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WHY OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS DESERVE TO WIN LARGER MAJORITIES IN 2010 AND BEYOND: A VOTER'S GUIDE TO THE 2010 MID-TERM ELECTIONS.
Many thoughtful Americans, like myself, feel we are living in our worst nightmare, caused by the Far Right's destructive tactics and the good, but gullible American people who suffer from Amnesia and short term memory.
Yet many other Americans suffer from ADD Attention Deficit Disorder like a spoilt brat they clamor for immediate relief in jobs, balanced budgets, etc., not taking into account the policies and the time line it took to get us into the Economic Morass.
We have seen this playbook prior. President Clinton and a Democrat Congress did the heavy lifting to reduce the Reagan Era Deficits and debt. They passed the Economic Recovery Bill of 1993, and raised taxes without a single Republican Vote. Instead of rolling up their sleeves and helping the Republicans and the Far Right attacked "Bubba" with made up stories of White Water, Travelgate, Vince Foster Murdergate. The American people threw out the democrats in the 1994 mid-term elections, and brought in the Gingrich Congress. As shown in detail below, it was the 1993 vote to increases taxes, along with the "reinventing America" spending cuts a project led by V.P. Gore that got us on a glide path to a "surplus" in 1998-2000. The Republicans saw the writing on the wall and jumped on the caboose of the Clinton-Gore deficit reduction train. The only Budget bill they passed was the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (for the fiscal year 1998). By that time, based on the 1993 Economic Recovery Act passed without a single Republican Vote, there had been five straight years of deficit reduction!
Yet a gullible public, mislead by the Far Right TV and radio, threw out the Democrat majority in 1994, and allowed the Republicans to wrongly take praise for a "Balanced Budget" (Back-up proof: When Bush II had the WH, and the GOP both houses of Congress from 2001-2006, they cut taxes again, and we lost our surplus, and doubled our national debt from $5.7 trillion to $10.7 trillion).
Furthermore, the Gingrich Congress passed Free-Trade (NAFTA) and in particular Senator Phil Gramm put in several Bills deregulating Wall Street (Glass Steagall Act (1933) replaced by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999) and the Commodities Futures Modernization Act (2000), which allowed for the deregulation of Derivatives and Credit Default Swaps. These Bills set the pieces in place for the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis, and the Great Recession.
The Senator McConnell Rep. Boner led Republican Minority (1995-2006) having set the policies that broke our economy, have been intransigent, and acted not to save our economy, but to break Obama and the democrats, so they can regain the majorities. This madness has been fanned by Right wing TV and radio. Especially, Glenn Beck bloviating about Fabian Socialism (what?)
A vocal minority of American people have been fooled once again, and it looks like they are going to vote in the Rogues back in to the majority.
If the Republicans were intransigent as the minority, what "hell" will they raise, as a majority? Plus the democrats have done the hard work, passing TARP 1 & 2, The Stimulus and Saving the Auto Industry. Under there watch Jobs have recovered, though not sufficiently; the Stock market has returned to 65% of its previous highs, and the Great Bush Recession ended in July 2009.
Republican intransigency led to not a single Republican Vote for the TARP 2, or for the Stimulus (economists of all stripes said it was needed). The Republicans in the Senate held up 140 bills passed in the Democratic majority House, even including Bills that would have given preference to Corporations that kept jobs State side, and Tax breaks for Small Business owners (SBO) ( Sep 28, 2010 ... President Barack Obama signs the Small Business Jobs Act in the East ... bill that would give companies tax incentives to keep jobs at home ...) .
On the flip side, if we had followed "Hoover" Republican (Free-Market, no Government intervention) policies, we would have fallen into a Great Depression.
Yet, as the recovery takes hold due to the tough votes taken by democrats, it appears the "do nothing" Republicans will be in the majority to take the praise for the democrats handiwork, as they did with Clinton and the Democratic majority (1993-1994).
Then, taking power, they will again put in place their own polices. They will cut taxes, which will increase the deficit, while continuing to loot the trust funds. They will continue to benefit the Corporations, and ship our jobs abroad. They will relax regulations and allow for a casino mentality on Wall St. and with Corporations in general.
In this article, I am going SUPPLY THE American voter with irrefutable facts don't trust me check them out for yourself. I hope this will allow them to make an educated choice on November 2, 2010.
Fair Warning: Proceed with caution! If you are not interested in details, or don't have the time, then you can read the shorter version of this article in my prior blog:
1. Our National Amnesia: How one party's ideology nearly ruined our ...
