Comments on: Rep. DeFazio: ‘I Think Obama Is Ill-Advised By Larry Summers. Larry Summers Hates Infrastructure’

By: lvdragonlady

lvdragonlady — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:07:43 +0000

Larry might hate it but Obama knows that it is what is needed and since he ‘is the man’ now he has the final say.

By: Brain From Planet Arous

Brain From Planet Arous — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:42:11 +0000

kassandrasduplex Says:

100% in agreement. I initially thought Obama would be a Progressive. His votes on FISA, Credit Cards, Israel, and the Extortion/Bailout, made me rethink him. I then decided to give him a chance as president. I am not expecting a lot from him, but Bush was a total disaster. War will continue, bailouts of banks will continue, pharmaceutical support will continue, support of illegal amnesty will accelerate, and surveillance will uptake. We may get healthcare, abortion will remain legal, gays may get civil unions nationwide, torture will take a new form, and maybe a fiat/vapor-based tax cut for middle class.

By: LiberalVoter

LiberalVoter — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:08:13 +0000

drew3rd, you are really in need of help. Seek it before it is too late, if it isn’t already. You have a very thin thread connecting you to reality.

By: drew3rd

drew3rd — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:15:55 +0000

DeFazio and TheAntichrist point out a very troubling truth. The same clowns that created this mess are going to fix it? Why is Larry Summers anywhere near this? Frank and Dodd still hold chairmanships? None of this makes any sense. Only in Washington can failures be allowed to succeed. All of thes tax cuts and spending are nothing more than a continuation of the Bush approach. Are we wrong in thinking Bush drove the country into a ditch? It seems the new administration agrees with previous economic policy. On the war, yes! On the economy, NO!!!!!

By: kassandrasduplex

kassandrasduplex — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:42:38 +0000

To be honest I’m terrified of what is coming. And everyone seems to be cheering Obama on but not watching closely what he is actually doing. He’s their hero for the moment and they are blind to what is happening.
Have you seen the latest on EFCA? Obama is signaling he is no longer a supporter of it. An about face from his pre-election rhetoric.
The American workforce is being brought to its knees so that it can compete with workers earning less than $200 a month! And Obama is going with the flow.

By: Brain From Planet Arous

Brain From Planet Arous — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:22:20 +0000

kassandrasduplex, But…Don’t worry. Since most industry has been outsourced (Computer, Clothes, Electronics) and now illegals given amnesty will take the union Construction jobs, we have a lot to look forward to. (Sarcasm) I worked for a huge processor manufacturer and watched 3000 worker’s jobs move to India, where they completely messed up databases and document management. Let’s not forget Microsoft Vista was developed in India. I now work for a large construction company, and everyone knows what is coming down. There are new companies coming in that are using non-union workers, and I see their bid prices, which are incredibly low. Never mind the fact that they do mediocre work. To put it another way, Democrats will screw the public as much as Republicans. They are all Neocon/Globalists, and the purpose is to delete the Middle Class. To save this economy, manufacturing must come back, which is looking pretty dim at this point. They can keep heaving borrowed/fiat money at tax payers, but it does ZERO to help exporting goods.

By: kassandrasduplex

kassandrasduplex — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:05:50 +0000

Anyone notice that Obama is giving more to the neo-con right wing than he is to progressives? Bush et al walk free with ZERO prosecutions. Gitmo remains open (what’s another year when you’ve already spent 7 years of your life there?) He is backing away from union support. He is totally silent now on raising taxes on the rich which he just supported BEFORE the election. Waterboarding is banned but not new means of interrogation, and open door. Extrordinary renditions are still allowed in violation of international law. And now he has dumped job creating infrstructure spending to give more tax cuts to the nation that just enjoyed 8 years of tax cuts. WTF?

By: kassandrasduplex

kassandrasduplex — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:53:36 +0000

Funny how this article has gotten fewer comments than the one about what a clean break Obama is from Bush or how Obama told the GOP off about Limbaugh.
So infrastructure spending was cut to provide more tax cuts.
JEE ZUS we have elected Bush Lite into office and his team of neo-con economic advisers is chilling. We are doomed.

By: LiberalVoter

LiberalVoter — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:41:16 +0000

McWars, don’t worry about a thread being vacant. Troll Tracy_5 will show up when it thinks it’s safe to post some inane spew to get the ‘last word’. A sad thing but it makes it feel it is important and witty. When I get some extra time, I will check some old threads just to tag the troll out.

By: McWars

McWars — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:17:00 +0000

I know this thread is vacant, but I have thoughts anyway.

In my view, tax cutting paired with deficit spending makes little sense to me. One poll showed that people are far more concerned with keeping their job than paying less taxes on the income they’re struggling to maintain. If a great majority, of the people, then, aren’t concerned with tax cuts, why would you cut off a source of revenue that will eventually be needed to reduce the deficit?

My economic recovery proposal is to keep those revenues intact, reverse the Bush tax cuts NOW according to the Obama campaign pledge, insert regulations making unions stronger, more effective, and easier to form, reissue a stimulus check to those making less than $65,000 a year, and get serious about infrastructure spending.

The current stimulus bill is becoming a mess, and if the change will come through Obama as he says, he will need to accept only the best advice his advisors have to offer.

By: politicscorner

politicscorner — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:14:54 +0000

I knew that Larry Summers was a bad choice. I hope Obama has several advisors to counter Larry Summers’s views and that he listtens to them.

By: hivanh

hivanh — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:13:00 +0000

This interview made more common sense than most I have heard lately. Which is probably why it (and DeFazio) will be ignored. Sad.

By: Hoodathunk

Hoodathunk — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:00:37 +0000

The jury is still out for me in the economic arena. Obama has put together a team that doesn’t have the right kinds of credentials for the plan he has described. But I am working from decades (mostly under Repugs) of the tail wagging the dog experience.

The President has impressed me so far as a man who knows his own mind and as one who can get things done. With help from people like DeFazio, Krugman and others…there is hope.

By: Brain From Planet Arous

Brain From Planet Arous — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:28:08 +0000

Robert Reich and Rangel floating the idea of training “minorities” (illegals given amnesty) to do the work of the middle class workers. Basically saying, “Screw the Hard Hats and Computer Technicians”. Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, and Bush Jr. outsourced the computer industry, and now they are trying to insource Construction Workers.

On his blog, Reich makes his case for, “The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers.”

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86827

By: theswan

theswan — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:02:02 +0000

We’ve spend for years on tax breaks for the rich. Big business goes over seas of shelter its income and tax obligations. Congress keeps spending the rabble’s tax dollars on big wealth breaks.
We need to shovel money at the bottom of the heep. The money will be spent and a new economic cycle will begin again. If the cycle is forever delayed by the rich they will cut their own throats.
Why is it the rich always need the crutch to succede, and the rabble always struggles in America. It’s time the educated wake up to reality and spend money building a new foundation for future folk,including their own.
If they don’t like it, propose taxing their death at an extreme rate. They will never feel it then.

By: Beav09

Beav09 — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:52:20 +0000

Hell yes DeFazio, you tell ‘em. Exactly why we as Oregonians keep re-electing him, because he actually gives a shat about the people who put him into office.

Tax cuts are always a freakin’ joke. I know how rich a$$holes work, you give them a tax cut, they sit on the money. I’ve got family who are millionaires and they are the biggest penny pinching SOB’s. You give them a tax cut, you make them richer. You give a tax cut to the low/middle class — they’ll spend it. It’s simple.

By: Gregor Samsa

Gregor Samsa — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:16:14 +0000

Wayne A. Schneider Says:
[...]anyone who touts the fact that he ran a business qualifies him to run a country or state is sadly mistaken.

Or deluded. Or lying. Or all of the above, a la Bush ;-)

A business will try to maximize profits even at the expense of worthwhile projects

Exactly. And at the expense of people too. The corporate meme “our most valuable asset is our people” is complete BS.

Companies routinely lay people off as they shift manufacturing and other jobs to cheaper locales, because at the end of the day the only thing that matters is turning a profit.

I can imagine what would happen if someone decided to run the country as if it were, say, WalMart and neglected to give people health insurance… oh wait…

By: Wayne A. Schneider

Wayne A. Schneider — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:01:57 +0000

Gregor Samsa,

This is why the idea that the government should be run like a business is complete nonsense.

And anyone who touts the fact that he ran a business qualifies him to run a country or state is sadly mistaken. While there are crtainly aspects of both that overlap (operating within a budget), the goals of both of complete;y opposite. A business will try to maximize profits even at the expense of worthwhile projects, while a government is trying to help as many people as possible, even if it is at a loss (deficit spending.) If you’re good at the former, what you think you’ll be good at the latter.

By: Gregor Samsa

Gregor Samsa — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:53:09 +0000

ElBruce Says:
You have any idea how much money private enterprise has made off the interstate highway system?

Yes, I am with you. But for people with short-term, tunnel vision, the prospect of making money quickly trumps all other considerations. For them it’s all about the here and now and getting rich as quickly as possible.

This is why the idea that the government should be run like a business is complete nonsense.

By: Wayne A. Schneider

Wayne A. Schneider — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:46:03 +0000

ElBruce,

Asit is at any point in a growing civiliation, thereare luxuries and there are necessities. And the way things are in our society, electricity is an absolute necessity. We need to find clean ways to generate it, store it, and love it to areas tat need it. Screw the capialistic idea about not being able to make money off it. Some things are more important than money. And if it prevents another Enron Theft, it’s worth it.