Robert Reich: Now is the time to lance the boil of Republican extremism once and for all

[kpete]

Why Giving Republican Bullies a Bloody Nose Isn’t Enough
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2013

.................

Since Barack Obama became president, the extremists who have taken over the Republican Party have escalated their demands every time he’s caved, using the entire government of the United States as their bargaining chit.

......

The government is shuttered and the nation is on the verge of defaulting on its debts. But public opinion has turned sharply against the Republican Party. And the GOP’s corporate and Wall Street backers are threatening to de-fund it.

Suddenly the Republicans are acting like the school-yard bully who terrorized the playground but finally got punched in the face. They’re in shock. They’re humiliated. They’re trying to come up with ways of saving face.

With bloodied nose, House Republicans are running home. They’ve abruptly turned negotiations over to their Senate colleagues.


................
http://robertreich.org/post/63873198693

[Cirque du So-What]

1. I'd go further in my assessment of their 'bargaining chit'

Economies around the world are being held hostage - along with billions of lives.

[jsr]

3. They're economic terrorists of the worst kind.

[ffr]

6. A cancer, if you will.

Eating our democracy up from within.

[fasttense]

32. SO....... what happened to the United States policy of NOT

Negotiating with Terrorists? I guess, the President never got that memo????

[MoonRiver]

37. Is he bargaining?

I believe he's holding fast.

[kardonb]

38. dgen. disc.

the repukes are nothing less than domestic and international terrorists , period ! Hoist them on their own petard of total evilness .

[Skink]

2. Honey I shrunk the Tea Party

[bobGandolf]

4. The time is now....

show no mercy.

[99Forever]

5. The important question of this piece...

... is the final line:

"The question is how thoroughly President Obama has learned that extortionist demands escalate if you give in to them."

The answer to that determines where we go in the future.

[kpete]

7. 99Forever

Reich highlights a real problem

In 2010 he agreed to extend all of the Bush tax cuts through the end of 2012. Were they satisfied? Of course not.

......In response, the President offered an overly-generous $4 trillion “Grand Bargain,” including cuts in Social Security and Medicare and whopping cuts in domestic spending (bringing it to its lowest level as a share of gross domestic product in over half a century)......

When they demanded more, Obama agreed to a Super Committee to find bigger cuts, and if the Super Committee failed, a “sequester” that would automatically and indiscriminately slice everything in the federal budget except Social Security and Medicare.......

By the end of 2012, they insisted that the Bush tax cuts be permanently extended or the nation would go over the “fiscal cliff.” Once again, Obama caved, agreeing to permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for incomes up to $400,000.........

Obama offered more cuts in Medicare and a “chained CPI” to reduce Social Security payments, in exchange for Republican concessions on taxes......

PEACE,
KP

[on point]

8. That sums it up. Should've let the Bush tax cuts expire first time

Put us back on sound fiscal and social track as well as defeated the bullies first time through. This failure to understand his opposition and how to deal with has been Obama's biggest failure

[airplaneman]

25. I agree 100%.

By compromising at $400K instead of $250K Obama gave up 80% of the revenue that would have been generated - it was a massive win for the GOP.
-Airplane

[fasttense]

34. Is it possible to agree more than 100% ?

I can not understand why the President EVER agreed to the GOP's demands on the Bush tax cuts.
Unless he agreed that those tax cuts were a good idea. Same with the Social Security chained CPI and all of the other stupid ideas the GOP has demanded.

It has taken this President, and the Democratic party 5 years to find a backbone, lets just hope they do not give in again to these bullies.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. Thank you for the concise summary.

[CrispyQ]

14. This summary is why he's where he is today.

I expect to see cuts to SS & Medicare before this president leaves office.

[Babel_17]

16. The can has been kicked down the road, now we arrive at a dead end.

Let's have it out, in public.

[polichick]

11. Exactly. When Democratic voters understood that he was up against sociopaths...

...the President did not. Does he get it now?

[Skittles]

21. it truly dismays me how long it took Obama to learn that lesson

[Coyotl]

10. I Liked him on Fb, so this was on my NewsFeed.

[arely staircase]

12. Hear fuckin' Hear! nt

[hue]

13. I agree with Reich that the time to put an end to this insanity is NOW!

There can be no caving in, no concessions! We need to go straight for the artery or "boil" as Reich so thoughtfully puts it.
So much harm is being done to so many Americans, to our democracy, our ethics and community that NO MORE of this absolute fantasy based agenda can be tolerated!! It is a cancer (as I call it) within our society and must be removed!!

[dotymed]

36. We need reform from the SCOTUS on down.

Citizens United my ass. This is what happens when you allow the fox to guard the hen house.

This (if there is time) is a great time for "OCCUPY" to make a large resurgence. Maybe with some leaders. I understood the reluctance (learned through our history) of having leaders able to make decisions. We can have them and vote on their decisions.

First, we must "win the hearts and minds" of the militarized police or be willing to suffer more incarceration.

America has failed, lets give the people a chance.

[Babel_17]

15. K&R

Yet again Robert Reich presents the pertinent facts, pointedly and persuasively.

[B Calm]

17. Boy, I couldn't agree more!!!

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

18. Show these sociopaths no quarter,

take no prisoners.

[BlueJazz]

19. I'm pessimistic about the future. I believe the Republicans will suffer some loses but...

..with the right-wing pretty much dominating the information that is received by the American people, the Republicans will, once more, become the Moral, strong, Mom and apple-Pie, Flag waving pack of liars that they always have been.

And enough of the American voters will buy the whole dog and pony show once again....
I sincerely believe the American empire will eventually semi-collapse.
There's just too many low-info voters.
There's just too much gerrymandering
There's just too many right-wing stations, papers, talk shows.

Look at the margin that George Bush and Obama won their seats.

George should have received 15-25 percent (by his ACTUAL deeds)
Obama should have EASILY won by 60 percent.

I'm sorry, I'll say my thoughts one more time > Too many ignorant American Voters... Period.

[SharonAnn]

20. And there's too much "scrubbing" of voter rolls and Voter ID requirements

All of which are targeted to disproportionally eliminate Democratic voters.

[calimary]

22. Soooo... what do we do about it?

I have my doubts that even President Obama standing firm, and Democrats standing united, will work.

I think the opposition isn't being taken seriously enough, or fought hard-assed enough. We underestimate them at our - heck, at EVERYONE'S peril. These people we're up against think they're right. They think God is on their side. Therefore, adverse public opinion polls and logic and facts and scientific research and changing mores and widespread editorial condemnation will have no influence in opening their eyes. Especially when they're convinced beyond all reason and evidence that their eyes are already opened, thankyouverymuch. They don't take things like facts or reality into account. They now deny not only global warming but also the severity of a default. They think the warnings are BS and a liberal plot to scare people. They believe firmly that the Founders founded this nation on the Christian Bible and that this was set up as a flat-out Christian nation. And it's an in-yer-face Christianity that seeks to dictate behavior in all things including legal and governmental as well as social and cultural. The hardest of the hard-asses among the opposition believe they have a Divine Right of sorts - to rule and to dictate.

So we're up against a lot.

The koch brothers have already begun to try distancing themselves from the teabagger monster they created. But I don't know that this will make any difference. Even Wall Street and the real high-rollers stepping in - don't know if that will be enough. There's no way to guess. Rachel Maddow explored that the other night - how these folks are just outside the ball park as far as what can be expected of them and what they think is worth fighting for, to the bitter end, whatever that may be. So there's simply no way to project or predict.

And we don't know the end game either. Except for hoping and praying OUR side doesn't cave.

[sabrina 1]

30. And we have a few of them in our own party. Maybe that's where we need to

begin. Clear the Dem Party of those who support the Austerity policies, the Freidman School of Economics which benefits only the top 1%. We don't need one and a half Republican Parties, we need a strong, determined, unyeilding party of the People. The Dem Party hasn't 'caved', the Dem Party has been infiltrated. Those who created the Tea Party knew long ago they could not take over completely unless they took over both parties, or at least enough of the Dem Party to ensure enough votes for their vile policies.

And the accomplished it. And I will no longer listen to the propaganda we've been handed for over a decade now, that we 'need to compromise' or that 'we can't win without taking in these phony Dems.

Enough, this is where all that 'pragmatism' has led us. We knew it, we were right and it cannot continue any longer.

Reich always got it. He knew what they were up to, in OUR Party.


I hope no one ever again tells me we have to have Republicans in a Dem Cabinet or that we have to vote for Right Wingers who slap a 'D' after their name. No we don't.

[calimary]

39. What you said, sabrina 1! TOTALLY!!!

And since you bring it up - how many damn times have we come to the point where we've said some version of "...we knew it, we were right..."

Too bad our side has been so bad-rapped and marginalized, and that the whole concept of "liberal" has been rendered a dirty word. The liberal mindset produced all the good things that help people in need in this country, and help level the playing field, and keep those fundamental words true: about us ALL being "created equal."

I seldom use the word "right" anymore because it's been so perverted and bastardized. But in the truest sense, that word IS us here on the left.

We were right about the right to vote.
We were right about the rights of women - to control their own lives, fates, and bodies.
We were right about the "bedroom busybodies" and the damage they do.
We were right about the social safety net.
We were right about government being a force for good.
We were right about the racism and the damage it does, and the racists and the damage they do.
We were right about the evils of privatizing everything.
We were right about our current President - YES HE IS A NATIVE AMERICAN. GET OVER IT, YOU STUPID FUCKING ASSHOLES!!!!
We were right about scalia, thomas, and alito.
We were right about Iraq.
We were right about bush/cheney.
We were right about the teabaggers.
We were right about climate change.
We were right about human rights.
We were right about personal freedoms of the sexual kind.
We were right about containing the military.
We were right about the folly of American adventurism, aggression, and imperialism across the globe.
We were right about keeping ideology out of our schools and forced Christianism OUT of our science text books.
We were right about regulating Wall Street.
We were right about regulating corporations.
We were right about regulations being VERY necessary and important.
We were right about the oil companies.
We were right about the banks.
We were right about reagan and reaganomics.
We were right about the bush crime family.
We were right about importance of the separation of church and state.
We were right about sensible gun regulations.
We were right about broadcasting regulations.
We were right about the media take-over by the wrong wing, and the poison that spews everywhere and infects everything!
We were right about the republi-CONS in general - and how fucking EVIL they are!!!

I could go on but I know I'm annoying people. Besides, putting lists together like this, even spur-of-the-moment, starts me annoying myself!

[Ed Suspicious]

29. They create a narrative, they get on message, they stay on message in spite of all factual evidence

against their position. They are truly skilled at making themselves believe their own bullshit and they use fear and loathing to pick up new low information voters along the way.

Sadly, I agree with your assessment.

[blkmusclmachine]

23. DC: Bought lock-stock-barrel by the 1%. Nobody's "lancing" anybody in the Rich Man's Club.

[DissidentVoice]

24. Reich is RIGHT!

Not "Rush is Right," REICH is right!

[gopiscrap]

26. That's a good way of putting it

[RainDog]

27. k&r n/t

[Doctor_J]

28. running home?

More denial. Bad strategy.

[cui bono]

31. "The question is how thoroughly President Obama has learned that extortionist demands escalate

if you give in to them."

Yes. That is the real question. We already know that the Banana Republicans are nuts and don't give a shit. But they have been being enabled by the Dem leadership up to now, and even in this "fight" as well with the partial funding going on, especially the military.

So PBO, have you learned your lesson? I hope so.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. THE BOIL!!!

[greiner3]

35. I've had a boil lanced, and it was so gross the doctor let out a gasp!