David Sirota: "Swinging for the Fences": The Major League Moment In American Politics

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



"Swinging for the Fences": The Major League Moment In American Politics
By David Sirota

March 2nd, 2009 - 2:03pm ET


"I cannot hit curveball. Straightball I hit it very much." - Pedro Cerrano, Major League (1989)


If there's one thing you can say with absolute certainty about Barack Obama as a politician, it is that he learns - and then improvises, adapts and overcomes, as Clint Eastwood rasps in Heartbreak Ridge. There is no better example of his agility than his first budget.

In pushing the stimulus legislation, Obama initially opted to prioritize his campaign promises of "bipartisanship" over some of his promises of progressive policy. The end result was Republican stonewalling and a bill whose substance and public approval was (while still solid) unnecessarily weakened.

The budget is exactly the opposite. Having learned that Republicans aren't interested in bipartisanship, and - more importantly - having grasped that he must start any legislative negotiation from a position of strength, he sent Congress a budget that is unabashedly progressive - and packaged in overtly populist, "I work for Americans not lobbyists" rhetoric.

The substance is far bolder than most imagined - among other things, it includes more than half a trillion dollars for universal health care and it frontally assaults Reaganomics with proposals to increase taxes on the super-rich, hedge fund managers and polluters. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009031002/swinging-fences-major-league-moment-american-politics

[SharonRB]

1. I'm afraid to see how watered down it gets once it's final

:hi:

[marmar]

2. Me too......

Let's hope Congress will stand up this time.....

[chill_wind]

3. K & R. This is significant praise coming from Sirota.

Nobody tells him what to think or say, no matter who's in charge.

"In short, the president isn't succumbing to the Washington conventional wisdom that says populism - ie. doing what people want - is a bad thing, nor is he succumbing to the conventional wisdom that says he must pretend (and therefore govern as if) America is a "center-right" nation. Even in the less-than-perfect acts, we are starting to see his recognition of a truly new politics: The coupling of status quo giveaways like an extended bank bailout with strongly progressive initiatives shows he believes even in appeasing the Establishment, he has to also appease We the People. That's a paradigm shift from a past era that pretended We the People didn't even exist."

[GeorgeGist]

4. That $500 billion for 'health care' ...

includes about $200 billion that will be wasted on profits.

[tomp]

5. but, but, we have to compromise and negotiate....

.. with insurance and big pharma. don'tcha know?