The Enemy of my Enemy is Not My Friend

Can all the liberals who are so anxious to dump on NJ Governor Chris Christie put a sock in it, at least until tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people are out of harm’s way are at least have a roof over their head and something warm to eat?   

This is time to think about our brothers and sisters, both literally and figuratively and the cheap politicization of these events I have seen by some have sickened me to my core.  George Bush was asleep during Katrina, as were many local Democratic officials. To this day I cannot understand how Ray Naggin lives with himself. But from what I can see most all local and Federal officials have acted with great cooperation and diligence. If Christie and Bloomberg and Obama had been around during Katrina, we can be sure lives would have been saved.

For those of us who live in Metro New York, and perhaps millions across the country, there can be little doubt of the emotional distress Governor Christie feels for the destruction in his home state which he so clearly loves. I feel that pain too, for my home of fifteen years, Hoboken, which is decimated, as well as the Jersey shore, which has been the location of many happy memories for me and my family. Yet it appears that perhaps some people do not understand the extreme urgency of the situation, or that it is not close to over for many, many people.  

I know that Christie has said some mean stuff about the President. I know there are a lot of raw and hard feelings. I also know that Romney said some really stupid stuff about FEMA. Even that is beside the point right now, though I can appreciate what a fun parlor game it must be for those of you not trying to climb from the wreckage.  

If friggin’ Sarah Palin could somehow magically pluck my family members from the sewage in Hoboken tonight, I would kiss her on both cheeks. I still would not vote for her, ever, but I would be ever so grateful.

Some of you are no better than Ann Coulter in the absolute callousness you have shown for the situation. So anxious to make a point are you that the bitterness you leave in your wake breaks any connection to any spirit of community.  It is not for me to say what can be discussed or should not be talked about, and I understand this is the height of an extremely ugly political season, but at long last have we no humanity to spare or to share with our fellow citizens?

If this is the reflection of your politics, than I want no part of it. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend if there is no generosity of spirit, or empathy for the plight of those in deep suffering. Really, and I think at least some of you liberals know who you are, you sicken me.

Old Joe Takes on the Boy Wonder

I'm pretty happy with Biden's performance last night. Particularly on foreign policy, I thought Ryan was out of his league. On Afghanistan Ryan’s repetition of Afghan cities reminded me of the young person who learns a new word while in High School and then uses the word 19 times in the next school paper he writes. We get it, you learned a new word. This does not make you an expert on The Catcher in The Rye. Actually it does not really even guarantee you read the book. In lock step with the polling data, the Repubs support the 2014 withdrawal date from Afghanistan. This of course is true for most all Americans, with the only exception being those, like me, who would like to see a faster withdrawal.

Romeny & Ryan have no specific proposals for Iran beyond sanctions already in place, and they have no plans for Syria beyond what Obama is doing. In general their entire thrust seems to be the use of tougher language, which to me has made them look at times, undisciplined and dangerous. I was struck that Ryan mentioned there would be no American boots on the ground committed unless vital US security interests were at stake. When pressed by Radditz on Humanitarian missions, he backtracked; which pretty much negated the first part of his statement. Still it sounded like a pretty high bar. Not sure if this leaves them committed to military action in Iran, which I am sure they will soon discover would be really, really dangerous and opposed by the American people looking for a jobs plan which is not limited to military enlistment. Not to mention that it would hamstring their agenda, basically limit their options on almost everything else on either the tax or spending side. None of their blather means anything. Right now there is not a hair width’s difference between the parties. Obama has picked up some of the most aggressive Bush era policies. He’s been anything but a dove.

However, there is one looming political issue. Biden’s answer on Libya was troubling. Yes, the Repubs have made dramatic cuts to the Embassy security budgets. For the Repubs to make this a purely partisan game of blame the President is ridiculous. That being said there are always, or at least always should be enough resources to defend any particular embassy which comes under specific threat. I refuse to believe that the Administration was locked in, hands tied by the evil Republicans, to letting those people die in Benghazi. Biden’s comments last night both in terms of when they knew that it was a terrorist attack, and whether or not security was requested by the Embassy prior to the attack, have not been substantiated by the recent testimony in Congress. Chris Wallace on Fox last night did say there was some support for the security request scenario, but that there were many conflicting stories there and that the facts have not fully come out. That seems pretty fair and about right to me. Regarding the issue of when the administration knew it was a terror attack and specifically whether or not UN Ambassador Susan Rice went on TV and lied to the American people seems far more problematic. While I will leave room to acknowledge that more facts may come out, right now it seems to me, that when the ambassador went on those Sunday shows, the Administration MUST have known that the attack was not a spontaneous demonstration run amok, but rather a terrorist act. In other words, she lied.

As a Democrat, knowing that the Repub budget, tax and entitlement proposals don't add up, and suggestions otherwise are laughable, Biden had a better debate performance. Some of what the Repubs are proposing is just plain cruel, and by the way with a filibuster proof majority/minority in the Senate  will not pass. Even overturning ObamaCare could be pretty tough, though they could defund it to such a dramatic extent it would stand as an eviscerated shell.

But I have to wonder sometimes where the Repubs are really going. The personhood amendment, which would criminalize abortion, if passed would probably leave them out of power for a generation. The Medicare stuff will never pass. I just do not believe that when the legislative sausage is made in Congress-- here again, particularly the Senate because of filibuster -- will turn Medicare into a voucher program. The uproar would be tremendous and unlike the corporate sponsored Tea Party outrage at the town hall meetings, grass roots real. In general I am quite confident there is no appetite across the country to let poor people die without Medicaid sponsored health care. Let me restate that, there is no filibuster proof majority. Just as there is no screaming desire to let millions of children go hungry without school lunch programs, or cut spaces for Pre-Scholl education, or cut back on Veteran’s Healthcare and rehabilitation benefits. For all the talk about PBS and Big Bird, it is such a small amount of money it is just a silly distraction for both parties, things they focus on because the real life and death issues, critical to people’s lives, those issues they are afraid to touch. On budget matters Romney and Ryan have shown zero courage. Obama and Biden deserve a little more credit, but not much. Given the chance last night to state the obvious that the retirement age will need to go up, Biden passed.  The Republicans talk about cutting the budget, but have offered even in the Ryan plan precious few specifics.

But taken as a whole, and assuming the worst in November, I just to do not think Americans are so cruel that when faced with the real impact of what these cuts would mean, they will ever pass. Add in the tax cuts which will absolutely benefit the rich—they are the ones paying for Romney’s election-- and it’s really hard to see where this goes legislatively.  

Still Biden had a good to very good night. That being said those that think Biden ran Ryan off the floor are I think are drinking Kool-Aid laced with hallucinogens. Republicans, I would think, are pretty happy their boy didn’t crash and burn. (How could he? He was constantly, constantly, dousing himself with water).  I would guess independents saw this through the prism of whomever they are leaning towards.

I do think Biden won from this perspective: The next debate is next Tuesday, just a few days. During that time the narrative shifts again. For the last few days it has been all Romney swept the floor with Obama, now there is a new story for a few days. The bleeding I think has stopped and that is as good as it gets right now. Moreover, Romney made progress in polls, but did not close gap in all the swing states he needs to win.  I think the president still has a slight, slim edge, and I think this debate pretty much locked that in til the next debate. Elections will come down to each party’s ability to turn out there base, and Biden fired up Dems again.

Romney’s Big Tent Republican Party

True or not the rationalization the President’s camp puts forward is fine by me. They claim they did not want to get into a mud fight covering ground that is already well known to the public. But let’s be honest, the Obama team got their clocks cleaned. There is plenty of time for recovery, plenty of time, to adjust to Romney’s careening, swerving, move to the center.

That being said one has to be impressed with what the Republican Party has morphed into under the Romney Banner:  Republicans are the Party of the Big Tent, just look at all the Romneys they squeezed in.

After weeks of banging the $700 Billion in Medicare cuts--part of Obama Care-- on the campaign trail, “Empathetic” Romney hit them again at the debate. It’s not his fault the President did not clarify the situation with his comments. If he did he might have noted that “Deficit Hawk” Ryan uses the same $700 billion in Medicare cuts for deficit reduction in his plan. In one of the night’s most disturbing moments the president once again failed to explain to the American people exactly the deal he made and the resulting years of extension in the program’s financial. Perhaps there was good reason for that. Many economists believe that the cuts Obama included in his spending forecasts will be untenable to hospitals and will be restored by Congress. That’s a little dicey, but the Republican plan, as near as I can tell, is that they will restore the cuts (“Empathetic” Romney) and also keep the cuts (“Deficit Hawk” Ryan).

What is unmistakable is that “Deficit Hawk” Ryan proposes 20% cuts in Medicaid, the Government Health Care program for poor people. Ignoring poor people or worse has become totally acceptable policy. These are draconian cuts which will affect the weakest, most elderly, and often times sickest among us. The religious parallels are apparently lost on “Devout” Romney. The cuts are unconscionable.

Emergency rooms do NOT provide Health Care, they provide emergency medical treatment, and then send people home. Health Care is what one gets with regular medical check-ups and visits to their doctor. I guess “Empathetic” Romney didn’t know that.

“Empathetic” Romney proposes to maintain some of the most popular elements of Obamacare, most notably the requirement that insurance companies offer coverage for those with pre-existing conditions-- With continuous medical coverage, i.e. no one who lost a job through this recession. He brought this up at the debate. However, “Just Like a Liberal ” Romney proposes no mechanism to pay for it, and basically refuses to acknowledge the deal that the Obama Administration made with the Health Industry: You get more patients so you can amortize costs over a bigger pool of healthier Americans , but you’ll have to provide better service. Counter intuitively “Empathetic” Romney proposes keeping some of the regulations but eliminating the larger pool of insured.

In the debate, “Populist” Romney portrayed the watered down regulations for colossus banks such as Chase, judged as too big to fail, as “the biggest kiss that's being given to New York banks I have ever seen”. Huh? You have to wonder what “Bain Capital” Romney’s biggest contributors thoughts about that:

 Goldman Sachs -$890,000; Bank of America -- $670,000; JP Morgan Chase $663,000; Credit Suisse -- $554,000; Citigroup $418,000.

Obama had to be wondering-- I know I was-- “Will he say anything to be elected?” If so, how will he govern? “Bain Capital” Romney proposes the complete elimination of Dodd-Frank, the legislation which contains the offending “kiss”.

“Empathetic” Romney telegraphed his move to the center days earlier, saying he would not suspend the visas Obama put into place granting children of immigrants a reprieve from deportation.  Previously “Joe Arpaio” Romney has said he would see to it that college age immigrants are not allowed to get tax payer funded incentives to attend college. I guess the goal being to keep 11 million immigrants in a state of perpetual povertry. “Joe Arpaio” Romney endorsed the right wing fantasy “self- deportation movement, which suggests as the Washington Post put it that, “that America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants would simply go home if government made their lives miserable enough”. The liberal firebrand Newt Gingrich called the movement an “Obama level fantasy”.

After the debate “Empathetic” Romney told Sean Hannity that the “47%” comments made by “Rich Guy” Romney were “just completely wrong”. This must have come to news to Hannity who has been defending the statement outright, and has himself been making the case that Obama’s domestic agenda is fashioned to buy votes with welfare and $125 per family monthly stipends of food stamps.

For those of us paying attention, one has to wonder who is this guy? After a season of bellicose and bitter dialogue which included self-deportation, silence in the face unconstrained attacks on women, foolish arguments about contraception, silence in the face of the right wing hordes, booing gay soldiers, cheering the death penalty run amok in Texas, suggestions amplified with hoorah’s from the crowd that people who get sick without insurance should be left to die, the Republican candidate is finally moving to the center.

Meanwhile, “I Like Cheesey Grits” Romney slyly runs a whites-only campaign for the base that believes with all its heart that Obama is a Muslim Socialist.  Loose talk and innuendo has lead between 25% and 50% of Republicans-- depending on which state they come from—to believe that Obama is a Muslim.  For those on the right that look to vilify a billion souls for the political advantage they believe it brings them I offer a single finger salute.  If the worse they can do is accuse someone of being a Muslim, then I too consider myself a Muslim, and a Jew, and a Christian, and an agnostic, and an atheist.

“Cheesey Grits” Romney offers a dog-whistle campaign appeal for angry whites and is built on distortions of the welfare work requirements and the bill-boarding of the phrase “Food Stamp” president. These are tactics to de-legitimize what Newt Gingrich recently said was “not a real President”. 

“Crazy Ivan” Romney, zig sagging his campaign this way and that, is confusing from both a political and as well as a governing standpoint. At the debate, “Deficit Hawk” Romney says he will not pass any tax cut that will add to the deficit. “Empathetic” Romney promises he will not cut taxes for the rich, but will cut them for the middle class. We know "Cayman Islands" Romney does not "worry about the poor". “Crazy Ivan” Romney wants to cut tax rates by 20% across the board, but can provide no measurable way to keep them from affecting the deficit or siphoning vast fortunes off to those of already unimaginable wealth. He has recently suggested that he will cut rates, but cap deductions, perhaps at a relatively low level for the rich. That sounds a little like a combination of “Deficit Hawk” and “Empathetic” Romney. However, “Cayman Island” Romney would eliminate the Estate Tax, a huge gift to the wealthy and their heirs. In the end he will either have to cut taxes less, get a host unpalatable spending cuts through Congress, or run up the deficit. Since increasing the deficit is the most politically expedient I wonder which way “Finger to the Wind" Romney will go?

On energy “Bain Capital” Romney wants to protect a total of $70 billion a year that Obama has proposed for elimination to the oil and coal industries. In fairness, there is substantial Democratic opposition to these subsidies in some states. Money tops principle on both sides of the aisle when it comes to energy. There is no “Devout” Romney concerned about the future of the planet . But, “Governor of Massachusetts” Romney issued a 72-point Climate Protection Plan. Alas “Bain Capital” Romney killed that guy, and now denies the existence climate change.

“Empathetic” Romney say he loves Big Bird and Jim Lehrer, but he wants to eliminate PBS funding. “Empathetic” Romney loves teachers while his party tries to destroy by any means necessary the unions that represent them. What might “Right To Life”Romney say he loves so he can justify his proposed funding elimination for Planned Parenthood, something “Governor of Massachusetts” Romney would not have tolerated.  “Empathetic” Romney believes in regulation, but he would roll back Dodd Frank and turn the EPA authority for the management of our water supply over to the states (HR 2018 & HR 872).

Debates: Obama Doesn’t Explain the Reason Government Matters

I am not one of those who’s disappointed that Obama chose not to go hammer and tong with Romney in the debate over the 47% insult, Bain Capital, and his shifty and misleading maneuvers regarding the release of tis tax returns. I guess it might have been personally satisfying for Obama to call Romney out for the elitist snob he has so often shown himself to be. But I was not that motivated to hear cathartic bloodletting. What I was anxious to hear was the rationale for government and the good that it does. Perhaps we could hear an explanation of silliness of the Tea Bagger slogan: “KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY MEDICARE”.

The biggest problem, bigger in my mind than a fussy attitude or allowing his competitor to get away with several medium to gigantic whoppers  was the fact that the President did not make the case for why government matters. This is so much bigger than Romney. After an ugly bitter primary season when almost every effort of Government has been called into question, besmirched at the altar of Ayn Rand individualism, the President’s silence allowed big lies to linger.

Medicaid

Medicaid is the government sponsored Health Care for the poor. After the recession on 2008 enrollment spiked from just over 42 million to current levels of about 50 million people. According the Kaiser Foundation 2/3 of the people on Medicaid are working. Another huge chunk of benefits goes to seniors who have exhausted their life savings and require nursing home care. The Republicans talk about what we can afford and what we can’t and the argument that the standard of what we can afford should be based on what we want to borrow money from China to pay is a clever one in that it distracts voters from the fact that the man making that case paid 14% in taxes in 2011 on income of nearly $14 million, partially a gift to government that he can take back some time in the future (after the election). 

The Ryan Budget plan calls for turning the entire Medicaid program over to the states, and then applies a 20% cut in spending. The effect this would have on the poor and seniors is unconscionable.

Providing Health Care for the weakest among us and dignified nursing home care for seniors, that is what government does.

Social Security and Medicare

Social Security and Medicare are funded by payroll tax deductions throughout every working person’s entire working life. Seniors who are now enjoying the benefits of Social Security and Medicare, paid for by deductions from their salary, are a huge junk of the 47% of the freeloading electorate pointed out by Romney, and underlined repeatedly by the Radio Right. The fact the right sees these programs as giveaways of “taxpayer” money displays the greed which is at the core of so much of their rhetoric. I know that poor and middle class Republicans will dispute that, but it is one of the reasons that the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson and others are putting tens of millions into this campaign.

The demographic boom means that adjustments will need to be made to both programs. This may come in the form of means testing or adjusting the retirement age, or a mix of the two.

No one with a senior parent believes Medicare is a government takeover of Health Care.  We have seen our parents visit the doctor of their choice, fight the challenge of getting all their prescriptions taken on schedule and to the prescribed dosage. This is what government does.

Obamacare

Obamacare steers a lot more customers towards the Health Insurance Industry. The Federal government will pay for some, and subsidize some. Others who can afford it will pay their own way or pay a now Supreme Court authorized tax. In return for all these customers the Health Care industry, and insurers specifically, are required to do certain things like provide coverage for children on parent’s policies until age 26, cap lifetime costs, provide basic preventative care including many important women’s diagnostic procedures at low or no cost as part of the basic policy, guarantee that 85% of premiums would go to patient care or refund the difference to the policy holder, and of course to cover those with pre-existing conditions. In sum the changes are designed to direct more people to medical providers before they are seriously ill, which in practice and over time should reduce costs. All these extra customers allow insurers to extend costs over a vastly larger pool of people. It’s what makes the regulations acceptable to them.

Shape shifting an industry that accounts for nearly 20% of GDP, while leaving millions without coverage or care and emphasizing far too little preventative medicine which exacerbates inflationary pressure on the system, that’s a big deal.  That’s what government does.

Energy

Oil imports were at 60% of US consumption under President Bush. Republican rhetoric aside, as of 2010 imports were down to 49% of consumption in 2010, and according to the Energy Information Agency of the US government imports are projected to drop to 35% of consumption by 2035. In addition a larger and larger segment of imported fuel is coming from Canada. The trend, driven by the economics of the energy industry is evident and will likely continue under Democratic and Republican administrations.

That said, The US, will continue to be at the mercy of international markets when it comes to the price of fuel. The much discussed Keystone pipeline is NOT intended to bring oil to the US. Most of the oil from it will be targeted to Asia, China in particular. With our without the pipeline the oil will flow.

So the strategy of Drill, Baby, Drill seems unencumbered by the policies of the Democratic administration. That leaves us with the utter hypocrisy of those who proclaim the immorality of passing massive debt onto our children and grandchildren while denying climate science and so passing on to our descendants a melting planet. This week the U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center reported the summer ice melt resulted in the polar ice cap shrinking to the smallest ever recorded. Just in the last five years satellite imagery shows that the cap has shrunk by nearly 20%. After the record heat and intensifying storms (Katrina and Irene) we have been seeing those who believe that the cure could be worse than the disease ought to tell us in what ways exactly this is so.

The Energy Department distributed about $90 billion of the total $787 billion in stimulus funds in support of green energy. But according to CNN, not even half of the $90 Billion went to green energy  firms. $29 Billion went to retrofitting homes with better weatherproofing and windows, $18 billion went to mass transit, and $10 billion went to the modernization of the electrical grid. That leaves about $35 billion for loan guarantees and other support of companies generating green energy. Exactly three of the 26 companies that received any of this support went bankrupt. If 3 of 26 is equal to “half” as Romney claimed, then perhaps he needs a new calculator and a new accountant. At any rate nothing like $90 billion went to support new technology.

Making risky investments in areas critical to the health of our economy and our planet, that is what Government does.

So I don’t worry about a single debate performance or the impact it has the race. For now I put the somnambulant performance of the President at the bottom of a list of concerns. Next, I count Obama’s unwillingness to mix it up with Romney.  I’m not asking Obama to sling mud to and fro, but the President walked off the stage in Denver looking like the football player with the impeccably clean, impossibly white uniform. If you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes, you might ask, “Did he even play?”

The enemy of middle class recovery and the availability of opportunity to the poor is not Mitt Romney. The Republican challenger is merely the front man with the fancy suit and the shiny shoes. There are principled small government devotees out there, but the vile, vicious, ugly rhetoric being driven today is at the behest of a small group of extremely wealthy oligarchs, bent on shrinking government, their tax bill, and regulation of their business interests, purely for the purpose of increasing their ability to enlarge upon their vast and ever increasing wealth. These oligarchs are the enemy of American values, and thanks to Citizens United they are out of control.

The primary argument of these oligarchs is that government is broken, in the way, and incompetent. For all the problems we face, this argument carries weight, even with me. But when some of us say government is broken it is not because we see regulations run amok. On the contrary we see an unprecedented Wall Street calamity brought on by lax regulation, a disaster for the middle class and a catastrophe for the poor as evidenced by the shattering number of people in need of food stamp support. We see Global Climate change as a proven scientific fact and understand that politicians on the right who repeat ad nauseum their belief that the science is open to question do so at the behest of their corporate masters.  We believe the tax code is broken, but know that Romney did not get to a 14% liability--actually 10% because he overpaid and can get the balance back later-- because of the policies of one or two administrations. Rather we know that the accumulative policies of administrations stretching over decades have led to a distortion of tax policy that now impinges on the government’s ability to function.

China invested $35.0 billion in renewable energy in 2010, about twice what the US did, and it’s spending on high speed rail dwarfs American outlays. Consequently they are developing the technologies at a much more rapid pace and have become the world’s leading exporters. This, too, is what governments do in a competitive global marketplace. 

In foreign policy there is increasing evidence of unrest in Iran caused by the sanctions. The Israelis are hardly unified behind their right wing President. This President has steered us away from what could easily have been America’s third war in the last 15 years, even as we implore him to bring our troops home from Afghanistan sooner than 2014. We recall that entry is often so much easier than exit when it comes to military matters. Preventing war, while addressing the World’s problems, this is what governments do, and one of the many reasons the Election in November is crucial.

Maybe the real disaster wasn’t that the president lost the debate, maybe the real calamity is that the American people were given no clear and compelling reason to believe, no real understanding of why Government matters and what government does.