This “Lightworker” dude is an interesting guy
Now he’s offering to cut Social Security. He really is a gravy train for the GOP, isn’t he? With Obama they get more than they ever dreamed of getting in terms of tax cuts, spending cuts, supply-side Reaganomics, bankster bailouts, destruction of the social compact—yet at the same time, they get to continue to play the part of aggrieved opposition party, rallying their base for donations so they can “take back the country.” It’s quite a little show.
On that note, Ezra Klein has an interesting graph up today:
I wish the chart included the second President Bush; it would be interesting to compare his deals with the others. I do know that Congress voted to increase the debt ceiling seven times during his presidency, raising the overall debt limit by $5 trillion. Raising the debt ceiling used to be a normal thing to do, the kind of bookkeeping that any functioning nation does in order to honor its obligations. Until now. Now it’s a pretext to demand even lower taxes on rich people and lower spending on poor people.
Speaking of taxes, here’s another set of charts showing that the U.S. is already one of the lowest tax-rate countries in the developed world:
And this set of charts not only compares the U.S. to other countries, but shows how our tax rates have nosedived over time:
I don’t know why I even bother to put those charts up, really. It feels so futile. Obviously the rich people running the show (very much including President Obama) have decided to plunder the country. As Paul Krugman noted the other day (and as I predicted so many times in 2008), we only have one party now. The party of pillage.
P.S. To those of you inquiring about my health: I haven’t had surgery yet. I am still seeing doctors and trying to get it all coordinated, since the CAT scan revealed some other stuff going on that needs to be dealt with. I am ENORMOUSLY grateful to everyone who has donated and to everyone who continues to chip in. It means the world to me.
18 Responses to “This “Lightworker” dude is an interesting guy”
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myiq2xu says:
Remember how the Obots warned us that McCain would cut Social Security?
July 7th, 2011 at 6:50 pm EST -
Cleaver says:
@ myiq: Yeah. And threaten women’s reproductive rights and freedom. But, hey — “Lily Ledbetter! Lily Ledbetter!”
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Carmonn says:
Some of Obama’s supporters are “defending” him by claiming he’s trying to make the Republicans look unreasonable when they reject his “reasonable” compromise.
As long as nobody worries too much about the effects of shifting the boundaries of debate further and further right, not to mention the effects of actually implementing these policies, this is apparently quite the genius move.
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elliesmom says:
Still waiting on FOCA. And the Paycheck Fairness Act. Tell me again why women should vote for Democrats? I know, because the Republicans are so much worse. But “so much worse” gets less worse everyday. It’s going to be easy to vote for a Republican if it’s a woman running this time. There won’t be anything else to consider. The parties will be indistinguishable.
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myiq2xu says:
I always especially enjoy that argument from liberals and progressives. “Oh, the Democrats might be doing most of the same things, well, practically all the same things, and maybe some of the things Obama’s doing are even worse … but the Republicans are crazy!”
Yeah, I see how that works. Obama and the Democrats do all this — and they’re entirely sane. They know exactly what they’re doing, why, and even what the effects will be.
This, we are repeatedly assured, is a notable improvement, for which we should be properly grateful.
IOW – Republicans are crazy, but Democrats are evil
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myiq2xu says:
Obama definitely is a light worker.
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angie says:
First, please, please sticky the Blegging post to the top around the 20th of the month — I can definitely contribute again then, but I can also promise you that I will space out & forget to do it on my own.
Second, I have long believed that TPTB wanted Obama in 2008 so they could finish off what GWB started, with the added bonus of all the Dems STFUing about it. Really, what ELSE does the man need to do to make the Dems wake up? I also suspect it will be Romney’s job to lose the 2012 GE so that Obama can continue dismantling SS, Medicare, etc, which the Dems will continue to praise as his “11th dimensional chess moves” to make the GOP look “unreasonable.” {rolls eyes}
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lambert strether says:
I’m gonna get a PONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* * *
I’ve been adopting, for the Lightbringer, the sobriquet “President Fuck You.” It seems apt.
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dandelion says:
Well, apparently Plouffe doesn’t think voters really care about the unemployment rate, and I’m assuming he must think they don’t care about their Social Security checks, either — I mean, hell, wages, benefits — they’re only money, and what’s money in your pocket and food on your table compared to the soaring experience of hearing Obama’s speechifying and watching his beautiful family on campaign ads? Or the chance to buy a cool new t-shirt with Obama’s face on it?
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Carmonn says:
Some percentage of Obama’s supporters are viscerally repelled by older people, especially older women, and the poor. I don’t think cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are necessarily dealbreakers by any means.
Which is why I wish Obama’s actual liberal and radical supporters had given some thought to how they were going to react if it turned out that the Lightbringer failed to fulfill their expectations and instead performed more as his record would indicate.
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angie says:
Betty Ford is dead at 93. Feminist, supporter of equal pay & the ERA. She also raised awareness of breast cancer following her own masectomy & alcoholism, after talking about her problems with it in the 1970s. She will be missed.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/08/betty.ford.dies/ -
myiq2xu says:
“President Fuck You.”
We just call him “Dick”
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tinfoil hattie says:
Obama didn’t have any actual liberal and radical supporters. Those people wanted Hillary Clinton.
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Violet Socks says:
Some people were genuinely fooled by Obama. Some people still are. It depends on where they get their news and how tuned in they are.
For me, this whole thing is making me throwing-up sick. It’s unfuckingbelievable. The deficit isn’t even the thing we should be worrying about right now, but even if we were, how about actually focusing on the CAUSE of the deficit? How about getting rid of the goddamn Bush tax cuts, which drove the deficit up trillions? How about fixing it so that billionaires and corporations actually pay some goddamn tax? This is a country where GM and Exxon pay NO FUCKING CORPORATE INCOME TAX, and these goddamn parasites in Washington want to balance the budget by cutting Social Security benefits.
Obama is a goddamn nightmare.
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Toonces says:
My betters in the Creative Class, who were definitely NOT low-information (low-class) voters like the Hillary supporters will finally do something now, I just know it. /snark
Seriously though, I think a lot of them vastly overestimate their own positions in the class hierarchy. Even if they’re OK, what are they going to do when their parents or siblings or disabled children need to be supported?
Has anyone kept track of how many times Obama has praised Reagan/supply-side, starting with his campaign? Of course, even the supply-siders knew that the Bush tax cuts had to be temporary or we would end up exactly where we are. That’s why they set an expiration date.
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djmm says:
It is sad to say, but I thought at the time that McCain was actually more liberal than Obama and the Democratic Congress would have checked him if necessary. But Hillary was my choice.
Can you believe the President said that we need patent reform to create jobs? Mind blowing.
djmm
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K.A. says:
There’s been no shortage of appropriate times to wear such a thing, but I think now more than ever is a good time to print up the “Don’t blame me, I voted for the Green Party” shirts.
How much do you wanna bet Lightworker will be remembered not for being the useless dem we knew he would be, but as the poor innocent liberal martyr Jesus who was saddled with a recession for reasons outside of his control?
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K.A. says:
Violet,
Get well soon. Wishing you the best!
