It was a speech that progressives should very much appreciate....

[FrenchieCat]

I know I liked what I heard.

He wants to raise taxes on the rich,
has vowed not to touch medicare benefits,
continue with spending on those items Progressives like
(education, research, clean energy and Infrastructure)
and make cuts in defense.

Oh...and he demolished the Republicans.
He called them selfish and no can't do folks,
who are unpatriotic if they don't support increase
taxes for millionaires.

He used the Bully Pulpit.....
so now, it is our turn....
it is up to us to follow up,
because he's thrown us the ball,
as we will have to fight congress...
because we are the voices of the people....
and for what this President is proposing,
no, he cannot do it alone,
and he has never pretended he could,
and it is impossible to believe that he could.

Far as I'm concerned, if we support these proposals,
we have to do more than criticize the President....
we have to support what he is proposing loudly and clearly,
and attack Republicans at every turn.

Yes, we can!
and if we can't, it will be our loss.

[gateley]

1. Well put, Frenchie!

:headbang:

And you nailed the bottom line: "...and if we can't it will be our loss." I wish everybody (Republicans!) got it.

[Oceansaway]

2. K&R...n/t

[wndycty]

3. K&R

:kick:

[countingbluecars]

4. K&R!

[flamingdem]

5. That was an effective speech and a great kick off to Obama's 2012 run

I feel optimistic.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. I think there are some things you don't need to worry about...

...and progressives appreciating this speech is one of them.

They won't.

Property still isn't theft. Elizabeth Warren still isn't Secretary of the Treasury.

And maybe I screwed up with control-f, but I couldn't find a single mention of the public option.

[FrenchieCat]

8. Well folks were demanding the Bully Pulpit......

and he did that....

so the next question that we need to ask is WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO.
I believe the ball is in OUR court......

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. "...WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO."

The Vegas early money is on 'pout'.

[FrenchieCat]

14. Pouting ain't gonna get her done.

We need to make a difference.

We need to organize and hit back against
the GOP assholes, and their media that you
know will be working on shaping public opinion
the way they want it. They are a formidable "No-mercy"
type of bunch....and in this case, perhaps we need to aim
at them well and aim at them often.

[Mimosa]

50. That is where I've been and what I'm doing

Which is why I haven't been here often. ;)

[RichGirl]

51. Complainers will always find fault.

But intelligent people know it was a great speech and appreciate it.

Michael Moore is clearly a progressive. Although he likes Obama he doesn't hesitate to speak up when he disagrees with something. He thought it was a GREAT speech.

He's my progressive weather vane.

[sasha031]

7. it was am excellent speech

[polmaven]

10. You have hit the nail

esxactly on the head!....Waiting now for the "but he didn't__________(fill in the blank)"crowd to start!

[vroomvroom]

11. I liked it too -- I just hope he doesnt Cave in his Actions AGAIN

[FrenchieCat]

24. So are you going to do what you can to make his words

become reality? Because a President can't do it on his own,
and cynicism ain't gonna get it done.

[Avant Guardian]

63. Translation: If Obama doesn't do it, its your fault

Lovely

[AtomicKitten]

12. Thom Hartmann loved the speech, called it the "anti-Reagan" populist speech.

Pres O done good.

[FrenchieCat]

18. Yes....he did!

Now it is up to us to bolster the notions in that speech.

As the voices of the people, we have to push back the Republicans
and their crazy ass selfish schemes......

[Dawgs]

13. The problem is not the speeches.

It's the actions; which couldn't be farther from anything progressive.

[FrenchieCat]

16. He used the bully pulpit......

what are you going to do to support the President in getting it done?

He has a Republican house, so he needs you and I to make sure that congress
takes the kind of action we want.

Simply attacking the President ain't gonna get her done....
unless you simply want what he's just proposed to fail.......

[Avant Guardian]

64. Using the bully pulpit involves more than a single speech

It involves a sustained effort, much of it behind the scenes.

When LBJ got everyone in line for Medicare, he twisted arms for months in front of the cameras and behind the scenes.

Having said that, lets hope this time he stays at it.

[MissDeeds]

20. Well said

+1000

[FrenchieCat]

22. So is there something we can do besides being cynical?

Because that won't help anything......
at some point, in fact, it simply becomes an excuse
not to have to do anything.

[spin]

15. Not only should the rich pay more taxes, corporations should also pay their share ...

General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010
White House Takes Heat for GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt's Advisory Role

The top tax bracket for U.S. corporations stands at 35 percent, one of the highest rates in the world. So how is it possible that a giant of American business, General Electric, paid nothing in federal taxes last year, even as it made billions in profit?

***snip***

For two years, President Obama has been talking about the need for corporate tax reform, declaring that the system is too complicated and that companies pay too much.

"Simplify, eliminate loopholes, treat everybody fairly," Obama said in February.

For those unaccustomed to the loopholes and shelters of the corporate tax code, GE's success at avoiding taxes is nothing short of extraordinary. The company, led by Immelt, earned $14.2 billion in profits in 2010, but it paid not a penny in taxes because the bulk of those profits, some $9 billion, were offshore. In fact, GE got a $3.2 billion tax benefit.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558

Most U.S. firms paid no taxes over 7-year span
Two-thirds of U.S., foreign companies cited in GAO report

August 13, 2008|By Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer

When the taxman cometh, most corporations wave him on by, according to a government study released on Tuesday.

About two-thirds of U.S. companies and foreign firms doing business in this country paid no federal income taxes from 1998 to 2005, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called the report "a shocking indictment of the current tax system."

To be sure, many of the nonpayers were small or new companies that probably made no money. But the report said that about a quarter of large corporations - ones that had more than $250 million in assets or $50 million in gross receipts - paid no taxes. In 2005, for instance, 3,565 large U.S. companies and 998 large foreign-owned companies operating here did not pay any income taxes.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-08-13/news/17123842_1_tax-foundation-income-taxes-zero-taxes

[FrenchieCat]

17. I agree.

It is something he already proposed.....
but has failed to garnet support in Congress
because those who galvanize public opinion and give
the congress no out, have instead
been busy panning everything this President
has done to date.

[spin]

29. Some say that our representatives in Congress are bought and owned by the corporations ...

I often suspect there is a good deal of truth in this.

[FrenchieCat]

31. Yes....but if we don't let the media hoodwink us and superficially bring down

the current support most have to increase taxes on the rich,
we could hold sway...

What I know is that we won't be able to get her done,
if we continue pissing on Obama to represent our "activism"...

[spin]

39. Obama took office at the worst time possible ...

but by election time I predict the economy will be recovering nicely. The initial signs are already there.

If I'm am right he will win his second term. With luck we will recover full control of Congress.

[Cali_Democrat]

19. I didn't get a chance to watch it because I'm at work, but I read the transcript

I really liked what I read. I also liked how he called out the Republicans.

[FrenchieCat]

21. Yes he did.

And it is a relay race.

Our turn!

[slay]

23. After almost 4 years he finally shows up?

yeah, maybe some progressives will continue to fall for his lies. pffft. :eyes:

[FrenchieCat]

27. Cynicism is like a drug......

which allows one to rationalize not doing anything constructive
for as long as one chooses.

You are making your choice......and it is a desingenious one....
because you care more about calling someone a liar than
in standing up for what was articulated; those policy issues of
taxing the rich, cutting defense and maintaining medicare benefits.

In otherwords, you could have agreed with what was proposed, even while remaining leery....
but you are going further than that, simply because you are too far gone,
and have ODed on Cynicism to the point where you are not doing us any good,
and are in fact hell bent on helping the opposition.

[cottonseed]

30. Cynicism is like dung......

It stinks. Then eventually drys up and blows away.

[JTFrog]

35. After almost 4 years?

Do you have a fucking time machine?

[Major Hogwash]

45. Obviously a product of a failed public school system somewhere. LoL

That's the fastest 4 years I've ever experienced.

Hahahahaha!!!!

[Bluenorthwest]

25. I liked it. Now we have to hold that position.

If this is the opening salvo in another round of compromising it all away, that's not so good. If this is the ground he will hold with us, I'm on board for that.

[FrenchieCat]

26. Yes.....we have to hold that position.......

We have to write, email, and show as much passion about what as been proposed,
as we show when we don't like what's proposed.

[MercuryRepeater]

28. I sure do!

[Search4Justice]

32. I'll withhold any ...

... criticism or praise until I see what actually happens. I've heard tons of pretty words that haven't translated into improvements for the working class lot in life before. It's a start, but as of now, it's simply more talk, talk, talk.

[eridani]

33. I did. However, he also said he didn't like tax cuts for the rich last year

--and he approved of them anyway. I liked that he said no Medicare vouchers, but if the 2012 budget includes them and he signs it, then what? This is no time to be slacking off on public pressure.

[FrenchieCat]

34. I agree with public pressure......

especially on Congress, where the shit goes down.

[Whisp]

36. huge kick and rec

[tekisui]

37. I thought he did a great job at dismantling the repukes proposals.

I wish he had used this strong framing for the past two years.

[high density]

38. Finally, somebody is out explaining how we got here!

Clinton put us on a trajectory to be completely debt-free, then, "We had two wars and an expensive prescription drug program. But we didn't pay for any of this new spending. Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts. Tax cuts that went to every millionaire and billionaire in the country. Tax cuts that will force us to borrow an average of $500 billion every year over the next decade..."

"Most Americans tend to dislike government spending in the abstract, but like the stuff that it buys."

"(Ryan's plan) ends Medicare as we know it."

I really liked this speech. Win the future is incredibly lame, but that's my only nitpick.

[FrenchieCat]

40. Yep...he said much of what I would have wanted him to say.....

and said it much more artfully.....
Sure he didn't say all of what is on my long list,
but if he had, that would have been kind of scary!

[slipslidingaway]

41. "Enough is Enough" Newport News speech 2008 ...

read that speech as well, another great speech.

Same promise to negotiate Medicare drug prices, but that was given away once elelcted.

[MadMaddie]

42. You are right Frenchie!

[liberation]

43. A speech which legitimized the GOP framing of the debate should be appreciated by progressives?

What's with "moderates" that makes them entitled to tell progressives what they should or should not appreciate?

Anyhow, I used to joke that some Dems must be the worst negotiations in recent history, obviously in a key of jest. But now, alarmingly it seems that indeed some of you do not really know how to negotiate. At. All.

For example, when you want the moon, you ask for the stars. I.e. you start asking more that you want because then you can start moving down to where you really wanted to be. It is the basic premise under which one of the oldest forms economic exchange operates: haggling. So the GOP demands some insane level of cuts, and the president comes out telling us how cuts are necessary but not at such level. Guess what, at the end the GOP framing prevails: cuts are necessary. And here are some harping how this was the best negotiation ever! Like we got an awesome deal, when in fact the GOP framing prevailed at the end of the day.

LOL, the playbook is so predictable that at this point it isn't even funny. I am sure people now will use Ryan's crying as proof that this was a great deal, thus completely missing the play.


Anyhow, I don't give a shit so I will just join the party: Yes we can! Dear Leader knows best and we're not worthy!


Life in autopilot feels much better...

[mistertrickster]

44. We've always appreciated his SPEECHES. It's the actions we haven't been so thrilled about. nt

[Major Hogwash]

46. Although I agree 100% with what you say, I can't bring myself to call myself a progressive.

I'm just too set in my ways.
I'm a liberal, and I will die a liberal.

During the first few years that Reagan was President, my wife's family got their kicks out of calling me a liberal.
They were Republicans and they were just a little too eager to make fun of the liberal that married in to their family.
I really liked that girl.
But, there was no way I was going to back down from being a liberal after what I had been through when Nixon was in the White House.

So, when the marriage crumbled, I thought it was a shame, but that's how life goes. Then Reagan got re-elected and more people seemed to take stupid pills on a regular basis where I worked. Then, 15 years later, I had to go through the same crap again because I voted for Bill Clinton twice. I don't regret my votes. Even if Clinton didn't do everything liberals wanted him to do, he was the best choice among the candidates in the 90s.

After 8 years of Bush, Obama is a breath of fresh air.
Is he liberal enough for me?
Yeah, he is.
This speech was great, it was everything I wanted him to say and he said it better than I could have.
So, I agree with you 100% about the speech.
I'm not too worried about what someone on the far edge of the left has to say about it.
Those people will never be satisfied, and they will die unsatisfied.
That's a pretty hard way to live one's life.
I wasn't expecting rainbows and unicorns when Obama got elected in 2008.
And I don't pay too much attention to those that say they did.

Not here.
Nor in real life.
We've lost some great people with great minds, like Molly Ivins, over the last few years, and I'm sure she would be satisfied.

Grantcart would be too, but he no longer posts here and I think I finally figured out why.
We're in control of the White House and the Senate and no amount of arguing, here or in real life, is going to change that.

[JTFrog]

47. This post deserves a standing ovation!!!

:applause::applause::applause:

[great white snark]

49. Hear hear!

:applause: :applause: :applause:

Bittersweet as it is...DU is a lot less wiser without grantcart.

[Hissyspit]

48. "I'm not too worried about what someone on the far edge of the left has to say about it. Those

people will never be satisfied, and they will die unsatisfied.

That's a pretty hard way to live one's life. I wasn't expecting rainbows and unicorns when Obama got elected in 2008.
And I don't pay too much attention to those that say they did."

Ugh.

[TheKentuckian]

66. Define the positions of the "far left". From what I can tell the left doesn't go too far at all.

We are in a place where the likes of Eisenhower and John Paul Stevens are nearly unelectable as DEMOCRATS and wouldn't be allowed to Bush town hall much less have prominent roles in that clusterfuck of a terrorist organization.

To the best of my knowledge "far left" is yesterday's moderate Democrat. Ain't too many running around with poster of Mao these days and certainly not enough leftward pressure to create the gravity required to extract a square deal from capital like we had during the New Deal.

[Exilednight]

52. He didn't use the bully pulpit, he gave a policy speech, there's a difference.

[FrenchieCat]

53. You don't get to decide what the "Bully Pulpit" is.......

Sorry. :eyes:

[Exilednight]

54. I know the bully pulpit speech when I see it. I'll give you an example of a

bully pulpit speech vs a policy speech.

Bully pulpit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jc-xhj9r0M

Policy speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgJiHxRv2M0

[FrenchieCat]

55. double post.....

if folks are listening to what is being said via a speech by the president,
that is what is known as a bully pulpit, and no, you don't get to be the judge
on this, as the term was here before you. :eyes:

A bully pulpit is a public office or other position of authority of sufficiently high rank that provides the holder with an opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_pulpit

bully pulpit\BULL-ee-PULL-pit\DEFINITIONnoun
:a prominent public position (as a political office) that provides an opportunity for expounding one's views; also : such an opportunity
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/2010/05/20/

bully pulpit 
a position of authority or public visibility, especially a political office, from which one may express one's views.

noun
a public office of sufficiently high rank that it provides the holder with an opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any matter; "the American presidency is a bully pulpit"
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bully+pulpit

[FrenchieCat]

56. You obviously don't know what you think you know......

if folks are listening to what is being said via a speech by the president,
that is what is known as a bully pulpit, and no, you don't get to be the judge
on this, as the term was here before you. :eyes:

A bully pulpit is a public office or other position of authority of sufficiently high rank that provides the holder with an opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_pulpit

bully pulpit\BULL-ee-PULL-pit\DEFINITIONnoun
:a prominent public position (as a political office) that provides an opportunity for expounding one's views; also : such an opportunity
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/2010/05/20/

bully pulpit 
a position of authority or public visibility, especially a political office, from which one may express one's views.

noun
a public office of sufficiently high rank that it provides the holder with an opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any matter; "the American presidency is a bully pulpit"
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bully+pulpit

[Exilednight]

57. I notice you were very selective about your definitions. Here's a few more

http://www.yourdictionary.com/bully-pulpit
a position of power and influence used to aggressively promote one's own cause

Origin: < phrase attributed by G. Putnam (1926) to Theodore Roosevelt, referring to the presidency as offering “such a bully <= fine> pulpit” for preaching: present use from later interpretation of bully in this phrase as bully, sense

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bully+pulpit
An advantageous position, as for making one's views known or rallying support

[FrenchieCat]

59. Selective would be you......

From the same websites you link to:
Noun 1. bully pulpit - a public office of sufficiently high rank that it provides the holder with an opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any matter; "the American presidency is a bully pulpit"
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bully+pulpit


bully pulpit
noun
An advantageous position, as for making one's views know or rallying support: “The presidency had been transformed from a bully pulpit on Pennsylvania Avenue to a stage the size of the world” (Hugh Sidey).
http://www.yourdictionary.com/bully-pulpit

But go ahead and keep exerting this amazing energy about NOTHING!
We'll see what it gets you....although it is clear what you are working for.

[Exilednight]

62. If you want to know what I'm working for, I will be more than happy to tell you. I'm working for

a country that respects peoples privacy.

I'm working for a country that provides quality education to each and every child.

I'm working for a country that holds real criminals (Bush, Cheney, CEOs of the major banks that got us into our current economic mess) accountable.

I'm working for a country that respects its citizens.

I'm working for a country where every person has equal access to health care without fear of losing everything they own.

I'm working for a country that doesn't recognize corporations as people.

I'm working for a country that doesn't put corporate interests ahead of individuals.

I'm working for a country that doesn't allow a single person to go to bed hungry. For that matter, a country where everyone has a safe place with a bed.

I'm working for a country that doesn't allow the rich to not pay their fair share of taxes.

I'm working for a country where every person held in our legal system receives due process, even those accused of terrorism.

I'm working for a country that is willing to actually fight against using fossil fuels and doesn't expand drilling for oil or gas, or digging for coal.

When Obama fully accomplishes a single one of these things, then I will no longer be so skeptical of his actions vs his words.

[derby378]

58. He hasn't even begun to use the bully pulpit yet

Nice speech, but actions speak louder than words.

[FrenchieCat]

60. LOL!

Check!

[derby378]

61. Mine never moved

I'm still the same ol' grouchy SOB that I was in January 2009. My expectations haven't altered one bit since then.

[TheKentuckian]

65. Get back to me when there is a proposal rather than goals with wiggle room.

For instance he didn't vow to "not touch Medicare benefits" he vowed to not touch Medicare benefits for CURRENT recipients.

Until it is demonstrated that he rejects his Catfood Commission as much as he does the Ryan debacle there is nothing to support.

English has a lot of nuance available to speakers and writers.

He could have embraced the Progressive budget plan but he is holding some distance which easily could land this whole deal right in Purinaville.