Washblog

The truth is Reid and Obama asked for this bipartisan punishment and they got it. Look, it's this simple: If the Democratic Party can't learn to propose and oppose, persuade and win, then the Democratic Party will have to go, because they will have become a danger to society. Oh, BTW, as of a few minutes ago, the White House is coming out positive on Reid's piece of crap.

In case you think I'm overstating the case about the Democrats, look at the massively-popular and tremendously-necessary extension of COBRA benefits. Clearly that would be a central tool in the Democrats' healthcare/economic stimulus toolkit, right? No, rather than use that legislation as the centerpiece of a comprehensive package on jobs and healtcare benefits, Reid just hacked it off. This leaves Senators of either party able to attach this essential piece of legislation to whatever crappy tax-cut milquetoast they want. COBRA is the Democrats legislative shot at getting some good, Progressive legislation through. Now they've handed it to the Republicans.

How bad is the situation?

"Liberal" rags such as "The Atlantic" and the Washington Post are portraying Republican Paul Ryan's ridiculous "Roadmap for America's Future" plan to turn government into a direct private-sector subsidy so corporations can rip off the taxpayers at will as a brave effort at honest politics. Of course, so-called "moderate" Republicans like David Brooks praise this worthless junk as some impossible dream of rationality in an irrational world. EVEN PRESIDENT OBAMA is calling this piece of corporate-welfare garbage "detailed" and "legitimate".

The good news is:

The Atlantic are a bunch of losers whose once-great magazing has become a middling blog. Paul Samuelson of the Washington Post is a columnist who never thinks anything can be done about anything and says things like "It's not insurers that cause high health costs; they're simply the middlemen." David Brooks is a Tea Party apologist cloaked in Edmund Burke and sensible glasses and, I hope, President Obama is being polite, stalling for time while he figures out what to do next.

Paul Ryan's corporate-subsidy plan can be the dishonest start to an honest debate Progressives can win: Massive spending cuts to eliminate deficits and avoid taxes now that the wealthy are being asked to foot the bill for decades of fake growth versus the American government leading the charge to bring enlightened compassion and the best information capital to America and the world.

The choice is simple: do we give up and let the jackals of Rogue Economics gnaw on the bones of the world economy or do we change the nature of economics from anti-social chiseling and bullying to an effort at teaching, trust and transformative transaction which goes beyond "Don't Be Evil" to "Help Others Do Good."

The world is filled with doctors who want to cure, business owners who want to hire, people in every walk of life who want to do the right thing. Basically, the problem is that they are so afraid of being mocked by the Sarah Palins, Bill O'Reillys and Ayn Rands of the world and threatened by the Cheneys and Ahmadinejads, gansters and bin Ladens of the world, they are afraid to act.

President Obama will have to make a choice: keep going with the cowards like Reid and the Republicans or move forward.