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Stern: Ryan Roadmap A Harbinger Of Return To Bush-Era Government
SEIU President Andy Stern
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SEIU President Andy Stern says that the so-called Roadmap for America's Future--an entitlement-slashing bill written by House Republican guru Paul Ryan (R-WI)--should be a warning sign to voters that the GOP hasn't moved on from the Bush-era.
"It's hard to imagine that this is a 21st century plan," Stern told me in an interview this afternoon. "It seems like we're going back to the future."
"Particularly when George Bush inherited a surplus and drove it into a massive deficit, I'm not sure we should trust the Republican party's rehashed ideas to not just bankrupt the country in the end," Stern said.
I asked Stern whether it was fair to view the Ryan plan as a sneak peek into the governance of a potential Republican majority. Absolutely, Stern said.
"[Ryan] and Eric Cantor are the future of the post-Boehner group. For a group of people who keep saying we want to come to the table because we have all kinds of ideas, particualrly new ideas, these look like bad ideas," Stern said.
"John McCain's idea for health care was the same as Paul Ryan's, and the American people rejected that," Stern added. "Had he won the presidency, this is what the fight would be about in Congress. If Paul Ryan became the chair of the Budget Committee, and Cantor and [House Minority Leader John] Boehner were the leaders of the House, this is what the fight would be about in Washington."
Stern says it's incumbent upon Democrats to provide results, and use their own accomplishments to juxtapose their policies with the Republican alternative. And on that score, they're doing rather poorly.
Voters, he said, "haven't seen the change they wanted with this administration with Democrats in charge of everything."
"People will always hold their nose and vote when the alternatives are bad. But it would be nice if people rushed to the polls," like in 2008. "We can't just rely on the hold your nose theory. We have to rely on...we really got things done."
On a scale of one to 10, how have Democrats done on that score over the last year?
"About three or four," Stern says.
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Rich in NJ
February 10, 2010 3:58 PM
If the House passes the Senate HCR bill, the Dems' record would look a lot better. Too bad big labor doesn't agree.
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JohnMcCSF
February 10, 2010 4:19 PM
I LOVE Andy Stern
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FlownOver
February 10, 2010 4:24 PM
Generous, Mr. Stern. With weasels like Ben "Laden" Nelson and Joe The Bummer in the caucus, though, it's a wonder they've accomplished anything.
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hoppycalif2
February 10, 2010 4:30 PM
But isn't it beautiful how we can now sing Kumbaya? Sure, we don't harmonize worth a damn, and half of us sing the wrong words, but we all sing together now. Kudos to Obama.
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jim43
February 10, 2010 4:31 PM
Forget Paul Ryan. Barack Obama has done nothing for organized labor or the impoverished in America. He's the biggest problem.
http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog
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hey norm
February 10, 2010 4:44 PM in reply to jim43
Well nothing outside cutting taxes for them and providing insurance for more tha 4 million kids and reversing job losses that started in 07.
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masanf
February 11, 2010 5:56 AM in reply to hey norm
Reversing job losses? Bullshit. Unemployment is the highest it has been in almost three decades and far more jobs have been lost during Obama's first year than they were during Bush's last year.
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dogjudge
February 11, 2010 10:19 AM in reply to masanf
"Unemployment is the highest it has been in almost three decades and far more jobs have been lost during Obama's first year than they were during Bush's last year."
Don't get it do you?
Let's see. There's a leak in the dam. The flood waters are rising. In the middle of that a new manager takes over. So the waters keep rising. Are you going to say that's the fault of the new manager? THAT'S bullshit.
REAGAN'S unemployment was HIGHER than Obama's thanks to a REAGAN change in how unemployment was calculated.
The economic situation was no where close to what Obama inherited.
NOW. Care to tell me how long Reagan's high unemployment period lasted?
Finally. According to OMB. If it wasn't for the stimulus package, unemployment would be at 25%.
Sort of blows holes in the justification of tax cuts for the wealthy creating jobs, doesn't it?
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dogjudge
February 10, 2010 4:38 PM
The Republicans were able to force more issues through the Senate with 55 or fewer votes than the Democrats have been able to do with 58 or 57.
Every day that Lieberman remains the head of the Homeland Security committee is like salt in a wound. He's on TV more than any Democrat. Then he has the audacity to keep telling the world what a great Republican he really is.
When are the Democrats going to get a set?
Healthcare and Nelson or Landrieu? Get on board or you're going to lose EVERY dollar that your states get. (Isn't that the way Cheney, Frist and DeLay got the message across.)
"I don't belong to an organized party. I'm a Democrat."
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johnnyba
February 10, 2010 4:39 PM
Yup, we've seen this before. Democrats whine and bawl about GOP obstructionism, meanness, and lack of real policy proposals in favor of loud bs and demagoguery. But as soon as anybody on the right offers real policy ideas we get right back to the same old attacks.
Give it a rest already. I supported and continue to support Obama because he had a reputation for not practicing these kinds of games and a nuanced way of addressing issues that made his claims to want not just bipartisan but cross-ideology solutions to be more believable. If he wins the tough issues and we get some things like health care reform it will be because he pulled of cross-ideology solutions. If he fails it will be because nobody can compromise and everyone is to cynical to believe that he wants to.
If the White House is directing these attacks they are undermining themselves. If progressives are just doing it on their own they are undermining the White House messages.
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midnight rambler
February 10, 2010 5:54 PM in reply to johnnyba
So when their real policy ideas turn out to be the same as before - i.e., to screw everyone over except for the very richest, and still not solve any of the problems - they don't deserve any criticism for it?
GMAFB.
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Indie Pro
February 10, 2010 5:48 PM
On a scale of one to 10, how have Democrats done on that score over the last year?
"About three or four," Stern says
yep
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jeffgee
February 10, 2010 5:51 PM
Return to the Bush era? How about the Hoover era?
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bluebell
February 10, 2010 6:01 PM in reply to jeffgee
Is either different from the Blue-Dog era?
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xargaw
February 10, 2010 5:58 PM
When the GOP had a smaller majority, they got their Bills through. The Democrats could do the same if they had real leadership even with the DINOs. Harry Reid is going to go down in history as the weakest leader ever. He is the "Wally Cox" of the Senate for those old enough to remember the characters Wally Cox used to play.
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drwu
February 10, 2010 6:12 PM
I give them zilch-- Obama, the man is tepid, dems in congress (with a few exceptions) are worse. Dems are like abused housewives--doormats that get repeatedly stepped on and worse. No mojo, wusses--they will go down the tubes and perhaps a progressive party will arise--not tied to Wall Street, free of the lobbyists, they will eliminate the filibuster, earmarks and holds in the senate--indeed eliminate that house of lords--the senate. End the empire--more trouble than it's worth--restore butter, diminish guns...
Free of Goldman-Sachs, free of the empire, free of the house of lords--free at last!
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Moose49
February 10, 2010 6:23 PM
As Harold Meyerson notes in today's Post, labor hasn't gotten shit out of this Congress so far. (As always, it's the dysfunctional Senate at fault.) They agreed to hold off on the Employee Free Choice Act until health care reform was enacted and in return they may get neither. They couldn't get through an outstanding nominee to the NLRB. They have gotten a lot from the DoL under Hilda Solis and a beefed up OSHA, but this is more behind the scenes stuff. "Three or four" out of 10 is probably about right, though a bit generous, I think.
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lalaland
February 10, 2010 6:58 PM
On a scale of one to 10, how have Democrats done on that score over the last year? "About three or four," Stern says.
And how has the union done, any union, any year, over the last 50 years? I'd give them a negative 3 or 4, and I'm a union supporter. Who the hell is he to cast blame when the unions have voted themselves into obsolescence over the last 50 years?
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midnight rambler
February 10, 2010 10:27 PM in reply to lalaland
I'd second that. Actually, SEIU is one of the better unions that does advocate for poorly-treated workers, but increasingly the public face of unions is the teachers' and public workers' unions - who excel at keeping incompetent people in the workforce - and the UAW, who has become more like a corporation and had a hand in fraudulent unionization.
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masanf
February 11, 2010 5:58 AM in reply to lalaland
Actually, the American worker has voted the unions into obsolescence.
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jward
February 10, 2010 7:20 PM
Norman Ornstein disagrees--"this Democratic Congress is on a path to become one of the most productive since the Great Society Congress in 1965-66, and Obama already has the most legislative success of any modern president"
Ornstein, an expert on the history of Congress, wrote this a few days ago--
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/article_65led2ab-3c16-5696-bb71-54dad3a78721.html
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masanf
February 11, 2010 5:55 AM in reply to jward
YEah, and his definition of productive is expanding the power of federal agencies. Wow, that is really something to be proud of. You made OSHA more powerful. That makes for a landslide come 2012.
I can think of no president who has done less his first year.
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jward
February 10, 2010 7:25 PM
It's in "The Cap Times;" if this doesn't pull it up search Norman Ornstein in "The Cap Times."
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/article_651ed2ab-3c16-5696-bb71-54dad3a78721.html
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masanf
February 11, 2010 5:58 AM in reply to jward
Oh please. Obama has been a failure by virtually every measure.
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masanf
February 11, 2010 5:53 AM
Now subtract a 2 or 3 from that, and you are dead on.
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Weiwen Ng
February 11, 2010 10:26 AM
Stern isn't quite correct - the Ryan budget is a roadmap to a 1950s-era government, not the 2000-era government.
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