Obama’s Irresponsible Priorities
By Bronwyn's Harbor on July 20, 2009 at 12:01 PM in Current Affairs
Before we embark on Barack Obama’s obsessively-sought federal health care program, a program that will affect every man, woman and child in this country for the next 50 years at the least, shouldn’t we first concentrate on addressing the regulatory deficits that got this nation’s economy, and the world’s economies, into a recession? Shouldn’t we get more citizens back to work before we embark on any huge new government programs that will radically change how we get health care and that are sure to cost taxpayers a fortune?
Shouldn’t revitalization of jobs and the economy precede any major new programs?
If we don’t address the causes of the recession and stop rewarding the culprits, we’ll end up with a deeper recession and more massive federal debt and all we will have to show for it is more companies like Goldman Sachs which are now generating massive revenues and handing out huge bonuses to its top executives but not contributing in any meaningful way to revitalization of the U.S. economy. Thanks to the feds (all those former top financial industry executives) bail out we all know they are saved. But what about the rest of us.
Below the fold, is economist Paul Krugmans opinion of Goldman’s obscene profits following its huge bail-out last year. But take a look at this quote from Jerome Armstrong, via Peter Daou’s Huffington Post article, “Obama and the Goldman Fiasco: Is This America Under Democratic Leadership?“:
… The New York Times’ Joe Nocera: “If Mr. Obama hopes to create a regulatory environment that stands for another six decades, he is going to have to do what Roosevelt did once upon a time. He is going to have make some bankers mad.” Via MoJo: “Does the Obama administration have the political will to break up financial giants? If the government’s continuing transfer of wealth from ordinary taxpayers to Goldman partners is any indication, probably not.”
Bob Woodward is working on a new book about Barack Obama, and he told Charlie Rose Friday night that Obama — “this young, inexperienced president… has put so much on the table,” Woodward remarked, that once he had “someone count it up, and it was 131 initiatives, legislation, major appointments, major ideas. … He is undertaking just about everything, and all of those things are like planes unlanded [sic] in an airport. They’re circling, and we don’t know what order they’re going to land in, (or) whether they’re going to land at all.”
Yet health care is clearly Obama’s obsession. Just this week, there was Obama’s Wednesday health care press conference that upstaged Hillary Clinton’s major foreign policy speech. Then after the Congressional Budget Office issued its worrisome predictions and shook up members of Congress, Obama on the defensive hastily convened a Friday afternoon press conference to make a frantic push to get a bill done this summer. But there were no questions allowed!
So why is the president pleading for a mad dash to enact his health care plan this summer? I suspect it has a lot to do with a self-grandiose historical vision of himself as a 21st-century Franklin Roosevelt. Even a columnist for the pro-Obama Huffington Post blog observed,
“Even strong Obama supporters are starting to worry that the whole health care reform push may largely be a political exercise for the president.”
I fear that Obama’s frantic demands of Congress to rush along with the increasingly wary (and weary) American citizens will, quite likely, mean that this heath care plan will be poorly written and difficult to execute. It will also — because it is so rushed and poorly planned — increase the deficit and raise taxes ENORMOUSLY. We’ve already learned Obama’s path to health care will include adverse changes to Medicare, the one federal program that everyone agrees is run with efficiency and heretofore low administrative costs. That alone should give everyone reason to want Obama and Congress to proceed cautiously.
Even Congressional moderates are urging the president to slow down (Maine senator Olympia Snowe asked Obama to “be patient” and said it was “overly ambitious” to set an August deadline for Senate passage) — I checked out Paul Krugman’s latest column, “The Joy of Sachs.”
Krugman’s column points to a root cause of the recession that I wish Obama cared enough about to push for with the same urgency that he uses for his self-aggrandizing health care plan: REFORM of government regulations to curb the monstrous profits of the Goldman Sachs of the financial world that solely benefit those companies and leave taxpayers on the hook (again!) if those companies get in trouble again.
Tim Geithner has promised reform, but so far nothing has been accomplished, according to Krugman:
[N]ew regulations are still in the drawing-board stage — and the finance lobby is already fighting against even the most basic protections for consumers.
Okay, I realize that reforming the financial industry isn’t “sexy” and it’s not what lands presidents in history books, but right now it’s far more important, and I wish that Obama were in front of the cameras every day urging Congress to enact new financial regulations.
Krugman describes the repercussions of no government attention to regulations in “The Joy of Sachs“:
The American economy remains in dire straits, with one worker in six unemployed or underemployed. Yet Goldman Sachs just reported record quarterly profits — and it’s preparing to hand out huge bonuses, comparable to what it was paying before the crisis. What does this contrast tell us?
First, it tells us that Goldman is very good at what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is bad for America.
Second, it shows that Wall Street’s bad habits — above all, the system of compensation that helped cause the financial crisis — have not gone away.
Third, it shows that by rescuing the financial system without reforming it, Washington has done nothing to protect us from a new crisis, and, in fact, has made another crisis more likely.
Krugman explains how Goldman Sachs et al. make their money, and then points out how the lack of any action to reform plays you and me for “suckers”:
Goldman’s role in the financialization of America was similar to that of other players, except for one thing: Goldman didn’t believe its own hype. Other banks invested heavily in the same toxic waste they were selling to the public at large. Goldman, famously, made a lot of money selling securities backed by subprime mortgages — then made a lot more money by selling mortgage-backed securities short, just before their value crashed. All of this was perfectly legal, but the net effect was that Goldman made profits by playing the rest of us for suckers.
And Wall Streeters have every incentive to keep playing that kind of game.
The huge bonuses Goldman will soon hand out show that financial-industry highfliers are still operating under a system of heads they win, tails other people lose. If you’re a banker, and you generate big short-term profits, you get lavishly rewarded — and you don’t have to give the money back if and when those profits turn out to have been a mirage. You have every reason, then, to steer investors into taking risks they don’t understand.
And the events of the past year have skewed those incentives even more, by putting taxpayers as well as investors on the hook if things go wrong”. … (Read all.)
Given our ongoing recession and increasing unemployment, I’m for “first things first.” In my opinion, the first thing we need to do is focus attention enacting regulations to lessen the chances of another catastrophic recession. And we need to do that before we implement any more costly programs, particularly hurried programs like the health care plan that are highly complex and will require a huge government apparatus to run.
I fear that the health care program will leave citizens on the hook for more taxes and more costs (despite Obama’s absurd claims that the health care plan will save us money), particularly since any program that’s rushed through will stumble out of the gate and probably need to be overhauled almost immediately.
In a must-read post at Hot Air — “CBO: House version of ObamaCare adds $239 billion to deficit” — Ed Morrissey describes the deficits that the new health care plan would create, stating that the Democrats are “cooking the books” to explain away these new deficits, and he notes:
The “fierce urgency of now” doesn’t play well once you’ve blown the first “now” into “you’ll see the benefits in 18 months.” With the CBO continuing to shine the light on the deep hole ObamaCare represents, Obama needs to get it done now or watch as it founders in its own sea of red ink.
We do need health care reform, but first we need to make sure that the Titans of the financial world don’t operate in a way that allows them to run amok without oversight and, if they do falter drastically, will not force taxpayers to pay for their greed-driven mistakes.
Then, with our economy stabilized, less unemployment and a healthier climate for now-struggling small and large businesses, we can look to solutions to major crises like health care.
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Health care spending, if not curtailed and reformed very soon, will bankrupt this country. It’s by far the most pressing economic issue this nation faces, and Obama has his priorities just right. All your words here basically amount to sticking your head in the sand in order to stick it to the president. That’s what Republicans are for. We need health care reform, we need the public option, and we need it to pass this year, before the off-year election cycle begins.
I think if one is looking for root causes of this glorious, stinking mess, the Federal Reserve is at the top of the list…and I am not even a Libertarian. As for health care….how can costs not be out of control when the system is driven by profit? I think the Congress should encourage some non-profit competition in the health care sector by controlling prices, eliminating taxes and/or other tax and cost innovations for non-profit care groups, and especially non-profit insurance or coops. I think I may just be dreaming here because I have never read or heard anyone discuss these ideas. Non-profit and health care just make sense to me.
That sounds like a good idea. I remember fondly when hospitals were conceived as non-profit public services.
Hospitals should not be run for profit. Neither should health insurance and HMOs. Profiting off someone’s misfortune is obscene and un-Christian.
However, Single Payer is the right way to go if anyone had the guts to do it.
I believe the Obama advisors were scornful of Hillary’s experience and thought that they could do it better. Now the reality of the power of the health insurance industry is slapping them in the face and they’re trying to get anything passed before it all unravels.
Good luck with that.
Tonight on CNN’s 360, even 0bama cheerleader, David Gergen, said something to the effect of “Pres 0bama’s mistake was running with the House (of Representatives) healthcare bill instead of his own.”
Two things: 1)the House bill is Nancy Pelosi’s bill (the only person in Washington that knows what is actually in that bill) 2)Gergen is absolutely right that it should have been 0’s bill except for one thing - 0 could not have come up with that even if he had had plenty of time. This is why Pelosi is the most powerful person in this country, a woman who wants to be the ONLY woman in the room or at the table. She made sure of that with her tireless efforts to get B0 elected POTUS and make sure Hillary Clinton would be defeated.
I noticed on one of his interviews televised today, 0 has even resorted to talking about how the republicans sabataged the Clintons healthcare initiative. I suppose a desperate person will do desperate things. Otherwise, Hillary and Bill’s efforts would have never been spotlighted by this POTUS preferring to take ALL the credit as if it had never been thought of before him.
Bronwyn’s Harbor, great post! I just kept nodding my head, Yes Yes Yes:
This should be self-evident! Far from seeing “revitalization,” these astronomical budget shortfalls are taking us into treacherous unfamiliar territory.
I have been saying this exact thing since the beginning of the year and the beginiing of this horrible sadministraion! Everyone agrees with it, even kool aid drinkers! Slow down. Haste makes waste. Set some priorities.
WTF is this guy’s real agenda???
The possibility exists that there is an element of the democrat party that so hates this country that they would rather break it and start over then try to change the system from within. Maybe they have decided it would be easier to change the country by rebuilding from the ashes. That is an amplification of Cloward-Piven. We know the left has used this slash and burn, by any means strategy in the past. It hasn’t been applied to the country or the world at large… until maybe now. It could also be that there is an element of the republican party that would allow the country to be damaged to gain political ground. It could also be that there is an oligarchy that sees opportunity here to use both parties as tools. This makes the perfect storm of economic destruction. This would of course be the conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories.
The movement behind Obama are made up of people Jealous of those that have made something for themselves.
They are takers and haters and would rather see the destruction of this country than face another day of people leading wonderful lives based on the fruits of their labor
To accuse the other side of being “haters” of this country is simplistic and a Repub talking point. It’s more a case of blind ideology and being used by the oligarchs who will play either Party to get what it wants. If anyone “hates” this country it is the oligarchs and the greed that drives them.
Are you still in Love with Ed Shultz
talk about being self loathing piece of crap Hater.
i think she might be on to something, SM. when the obscene greed of a certain segment of society means that everybody else gets screwed and america goes down the tubes, that could certainly qualify as america-hating from where i sit.
The hate of the left might just as well be labeled as resentment. But resentment turns to hatred eventually. So maybe it’s honest hatred… but nonetheless hatred just the same.
We are not in disagreement about these Uber rich and for many years before my ship came in I really despised the Republicans and the rich…I guess I was Jealous and hurt that my father had lost it all with the oil collapse of the 80’s. The democrats represented me then because I had no skin in the game and was angry and jaded by my position in life.
Those were the days when I was roughing it after moving to Seattle a young man fresh out of liberal college and secaping the depression that was Texas.
Through hard work I’m ready to reach that higher level except now the democrats want to punish my success and future earnings…Oh the Irony!
But now I represent 1000’s of companies and I have seen each and every one of their operations.
Whether they be fine wine and cheese. Fine restaurants and cuisine,fine yachts and other toys each and everyone of those operations have employees that take pride in their work and feed their families while providing products for those that have earned the right to own these products.
I remember the 80’s very well..A lot less of everything
That is where we are headed again.
There are consequences to taxing the rich 50%
Capital flight from this nation
Companies moving offshore
Companies cashing in and closing down
The biggest consequence of all will be all those people making wonderful products losing their jobs and lifestyles
I forgot another consequence of Taxing the rich…
Far fewer Teak Wood orders from my buddies up north.
The rich just won’t have the extras for that Bamboo floor or even the state of the art heated floors. Let’s not forget all the wonderful fixtures and beautiful wood windows gazing out at porch and gazebo with Greenhouse..
All built by people with jobs providing products to people that have earned the right to own nice products.
Obama punishes those that produce and through confiscation steals the fruits of the producers labor.
Less money in the pockets of those that produce mean less products bought from the good people that work at these companies.
“Far fewer Teak Wood orders”
Humble repose; I resemble that remark.
All this time I have been saving my money hoping to afford my dream of making more of me; talk about “moving the goal post”, these fools want to leave the stadium with it.
The wind whistles thru empty factory and between the boarded up windows of town. This a poverty I have not seen, this ill wind that blows across the land.
Teak,
I spent years helping the poor through guidance assistance and food programs.
Today I help business and industry survive the onslaught of new regulations,depletion of industrial areas and the protection of jobs.
The most important thing I can do to help people is to enable them to have a job which does more to lift the soul of a family than any welfare program.
The left loves poor people who are in their place. The left hates people who are above the caste that the left would keep them in. What appears on the surface from the left to be compassion is actually a yoke of control.
I could not agree more Seattle. Diginity is an awful thing to have stripped away by the poor judgement of others.
This is the poverty I speak of.
You and so many others busting ass to keep the doors open and in turn provide jobs is the backbone of this country.
BO is a job killer…
I talk with all the workers on the line and thank them for making a quality product with a sense of urgency which prevents lost customers.
The big guy on the floor Danny said he wanted to be like me..Fulfilling he said. I gave him advice…Read everything you can get your hands on. I mentioned that I have read thirty hours a week or more since 1967.
He then said..
Moss, I bet you think when you watch us on the line that everyone has their job because of you.
I corrected him..
When I see the workers on the line I see families that need work and it’s up to me to keep closing deals and think outside the box so that they can keep working.
As an enlightened liberal as of 2008, I have to disagree about democrats hating this country. I’m reminded of something I read years ago about the notoriously liberal Supreme Court Justice William Douglas.
It puzzled many that Justice Douglas yelled at and belittled his staff, yet on the bench fought valiantly for the less fortunate and the downtrodden. It was concluded that he only cared about people in the abstract.
I think this is a good explanation for many of the contrasting philosophies of far-left liberals.
That could be the result of the dissonance of feeling superior to the little people… the need to publicly champion them all the while privately berating them. Sounds a lot to me of what I see from the far left. They love the downtrodden little people… the ones who know their place. Good input about the justice.
I guess it could be hate. Like a rancher hating his cattle, but being dependent on them for his way of life. But, more than likely it is contempt. The oligarchs have contempt for us that on the one hand they see themselves superior to us, yet on the other they need us to graze and fatten ourselves so that when it’s time to take us to market it is profitable. Speaking metaphorically of course.
So in a way we are still free… the same way free range beef cattle are free. Free until the man gets hungry or goes broke playing in the futures markets.
Obama’s masters do indeed hate the bulk of Americans. His masters generally don’t live in this country, or they have dual citizenship. Read between the lines, please.
Until the Pharmaceutical and Insurance companies are regulated more, we will never have true reform in healthcare. Those two entities have single-handedly raped the American consumer for their healthcare for decades. They are the culprits in all of this, not the physicians or hospitals. Most hospitals are barely scraping by. Ever wonder why we can get the same medicine in Canada or Mexico for 1/10th the cost? It is because the pharmaceutical companies here charge ridiculous amounts for the same meds and claim it is “because of R & D”. Honestly. They don’t have to provide proof of those R & D costs so they can say what they want. And don’t even get me started on the insurance companies. Their profit margins speak for themselves!
deincentivize R&D and there won’t be any new R&D
A lot of R&D is done at publicly-funded universities who then make sweetheart deals with the Pharmaceutical companies.
Fix that first.
Agreed. Leave Medicare and Social Security alone, prosecute the robber barons in banks and Wall Street, throw out the fascist media owned by GE/Immelt and others, and produce goods and services IN America, FOR Americans First, vet bho the fraud, Valerie Jarrett, Tim Geithner, etc top to bottom and PUBLISH the info across this country, dump the Congress people who want THEIR health plans paid by We the People to be better than this travesty they’re trying to foist on us. Do all this FIRST, then maybe we’ll have a little chat about health care.
Drugs and insurance are overly priced here for sure, Disgusted. These greedy corporations can still make a nice living without bankrupting our citizens and our country. Time to live simply again, America, until we climb out of this mess with the help of common sense leaders.
It’s a given that bho the fraud has to go.
I’ll second that and drink to that and whatever else I need to do for that!
Everybody say it with me:
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Barack Obama has got to go! Hey, hey, ho, ho, Barack Obama has got to go!”
Sing it loud, sing it proud, sing it all day long!!!! Everywhere!!!
I want to hear at the next tea party!
The tea Parties and the push back may be working.
This is from an email I received today.
CNN is dumping their liberal, anti-Tea Party
correspondent, Susan Roesgen. Roesgen was the reporter who decided to harass those who attended the April 15th Tea Party in
Chicago, IL, instead of serving as an unbiased journalist (yes,we know — a bit of an oxymoron there). In response, we here at
the Our Country Deserves Better Committee launched an online grass roots effort that flooded CNN’s offices with tens of thousands of phone calls and emails. And CNN felt the heat -
first sending Roesgen on leave for a suddenly scheduled vacation,and now deciding to part ways with Roesgen altogether.
There is also a tea party express planned. Go here for details. Forward to friends and family.
http://www.teapartyexpress.org/
Yes, Wall Street no longer represents America no more than the current two party system represents Americans. Of all the things we need the most right about now… having a President who doesn’t identify with America or Americans isn’t anywhere near the top of that list… if that even makes the list at all. Can we hold out for four years? For eight years? Longer than that? We owe at least an honest effort to our posterity to give it our best effort.
When did Wall St. represent America????????????????????????????
What I mean is there was a time when that which was good for Wall St. was also good for America. That hasn’t been the case since the 80’s… but today Wall St. practically represents an oligarchic class that oppresses America.
Priorities?
Obama’s Top Five Priorities
1.) Barrack H. Obama
2.) Barrack Obama
3.) Barry Obama
4.) Barry Soetoro Obama
5.) Barry
6) Thee One
7) Me, Myself & I
Wow, I just discovered that if you type an “8″ followed by a “)”, you get a smiley. It was unintentional, but a pleasant suprise. :), that one is intentional!
I try not to use smiley’s..
I don’t want anyone to know what I look like…
Call Senators who are on the fence about Obamacrapcare aka Eugenics to clear the social security rolls…
CBO says ObamaCare is “unsustainable”, Senate/Congress/Obamas have REJECTED using it for themselves, it stands to destroy America’s healthcare which has the highest cure rates for advanced diseases in the world to replace it with third world bandaid clinics with long waits, limited drug and treatment protocols and surly underpaid workers.
ObamaCare is in a weakened position. Let’s burn their lines up.
Call or fax Monday 07/20/09 these ‘moderates’ who may be swayed by your strong opposition:
Montana – Baucus and Tester
Senator Max Baucus / (202) 224-2651(Office) (202) 224-9412 (Fax)
Senator Jon Tester / Phone: (202) 224-2644 Fax: (202) 224-8594
North Dakota – Dorgan and Conrad
Senator Byron Dorgan Phone: (202) 224-2644 Fax: (202) 224-8594
Senator Kent Conrad Phone: (202) 224-2043 Fax: (202) 224-7776
South Dakota – Senator Tim Johnson Phone (202) 224-5842 Fax: 202-228-5765
Nebraska – Senator Ben Nelson Fax: Phone: 202-224-6551 Fax: 202-228-0012
Arkansas – Senator Mark Pryor Phone: (202) 224-2353. Fax: (202) 228-0908
Senator Blanche Lincoln Phone: 202-224-4843 Fax: 202-228-1371
Louisiana – Senator Mary Landrieu Phone: 202-224-5824
Fax: 202-224-9735
North Carolina – Senator Kay Hagan Phone: 202-224-6342. Fax: 202-228-2563
Indiana – Senator Evan Bayh Phone: 202-224-5623 Fax: 202-228-1377
Connecticut – Senator Joe Lieberman Phone: 202-224-4041. Fax: 202-224-9750
Maine – Senator Olympia Snow Phone: 202-224-5344. Toll Free: 800-432-1599. Fax: 202-224-1946
Senator Susan Collins Phone: 207-945-0417. Fax: 207-990-4604
Thanks for this good article Bronwyn’s Harbor.
Maybe the POTUS is pushing so hard because he realizes he may very well lose, in the 2010 mid-term elections, the Senate and Congressional majorities he enjoys today. While Democrats may retain a majority in both houses, they will likely lose some ground and the POTUS’ initiatives will therefore face more obstacles than they do today.
Also, while I think his policies and proposals are prolonging this recession, it won’t last forever and as the unemployed get back to work there may be less angst about health care issues.
I’ve been troubled from the start by this administration when I realized financial reform and accountability were not priorities, nor was it a priority to deal with the credit crunch, which continues to persist. But it makes sense — he doesn’t want to bite a hand that feeds him so well, as the financial sector has been such a huge source of his campaign contributions.
I have to say I think the POTUS is basically lazy, in spite of the perception that he’s “doing too much”. Instead of outlining and crafting initiatives, he’s ceded that role to legislators who are more susceptible to special-interest pressure — resulting in legislation like the pork-laden stimulus, as one example.
Everything at once, no matter how much it costs or how broke we are: just do it NOW and don’t ask questions!
(Apologies to Tom Lehrer, “The Vatican Rag”):
Decide what programs you want to push through,
Print up a trillion, or maybe two,
Tell the congress, nothing can wait,
And delegate, delegate, delegate, delegate!
Then there are his 30 Czars and their staffs to do dear leaders bidding
Good article, Browyn. It’s a case of coulda, woulda, shoulda. It only makes common sense to get our debt under control before we spend a gargantuan mountain on Health Care. I agree with you: we need reform. But reform will be irrelvant if the country continues to spin out of control financially. Obama is trying to ram this bill down our throats in the same way the Stim Bill was pushed as the “only way out.” We now know that not only has Stim had no effect beyond lining the pockets of Big Banks but there’s been no immediate employment increase [shovel-ready projects, remember that?] and yet the Stimulus was pushed as a jobs, jobs, jobs necessity.
I see no reason that pushing a Health Care Bill at light speed will be any different than what we’ve already seen. The CBO came out with those unflattering numbers and what do the Dems do? They start a narration about the numbers. Why not? They’ve allowed, even encouraged the banks to cook their books. Why not politicians?
And finally, I read an article over the weekend [that has strangely disappeared] that Geithner was naming a former GS lobbyist as his #2 guy and Obama was pushing for a former GS VP to head up Finance at the State Department.
Collusion, anyone??? We are being screwed royally. And Obama and his merry men are in bed with the guys doing the screwing.
As much as I want Health Care reform, this lousy bill will break our backs and the only health will be to the Fat Cats, who have proven themselves insatiable.
Okey-Dokey–Here’s the On-Topic must-reads of the day:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/watchdog-treasury-has-failed-to-adopt-bailout-safeguards-2009-07-20.html
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1240-TWENTY-FOUR-TRILLION-DOLLARS!.html
2nd link doesn’t work. Please copy and paste, or eliminate the exclamation point. Or,
http://market-ticker.denninger.net
I just read Denninger’s recent post, oowawa. No wonder Obama is spinning his wheels on the Health Care bill. Because once this gets out and people realize what’s been going on, he won’t be able to get a pass to the men’s room.
And the numbers: 23.7 TRILLION dollars??? I’ve got a suggestion: let’s empty the jails of people brought up on charges of pot smoking and nonviolent crime.
Make room for the real criminals. Make room for the traitors.
And Geitner refuses transparency? And the Fed threatens ominous results of a public audit.
Get the thumbscrews out! These guys are freaking off the charts.
Yes Peggy Sue. The shocker to me is that these figures do not come from some radical O-hating financial analyst, but from “Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general over the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)” who is “the government’s top watchdog over the $700 billion financial rescue package.” This is a government watchdog doing the job that we hired him to do! I don’t see how any reasonable citizen can disregard his conclusions.
Been a lot of stuff “shovel ready”, but that hasn’t been jobs- just the usual stuff one picks up w/ a shovel in a barnyard. Piss on all of ‘em! It’s gotten so bad, even TOTUS fell over in despair!!
Does anyone remember a recent tidbit — something about the State Dept. buying up a LOT of foreign currency because of rumors a bank holiday may be imposed here in the US? Why would we need a bank holiday if our banks are as healthy as the stress tests claimed?
I hope to God this administration hasn’t simply been buying time vis a vis the banking industry, but I have to admit that’s one of my fears.
Patience, I cannot verify this particular site’s legitmacy, but with a quick Google search I came up with the following link. If this doesn’t make your head curl, nothing will:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/many-predict-us-financial-collapse-in-september.html
You’ll notice that Alex Jones’ radio show is featured in the upper tab, hardly considered a fountain of reasonable discourse. But . . . we ought to keep this prediction in mind as we enter the fall and winter season. If this comes to pass? Then I guess we owe Jones and his ilk an apology.
Scary stuff.
My eyes are wide with alarm. Put a cartoon thought balloon over my head. In the balloon write:
Bloomberg has reported on the State Dept. Finance guy:
“President Barack Obama announced today he was nominating Robert Hormats, a vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, to a top economic position at the State Department.”
Both this and the lobbyist/Treasury announcement was made over at Democratic Underground. People were howling foul at the top of their lungs. Couldn’t find the original article there this morning.
It just gets better and better to the point you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Sickening.
Well, Hail! Hail! The gang’s all here!
What the heck do we care
What the heck do we care
What happens to the USA–
Goldman!!! Goldman Sachs!!!!
I was gonna say “It’s a reunion” but then BANG! (lighting bolts) how can it be a reunion when they never freaking left in the first place.
I find it stunning the amount of Goldman and Sachs employees in positions of power with in this administration. I am not surprised, but for all the talk of “multi-culturalism” from the BO wing of the DNC, it looks like variety is not what BO chooses or wants.
BO swings the hammer aimming for the nail and as Pat wrote about recently, we all end up swearing because of it.
What a door knob BO is.
That pretty much makes it a coup then by default, because nothing else really fits any better or describes it more adeptly.
Yep Teak–I was always frightened of the consequences of an O presidency, but I certainly never suspected in my wildest nightmares that it was going to be the Goldman Sachs show with the oligarchy in charge.
Hey–just figured out that your name TeakWoodKite kind of corresponds to Led Zeppelin or Iron Butterfly!
Ha! Over the hill and far way.
heh heh; glad to hear that the kool-aid heads over at DU are not happy with their messiah. yoo bad they chose a president because he was “cooooool.”
Well then you’ll ne happy to know that they were shocked, positively shocked, nobamanoway. They were duped, fooled, bamboozled. The angst was pouring off the response page. The announcement? I found it as appalling as the responders. But their reaction [not all but the majority] was a spiral of self-pity and woe is me.
My reaction to that? Duh. Anyone who bought this prepackaged, astro-turf, completely managed and manipulative spin of a candidate should stand in the corner for a lifetime–without a vote.
There’s dumb. And then there’s dumber than dumb, as they say.
So, the news is appalling but not that shocking given everything we’ve witnessed in the last 18 months. But the response at DU? Pathetic.
Oh and btw. I’ve been a lifelong Dem. We’re not all that dumb :0).
Another article Obama Making Push on Health as G.O.P. Steps Up Criticism speaks about the concerns of the governors, and this very interesting video exposes The Health Insurance Industry. Obama is so indebted to the moneyed interests that the ‘reform’ touted is a mere gimmick to enrich his ‘friends’ and play a cruel trick on those who desperately hoped Obama would be an agent of change. Obama’s masters in the shadows invested well in Obama. Obama has been fashioned to represent the anti-Bush and the ’socialist’ that is immune to serious scrutiny as the opposite of Bush while doubling down on guilt as it knows America wants to shed the image of its racist past. The biggest corporate interests are guiding Obama’s agenda and Americans are being suckered. Obama has not turned away from the abuses of the Bush administration, he has embraced and furthered them. America is being fleeced once in the guise of a compassionate, religious neo-con, now in the guise of a well-educated hip socialist, the two unchallenged, for the handsome profits of the corporate powers in the shadows, that have bought Bush, Obama and many in Congress. Look how effectively they’ve robbed the middle class, who were encouraged by Bush to invest, and be sure to use easily obtained credit cards, to buy homes in an inflated real estate market with increased prices and demand by offering no money down loans to sell the homes; start a war and tell taxpayers it will pay for itself with Iraqi oil profits; and eventually, it’s imperative to bailout the financial and insurance corporations with taxpayer dollars. The deception continues with Obama who has continued to allow taxpayer dollars and foreign debt back those financial and insurance corporations with guarantees, discounts and assets reset at bargain lows. The health care plan will be a boon to insurance companies who will hold the previously uninsured hostage with imposed premiums and claim denials, with no real improvement to the health care of Americans but instead extend the handsome profits because there won’t really be any competition. The war still goes on, still the same contractors and Halliburton subsidiaries. The civil liberty abuses continue with Obama extending the spying on communications of everyday Americans (email, internet use, cell phone, and telephone conversations collected), preventive detention, etc. The credit markets remain frozen and layoffs continue, purposely to drive down wages and benefits, with Obama’s permission for what he owes the moneyed interests that got him elected, that will keep him in power and help him to be reelected.
And where is the US Congress? I’ll answer my own question…they are bought and paid for and stuffed into the pockets of the same moneyed interests who bought and paid for Obama.
And that stupid, idiotic, moronic, birdbrain corporate media. Come on Sarah Palin! Stir things up!! Let’s get a slug of these degenerates out of office!!!
Everyone needs to go to http://www.google.com and type in America Freedom to Fascism. Click on the top link which is the director’s authorized version. I just watched this film, which is 1 hour 51 minutes long. It’s chilling but true and it explains everything that is happening to us and our country. Please watch and tell everyone about this. We have to stop this and we don’t have alot of time. Here is the direct link to the video but I’m not sure if it will work:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
Obama does not understand the healthcare legislation he is proposing, just as he did not understand the bailout legislation or stimulus legislation he telepromptered so hard for.
He let Congress divvy up the stimulus money, most of which went to old fashioned ‘pork’ and will leave only a legacy of debt in its wake. He let Wall Street divvy up the bailout money. He let the financial industry write the weak, paltry financial industry regulation legislation. He turned to the Insurance/Drug/Medical lobby for his Obamacare legislation, and is preparing to let them divvy up the proceeds.
Each time, the average American has lost, and big business and the well-connected political friends of Obama have made out like bandits. Obama wants to be seen as a Great President. Unfortunately the only thing he knows how to do is politics Chicago Style: pay and pay back.
Everyone google Agenda 21 and think about how Obamacare and the swine flu relate to this. Watch the videos
I agree that job creation and revitalization of the economy should be the top two items on Ozero’s must-do list. However, I don’t think that these can be achieved without significant change in the way health care is accessed in this country. The cost to employers of all sizes is too great. The cost to individuals is too much. Too many of us have no health insurance because of..the cost. In my opinion, the only change worth makings is the deveopment of our own national health care system. Not a blind copy of any other system, but one that embraces the best of the best. Unfortunately, it will take more balls than Ozero possesses to even broach this, never mind accomplish it.
The current suggestions just line the pockets of insurance companies.
i don’t understand the hurry..they need to slow it down a notch.
look up agenda 21 and watch America Freedom to Fascism. You’ll see why they want to hurry. google both of these. Everyone needs to go to http://www.google.com and type in America Freedom to Fascism. Click on the top link which is the director’s authorized version. I just watched this film, which is 1 hour 51 minutes long. It’s chilling but true and it explains everything that is happening to us and our country. Please watch and tell everyone about this. We have to stop this and we don’t have alot of time. Here is the direct link to the video but I’m not sure if it will work:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
Would health care reform bring “greater inefficiencies” to the country’s health care system?
That’s exactly what Obama said Monday when he spoke about health care reform at the Childrens National Medical Center in Washington.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm is this sorta kinda like his “like my Muslim religion? moment? Thinking what he knows is true and saying it by mistake? Or is he really Joe Bidens secret twin?
So sorry forgot the link.
http://www.drudgereport.com/ or directly to the article at
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25165.html
Why is BO pushing health care? He wants control of every aspect of our lives. The government (aka-Obama & the Dems) will decide who gets medical care. We are talking about rationing.
BO and the Dems are bleeding the taxpayers to death. Who will be left to pay for this monstrosity? We deserve the government we get. And the current one is a monster. I blame the people for voting for this turd.
Mayo Clinic, cited by Obama as a model for reform, pans Obamacare.
I just received an email from Navy vets on the West Coast showing a bumper sticker “One Big Ass Mistake America”. That wasn’t new to me. I had seen it here and over at the NY Post before. What really wowed me, was the postscript,
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
— Winston Churchill
A postscript to an email from a Navy vet. I hope you enjoy it.
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
— Winston Churchill
I actually think that the Obama administration is on the tipping point of being total losers, just like what happened to Bush.
It’s going to be a long 3-1/2 years of lame duckism.
But that beats 3-1/2 years of Soros/Godlman Sachs (I am sure they are connected) take-over of our freedom.
Which is where we would be heading if he hadn’t totally screwed up the first six months.
As everybody here knew he would before the election. It’s happening exactly as all of you predicted. Love you guys. This is my go-to website, becuase your analyses are so accurate.
If I am being spammed on purpose please have the decency to tell me♠♠. I’ll leave. No problem. It will be like getting used to Barky’s America.
don’t think so — I’ll go look.
you have been rescued.
Postscript to an email from an old friend, a Navy vet.
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
— Winston Churchill
The HealthCare Reform Act is a POS that is a 1000 pages of pure crap. Just like the Pork Package that just got passed, nobody in Congress has read it. It’s not going to do a lick of good for those who have to actually pay for it. Conveniently for Obama, it doesn’t go into effect until at least 2014.
Effective 2013. Like the promise of credit card reform, it is too little, too late and all botched up.
And the incestuousness continues this week:
July 17 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama announced today he was nominating Robert Hormats, a vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, to a top economic position at the State Department.
We tried to tell them. Anyone remember this, from way back in the beginning?
WASHINGTON–On May 3, 2007, Barack Obama attended an event at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan that was not on his public schedule and is only now surfacing–a private dinner for Goldman Sachs traders with a discussion on issues moderated for the Wall Street firm by NBC’s Tom Brokaw.
Brokaw is the moderator of Tuesday’s second presidential debate between Obama and John McCain at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.
Brokaw’s appearance was arranged through Goldman Sachs–not the Obama campaign.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/10/obama_interviewed_by_brokaw_at.html
Goldman Sachs very quietly had their damn hooks in Obama FROM THE BEGINNING OF HIS CAMPAIGN, if not before.
Well, how about that. Good find, WMCB. Thanks. If the plot thickens much more, we won’t be able to stick a fork into it.
What a ridiculous post this is!
You make a statement that we should fix the economy before we reform healthcare, but you really do not say why? We can clearly do both at the same time and frankly both are completely inter-linked. As a result of the downturn in the economy there are many many more people who now do not have health insurance and in the long-term health care costs are pulling down the economy making us less competitive. The recession has results in a 50-year low in the number of people with private insurance. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529821,00.html
By the way what is being proposed is not a huge government program. Far from it. The 170mm people still on private insurance will remain on private insurance. That does not change. A huge government apparatus is just a right-wing talking point. Do you even know what is being proposed?
Your statement that financial companies like Goldman are not contributing in any meaningful way to revitalizing the economy is also false. You may disagree with bonuses, but financial institutions play a very important part in helping to allocate financial resources. They match funds with those who need them. I take Krugman’s point you are referencing, but he is exaggerating. Not sure why you are talking about Goldman’s profits when your post is really about healthcare and somehow saying that we have to regulate banks to fix the economy first. Not sure what that has to do with Goldman’s profits. When you cut and paste it results in you not making a very concise argument. Very dis-jointed. You seem to be confusing a lot of different points in your post. You really make no sense. What does Goldman have to do with healthcare? Why does enacting financial regulation come before healthcare reform? And in case you did not notice both are being done at the same time.
It is a very positive thing that Obama has put “131” initiatives together. We finally have a president that is getting to work after 8 wasted years. And a lot of these economic initiatives were pushed on Obama because of the sorry state of the economy that he was left with. Why do you take Woodward’s comment as a negative? Seems like a positive to me.
Healthcare is not Obama’s obsession it is the country’s obsession. As the system is not working for millions and millions of people, whether they have insurance or not. Obama campaigned heavily on this issue and now he is acting on it. Good for him. It is great that he is doing something about healthcare after decades of doing nothing, as the system got progressively worse. Given the huge issues with healthcare, to say that this is somehow just about Obama is a joke and disingenuous. Go to any of the poll numbers on healthcare. It is a huge issue for people.
A healthcare bill will likely pass this year. It will be historic and will set the path for much much more reform down the road. It may not be perfect for everyone, but it will be important to get reform going, as once it starts it will not be stopped. It will become a sacred cow like in all other countries of the world. It will then be incrementally improved on over time with much more cost cutting and improved services will result. Nothing is rushed, sure rushed to get a bill passed by August, but 100s of economists and healthcare experts have been working on this issue for years and are now contributing to drafting legislation.
For the few legislators that you quote that want to slowdown the healthcare initiatives there are many many more that want to get something done now.
Krugman only represents one view. Funny people on NQ critized Krugman when he is positive on the stimulus and Obama, but now when he saying something different than the president you support him. What Krugman is actually saying is there should be more regulation and more stimulus, something many on NQ have argued against.
You really have no clue about what is in the healthcare proposal. Where precisely are the tax hikes in the proposed healthcare proposition? There are tax hikes for the top 1% of income earners, but no tax hikes for anyone else in one proposal. In fact, the vast majority of people will likely financially benefit from healthcare reform.
Since you quote Krugman why don’t read his recent article on healthcare:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/opinion/06krugman.html
Do remember that even if reform ends up without game-changing cost control, it may create political conditions that make future cost control more likely. That seems to be happening in Massachusetts, which enacted sweeping coverage expansions a few years ago. Remember, too, even if reform did nothing but guarantee everybody access to care, without bending the curve, it’d still be a pretty big accomplishment.
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/archive/2009/07/17/orszag-on-cbo-testimony.aspx
Doug Elmendorf of the CBO comments are valuable, but he is talking about a moving target as no final healthcare bill has been presented. There are in fact 5 different proposals. He does not even take into consideration several things like the proposal to put together a group of industry professional to find ways to reduce costs as we go forward.
And you also fail to mention the most recent CBO report that came out late Friday (see below) that says the healthcare reform that is being proposed will be deficit neutral.
Basically your argument is entirely based on fear. If we listened to people like you in this country would never get anything done (you and the Republicans were the type of people that whether against woman’s right, civil rights, medicare. You will be on the wrong side of history). What is important is to start the ball rolling with healthcare reform. This is not a onetime deal and will be incrementally improved over time. Nothing is written in stone. You do not seem to understand that. You can believe the fear mongers who shill for the Republicans who and the insurance companies have zero ideas or you can side with the people who are trying to get something done.
By the way, the AMA, a very conservative group of doctors came out last week in support of Obama’s push for healthcare reform. A very significant event that was not report widely.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/ama-endorses-house-healthcare-bill-2009-07-16.html
For Immediate Release:
July 17, 2009
CBO Scores Confirms Deficit Neutrality of Health Reform Bill
Washington, D.C. — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released estimates this evening confirming for the first time that H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, is deficit neutral over the 10-year budget window – and even produces a $6 billion surplus. CBO estimated more than $550 billion in gross Medicare and Medicaid savings. More importantly, the bill includes a comprehensive array of delivery reforms to set the stage for lowering the future growth in health care costs.
Net Medicare and Medicaid savings of $465 billion, coupled with the $583 billion revenue package reported today by the House Committee on Ways and Means, fully finance the previously estimated $1.042 trillion cost of reform, which will provide affordable health care coverage for 97% of Americans.
“This fulfills the strong commitment of the President and House leadership to enact health reform on a deficit-neutral basis,” said Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Chairman Charles B. Rangel, and Chairman George Miller. “The reforms included in this legislation will help control health care costs and expand access to quality, affordable coverage to all Americans in a fiscally-responsible manner.”
The estimates also cover important reinvestments in Medicare and Medicaid, including phasing in the closing of the “donut” hole in the Medicare drug benefit. The bill’s long-term reform of Medicare’s physician fee schedule to eliminate the potential 21 percent cut in fees, and put payments on a sustainable basis for the future, will cost about $245 billion. Those costs, however, are not included in the net calculations above, as they will be absorbed under the upcoming statutory “pay go” legislation that is pending in the House.
Nice try. The press release you included at the end isn’t a CBO press release — it’s a skewed interpretation released by Rep. George Miller(D), California.
Keep smoking that Hopium, ‘American’. Obama’s not legislating for you.
The AMA doesn’t represent all physicians — it’s estimated only 19-25% of practising physicians are members.
The CEO of the AMA is the one who announced the endorsement and he’s on record as an Obama campaign contributor.
Rasmussen Reports, the most accurate pollster of the 2008 presidential election, differs with your interpretation of the country’s “obsession” with health care reform:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/healthcare/july_2009/cost_not_universal_coverage_is_top_health_care_concern_for_voters
To quote YOU, “When you cut and paste it results in you not making a very concise argument. Very dis-jointed.” And YOU have the nerve to criticize the writers here at NQ? Pot meet kettle.
To your points:
1) You are right I quote a release from the House Energy, Ways & Means and Education & Labor Committees about the most recent CBO report. But, that does not make it any less valuable. It is still a valid analysis of the CBO release late on Friday. What exactly is your point?
2) Also, not sure what your point is on the Rasmussen poll you quote. I don’t disagree with it. The number one issue for many people on healthcare is the cost to them. Given that most people have private insurance that is not a surprise. This does not contradict anything I am saying. If you look at any poll Healthcare is a key issue and priority for people.
But, why trust the results from a single poll when pollingreport.com presents results from multiple pollsters on this issue? In every one of the four polls conducted in the last month which asked whether government should offer a public health insurance plan as an option, a majority of those surveyed supported this option and every poll suggest this should be a big priority for Obama now.
ABC News/Washington Post Poll. July 15-18, 2009. N=1,001 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.5.
Do you think Obama is placing too much of a priority on health care, too little, or about the right amount?”
Too Much 25%; Too Little 21%; About Right 51%; Unsure 3%
That is 76% of people thinking he is either spending enough time or too little.
Ipsos/McClatchy Poll conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs. July 9-13, 2009. N=1,007 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.1 (for all adults).
“Should the primary goal of a national health care overhaul be more to extend health insurance to the millions of Americans who now lack it, or should the primary goal be to rein in the rising costs of health care? If you had to choose one goal over the other, which would you choose?”
Extend Insurance 46%; Rein in Costs 44%; Shouldn’t be Any Overhaul 5%; Unsure 4%
USA Today/Gallup Poll. July 10-12, 2009. N=3,026 adults nationwide. MoE ± 2 (for all adults).
Do you favor or oppose Congress passing a major health care reform bill this year?” N=1,518 (Form A), MoE ± 3
Favor 56%; Oppose 33%; Unsure 12%
CBS News Poll. July 9-12, 2009. N=944 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3
Given the problems the country is facing, do you think the government should or should not exert more control over the nation’s health care system?”
Should 62%; Should Not 34%; Unsure 4%
3) It is very significant that the AMA has got behind Obama. They are the group that helped to kill the Clinton reform and they are a very conservative group. Actually many doctors, a big part of the other 75-80% you quote that are not part of the AMA do support reform, it is usually the AMA that tries to kill it. The argument has always been the reverse of what you seem to be suggesting that the AMA does not truly represent most doctors who do what reform and often are against the AMA who in the past wanted to kill any reform efforts.
Health Care reform is the most important thing our country can do right now. Now more than ever, people need their health.
The private health insurance industry is nothing but a SCAM.
The only people against health care reform are either those who are extremely ignorant or those who have a hand in the cookie jar of private health insurance industry profits.
Obama is not getting rid of the private health care industry. He is letting the private health care industry WRITE THE LEGISLATION! Obama sounds so sincere when he rails at his opponents. No wonder. He hasn’t a clue what the legislation will mean. He can say with complete sincerity that the legislation will save hundred of millions of dollars, because he can say anything with complete sincerity, as long as it’s on his teleprompter.
Obama’s health care ‘reform’ bill is just like his stimulus package and his Wall Street bailout legislation and his financial industry regulation legislation….all are massive payouts to the already rich and powerful…it’s just business as usual.
Obama just keeps on reading the teleprompter.
.
Reform what exactly? Yesterday the the most important thing was to get our armed forces out Iraq. They are still there.
The day before that, it was “blame Bush”, that worked on a lot of people, with the likes of the “special message” people saturating the airwaves with anything but the real news.
A-nony-mouse, before you go callin people ignorant or corrupt, ya ought to look at the crap you are being told. By the left and the right.
We should be able to agree that 2 things are true.
1) healthcare for profit is unethical.
2) nothing is free.
If that is the case and I do not agree with the current form of the what you consider healthcare reform, you would label others so?
This is a transcript of the 1971 conversation between President Richard Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman that led to the HMO act of 1973:
.
How many Goldman Sachs folks does bO have on staff?
If you think BO is any different than Edgar Kiaser, think again.
Forgive the long post.
Bronwyn’s Harbor exellent read, thanks.
The AMA supports it because it hurt cut into their profits.
We’ve had universal mandatory healtcare in MA since 2006. We can boast that we have the lowest unisured rate in the country, 2.6%. Cost have gone up 42% since it was implemnted. Premiums are 33% higher the the national average. Coverage is madatory with fine for those who do not enroll. Financial assistence is provide for those who can not afford it.
According to one of our HMO’s people are already gaming the system. Last year many new members in the plan racked up ~$2400 in cmedical are then dropped the plan after 5 months or so, choosing to pay the lesser fine and stiffing the rest of with the tab. 23% of of our resisdent still apparently use th ER as their primary stop for medical treatment.
This was Mitt Romney instituted Ted Kennedy endorsed plan. the “we can’t afford not to do line is a load of crap.
Edited…
The AMA supports it because it won’t cut into their profits.
We’ve had universal mandatory healtcare in MA since 2006. We can boast that we have the lowest unisured rate in the country, 2.6%. Cost have gone up 42% since it was implemented. Premiums are 33% higher then the national average. Coverage is mandatory with fines for those who do not enroll. Financial assistence is provided for those who can not afford it.
According to one of our HMO’s, people are already gaming the system. Last year many new members in the plan racked up ~$2400 in medical care then dropped the plan after 5 months or so, choosing to pay the lesser fine, stiffing the rest of with the tab. 23% of of our resisdent still apparently use th ER as their primary stop for medical treatment.
This was a Mitt Romney instituted Ted Kennedy endorsed plan. The “we can’t afford not to do it line is a load of crap.
Obama took single payer insurance off the table, but it would be America’s best chance at universal coverage for about half of the total present expenditure. And, if the experience of other Western democracies is any gauge, all of the common health indicators, including life expectancy and infant mortality, would improve. Some ‘players’, however, might find their multi-million dollar ‘take’ from the game would evaporate.
Postscript to an email from a Navy vet.
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
— Winston Churchill
As an enlightened liberal as of 2008, I have to disagree about democrats hating this country. I’m reminded of something I read years ago about the notoriously liberal Supreme Court Justice William Douglas.
It puzzled many that Justice Douglas yelled at and belittled his staff, yet on the bench fought valiantly for the less fortunate and the downtrodden. It was concluded that he only cared about people in the abstract.
I think this is a good explanation for many of the contrasting philosophies of far-left liberals.
Sorry… forgot to say great post - can’t wait to read your next one!
Ani!
Thank you.