Obama's latest cave to Republicans, in the anti-citizen spending bill, is just the most recent sign of what we can expect when the Republicans take control of both houses, after stealing the elections.

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Obama just defied most of his Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate to promote passage of the Republican 2015 so-called "spending bill." Before a majority Republican Senate even takes office, this is what Obama has given away, according to the NY Times:

One rider would allow a huge increase in the size of checks that deep-pocketed donors can write to win inner-sanctum clout with the major political parties. A donor now held to a mere $97,200 under party limits would be able to give a staggering $777,600. In a further invitation to luxury shopping, a couple yearning for the inside track could triple-down and give $3.1 million to party committees....
The second rider, custom tailored for the banks of Wall Street, would kill a crucial part of the Dodd-Frank reform law aimed at curbing the banks' reckless speculation in complex derivatives that fueled the banks' ignominious collapse in 2008 and fed the great recession. The rider would effectively put taxpayers back on the hook to cushion the banks' losses in risky derivative deals....

The omnibus bill includes a thicket of other regressive moves, including further budget cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, always a favorite target of the Republican right wing. Most notoriously, the bill would enshrine a Bush-era rule that allows the mountaintop mining industry to continue dumping toxic coal waste in the streams of Appalachia.

The Internal Revenue Service, another conservative bête noire, would take one of the harshest cuts, $345.6 million, weakening auditing and taxation. The Fish and Wildlife Service would be banned from adding the greater sage grouse to the endangered species list -- a victory for the gas and oil industry, which covets even more of America's threatened Western landscapes than it already has access to.

True progressives, like Bill Black and Elizabeth Warren have slammed the Administration for agreeing to what is literally a provision written by Citigroup to weaken the already anemic Dodd-Frank law, specifically in how it deals with derivatives.

As Black states:

If Obama gets his way and surrenders to the Republicans on the legitimacy of using bills on other matters to extort Obama and the Democrats into passing obscene provisions like the gift to the Big Five banks that trade virtually all the derivatives, then the Republicans will have for the remainder of Obama term in office a strong Congressional majority, leverage, and the certain knowledge that they are negotiating with someone with rounds heels who falls over when pushed. They will subject him to the death of ten thousands cuts.

Well, Obama HAS gotten his way, which is the way of the spineless, making even milquetoast Democrats like Pelosi look tough and principled by comparison. There is simply no end to the giveaways by our Jello President.

Senator Warren has even more to say in a sendout to her growing number of supporters:

Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 21:45:55
From: info@elizabethwarren.com
Subject: Urgent Action: Stop the Republicans' Wall Street giveaway

People are frustrated with Congress. Part of the reason, of course, is gridlock. But mostly it's because they see a Congress that works just fine for the big guys but won't lift a finger to help them.

And now the House of Representatives is about to show us the worst of government for the rich and powerful.

The House is about to vote on a budget deal -- a deal negotiated behind closed doors that slips in a provision that would let derivatives traders on Wall Street gamble with taxpayer money, and once again get bailed out by the government when their risky bets threaten to blow up our financial system.

These are the same banks that nearly broke this economy in 2008 and destroyed millions of jobs. The same banks that got bailed out by taxpayers and are now raking in record profits. The same banks that are spending a whole lot of time and money trying to influence Congress to bend the rules in their favor.

I'm urgently calling on Congress to withhold support of the deal today until this dangerous giveaway is removed from the legislation. Join me right now to stand up to Wall Street.

You will hear a lot of folks say that the rule that will be repealed in the Omnibus is technical and complicated, and that you shouldn't worry about it because smart people who know more than you about financial issues say that it's no big deal. Don't believe them.

Actually, the rule is pretty simple. Here's what it's called -- the rule that the House is about to repeal -- and I'm quoting from the text of Dodd-Frank -- "PROHIBITION AGAINST FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BAILOUTS OF SWAPS ENTITIES."

We put this rule in place after the collapse of the financial system because we wanted to reduce the risk that reckless gambling on Wall Street could ever again threaten jobs and livelihoods on Main Street. We put this rule in place because people of all political persuasions were disgusted at the prospects of future bailouts.

And now, no debate, no discussion, Republicans in the House of Representatives are threatening to shut down the government if they don't get a chance to repeal it.

That raises a simple question -- why? If this rule brings more stability to our financial system, if this rule prevents future government bailouts, why in the world would anyone want to repeal it, let alone hold the entire government hostage in order to ram through the repeal?

The reason, unfortunately, is simple. It's about money, and it's about power. Because while this legal change could pose serious risks to our entire economy, it'll also make a lot of money for Wall Street banks.

Wall Street isn't subtle about this one -- according to documents reviewed by the New York Times, the original bill that is being incorporated into the House's spending legislation today was literally written by Citigroup lobbyists, who "redrafted" the legislation, "striking out certain phrases and inserting others."

I know that House and Senate negotiators from both parties have worked long and hard to come to an agreement on the omnibus spending legislation. And Senate leaders deserve great credit for preventing the House from carrying out some of their more aggressive fantasies about dismantling even more pieces of financial reform.

But this provision goes too far. Citigroup is large, and it is powerful. But it is a single, private company. It shouldn't get to hold the entire government hostage -- to threaten a government shutdown -- in order to roll back important protections that keep our economy safe.

This is a democracy, and the American people didn't elect us to stand up for Citigroup. They elected us to stand up for all of the people.

We all need to stand and fight this giveaway to the most powerful banks in the country. Join me in calling on Congress to withhold support of this package until this risky giveaway is removed from the legislation.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

Unfortunately, it is now a done deal in the House, and it now falls to the lame duck Senate to protect the country from the ravages of both the sycophant Republicans and the even more compromised president.

If Obama ever did grow a spine, there are many ways he could deal with a threat to shut down the Government, which is now the Republicans' favorite tool to get their way with virtually anything. I wrote about some of the possibilities here: Debt No More! How Obama can defeat Austerity Thugs by Using the Constitution and Debt-Free Money.

But clearly, Obama has no intention of being anything more than a sitting joke of a president, a lame duck in every sense. The Republicans measured him up years ago, and know they can walk all over him, with only the barest of opposition when it comes to judicial appointees and his signature but highly flawed Obamacare legislation (which may yet fall to the ruling of the Supreme Court over insurance subsidies that would not even be necessary if we had Medicare for All instead of this healthcare industry giveaway).

This is a portent of the future, when progressive legislation, past and present (forget about future), will fall in rapid succession, where we will lose our rights to the increasingly obscure and internationalized banker elites from the BIS to conglomerates nominally headquartered in the U.S.

Defeats which in normal times would have been rallying cries for the left - like the systemic defunding of the EPA, and the de facto gutting of the Endangered Species Act, will barely register a mention in the onslaught of bigger civil and human rights losses. Warmaking - the only truly bi-partisan issue both parties agree on - will accelerate, with thinly disguised policy creation by the military-industrial complex, in an endless loop of drone warfare...at least until other countries figure out how to drone-war us back, or the world becomes one big terrorist camp, uncontrollable even by the rabid and cowardly neocon zealots willing to spend any amount to kill people abroad, while merely letting them perish from poverty at home. It's one thing to strike out at weak Middle East regions, but what happens when Russia and China start objecting to destruction of their allies and infrastructure?

A Gresham's dynamic in which bad ethics chase out good has already become the norm, and the bar for acceptability is being lowered so fast it is already subterranean. We're actually debating torture, for crying-out-loud, which those who are tortured actually are doing. Elections barely matter, and are corrupted anyway. Protest has become either marginalized or criminalized, with mass arrests performed as if they were merely a civic favor to protestors, a sort of badge of participation, instead of a sign the establishment is under pressure.

It's going to be a very long and depressing 2 years, and the only bright spot may come as a result of such systematic gutting of American values and policies, that even the Tea Party will unite with Progressives to take back the power from the 1%...maybe. If it's not too late by the next election, and if the elections even work anymore.

Authors Website: http://newthinking.blogspot.com/

Authors Bio:

Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:

http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of articles for Common Ground's national publication, GroundSwell, and has advocated for the Georgist Land Value Tax to public and political audiences.

A complete list of his publications can be found here:

Click Here

He is also New York State Coordinator and Senior Advisor for the Public Banking Institute

Click Here, which seeks to promote Public Banking. The PBI is chaired by another OEN blogger, Ellen Brown.
Scott has appeared on TV/Radio and in in-person Presentations to explain the principles of Georgism, Greenbacking, and State Banking. These may also be found on his personal blog: http://newthinking.blogspot.com/

Scott has a dozen progressive petitions on Change.org which may be found here:

http://chn.ge/10nUAmJ

Scott was an I.T. Manager for a major New York university for over two decades where he earned a Certificate for Frontline Leadership.

He had a video game published in Compute! Magazine: Click Here

Scott is a graduate and adjunct faculty of the Henry George School of Social Science in New York City.

Scott is a modern-day Renaissance Man with interests in economics, science and all future-forward topics.

He has been called an "adept syncretist" by Kirkus Discoveries for his novel, NeitherWorld - a two-volume opus blending Native American myth, archaeological detail, government conspiracy, with a sci-fi flair http://amzn.to/10nUoDV

Scott grew up in New York City and Pennsylvania. He graduated with honors and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and was a member of the Psychology honor society PSI CHI.

Today he is an avid bicyclist and ride co-leader in a prominent bike advocacy organization.

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