We can't have real infrastructure spending cause the GOP

You've read this since at least 2010. Dems don't have the votes so we can't do this or do that. FDR had a super majority, Obama doesn't. I've always subscribed to something Paul Wellstone talked about, in my words: If you make your case to the voters they will respect you for it, and more often than not, vote for you.

We know theres a huge difference in the way FDR used the Bully Pulpit compared to Obama. We know Obama starts negotiating with the GOP at a realistic position, a position that has a chance of passing thru Congress. Incoming head of the Presidents council of Economic Advisors Christine Romer wanted 1.8 trillion in Stim, Dean Baker called for 1.6 trillion. What we got in the ARRA was about 175 billion. The result of "we can't have nice things because of the GOP" is Dems have lost the House and the Senate. Good plan! More like a self fulfilling prophesy.

Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had little to no coat tails. Partly responsible was the just win baby attitude of both campaigns. Of less importance was the thought of real solutions for real problems, which require working or super majorities.

We would certainly be in a much better spot if Dems had proposed creating 20 million jobs, and let the GOP vote it down. Then run on that. My feeling is that we would have built working majorities in both the House and Senate, if not super majorities. The attitude of the Obama Roxers is symbolic of this failure. Not swinging for the fences means never trying to get a home run, the GOP has learned all too well that Obama almost never swings for the fences. They've been quite content to let Obama and the Dems get on base on a ground ball, knowing they can throw out the runner at their leisure. Roxers aren't big Wonks and as we start the 2016 campaign season, the HRC roxers lookk to be taking the same tact.

"If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding, how can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!"

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Big Al's picture

nothing but the same old thing, which is rule by the very rich. The Democratic party is so corrupted at the
top that it is impossible to make any headway. Impossible. In that way it's not like FDR's time or any time
in the country's history. The money, the systems, the laws and deregulation have gutted any chance of working within
the electoral system to make change. Just won't happen.

They and Obama had their chance in 2009 when the citizens of this country told them what we wanted.
But they didn't do it and the reason is simple, they can't. They simply can't do it, the system does not allow it.

We're going to require a new government and governing system. Probably a new Constitution, Bill of Rights, the
whole ball game.

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Roger Fox's picture

Wall St wasn't the predominant force in US politics circa 1929?

929-1933 (Hoover (R) presidency)
Legislative Branch

Harry E. Rowbottom, (R-IN) was convicted in Federal court of accepting bribes from persons who sought post office appointments. He served one year in Leavenworth.(1931)[91]

1923–1929 Coolidge (R) Administration

John W. Langley (R-KY) Resigned from the US Congress in January 1926, after losing an appeal to set aside his conviction of violating the Volstead Act (Prohibition). He’d also been caught trying to bribe a Prohibition officer. He was sentenced to two years after which, his wife ran for Congress in his place and won two full terms.[92][93]

1921–1923 Harding (R) presidency
Executive branch

The Harding administration was marred by scandals stemming from his appointment of men in his administration whom he had known in Ohio. They came to be known as the Ohio Gang. They include;

Albert Fall (R) Secretary of the Interior who was bribed by Harry F. Sinclair for control of the Teapot Dome federal oil reserves in Wyoming. He was the first U.S. cabinet member to ever be convicted; he served two years in prison. (1922) [94]

1901-1909 (Theodore Roosevelt (R) presidency)
Legislative Branch

Henry B. Cassel (R-Pennsylvania) was convicted of fraud related to the construction of the Pennsylvania State Capitol (1909).[95][96]

John Hipple Mitchell Senator (R-Oregon) was involved with the Oregon land fraud scandal, for which he was indicted and convicted while a sitting U.S. Senator. (1905) [97]

Joseph R. Burton Senator (R-Kansas) was convicted of accepting a $2500 bribe in 1904.[98]

Democratic Platform 1928:
Economy And Reorganization

The Democratic Party stands for efficiency and economy in the administration of public affairs and we pledge:

(a) Business-like reorganization of all the departments of the government.

(b) Elimination of duplication, waste and overlapping.

(c) Substitution of modern business-like methods for existing obsolete and antiquated conditions.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Big Al's picture

much worse. The bigger it gets, the worse it gets. Or is that the "Smoker you drink the
Player you Get"?

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shaharazade's picture

done it but it would have sent them all to jail where they belong. The Democrat's in DC and elsewhere are complicit in breaking the system. Everybody screams vote for Dems. because of the Supreme court. The Democat's approved and accented to the likes of Scalia, Roberts, Alito and Thomas. They all signed on to the Patriot Act and even re-up it every chance they get. Once in a while the progressives will put on a show of resisting but in the end they all fall in line.

If ever a president deserved to be impeached it was Bush. The Dems in office during the Bush regime sucked as the 'loyal opposition' and they sucked once they had a majority. Super 60 majoritiy under a procedural rule for god sake. They sat on piles of dry powder and began taking the rule of law off the table.
I remember DiFi saying that Gonzo was a nice man after she voted to install him as AG. Even 'The Progressive Patriot' Russ Fiengold folded like a cheap tent on both impeachment and prosecuting the Bush crime family. Too hard on the American people was his reason. Did they frog march the architect Rove when he refused to show up after being subpenaed? Shame on Leahy they so called champion of the constitution. Like Nancy another traitorous Dem said it's a quaint unenforceable piece of paper that both parties were complicit in shedding.

Anyway the reason they can't fix the system is because the Democrat's made sure that it was destroyed and called it the Law. Now we have no rule of law, no checks, no balance's or separation of powers and no electoral system to throw these bums out. The Obama administration legalized the criminal and took away our rights as they are tools they need to fight the 'terrist's who are gonna kill yer family'.

Where's my habeas corpus or posse comitatus ?

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Shahryar's picture

it seems pretty simple. The government is set up to protect the interests of a few. Any time there is a need to defuse public anger they trot out a new spokesperson, be it Obama or Warren or Cruz. Usually the person speaking for "the people" gets his or her say and then, after serving that purpose, gets paid off and stops being such a populist. After Bush there was no way to put in a clear 3rd Way-er, thus Obama was given the task of saying all these nice things, none of which he believed.

Over the course of my lifetime I knew that 60 votes were needed to overcome a filibuster but this new "no filibuster actually needed" was devised, I believe, as a smokescreen to keep reform from happening. Suddenly the Senate leaders were unable to control members of their own party. The revulsion over Bush and the Democrats put too many Democrats into office! Something had to be done! And Obama's 70% popularity had to be chopped down...quickly!

So I don't think the Obama administration was trying to compromise. I think the administration was trying to throw the game....something Jackie Robinson never did so spare me, Obots, the comparison.

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Roger Fox's picture

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.