No Republican Left Behind

Suckas!

Well, I don’t know about you, but I am simply THRILLED with the liberal slant of Barack Obama’s economic policy. As you know, I’ve been a tad…put off, shall we say, by some of his nods in the conservative direction. You know, what with anti-choice CDS sufferer Tom Daschle being put in charge of things like HHS and health care reform, and that Rick Warren invocation brouhaha, and the whole Sanjay Gupta “I Lie About Our Health Care System On The Teevee” Surgeon General thing,  and elevating anti-choice/anti-gay marriage Tim Kaine to the head of the DNC, and staying the course with Robert Gates…and that’s just in the past few weeks! I’ve hardly had time to freak out about the Middle East, Russia, Caroline Kennedy or the coming Depression, what with all this tsuris!

So, our President-Elect is on the socially conservative side, and well, he might not “end the war in Iraq” after all. But who cares? As we know, those issues are quite unimportant when you consider that Obama really knows how to fix the economy. I am sure he will seize this unique opportunity to shore up the ravaged institutions of FDR’s New Deal and begin to rebuild a strong middle class and fill in the Reaganite holes in the social safety net. After all, that’s what Democrats do!

Ahhhh, who the fuck am I kidding?

Did you read what he said today? Did you? I swear to the Giant Green Lizard, my liberal eyeballs were bleeding by the time I was finished. Misery loves company, so let’s take a closer look. We’ll skip all the Orwellian nonsense at the beginning about changing and believing, yada yada yada (wonder if the Groper, Jon Favreau, wrote it?).

Here’s what he says about health care reform:

To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years all of America’s medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won’t save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs, it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system.

Um, huh? Is that it? Modernizing computer records? I’m sorry, but could he think ANY SMALLER? Do we really need to discuss the massive problems our health care system faces? And how will this cover the 47 million without health care now? Besides…is it me, or is this idea kind of, um, unoriginal?

In 2003, President Bush said he wanted most Americans’ medical records to be computerized within 10 years. The savings from moving away from paper could rise into the hundreds of millions a year, the president said. And electronic records can reduce medical errors, proponents said.

Could it get any worse? Oh, Yes, it can! The words of our Glorious Leader on education:

To give our children the chance to live out their dreams in a world that’s never been more competitive, we will equip tens of thousands of schools, community colleges and public universities with 21st-century classrooms, labs and libraries. We’ll provide new computers, new technology, and new training for teachers so that students in Chicago and Boston can compete with kids in Beijing for the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future.

Chicago and Boston, huh? Gosh, wonder why he picked those areas out as examples. I’ll tell you something, the inner city schools in many other ares of the country need help too…but then again, Obama needs to keep his patrons in his home city and Uncle Teddy’s home city fat and happy!

Anywho, that stuff about new technology and the jobs of the future sounds kinda familiar. Where have I heard it before?

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 21, 2004

Fact Sheet: Jobs for the 21st Century

Presidential Action:

In his State of the Union Address, President Bush announced Jobs for the 21st Century — a comprehensive plan to better prepare workers for jobs in the new millennium by strengthening post-secondary education and job training and improving high school education. This plan includes over $500 million in new funding for education and job training programs.

(snip)

Improving High School Education: The President’s plan will also improve the quality of education at our Nation’s high schools and better prepare students for success in higher education and the job market — including $100 million to help striving readers and $120 million to improve math education.

 The rest of his plans, while not detailed in today’s speech, are even more hair-raising for liberals. Congressional Democrats are none too pleased with what they’re hearing from their President-Elect.

Several lawmakers criticized plans to offer businesses a $3,000 tax credit to hire new workers.

“Why would you, if you got a couple thousand dollar jobs credit, go out and hire somebody to build a car nobody’s buying?” said Conrad.

“I’d rather spend the money on the infrastructure, on direct investment, on energy conversion” and other things that may create jobs more quickly, said Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Others called for adding more energy tax incentives.

“I think there would be bipartisan support for retooling the package to skew it more towards energy,” said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. “There is more interest in energy investment and the opportunity to create jobs in energy than I think the Obama people have picked up on.”

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, suggested the Obama plan had too many tax cuts.

“To me it still looks like more of this trickle-down,” Harkin said after the meeting. “If someone gives you a tax break you’re going to save that money, you’re going to salt that away – – you’re not going to be spending it.”

And Nancy Pelosi feels Obama should keep his promise to repeal the Bush tax cuts right away. And Paul Krugman says:

“Look, Republicans are not going to come on board,” Krugman writes. “Make 40 percent of the package tax cuts, they’ll demand 100 percent. Then they’ll start the thing about how you can’t cut taxes on people who don’t pay taxes (with only income taxes counting, of course) and demand that the plan focus on the affluent. … I’m really worried that [Obama emissaries are] sending off signals of weakness right from the beginning and that they’re just going to embolden the opposition.”

Of course they are.

So, we’ve got a “new and improved” hopey-changey economic plan that looks just like Bush’s. But there’s still something missing. What could it be?

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be “a central part” of his administration’s efforts to contain federal spending, signaling for the first time that he would wade into the thorny politics of entitlement programs.

Ah, yes. Memories. I just love when Republicans call Social Security and Medicare “entitlement programs.” Reminds me of when Bush toured the country talking about putting our hard-earned money into the hands of excellent and trustworthy Wall Street companies like Bear Stearns. How’d that work out for The Deciderer?

I do think this push to take on Social Security and Medicare is a big mistake for Obama, just as it was for Bush; and I don’t think it will go anywhere. But when our Great “Liberal” Messiah of Hope And Change seems to be determined to leave no Republican idea behind, the only thing to do is scream as loudly as we can until people finally wake up from their Kool-Aid stupors and realize that the Democratic Party is now dead as a doornail. There may be good individuals within the Party, but as an institution, it has now thrown what once made it great – the idea of building society from the bottom up – under that famous bus.

Only when we stop expecting Democrats to do the right thing just because they label themselves with a “D,” and start forcing both parties to be accountable to the people again, will we finally take America back.

PUMA POWER!!!