As you no doubt know, President Obama and congressional leaders were able to avert a government shutdown by reaching an agreement on the 2011 budget late Friday night. While we don’t yet know all the facts, it looks as though the Republicans were not successful in their attempts to defund public broadcasting, and stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, though, it doesn’t appear that the Democrats were able to shift the burden from the backs of poor and middle class Americans to the top 1% that we keep talking about. (It’s unclear whether they even tried.) Here, with more on these deliberations, as well as those concerning the 2012 budget, is economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, speaking with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman.
And here’s a clip from the transcript:
…AMY GOODMAN: Plouffe made it clear that the House Republicans’ alternative, crafted by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, was unacceptable. He said, “Ryan’s [plan] might pass the House, but it’s not going to become law.”
Obama is also expected to propose cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and changes to Social Security, a discussion he has largely left to Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
Well, to discuss the budget deal, we’re joined right now by leading economist Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University. He is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia and also president and co-founder of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit group aimed at ending extreme global poverty. He’s the author of numerous books and articles on development and economic policy.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Your understanding of what this agreement is?
JEFFREY SACHS: Well, this is a miserable step in the wrong direction. It started last December, when Obama and the Republicans agreed to cut a trillion dollars of taxes by extending the Bush tax cuts. And now, even though the details aren’t even worked out, apparently, they’re slashing into programs for the poor. So this is all going in the wrong direction, and many of us who supported President Obama just feel that he’s abandoned the field. He’s left it to the right wing, which wants nothing more than taxes cut for the rich, whereas the American public is saying very clearly, in every opinion survey, one after another, if you want to close the deficit, go after taxes for the rich, raise them, cut military spending, cut the excess profits in the insurance industry and healthcare, do things that would really make a difference—don’t punish the poor. And yet, that’s what Obama is giving up right now. It’s absurd. And when Plouffe says, “Well, it’s unacceptable that the taxes on the rich have come down,” the President not only agreed to that last December, but when they announced the compromise this weekend, he referred to that historic agreement last December. So the whole thing is a bit of a mass confusion, and I find it absurd.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the four proposals.
JEFFREY SACHS: I say that there really are four proposals on the table right now. One is the Ryan plan; that is the extreme right: just do anything, slash anything, hit the poor, in order to get the tax rates down on the rich. It’s a fraud. But they have momentum because Obama is not resisting.
Then there was Obama’s muddle, because he put forward a budget plan last month, after all, not only for fiscal year 2012, but a decade-long framework. He agreed to keep taxes so low on the rich that, in effect, his proposals, if you look at the fine print, would squeeze the so-called civilian discretionary budget, where education, where infrastructure, energy, climate would all be squeezed to an unmanageable small level.
Then there’s a new proposal that the Congressional Progressive Caucus put forward last week. Terrific. It’s called the People’s Budget. It actually responds to what the people want, and that is, raise taxes on the rich, raise taxes on the corporations that are getting away with absolute unbelievable—unbelievably abusive loopholes, cut military spending, preserve spending for the poor, for education, for investment and so forth.
Then there’s a fourth position. That’s the American public. You notice the American public isn’t asked by Congress or the President these days, but the American public speaks clearly in opinion survey after opinion survey. It says the rich have had a free ride, the corporations have been running our country, the spending on the military is completely unjustified, and we want a public option on healthcare. All large majorities, not one of them happening. Why? Because the lobbyists are in control, both of the White House and Congress….
AMY GOODMAN: Talk more about the People’s Budget.
JEFFREY SACHS: The People’s Budget is a proposal of the leadership of 80 members of Congress, which is called the Progressive Caucus.
AMY GOODMAN: The largest caucus in Congress.
JEFFREY SACHS: I was so happy to see it when I saw it for the first time last week as it was being unveiled. I said, “Thank God. Something coming from Washington that makes sense,” because they, too, have been crowded out. The White House has played a game, basically. If the far right is holding the agenda, the White House says, “We’ll be one step towards the center of the far right.” But that means giving concession after concession after concession. What Obama is trying to do is to look reasonable, to look a little bit more reasonable than the extreme right. But to do so, he’s just compromising, compromising on core principles.
Then, finally comes the Congressional Progressive Caucus and says, “Stop it. Let’s do what the people really want.” This is the wonderful thing about America. Sometimes you feel so frustrated: “What’s going on in this country?” as if everybody’s a Tea Partier. It’s not true. The broad majority of the public has very reasonable, very mainstream and compassionate views. They say, “Don’t slash for the poor. No, let’s start making the rich pay their due.” That’s what the public says, the large majority. Who’s listening? Or who’s hearing them? The media keeps them out, by and large. And the White House and the Congress are dominated by the lobbies and by the concern about raising campaign funds. After all, President Obama is trying to raise a billion dollars for his 2012 election. Where is he going to get that? On Wall Street. Are they telling him, “Raise the taxes”? Unfortunately not…
So, I’ve been spending the last hour or so reading up on the People’s Budget, and it looks pretty damned good. Here are the highlights:
The CPC proposal:
• Eliminates the deficits and creates a surplus by 2021
• Puts America back to work with a “Make it in America” jobs program
• Protects the social safety net
• Ends the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• Is FAIR (Fixing America’s Inequality Responsibly)What the proposal accomplishes:
• Primary budget balance by 2014.
• Budget surplus by 2021.
• Reduces public debt as a share of GDP to 64.4% by 2021, down 16.9 percentage points from a baseline fully adjusted for both the doc fix and the AMT patch.
• Reduces deficits by $5.7 trillion over 2012-21
• Both outlays and revenue equal 22.3% of GDP by 2021
And here’s how they intend to do it… They’d end the wars, enact a public option, end the Bush tax cuts, reintroduce an estate tax, and invest in things like education and infrastructure.
So, why aren’t we hearing about this? Why isn’t every Democrat in the nation talking about it? What aren’t people nailing this up on telephone poles and slipping it under their neighbors’ doors? I think this is where we should draw the battle line. Win or lose, I think this is a fight that’s worth having, and having now. And I’m confident that the American people would get behind it. This is the kind of thing that could draw a million people to the streets of DC. This is the kind of thing that a movement could be created around.
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I try not to get too pissed off, because what can I REALLY do? This system doesn’t pay attention to what I think, but I do get pissed.
Obama is a pussy. I voted for him, and each time he speaks, he seduces me and I believe him, but he never does what he says he’s going to do. He “compromises” the main objectives that are important, and gets nothing in that compromise. He needs to stop the crapping on the poor and middle class, but he won’t stop compromising. This isn’t the change I voted for.
Why isn’t the compromise–we’ll cut a few bucks on this program or that program, but you need to agree to take an equal amount out of the defense budget, if we’re going to cut.
The people just aren’t getting the results of the promises that Obama made. The wars have escalated, Guantanamo has not closed, no reform on the Patriot Act (remember that?)…he folds every time.
This just goes to show that when you receive the most money in the history of the world to support your campaign, you have too many asses to kiss, and once again, the working middle class and poor suffer.
Lately, this feels like the embryonic stages of a revolution. There. I said it.
Where do our local elected officials stand on this?
Ask them.
http://www.senate.gov/
http://www.house.gov/
Interesting piece in the new print Nation about Jim Messina, who apparently is ruthless when it comes to banning all forms of progressive input from both Obama’s current policy, but also the beginnings of his 2012 campaign. It’s growing increasingly clear that not only was the message of much of Obama’s 2008 campaign a form of dishonesty (his campaign managers understood that to run a “standard-issue” campaign would mean no chance at beating Hillary, and so they devised a strategy whereby Obama would appeal to “the bottom”) but that the 2012 campaign is going to make no bones about the fact that, as of now and onwards, Obama is appealing mainly to lobbyists, Wall Street, and the American center and center-right.
All of which to say: I hope the 80-strong Progressive Caucus can figure out a way to end-run Messina and make something happen. Otherwise, your average Democrat is going to begin—incredibly—to find bits of common cause with very strange bedfellows who feel not only disappointed with, but lied to, by the current administration.
The heartbreak in all this is that, goddamnit, we’ve got our first ever African-American president, and how wonderful is that? And yet, ultra-frustratingly, he’s wound up being ineffective, pusillanimous, and more interested in being liked by the rich than in advocating for the disenfranchised. Now his own Harvard mentors are signing letters that publicly chastise the cruelty of some of his policies. Even MoveOn has given up on trying to reach him. His sister Maya, who does amazing work in progressive education with non-privileged/low-income populations in Hawaii, isn’t even allowed to speak with him about policy. But she still loves him . . .
But I thought that we already established, thanks to Taters, that there’s no evidence that Obama went to Harvard. And how do we even know that this sister of his is real?
In all seriousness, this looks like a great plan. It’s hard to believe that, as much as I’ve been hearing about the Ryan plan, this is the first time I’ve heard of this option.
I agree with Ez on his points, particularly that Obama wants to be liked by the rich. I felt the same way with our former governor–she was too busy worrying about not pissing anyone off and being liked than actually *doing* anything. Kids, if you want to be liked, politics (and teaching) are not for you. I want B to throw down and say “Bring it” to the haters and get shit done. Won’t happen, but I can dream….
PS: I like the idea of allocating more money to special ed! Maybe I could actually get some of the technology that the kids need.
John Conyers is a member of the caucus. John Dingell is not. The only two members from the Senate are Bernie Sanders and Tom Udall.
Food and Nutrition for Poor Children Cut by $500 million; Pentagon Budget Increased by $5 billion. This is our new budget.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/12/news/economy/2011_budget_cuts/index.htm?hpt=T2
My letter to Dingell.
Congressman Dingell,
I don’t believe that you are a member of the Progressive Caucus. I would hope, however, that you will consider supporting the alternative to the Ryan budget that these Democratic colleagues of yours have put forward. I’m sure you’ve seen it, but, if not, you can find details here.
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70§iontree=5,70
It is called the People’s Budget, and it entails a number of features that I know are close to your heart. It is ambitious. Some would say that it is naively so, as it covers everything from the ending of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the reinstitution of the Estate Tax, and the roll back of the so-called Bush Tax Cuts. Unlike the Ryan budget, it seeks to share the pain equally across the spectrum, and not just shuffle the debt off to the poor and middle class. I would love to know that my Congressman is supportive of such legislation, and, if you were to sign on, I would be proud to campaign for your reelection.
If you choose not to support this legislation, I would like to know why that’s the case.
REALITY!!
( Gov. Peter Shumlin: Real Healthcare reform — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yFUbkVCsZ4 )
( Health Care Budget Deficit Calculator — http://www.cepr.net/calculators/hc/hc-calculator.html )
( Briefing: Dean Baker on Boosting the Economy by Saving Healthcare http://t.co/fmVz8nM )
START NOW!
As you all know. Had congress passed a single-payer or government-run robust Public Option CHOICE! available to everyone on day one, our economy and jobs would have taken off like a rocket. And still will. Single-payer would be best. But a government-run robust Public Option CHOICE! that can lead to a single-payer system is the least you can accept. It’s not about competing with for-profit healthcare and for-profit health insurance. It’s about replacing it with Universal Healthcare Assurance. Everyone knows this now.
The message from the midterm elections is clear. The American people want real healthcare reform. They want that individual mandate requiring them to buy private health insurance abolished. And they want a government-run robust public option CHOICE! available to everyone on day one. And they want it now.
They want Drug re-importation, and abolishment, or strong restrictions on patents for biologic and prescription drugs. And government controlled and negotiated drug and medical cost. They want back control of their healthcare system from the Medical Industrial Complex. And they want it NOW!
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL NOT, AND MUST NOT, ALLOW AN INDIVIDUAL MANDATE TO STAND WITHOUT A STRONG GOVERNMENT-RUN PUBLIC OPTION CHOICE! AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.
For profit health insurance is extremely unethical, and morally repugnant. It’s as morally repugnant as slavery was. And few if any decent Americans are going to allow them-self to be compelled to support such an unethical and immoral crime against humanity.
This is a matter of National and Global security. There can be NO MORE EXCUSES.
Further, we want that corrupt, undemocratic filibuster abolished. Whats the point of an election if one corrupt member of congress can block the will of the people, and any legislation the majority wants. And do it in secret. Give me a break people.
Also, unemployment healthcare benefits are critically needed. But they should be provided through the Medicare program at cost, less the 65% government premium subsidy provided now to private for profit health insurance.
Congress should stop wasting hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money on private for profit health insurance subsidies. Subsidies that cost the taxpayer 10x as much or more than Medicare does. Private for profit health insurance plans cost more. But provide dangerous and poorer quality patient care.
Republicans: GET RID OF THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE.
Democrats: ADD A ROBUST GOVERNMENT-RUN PUBLIC OPTION TO HEALTHCARE REFORM.
This is what the American people are shouting at you. Both parties have just enough power now to do what the American people want. GET! IT! DONE! NOW!
If congress does not abolish the individual mandate. And establish a government-run public option CHOICE! before the end of 2011. EVERY! member of congress up for reelection in 2012 will face strong progressive pro public option, and anti-individual mandate replacement candidates.
Strong progressive pro “PUBLIC OPTION” CHOICE! and anti-individual mandate volunteer candidates should begin now. And start the process of replacing any and all members of congress that obstruct, or fail to add a government-run robust PUBLIC OPTION CHOICE! before the end of 2011.
We need two or three very strong progressive volunteer candidates for every member of congress that will be up for reelection in 2012. You should be fully prepared to politically EVISCERATE EVERY INCUMBENT that fails or obstructs “THE PUBLIC OPTION”. And you should be willing to step aside and support the strongest pro “PUBLIC OPTION” candidate if the need arises.
ASSUME CONGRESS WILL FAIL and SELLOUT again. So start preparing now to CUT THEIR POLITICAL THROATS. You can always step aside if they succeed. But only if they succeed. We didn’t have much time to prepare before these midterm elections. So the American people had to use a political shotgun approach. But by 2012 you will have a scalpel.
Congress you could have pass a robust government-run public option during your lame duck session. You knew what the American people wanted. You already had several bills on record. And the house had already passed a public option. Departing members could have left with a truly great accomplishment. And the rest of you could have solidified your job before the 2012 elections.
President Obama, you promised the American people a strong public option available to everyone. And the American people overwhelmingly supported you for it. Maybe it just wasn’t possible before. But it is now.
Knock heads. Threaten people. Or do whatever you have to. We will support you. But get us that robust public option CHOICE! available to everyone on day one before the end of 2011. Or We The People Of The United States will make the midterm election look like a cake walk in 2012. And it will include you.
We still have a healthcare crisis in America. With hundreds of thousands dieing needlessly every year in America. And a for profit medical industrial complex that threatens the security and health of the entire world. They have already attacked the world with H1N1 killing thousands, and injuring millions. And more attacks are planned for profit, and to feed their greed.
Spread the word people.
Progressives, prepare the American peoples scalpels. It’s time to remove some politically diseased tissues.
God Bless You my fellow human beings. I’m proud to be one of you. You did good.
See you on the battle field.
Sincerely
jacksmith – WorkingClass :-)
I hope Obama’s got The Roots (“Sacrifice”) on his iPod.
I tell you one lesson I learned:
If you want to be something in life
You ain’t gonna get it unless
You give a little bit of sacrifice
Ooohh, sometimes before you smile you got to cry
You need a heart that’s filled with music
If you use it you can fly
More than half of the $38 billion in spending cuts that lawmakers agreed to last week would hit education, labor and health programs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/38-billion-in-cuts-in-budget-deal-will-cover-various-domestic-areas/2011/04/11/AFJihQMD_story.html?hpid=z1
Revolution, anyone?
I’ve been searching online for more information, but I haven’t found much of anything. I’ve written to Dingell, Levin and Stabenow, asking that they sign on to cosponsor the bill, but I haven’t received any response. My next step is to start writing to newspapers, asking why they aren’t covering the People’s Budget.
I did find a response by a guy named James Pethokoukis though.
“The Congressional Progressive Caucus has finally released its response to Rep. Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity. ”The People’s Budget” is almost like a parody of a liberal Democratic plan. It proposes raising taxes by $4 trillion over ten years and cutting spending (mostly defense) by $900 billion. (Ryan would cut spending by $6 trillion.) It would take tax revenue as a share of GDP to 22.3 percent vs. a previous all-time high of 20.9 percent in World War Two. Even worse, the plan only goes out a decade since its tax hikes still wouldn’t balance the budget long-term because it ignores healthcare reform.”
If you want to get this done, you’ve got to win the argument at the ballot box. And do to that, you’d have to get people who don’t turn out to vote (especially in midterm elections) to turn out, and you’d have to win back older, middle-class whites (at least for one more generation). So how would you do that? I’ve sometimes imagined that it would take some kind of grand political bargain.
This isn’t necessarily what I want to happen or what I think should happen, but it’s interesting as a hypothetical: what if the Left in American politics basically punted on abortion? You do a 180 on the Democratic Party platform, start running a ton of pro-life candidates and thus try to win back, for example, Catholics (including those who make up the ever-growing Hispanic vote) who would ordinarily be fiscal liberals but for whom abortion overrides everything else.
The Left is clearly losing the fiscal argument so long as tax increases on anyone are anathema and spending cuts on anything, except defense and entitlements, are acceptable. How do you turn it around? Better arguments, more people, more money for ads.
When we thought we have heard it all over the last two years with this socialist Obama regime a new a quite unique way to spend our money that we are “borrowing from China” is to fix Mexican trucks at our expense. How many more days are there left in this Presidency?
http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2011/04/us-taxpayers-fo.html
Honestly, I wish Obama really were a socialist.
bravo
Sure, this might make “America” solvent for our children and children’s children, but will it make AMERICA great?
I do not wish to live in an America that is anything less than AMERICA the beautiful. AMERICA the great.
I do not wish my future grandchildren to live in the United Fake of America, but the United Great AMERICA.
AMERICA will not be great, will never reach its manifest destiny, until every AMERICAN is paying NO taxes, anywhere, anytime to anyone!
Breaking News Alert:
Obama unveils plan to reduce borrowing by $4 trillion over the next 12 years
April 13, 2011 1:53:06 PM
—————————————-
President Obama unveiled a framework Wednesday to reduce borrowing over the next 12 years by $4 trillion — a goal that falls short of targets set by his deficit commission and House Republicans — and called for a new congressional commission to help develop a plan to get there.
In his most ambitious effort to claim the mantle of deficit cutter, Obama proposed sharp new cuts to domestic and military spending, and an overhaul of the tax code that would raise fresh revenue. But he steered clear of fundamental changes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — the primary drivers of future spending.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/DME6KX/EWEI67/PFR2RO/Q7QLLB/9PHQA/T3/h
Mike,
If Democrats punted on abortion, it’d be a game changer. It’d also be a game changer if they punted on gay marriage, global warming, taxes, gun laws, education, regulation, unionization, environmental degredation, immigration, new sensations…
The same would be true if Republican’s punted on any of the above.
The problem (IMHO), is that we become entrenched. We pick sides based on our hierarchy of values and fall in line. If global warming is my core issue, I vote Democrat and slowly start to defend the party platform so that my core issue isn’t weakened on a weak platform.
It’s like buying cable. I may only want ESPN and Comedy Central, but I’ve got to invest in the whole package to get those two channels. Somebody else wants MTV and the Cartoon Network. We both get a little of what we want and whole lot of what we don’t. We have less options in voting than we do in picking cable providers. Guess who wins.
We need more parties.
A free market. I love, in concept, what the Tea Party is doing. Can you imagine if the Green Party (for one) had done the same? Instead, Nader voters were ridiculed, blamed and ushered back in line.
Seems Jeff and George are real close buddies, just like Obama and Ayers!
Here is how the communist, George Soros, Barack Obama’s “Money Man”, bankrolls the far left wing, progressive network:
http://docstalk.blogspot.com/2010/09/rivers-of-cash-how-george-soros-network.html
http://tpartyus2010.ning.com/video/video/show?id=3180617%3AVideo%3A67766&xg_source=msg_mes_network
How George Soros bank-rolls the left wing moonbats:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=589&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fpmdtn+%28FrontPage+Magazine+%C2%BB+Discover+the+Networks%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71NXb-I-06c
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/336/483/George_Soros:_The_United_States_Must_Stop_Resisting_The_Orderly_Decline_Of_The_Dollar,_The_Coming_Global_Currency_And_The_New_World_Order.html
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2010/12/confirmed-soros-associate-jeffrey-sachs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NewZeal+%28New+Zeal+Blog%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2010/11/jewish-people-vs-george-soros.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews+%28from+NY+to+Israel+Sultan+Reveals+The+Stories+Behind+the+News%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
Where does it end? George Soros wants to bring America to its knees and he is now funneling big money to:
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2010/11/soros-links-to-leftist-catholic-groups.html
http://patriotupdate.com/stories/read/3712/Soros-funded-group-urges-media-run-by-government
I’ve yet to hear about this in the corporate media. And none of the elected officials that I wrote to have responded as to why they aren’t supporting this legislation.
It took a while, but Ezra Klein wrote about it in today’s Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-house-progressive-budget/2011/04/15/AFJCMrhE_blog.html?hpid=z2
The Daily Beast has something about it today.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/13743_liberalsstealthbudgetsolutionraisestaxesonrichsavessocialsecurity;_ylt=AgX.nqLRB37cB0vNb4VZzh.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTVqdW92MTNlBGFzc2V0A2RhaWx5YmVhc3QvMjAxMTA0MjgvMTM3NDNfbGliZXJhbHNzdGVhbHRoYnVkZ2V0c29sdXRpb25yYWlzZXN0YXhlc29ucmljaHNhdmVzc29jaWFsc2VjdXJpdHkEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM3BHBvcwM0BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDdGhlbGVmdHNzdGVh
Why isn’t this being discussed in the press? Why does all the attention seem to be on the Tea Party proposal currently on the table, as though that’s the only option?