Tag Archives: democrats

The Terrible Cost to Democrats and Our Nation of Ignoring Tom Frank’s Warnings

Posted on June 28, 2016 by William Black | 7 comments

By William K. Black
June 27, 2016 Kansas City, MO

Thomas Frank is a historian and writer. He is also the man who tried to save the Democratic Party and our Nation from great harm. He is the great chronicler of one of the most grievous, self-inflicted wounds in modern American history. Twelve years ago, in What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, Frank tried to warn the Democratic Party’s dominant elites’ that their policies and contempt for workers were pushing a large part of its base out of the Party. Many of the workers that were the Democratic Party’s traditional base were leaving the Party and failing to participate in elections, but some were supporting the far-right wing of the Republican Party. At the national level, the New Democrats’ candidates remained highly competitive, but the Republican Party was able to attain complete political domination of most states.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged democrats, tom frank

Democrats Need to Give Up Being Deficit Hawks Even When it Feels Good Politically

Posted on March 24, 2016 by William Black | 23 comments

By William K. Black
March 24, 2016 Bloomington, MN

Representative Nancy Pelosi has just written the latest effort by a prominent Democrat to bash Republicans for the high crime of not being financially illiterate. The Republicans are frequently financially illiterate on budget issues and they bash Democrats for the high crime of not being financially illiterate. The leaders of both parties share the hypocrisy of bashing the rival party for supporting budgetary stimulus in circumstances in which stimulus is vital. Particular forms of budgetary stimulus can be simultaneously desirable (relative to austerity) and inferior relative to alternative forms of budgetary stimulus. The Republican‘s favored form of budgetary stimulus – large tax cuts for the wealthy – is a remarkably inefficient means of providing stimulus that makes income inequality worse. Those two points are the correct bases for criticizing their proposed tax cuts. Far too many Democrats, however, cannot pass up the political opportunity to bash the Republicans for supporting stimulus when further stimulus is vital. When Democrats like Pelosi launch these myth-based political attacks on Republican stimulus programs they help to enshrine economically illiterate austerity policies that make it even harder for Democrats to make the case for stimulus even when it is essential.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged clinton, deficit hawks, democrats, Pelosi, republicans

How to Restore the Good Name of Government

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 63 comments

By Joe Firestone

Why is it that Washington village “progressives,” and their associates in other parts of the country who are nevertheless part of the Washington village culture, often ask useful questions, but, almost always deliver, underwhelming answers? Here’s an example from Richard Eskow, probably the best writer at Campaign for the American Future.

How do we restore the good name of government spending, which is especially important during periods of high unemployment and slow growth like these? First, by supporting those politicians who are unafraid to make the case. Second, by demanding that the reluctant ones take a bolder stand – without mixing their messages between spending and premature austerity. Third, by rejecting the insanity that today’s Republican Party represents. Some in the GOP are even opposing infrastructure spending – as America’s bridges, schools, highways and dams decay around us.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged Campaign for the American Future, debt, democrats, fixing the debt without breaking america, full recovery, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS deficit, medicare, MMT, modern money theory, republicans, Richard Eskow, rule of law, safety net, Social Security

What that Letter Should Have Said

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 6 comments

By Joe Firestone

On Valentine’s Day, Senator Bernie Sanders sent a letter to the President, authored by himself and signed by 15 other Senators, all Democrats. The letter was a response to the rumors that the President intends to include his Chained CPI proposal to cut Social Security benefits in the budget he will soon send to Congress. It summarized:

“Mr. President: These are tough times for our country. With the middle class struggling and more people living in poverty than ever before, we urge you not to propose cuts in your budget to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits which would make life even more difficult for some of the most vulnerable people in America.

We look forward to working with you in support of the needs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor – and all working Americans.”

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged bernie sanders, CBO, chained CPI, debt, deficit, democrats, fixing the debt without breaking america, medicaid, medicare, President Obama, republicans, safety net, Senators, Social Security

Dear Dr. Krugman: Please Let Me Explain

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 15 comments

By Joe Firestone

Paul Krugman can’t explain why the deficit issue has suddenly dropped off the agenda. He says:

. . . quite suddenly the whole thing has dropped off the agenda.

You could say that this reflects the dwindling of the deficit — but that’s old news; anyone doing the math saw this coming quite a while ago. Or you could mention the failure of the often-predicted financial crisis to arrive — but after so many years of being wrong, why should a few months more have caused the deficit scolds to disappear in a puff of smoke?

Why indeed are they so quiet? Could it be because the deficit hawks have succeeded in getting the short-term result they want, which is a likely deficit too small to sustain the private savings and import desires of most Americans, and also because the political climate is such right now that they cannot make progress on their longer term entitlement-cutting program until after the coming elections have resolved the issue of whether there will be strong resistance to such a campaign if they renew it? Let’s look at the budget outlook first.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged CBO, debt, deficit, deficit hawks, democrats, entitlement cuts, Eurozone, medicare, paul krugman, Peter G. Peterson, republicans, Social Security, Warrn Buffett

What Now?

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 61 comments

By Joe Firestone

Today, John Boehner bowed to the inevitable logic of the impending political season and placed a “clean” debt ceiling increase bill on the floor of the House. At this writing, the bill passed with 28 Republican and 193 Democratic votes. Now it moves on to the Senate, where it is expected to pass in time to allow the Treasury to keep issuing debt instruments.

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Tagged #PCS, $60 T coin, 2014 elections, debt ceiling crisis, democrats, Green Party, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, platinum coin seigniorage, republicans, US Mint

Obama should listen to Obama about avoiding Self-Inflicted Wounds

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Devin Smith | 9 comments

By William K. Black

On Friday, December 21, 2012, President Obama announced:

“‘As of today I am still ready and willing to get a comprehensive package done,’ Obama said, specifically urging lawmakers to craft a deal that would protect middle-class Americans from a tax hike set to be implemented if no deal is met.

Obama said he spoke with GOP House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Friday, asking the congressional leaders to come up with a smaller fiscal package in the next 10 days.

‘Now is not the time for more self-inflicted wounds, certainly not coming from Washington,’ Obama said.”

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, democrats, fiscal cliff, obama, republicans

Fueled by Deficit Hysteria, Obama and the Republicans Are Choosing the Path of “Economicide”

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Devin Smith | 27 comments

By Michael Hoexter

In the “fiscal cliff” negotiations and the subsequent debt limit talks between Obama and the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, it appears that there will be no “good guys” because the talks and policy framework within which they are operating are at odds with the welfare of the American people. Set up by a series of interactions over the last four years between Obama and his nominal opponents in the Republican Party, the framework of the negotiations ignores the way that the US government finances itself as well as the only known economic policy orientation which will allow our economy to thrive; the proposed policies and negotiations have been to date economically illiterate. The biggest losers in these talks if they “succeed” according to the self-evaluations of the Republican and Democratic leaderships will be the American people and politically the Democrats who go along with a framework that demands cuts in federal budget deficits at all costs. Continue reading →

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Posted in Michael Hoexter

Tagged Deficit Hysteria, democrats, economicide, fiscal cliff, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, obama, republicans

Populist Revolution? How a Bold New Voter Coalition Can Reshape the Nation

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Devin Smith | 17 comments

By Marshall Auerback
Cross-Posted from AlterNet.org

Minorities, independent women, gays, working-class white voters, and younger people overcame through high turnout a fierce social conservative block.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

Tuesday’s election will be regarded as a pivotal one in US history. For 30 years the top 1 percent has manipulated the masses to vote against their own interests. It was able to do that because the feelings of the white middle and lower classes about social issues overwhelmed their economic considerations.

But something interesting happened this year: high levels of minority and young voter turnout, together with an increased Obama-tilt among all voters earning less than $50,000 a year, routed the GOP. In one sense, the election represents the triumph of the Reverend Jesse Jackson and his “Rainbow Coalition.” The Reverend Jackson was the first serious challenge of a black man for the presidency, and with his Rainbow Coalition, he ran for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and in 1988, with a platform that represented an anthology of progressive ideas from the 1960s. He attracted a large number of supporters, many of them from the white working-class. Each time his movement looked like it was gaining electoral traction, the Democratic Party establishment would invariably mobilize against him and elect feeble white liberals – Mondale and Dukakis – who plummeted to defeat by Reagan and George Bush Sr. Continue reading →