CPI Unchained

It was very disappointing to read that Obama's present offer to the GOP to avoid  'falling off' the so called 'fiscal cliff', contains a really ugly 'cave in' to the deficit hawks - his innocuous sounding offer to 'chain the CPI'.  This means that the Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) that kicks in every year based on 'official inflation', the Consumer Price Index (CPI),  will be lowered.  First of all the CPI, as far as most people are concerned, understates the real rate of inflation they experience daily especially with regard to expenses on necessities like gas and food, commodities whose prices fluctuate greatly.  If  'chaining CPI' will save the government money, it means that the computation for COLAs have to be smaller - so they are really unchaining it to inflation. Another case of Orwellian doublespeak.  They will be rigging the CPI computations even more than they already do. This means COLAS will lag ever further behind actual inflation - not good! This will be especially painful if inflation comes roaring back as some predict. Some of the poorest people in the US are the elderly who rely solely on their Social Security checks to survive. So as time passes they will become ever more desperately poor.  Also all Federal government workers, whose morale is already in the toilet, will slowly loose ground as their pay is subject to annual COLAs as will retired Federal workers. It's not clear who will and who won't be affected. Will the the poorer SS recipients, disabled veterans, SSI recipients be spared and receive a higher COLA? Will this lead to means testing on those receiving SS benefits? Not good!

Going on over the "dreaded" Fiscal Cliff would be better than a sellout especially if the Repubs can be made to take the hit for the failure to reach an agreement. Obama's offer already sucks and buys into the right's devious intentions, and the Repubs still hate it. They hate it  because 'their boyz,' the gazillionaes, will get their tax rates raised back to the rates they paid in the 1990s, a tax rate that allowed most of them to get obscenely rich anyway!!  

A lot is at stake here. Many are unhappy with this concession by Obama and offer alternatives. Will he remove this odious offer or will more concessions follow? Or will Obama stand up against these crazed maniacs?  We shall see..

Obama's present offer to the GOP to forestall 'falling off' the so called 'fiscal cliff' is a already a disappointing sell out.  His offer contains a really ugly 'cave in' to the deficit hawks -the  innocuous sounding offer to 'chain the CPI'.  This means that the Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) that kicks in every year based on 'official inflation', the Consumer Price Index (CPI),  will be lowered.  To start with the CPI, as far as most people are concerned, understates the real rate of inflation that they experience daily especially with regard daily necessities that fluctuate greatly like gas and food.  If "chaining CPI" will save the government money, it means that the computation will change and the COLAs will be smaller - so they are really unchaining it further to inflation. That is they will be rigging the CPI computations even worse then they already do. This means COLAS will lag further and further behind actual inflation - not good!  Some of the poorest people in this country are the elderly who are relying on their Social Security check to live on. So as time passes they will become successively poorer.  Also all Federal government workers, whose morale is already in the toilet, will slowly loose ground as annual raises and annuities also are subject to reduced annual COLAs.  At this point it's not clear who also would be affected and who wouldn't . Will the poorer SS recipients, disabled veterans, SSI recipients be given full COLAs while everybody gets reduced ones? What a mess that would be. Means testing your SS - bad!  In any case at this juncture in the negotiations it sounds  like a betrayal of  poor.  Again Obama seems to be accepting another Repubs bullshit premise,  that is SS is going bankrupt and that "entitlements" are the chief cause of The Deficit. 

It cannot be stated too often that Republicans only care about The Deficit when the Democrats are in the Whitehouse. The Democrats always become the fall guys and the Democrat President becomes the Janitor-in-Chief  assigned to clean up all the elephant shit the Repubs always leave behind. This long term plan, which is patently obvious, has been place since the glory days of St Ronnie. It  has always been to force the hapless Democrats to whittle away at the "paternalistic" and evil Welfare State.

Going on over the dreaded  Fiscal Cliff would be better than a sellout, especially if the Repubs can be made top  take the hit for the failure to reach an agreement. Obama's present offer already sucks and the Repubs still hate it. They hate it  because their boyz, the gazillionaires, will get tax increase going back to tax rates  that most of them got obscenely rich with anyway. Let's hope the Repubs under Boehner and his Plan B is so awful that Obama can let them take the balme for a fiasco they caused in the first place. The Fiscal Cliff was last ditch compromise to avoid a threatened default on US bonds engineered by the Repubs. 

 So as we go into 2013 and face the worse case scenerio - stiff taxes increases for every one including the rich pigs, all  government agencies get  brutal meat axe type reductions especially the bloated DOD -  and the Repubs get blamed for whatever hell breaks loose (we hope.) Of course it won't be that simple. Things never are ...

If you can't vote for Obama - just don't vote!

For those of us in California, now a solid "Blue State", our votes affect only the national total.  It's all about the Electoral College as usual. So this diatribe is probably of little relevance to you. In fact it now seems like it's all about Ohio.  I haven't posted in a long time.  There are already too many opinions and too much BS out there already. My inbox is packed with it daily.   But, nevertheless, I just felt compelled to make one  final statement before the election.

These presidential elections now boil down to criminally expensive TV-driven propaganda wars with each side trying to outdo the other in emotive nastiness as they a chase a sliver of poorly informed easily manipulated 'swing voters' who happen to live in crucial 'swing States.' It's a sorry spectacle and it's hella expensive. Thanks to a corporatist Supreme Court, unlimited money from wherever can now flood in, and has. So the Democrats are stuck with a 24/7 around the clock plea for bucks to counter the gushers going to the Republicans. Is a dangerous situation. The Senate could go Repub, the House will probably stay Repub. But will the tag team of Romney and Ryan weasel their way into the Oval Office? Remember that thousands of voting precincts are controlled by Repubs. This includes deciding how many voting machines are available in each precinct as well as managing the computers that tabulates the votes.  Much monkey business has happened in each election from 2000 on. But they can only pull off 'fast ones' in close races. Unfortunately many keys races are close  including the Presidential race.

Much has been written about Obama's performance in his first term. But even if you think Obama did not perform as he could or should have, please don't fucking vote for Romney/Ryan. If can't stand Obama, just don't vote at all. Stay home. The Republicans are very bad news.

Here are some well documented blunders by past Republican administrations:

• 1968: Richard Nixon (Republican) in his campaign against Hubert Humphrey (Democrat) lied about having a “secret” plan to end the Viet Nam War (sound familiar). Once in Nixon expanded the war into all of Indochina, and it didn't end until 1975.

• Then in 1974 Nixon was forced to resign, the only President in US history who has suffered that infamy. He was caught up in a swirling scandal that involving a failed attempt into break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Ultimately 43 staff members resigned or were incarcerated. His VP Spiro Agnew was also forced to resign on corruption charges independent of the Watergate scandal

• In the 1980s Ronald Reagan's introduced something called 'supply side' economic, which says in theory tax cuts will more than pay for themselves due to the increased economic activity they will generate. It didn't work. The massive tax cuts along side a large military buildup led to the largest peace time deficit in American history (yet perversely Reagan  remains a saint to the now devoutly deficit-adverse Repubs. Go figure!)

• 1986: Under Ronald Reagan the Iran Contra scandal broke. High level operatives in the Reagan Administration were caught selling embargoed arms to Iran (yes Iran was our arch enemy back then, too) and using the money to break Federal law and fund the anti-Sandinista Contras. Also, during that time other wars in Guatemala and El Salvador funded by the US (as “foreign aid”) led to wholesale carnage throughout Central America.

• In 2000-2008 (Republican) George W. Bush's policies not only erased the (Democrat) Bill Clinton's balanced budget but drove the deficit through the roof, again employing discredited “supply side' economic theory. The deficit under Bush was pushed well beyond Reagan's monumental figure with two unfunded wars, massive tax cuts especially for the wealthy and the irresponsible Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.

• Then in 2008 just as GW Bush's term was about to expire, the worse recession in 80 years began to unfold. It was left for the incoming (Democratic) Obama Administration to confront.

• Then from 2008-2012 Repubs in Congress preceded to make sure any conventional counter cyclical policy proposed by the Obama and the Democrats was either blocked (using a record number of filibusters) or watered down. Goal: to assure the economy would still be sour come reelection time. 
  
  

These are indisputable facts. What is so amazing is that the Republicans Party is even still in business at all and has not gone the way of the Whigs. They should have been laughed out of town years ago. Everything they touch turns to shit. Their main ace in the hole has been pro gun ownership (read: pro automatic weapon ownership) where the US leads the world in gun related deaths.  And even more importantly their demagogic, opportunistic and irrational anti-tax stance no matter what. Of  course everyone hates taxes, duh! It's like being opposed to mortality.   And even their moralistic stance on being opposed to abortion has now been exposed as being also opposed to birth control which essentially means they are against non procreational sex in or out of marriage. Their nutzo! And yet they have a good chance of taking over all three branches of the Federal government – legislative, executive and judicial.

Either hold your nose and vote for Obama or don't vote at all. BUT PLEASE DON'T BE STUPID. DON'T VOTE IN THESE DANGEROUS CLOWNS.

A real snoozer so far

In November Americans will elect a new President. For most of us this campaign season has been a real snoozer. But this election, more than most, is deadly important. But one would never know it from the shallowness of the various campaigns and the disengagement of the perspective voters.

While acknowledging that voting for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (an empty suited fraud and a Repub hack posing as an ideologically pure number cruncher) should be absolutely beyond consideration for any sane non multi millionaire or billionaire, what we are left with is Barack Obama who is like a first round draft pick who ended up with only a so-so first season.

Suffice to say most fair minded people would agree Barack Obama faced historically daunting challenges when he assumed office in 2008. And the worst case was avoided . There was no repeat of the Great Depression which seemed quite possible at the time. But unlike FDR, who faced a similar economic catastrophe brought on by similar factors, the Obama Administration failed to take advantage of this once-in-a-century opportunity to make a major course correction. Recall the Bush-led Repubs were dead meat in 2008. They were seen by most Americans as responsible for having left behind a stinking pile of elephant shit – a crashed economy, massive debt, economic policies that were simply muted class warfare, and two still festering, grindingly expensive (unpaid for) wars.

Yet two years into the Obama Administration's first term, the Republican lunatics were somehow back running the asylum, their credibility miraculously restored. They were in fact again defining the national discourse by successfully foisting blame off on the Obama Administration for the ravages of the recession - and suddenly discovering 'the deficit' (that they had run up.) Besides shifting the blame on the sickly but slowly healing economy, they made sure his first real legislative goal, health care reform, was a ghost of what it could have been – and then tried to destroy even that. So in the 2010 midterms, the Repubs by marshaling residual reactionary energy on the right in the form of the so-called Tea Party movement they actually took over the half of Congress lock stock and barrel and nearly retook the the other half. Also many State governorships fell to the Repubs.

How did all of this come to be? Well first the Repubs discovered the magic of the filibuster redefining majority rule. They also took full advantage of having their very own cable “news” network as well as hundreds of angry white right wing radio talk show hosts. And add to that a rabid pack of hardcore paranoia-driven, fact-adverse Internet bloggers. Truth is never an obstacle the new brand of Repubs. The bigger the load bullshit to provoke their semi-literate base, the better. But without Obama having seriously underplayed his hand and losing all forward political momentum early on, all of this would have only been merely right wing chatter and sour grapes.

Here are two examples of missed prime opportunities:

• Obama blew his chance to effectively resuscitate the economy back in early 2009. Most reputable economists at the time predicted that the size of the proposed stimulus was inadequate to effectively reboot the economy. Both the world historical crisis of global warming and a crashed US economy provided an opportunity like no other. It was a WWII type opportunity to use tried and proven Keynesian deficit spending (yes, go deeper into the hole) to fire up our once powerhouse economy. A solution to these two seemingly intractable and unrelated problems could have been intertwined into a bold mammoth federally financed $2-3T 'green infrastructure' rebuild. The United States, still a powerful worldwide influence on every level, could have become a global showcase and world leader for sustainable 21st Century earth friendly technology. Obama and his advisors did not understand that global warming is a crisis like no other, something beyond the experience of humankind. Wars, revolutions, economic upheavals have all occurred countless times throughout history but humans have never overheated the atmosphere of the entire planet and then passively waited to see what would happen.

• And what about US health care reform? There was a broad consensus that radical reform was necessary to fix our dysfunctional and budget busting health care system. So what happens? Obama's opening gambit is a tepid, Republican-designed program that keeps most of the gamers untouched (health care insurance companies, hospitals, big pharma, medical equip manufacturers, overpaid specialists, malpractice opportunism, et al. ). Yet, the Obama proposal (later to be derisively dubbed “Obamacare”) as conservative and limited as it was, naturally was still hated by the Repubs. Why should they let him get a “win” on anything? Obama should have at least opened with proposing something big, something game changing - like a Single Payer System modeled on the VA or Medicare, real universal health care. Why can't we have what all the other wealthy industrialized countries have? Why not go over the head of the cynical negative bullshitter pundits on the right and center, the Repubs, the Bluedog Demos, and sell the idea directly to the American people. Medicare for All! And if it had to be downsized in scope, at least a fall back position could have the Public Option in competition with the greed based for-profit health plans. As it was his Affordable Health Care act barely got through Congress not just because of Republican intransigence but because it was so crappy and small bore.

These are just two examples. There are many more: his Neocon double down in Afghanistan (by the way how is that working?), killing alleged terrorists (and often their extended families) by remote control with drones in countries that we are not at war in, not reigning in the Orwellian national security state set up by Bush/Cheney, relying on Timothy Geitner, Larry Summers and other former Wall Street insiders to 'clean up' the Wall Street mess, opening the sensitive Arctic Ocean to oil drilling after the Gulf of Mexico got trashed from a massive drilling disaster, suddenly harassing Calif medical marijuana clubs, and other sorrows. That said Obama is light years better than anything the Repubs can come up with. He is reasonable on many issues, Osama Bin Laden was knocked off on his watch and he seems basically fair minded (maybe a little too fair minded at times.)

But despite Republican propaganda Obama is not and never will be left-of-center on anybody's political spectrum. He, following in Bill Clinton's footsteps, is firmly a center-right politician on most issues. This position was formerly proudly and responsibly occupied by the old GOP before it went nutzo. When the Demos moving rightward under Bill Clinton and his “triangulation”, it essentially drove the Republican Party further into wacko, tin hat land. Although you would never know this from the way mainstream media delivers ahistorical, context-less, analysis-free news.

The problem for Obama now is how to energize his base after doing so little to service it. People, especially the sectors that vote Democratic, are easily demoralized by politics and politicians. Once disappointed they retreat into cynical apathy or else manifest the old 'throw out the bum' syndrome. Some of us vote for the lesser of the evils because we realize as pathetic as the Demos are, they are all we have as a barrier against a full corporatist plutocratic takeover. Remember no matter how a bad country's economy gets the very rich stay very rich – great personal wealth knows no nationality. There will always be Caymans Islands and Switzerlands.