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A Second Look | CONGRESS — WHEN ASKED FOR GOP ALTERNATIVES TO OBAMA’S BUDGET, McCONNELL COMPLAINS WE’RE ‘GETTING DOWN IN THE WEEDS’

Mar 16th, 2009
by Tom.
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The Progress Report wrote:

A Pain In The AIG


From: The Progress Report [progress@americanprogressaction.org]
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 9:12 AM
To: Tom
Subject: A Pain In The AIG
CONGRESS — WHEN ASKED FOR GOP ALTERNATIVES TO OBAMA’S BUDGET, McCONNELL COMPLAINS WE’RE ‘GETTING DOWN IN THE WEEDS’:

Since President Obama unveiled his budget last month, Republicans have been relentlessly attacking his comprehensive proposals. Yesterday on ABC’s This Week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) kept up the drumbeat, saying in reference to Obama’s budget proposal, “It taxes too much, it spends too much, it borrows too much.” Host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed McConnell for a comprehensive Republican alternative budget. Yet each time, McConnell simply attacked Obama’s plan. He said that he and his colleagues would be offering amendments to “reframe” what the Democrats have proposed but will likely not be offering a comprehensive plan. Stephanopoulos asked McConnell, “But shouldn’t you have a comprehensive approach that lays out the trade-offs?” “Well, we’re just sort of getting down in the weeds here about procedure,” McConnell complained. As the New York Times has pointed out, by not offering a full counterproposal, Republicans have made a decision “that will spare them from outlining potentially painful decisions required to bring federal books more in line with their call to hold down spending, cut taxes and reduce the deficit.” In many ways, the GOP’s strategy is a repeat of it did during the economic recovery package debate — opposing Obama’s plan for political reasons and picking out small provisions as excuses to block the entire bill.

McConnell and Boehner says, “We fervently oppose everything Democrat!” The Republican crowd behind them cheers!
Interviewer asks, “Why? Do you have something better in mind?”
“No, we just hate everything Democrat!” More cheers from the right-wing! McConnell and Boehner swell with pride from the cheers.
“What about your ‘cut taxes and borrow’ strategy from the Bush years?”
“We don’t care about that! We just hate everything from the Democrat party!” More cheers!
Interviewer sadly says, “Great debate, thanks.”

Null. Empty set. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

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A Second Look: Obama Leaves Door Open To Investigating Bush, But Wants To “Look Forward”

Jan 11th, 2009
by Tom.
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via Obama Leaves Door Open To Investigating Bush, But Wants To “Look Forward”.

by:  Sam Stein, stein@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting From DC, January 11, 2009

This is from an interview today on This Week With George Stephanopoulos. The President-elect was asked the question from Change.gov that has bubbled to be the most popular question on the “Open for Questions” segment of the website.

President Obama:

President-elect Obama

“We’re still evaluating how we’re going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth,” said Obama. “And obviously we’re going to look at past practices. And I don’t believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand, I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards. And part of my job is to make sure that for example at the CIA, you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering up.”

You know what? This is the same thing that happened with Nixon and Reagan. People were screaming for justice, then phhhht, it fizzles out. We as a country have a very bad record on justice at high levels.

There was political will to impeach Clinton (for lying about a crime that wasn’t a crime) from the right-wing nut-jobs, but it was the right-wing only and they screamed loud enough to be heard in all seven corners of hell. Now, there is political will from the left to see that Bush is jailed, after all, he confessed to committing crimes but I have to ask the same question that Gingrich and other propaganda spreaders asked during the Clinton impeachment; where’s the outrage?

I’ve been torn on this old question ever since I, and millions of other people, thought of it right after the 2006 elections, mulled it over and blogged incessantly about it to the point of staleness, and after all that the question I have is this: are Americans ready to stomach the months of all-Bush-crime-all-the-time coverage from the MSM?

Yes you say? Really? Then if that’s the case you’d better get prepared for more controversy and argument and round-the-clock news pressure on Obama than any new President deserves. To choose this path is to put CHANGE on the back burner.

This is a unique moment in history. We have a chance to have a 21st century government that spreads even wider the tent called “American Values” to include all Americans, red or blue, who choose to be a part of something better.  American values like equal pay for equal work, civil equality for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, a new set of workers rights to enable them to rise from the dung heap of poverty to a life that we all dream of attaining,  all this and more is within our grasp right now, the urgent now. We can have this or we can plunge ourselves into a vat of melting hope called “justice is served” all for the little tickle of gratification we get when we think of Bush behind bars. Is it worth it?

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