Pushing Hard for the Best Possible Economic Package

by: Mike Lux

Tue Jan 13, 2009 at 10:26


The OpenLeft community is well aware that of all the front page writers on our team, I have been the one most enthusiastic and hopeful about the incoming Obama administration. Of course, having a role in the transition for two months meant that I wasn't going to be criticizing Obamaland much regardless, but I really did come out of the experience still feeling pretty hopeful that some good things are afoot.

However, as positive as I am to the new regime, I see no downside for progressives, inside Congress and out, to push as hard as they can for the best possible economic recovery package. If Obama for whatever reason feels like he should bend too far to the Republicans on tax cuts, but Democrats in the House,  along with Democrats and a couple of moderate Republicans in the Senate, can pass something better than what Obama proposes, I see no problem for any of us, including the Obama administration, in getting that done. It's not like Obama would veto a better bill, and putting pressure on Congress and the Administration from the left is nothing but helpful in getting the strongest possible thing passed.

There will be times when I will argue that now is not the time to criticize Obama, or push too hard from the left in fear that some good thing might be blown up (that old "perfect being the enemy of the good" argument). But for now, I think progressives should be united in pushing as hard as we can for an economic recovery bill with less Republican-inspired tax cuts and more spending on really important things. Keeping the pressure on for a better bill is a constructive way to make sure we get an economic recovery package that actually works to simulate the economy.
Mike Lux :: Pushing Hard for the Best Possible Economic Package

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Pushing Hard for the Best Possible Economic Package | 10 comments
How about making the size of the (4.00 / 1)
stimulus, say, twice as large -- which some economists seem to think might be much more in the right order?

Somehow I don't think that that's going to happen.

I haven't seen even any Democrats in Congress -- who, spineless though they are, have been more far more progressive on the issue than Obama -- come out in favor of expanding significantly the size of the overall package (as opposed to tweaking its composition).

If the worries of some very good economists -- Krugman, for example -- come to pass, then with the current package, however tweaked in composition, we are simply cooked.

Deflationary trap anyone? It's kept Japan in the dumps for over a decade.

Excellent Mike. (4.00 / 2)
I wrote about this today on Dkos: "Progressive Feedback Works: Obama Drops Business Tax Break"

For Obama and all of us to suceed, we must work for real change.  In the end, I believe Obama is more on our side than he is not.  I believe he stands with working people and his core values are with us.  But Obama needs us to push the policies leftward.

As FDR said:

I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Comment to a group of reformers.

His point: Until they lead the way, they shouldn't expect leaders to follow.

FDR

We must lead the way, if we want real change.  That is the role of the progressive netroots now that Bush is gone.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

Thanks for this post, Mike.

Tug of War (4.00 / 1)
I view politics as a game of Tug of War, with the working class pulling the rope from the left, the hyper-wealthy elites and their minions puliing from the right, and the politicians (Obama included) being the rag tied to the middle of the rope. If we stop pulling, we lose ground, because the other side never stops pulling. It's as simple as that.

miasmo.com
[ Parent ]
Two Obamas (4.00 / 2)
At the Democratic Strategist - http://www.thedemocraticstrate... - Ed Kilgore notes some different, emerging views of Obama, including the version that suggests that he uses "indirect direction" to end up where he wants.  Similar to what Nate Silver said the other day, this analysis argues that Obama welcomes pressure from the left.
Mike Lux gets a FOUR. (4.00 / 1)
 Jim Neuman says below in agreement
Similar to what Nate Silver said the other day, this analysis argues that Obama welcomes pressure from the left.

Let me take it one step further.

There is a coalition. WE are part of it. We have talked anguished, argued, cajoled organized and raised money. But now we have done what we wnted to do. We have created a center left governemnt. It is our doing. It is also a verb, its is still being done, the job ins't finished, and there is a lot to do, we didn't do a perfect job, but perfection is over-rated. We are doing what we wanted to do, we have improved the chances for progress.

Now we are part of the force moving forward. We are because it is a coalition, because its a democracy, both part the ones w3ho have made decisions and we are art of the people who make demands on the direction to go. Inelegantly the shoving and pushing, the arguing and discussing, the hashing out and pointing out, is what democracy is.

This is smart governing. There is a constitution, organization, political organization is real. The constitution isn't just a bunch of rights that you can cite when in trouble. It is also a set of rules for Americans to govern themselves. It isn't just rights, it is  also responsibilities.

A call has come from the person who we recommended to our peers and all citizens, as the President, to bring him ideas about governing. Mike is right, we must push a progress agenda, we must discuss a progressive agenda, we must promote it and present it and demand it. The pressure, in a democratically run government should be constant.

It is taking responsibility for the government you created. In the past when McGovern ran it was called clean for Gene. An example, and I am mnore pleased by the day that he agreed, is Matt's sojourn into Congressional work. His hand will get dirty, like a farmer I'm sure, working the actual levers of thing our parents died to preserve.

Openleft and the political blogoshere have a job to take up the responsibility of the government they promote.

What do we need to do now. All the future is watching, all the world is watching, your parents and grandparents are watching.

Yes pressure, yes thought, yes progress for the world, yes cooperation. You know the problems before us are huge almost beyond our imagining. In another article Steelworker President Leo Gerard is quoted as saying he told his wife a little ago, a few weeks , that for the first time he wasn't sure we would be able to pull it off.

LEO GERARD: Well, look it, I'm almost sorry to be able to say this to you. But a week ago I got up for the first time in my adult lifetime and I said to my wife, I said, I don't know if we can save this thing.

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

LEO GERARD: There's so many problems. And the other side is so resentful of any change that President Obama and his team have to be strong. And they can't let themselves get pushed off their agenda. If they do, if he compromises too much, the economy won't recover quick enough. And we're going to continue to spiral down. We now got a whole generation of people that may not be able to afford to send their kids to college. One of my best friends in our in our building...

Make the demands big, make the Democracy safer, more sure, and strong, make the economy strong and fair and save the planet we live on. We have responsibility to do this.

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

The link for the Loe Gerard article. (4.00 / 2)
I am growing to increasingly (4.00 / 2)
believe that events are outrunning the original package Obama designed.  The unemployment numbers for December 2008 show an economy in free fall.  

I don't think Obama's stimulus package is big enough.  The left needs to be loud about this: if we don't turn this economy around our other objectives will be unachievable and our majority will be short lived.    

Could you please be a little more condescending? (0.00 / 0)
If Obama for whatever reason feels like he should bend too far to the Republicans on tax cuts, but Democrats in the House,  along with Democrats and a couple of moderate Republicans in the Senate, can pass something better than what Obama proposes, I see no problem for any of us, including the Obama administration, in getting that done. It's not like Obama would veto a better bill, and putting pressure on Congress and the Administration from the left is nothing but helpful in getting the strongest possible thing passed.

Voters, not presidents, decide what constitutes a good time to criticize.  

I don't understand what you mean in criticizing this paragraph you cited. (0.00 / 0)
If Obama doesn't produce (well really its past tense didn't produce) the necessary recovery package, then congress and the people should demand and pass a better one.

What is wrong with that simple direct proposal?  

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

[ Parent ]
Thanks so much, Mike, ... (0.00 / 0)
... for permission to push.

Please keep us informed as to when we can and cannot criticize.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Pushing Hard for the Best Possible Economic Package | 10 comments
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