. Your post makes it pretty clear that you're a Dem and/or an Obama supporter which Bluebell is not. She's just perpetually pissed off.
She can't stand Obama but says she'd vote for Cpt. Sully because he landed a plane on the Husdon. What he did was great and commendable but only a loon would commit to supporting somebody for public office without having a clue as to where they stand politically.
March 21, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, Obama has ignored the base by revoking the ban on stem cell research, repealing family planning gag orders, signing SCHIP, pay equity, ending torture, ordering the close of Gitmo, and proposing the most left-leaning budget since LBJ.
You wish!!
Just like you wish the base was not inspired. I recall tools like you saying Obama's fundraising would dry up after his FISA vote . . . right before he raised $150 million in one month!
The DNC is not raising a lot of money because (a) they haven't really tried (b) Tim Kaine is essentially a part-time chairman (c) most of us gave until it hurt for the election and (d) we don't feel the urgency because we control Washington.
FYI, you're not Obama's base. You're another enternal pessimist who wants him to fail so that you can say "I told you the world sucks!"
March 21, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Way to sure your ignorance. The DNC has always underperformed compared to the RNC. The DSCC & DCCC, however, have absolutely destroyed their counterparts. There is zero evidence that the fundraising dynamic has changed at all.
Also, don't make the mistake of equating yourself with the Democratic base.
March 21, 2009 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
where is the sign of change? how about the President is talking to you like an actual human being you SOB?
March 21, 2009 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still can't comment on front page posts, so some thread drift:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/03/an_awful_mess.php
I keep hammering this point, but perhaps it will eventually sink in:
We need to stop talking about "Geithner" in solo terms. It's "Summers & Geithner".
We're all going to be just as fucked if Timmy is forced to walk the plank while Summers continues to have Obama's ear.
Here's the anology:
If a sports team has a Bad General Manager and a Bad Manager, firing the Manager while leaving the General Manager in power isn't going to change things.
Think of the Los Angeles Clippers cycling through managers over the years. It doesn't matter than than momentary blips because the Front Office is still the same bunch of incompotent boobs.
Summers people... he's the one pulling the strings. He picked Timmy, and he'll pick the next if we don't make this Stink apply to him. But if we keep trying to focus on Timmy, it's only Timmy who is going to take the fall while Summers continues to posion the pool of the Obama Admin.
John
March 21, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, STFU. Geithener isn't going anywhere and neither is Summers. If you think Obama is going to dump a guy with the hardest job in the administration after six weeks just because of the boobs on cable news and blogs, apparently you weren't around during the campaign.
Rather than trying to win the news cycle, Obama has a long-term strategy and he's not going to be disuaded from it because folks like you keep yammering. If he'd listened to the clowns, he would be back in the Senate.
March 21, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point. Obama certainly needs the insiders to do the technical stuff, but when it comes to strategy I think he'd be better off bringing in some outsiders who aren't emotionally invested in the mess. Aren't there any wise men or women around anywhere? Timmy may not be the problem but he doesn't have the gravitas to inspire confidence either.
March 21, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
And considering Obama picked both, could it maybe be that he's of their school of thought to begin with?
March 21, 2009 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
You and Krugman rail against the damn plan before it is even layed out or implemented. It seems risky but that's what we have to work with and getting the assests of the bank sheets is a stimulus to the economy on it's own.
March 21, 2009 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you really think it's just Krugman, you're paying no attention at all. Christ, even such noted leftists as Greenspan and Holtz-Eakin have come out in favor of nationalizing the zombie institutions. I think you'll find that precious few professional economists, regardless of politics, who aren't captives of Wall Street, are going to support this plan. It's clearly counterproductive to maintain financial-system overcapacity in the favor of giant firms on life support who unfairly compete with smaller banks that have been managed prudently. That won't unfreeze credit, quite the contrary. It will also discourage investment in healthy banks because until the government comes clean about what's really on the balance sheets of the zombies, no sane investor is going to regard ANY bank as a sound investment. Prospective investors in smaller banks know damn well the government isn't going to bail THEM out if their investment goes bad.
March 21, 2009 6:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well if Greenspan and Holz-Eagan (McCain's brilliant econ advisor) say something is a good plan than it must be.
March 21, 2009 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
What an excellent way to completely fucking not get the point.
You can add Jon Corzine to the nationalization chorus now, and he spent decades on Wall Street. But of course he doesn't know what he's talking about, whereas you're an expert.
March 21, 2009 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
How does the fact that Corzine was Goldman's CEO factor into your calculus? Does it mean that since all sorts of supply side winger Chicago school types (let's leave alone for the moment the fact that he's a Dem gov, and was a Dem Senator), it must mean that it's the obvious way forward? Does it make your head explode since he's now implicated in the Paulson-Summer-Geithner-Obama-Schumer-Dodd crowd? If you keep peeling back all the layers of your conspiracy onion, you'll be bound to find the true nature of that conspiracy by the time you get to the end.
Seriously--between you, Blue Bell, a few of the other faux-populists commenters here, and some of the hysterical headlines and commentary coming from Elana, Kurtz, and lately even Josh, the distance between this site and No Quarter has narrowed substantially. Take that any way you want to.
March 22, 2009 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
And here's what a knowledgeable insider thinks of the plan, via a comment from the naked capitalism blog:
March 21, 2009 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
And if at the end of this fraud, if the CDSs are unwound, the industry is re-regulated, and banks are healthy again, then isn't that the sign of a successful plan, regardless of moral hazzard?
March 21, 2009 8:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
And there really might be a pony at the bottom of that shitpile!
March 21, 2009 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't that entire scenario hinge on the purchased assets being worth much less that what SAC pays for them ($50M vs. $75m)? If this is being presented as the likely scenario then I would say that SAC has some pretty bad managers to overpay by that much.
How does this scenario look if SAC accurately values to the assets and bids only $50M?
How does it look is these assets turn out to be worth $75M, or more?
...
I think regardless of the plan that emerges and as long as the Treasury is involved anyone will be able to paint hypothetical scenario where taxpayers end up with a bad deal. Or they can paint a rosy scenario where everyone does well.
No matter what we do, there will always be risk. If there was a no risk solution it would have been done a long time ago.
March 22, 2009 5:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Geithner is not going anywhere. Obama's popularity is too high for him to have to bail on his secretary of treasury after less than two months. And Obama is not going to put all the banks into bankruptcy or nationalize them. That's reality.
March 21, 2009 11:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have people been to Mississippi? Why in the world should we listen to this garbage? The south is not the north, and Mississippi is about the worst of the South, except, perhaps, Alabama.
We need to quit pretending that this nation is in anyway equal between these regions and that anyone from the South can say anything that should effect the rest of us.
March 22, 2009 12:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. Absent some compelling reason, I don't need to see Hailey Fucking Barbour on my screen here. So I suggest limiting this chaff.
March 22, 2009 9:50 AM | Reply | Permalink