"Ted Rall"- GOP Strategy Wrecks Economy and Obama in One Fell Swoop

Ross Douthat, the conservative columnist who elevates bland to middle-brow art for The New York Times, thinks Republicans have overreached in their showdown with Obama over the debt ceiling. “[The Republicans'] inability to make even symbolic concessions has turned a winning hand into losing one,” he says.

Advantage, according to Douthat, representing the mainstream media: Obama.

Of course, Obama had already agreed to begin dismantling Social Security and Medicare, surrenders Republicans have craved for decades. If he pulls off this “victory” Obama will have done more damage to the Democratic Party and its core values than any president in our lifetimes. How will he promote what Douthat fears will be a “victory”? I wonder.

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"Robert Kuttner" - The End Game -- Saving Obama From Himself

Published on Monday, July 18, 2011 by Demos

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/18-8

by Robert Kuttner

As the debt doomsday of August 2 draws closer, what sort of end-game can we imagine?

The worst scenario would be for an outbreak of common sense and self-interest to overtake the extremism of the House Republican caucus. If the Republicans were to accept Obama's proffered deal, they would weaken Social Security and Medicare -- and put the Democrats' fingerprints on the deed -- depriving Democrats of their traditional defense of America's best loved social programs. They would also get a ten-year deficit-reduction agreement that is mostly program cuts. And they would get an austerity package that guarantees high unemployment as Obama heads into a difficult re-election. And a Democratic president is offering this deal!

The Republicans would also get to savor the spectacle of a badly divided Democratic Party, as the White House twists arms of unwilling House and Senate Democrats to vote for a right-wing package.

It's quite a drama. Who will save us from a perverse approach to deficit reduction that is bad economics and worse politics -- the unreality of the Republicans, or the principled resistance of rank and file Democrats?

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"Farah Stockman" - Obama, US Viewed Less Favorably in Arab World, Poll Shows

Published on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/07/obama-viewed-less-favorably-arab-world-poll-shows/yIVn6f6PueWbdhZutglhoJ/index.html

“It’s because expectations were created that were not met”

by Farah Stockman

The United States is viewed less favorably in much of the Arab world today than it was during the final year of the Bush administration, and President Obama is less popular in the region than Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to a poll released today by the Arab American Institute, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group.

Attitudes towards the US president and the United States as a whole have been growing increasingly negative over the past ten years due to the invasion of Iraq, outrage over Guantanamo Bay, and continued frustration over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which has been tracking attitudes for a decade.

But the current poll is striking in that is illustrates how far Obama’s favorability has fallen in the region, after an initial optimistic spike when he took office.

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"Anthony DiMaggio" - Obama's Political Suicide – Debt Reduction Will End His Presidency

By ANTHONY DiMAGGIO

http://counterpunch.org/dimaggio07132011.html

The Obama administration is committing political suicide with its debt negotiations, and it’s not entirely clear that there should be much of a protest from the American people.  Obama’s center-right attempts to “compromise” by seeking major cuts to Social Security (a program that is currently not in financial trouble, but in fact running a surplus) and Medicare (in which hundreds of billion in cuts are being sought) will inevitably harm the American middle and working classes.  Obama claims that the “sacrifices” (which he will not be forced to endure) are necessary in order to come to an agreement with Republicans over deficit reduction.  He is wrong.  If he continues to push this agenda, we should organize around an alternative, progressive candidate for 2012. 

Obama’s proposed cuts concede far too much to the Republicans.  He supports ending tax loopholes for the rich and reducing the Bush tax cuts (for the wealthy) in a package that would see less than $1 trillion in total revenue savings from these sources.  Compare that to the additional $3 trillion in cuts he’s seeking over ten years – much of which will come from popular social programs – and one begins to see that he really is “bending over backwards” to placate Republicans’ elitist agenda, as he complained in his recent national address.  Such cuts go far beyond the compromise supported by Democrats, in which sacrifices by the masses would equal half of the total revenue increases, and the closing of tax cuts for the wealthy would include another half.  Obama’s proposed cuts even go beyond those cuts pushed by Republicans, as they had not originally mentioned Social Security payment reductions as part of their demands.

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Robert Reich: The President's Jobs Plan (Not)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-President-s-Jobs-Plan-by-Robert-Reich-110712-410.html

July 12, 2011

By Robert Reich

What did the President do in response to last week's horrendous job report -- unemployment rising to 9.2 percent in June, with only 18,000 new jobs (125,000 are needed each month just to keep up with the growth in the potential labor force)?

He said the economy continues to be in a deep hole, and he urged Congress to extend the temporary reduction in the employee part of the payroll tax, approve pending free-trade agreements, and pass a measure to streamline patent procedures.

To call this inadequate would be a gross understatement.

Here's what the President should have said:

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Fred Branfman: Obama's Secret Wars: How Our Shady Counter-Terrorism Policies Are More Dangerous Than Terrorism

By Fred Branfman, AlterNet
Posted on July 11, 2011, Printed on July 13, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151596/obama%27s_secret_wars%3A_how_our_shady_counter-terrorism_policies_are_more_dangerous_than_terrorism

Although President's Obama's partial Afghan troop withdrawal announcement has received more attention, his June 29 "National Strategy for Counterterrorism" is of far greater long-term significance. This remarkable document states that the U.S. government intends to "disrupt, dismantle, and eventually defeat al-Qa'ida and its affiliates and adherents," in the following "areas of focus": "The Homeland, South Asia, Arabian Peninsula, East Africa,Europe, Iraq, Maghreb and Sahel, Southeast Asia (and) Central Asia." 

This assassination strategy is already operational in six Muslim countries with a combined population of 280 million: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, which has become a laboratory experiment for urban drone assassinations. The London Sunday Times reported a year ago that "President Obama has secretly sanctioned a huge increase in the number of US special forces ... with American troops now operating in 75 countries." There are presently 60,000 Special Operations forces worldwide, with 7,000 U.S. assassins unleashed upon Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq. Lt.-Col. John Nagle (ret.), an enthusiastic assassination supporter, has correctly called these operations "an almost industrial-scale counterterrorism killing machine."

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John Nichols: Obama Peddles Worst of GOP Thinking on Medicare

Published on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 by The Nation

http://www.thenation.com/blog/161927/if-obama-hikes-medicare-eligbility-age-thatll-be-12-percent-benefit-cut

If Obama Hikes Medicare Eligbility Age, That'll Be a 12 Percent Benefit Cut

by John Nichols

The word in Washington is that President Obama has, in negotiations with congressional Republicans, offered to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67.
 
A report in the Washington Post quoted "a Democratic official familiar with the discussions," while other media outlets quoted multiple unnamed sources with knowledge of the talks the president and congressional leaders have been engaged in with regard to raising the debt ceiling. All the reports suggest that Obama would trade the change in the eligibility age for a Republican agreement to accept some new taxes.
 
Obama essentially acknowledged as much Monday, when he said: “I’m prepared to take significant heat from my party to get something done."
 
And rightly so.

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“Steve Kornacki” - Does Obama realize that a "grand bargain" would be fool's gold?

Repeat after me: Voters don't care about deficits -- no matter what they say

Steve Kornacki

July 11, 2011

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/07/11/obama_grand_bargain

Republican leaders pretty much made it clear over the weekend that a "grand bargain" on long-term deficit reduction is out of the question right now, thanks to their base's absolute unwillingness to accept tax increases of any kind. But President Obama is apparently still pushing for one anyway. Per the New York Times:

White House officials said Mr. Obama was still determined to pursue the boldest package possible — one that would require new tax revenue as well as cuts in Medicare and other entitlement programs — but he faces steadfast opposition from Republicans and growing qualms among Democrats.

The question of why Obama, who dramatically put the grand-bargain concept on the table last week, is doing all of this is an interesting one.

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“Erik Wasson” - Liberal Senators Warn Obama Over Social Security Cuts in Any Debt Deal

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/09-3

Published on Saturday, July 9, 2011 by The Hill (Washington, DC)

Bernie Sanders promises to filibuster if White House proposes 'piece of crap'

by Erik Wasson

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) warned Friday that President Obama faces turmoil in the Senate and in his reelection campaign if he includes Social Security cuts in any debt-ceiling deal.

The senators said the White House has not communicated effectively to Senate Democrats and they and their rank-and-file colleagues are being frozen out of the process.

“I have talked to some of my colleagues, including some that you might not expect, who say if [White House officials] bring to the Senate a piece of crap that comes down heavy on working families and children and the elderly and they expect me to matter-of-factly vote for it, they'll have another thing coming,” Sanders said. He added that he would filibuster such a deal.

“I do worry that the White House is misreading the Senate and taking things for granted,” Whitehouse said. “There has not been enough communication to alleviate that potential misreading.”

Sanders wants Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to rule out any benefit cuts, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has done.

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That "Sanders for President" Talk is Real Enough, But Bernie's Not Going There

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders finished 2010 with a filibuster that highlighted his differences with the Obama administration when it comes to economic policy.

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