'Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it'
Dionysus
HEAD: Obama's Attack Machine�II
SUB-HEAD: The White House is deflecting questions about its ugly budget by
hammering on Paul Ryan's plan
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
'Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it," wrote Saul
Alinksy in his "Rules for Radicals." The White House would appear to have a
copy.
His agenda stymied and his approval numbers sinking, President Obama has
realized this year's midterm election is shaping up as a referendum on
failed Democratic governance. The new White House plan? Change the
discussion, talk about Republicans, and frighten the nation about GOP ideas.
This is the way to read Mr. Obama's sudden re-embrace of his opposition�his
unexpected appearance at the House Republican retreat, and his more recent
invitation to Republicans to a "bipartisan" health-care summit. And it's the
way to understand the recent Democratic targeting, freezing, personalizing
and polarizing of Rep. Paul Ryan.
The idea-driven Wisconsin Republican first released his "Roadmap for
America's Future" in 2008. The nation can argue about its particulars, but
what is inarguable is that Mr. Ryan's plan is a real attempt to solve
America's biggest problems, with bold tax, health and entitlement reforms to
put the country back on the path to solvency.
At the time, Democrats could barely muster a yawn. So imagine the surprise
when, after Mr. Ryan re-released his plan in late January, it became a
sudden sensation. Two days later Mr. Obama used his visit to the Republican
retreat to thrust it into the national spotlight. The cameras rolling, the
president praised Mr. Ryan for putting forward a "serious proposal." He in
fact singled out the congressman at least three times. Having done his
spotlight bit, Mr. Obama then left it to the rest of the Democratic Party to
systematically distort and trash the road map.
Within two days of the retreat, Obama budget director Peter Orszag had begun
deflecting questions about the White House's ugly budget by hammering on Mr.
Ryan's plan, claiming it "shifted costs" to families. Congressional
Democrats held a conference call with reporters devoted to road map
trashing, howling that it showed that Republicans would privatize Social
Security, voucherize Medicare, and give tax breaks to the wealthy. Speaker
Nancy Pelosi lambasted the Ryan plan in a speech to the Democratic National
Committee.
Democrats used it to turn the health discussion, claiming it was
hypocritical of Republicans to hit Democrats for slashing Medicare when Mr.
Ryan's plan would also cut the program. They used it to stoke populist
fears. California's Loretta Sanchez claimed the road map would both
"privatize" Social Security and leave it to the "whims of Wall Street."
Connecticut's John Larson (a member of the Democratic leadership) introduced
a resolution to force Republicans to oppose Social Security "privatization"
in a high-profile vote. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has
already announced ads targeting 12 House Republicans, "calling on them to
come clean with seniors" whether they support "House Republicans' extreme
budget plan that privatizes Social Security and Medicare." As hoped, the
assault re-energized liberal bloggers and the base.
Better yet for Democrats, some Republicans are falling into the trap. As
with its campaign last year to smear Republican Whip Eric Cantor, the White
House's attack on Mr. Ryan is designed to isolate and discredit one of the
GOP's brightest thinkers. So it only aids the White House when "anonymous"
Republican members�annoyed that they must have this debate�gripe to the
press that Mr. Ryan doesn't "speak" for them.
Mr. Ryan, by contrast, isn't apologizing for offering ideas to the very
president who keeps claiming Republicans are the party of "no" and who
claims to want entitlement reform. A handful of House reformers are calling
the Democrats' ruse�reminding voters that what makes this surreal is that
the only choice right now is between bad Democratic ideas and worse ones.
These are the smart GOP members willing to do the hard work of explaining
the difference between, say, Democratic legislation that would strip money
from today's Medicare beneficiaries and funnel it to a new, unsustainable,
middle-class entitlement, and Mr. Ryan's plan, which would preserve today's
program for older Americans while plowing money from reform back into
long-term solvency. As cheap as the attack on Mr. Ryan is, they understand
that this debate was always coming, and that what they say now matters to
the GOP's future ability to govern.
Should Republicans take back the House this year, or the White House in
2012, they will own giant deficits and runaway entitlements. Reality will
force choices. They will either have to embrace politically tough ideas like
those included in Mr. Ryan's plan, or flail through, doing nothing or
succumbing to bigger government.
The longer the GOP hides or runs from those reforms, the harder it will be
to embrace them later. Instead of spending so much time telling the press
that Mr. Ryan's road map is not the "official" GOP plan, the party would be
better off asking themselves why it isn't. If Mr. Obama is so eager for a
debate about who is more serious about the country's future, they should
give it to him.
*************
SOME COMMENTS FROM THE SITE
The guy has cajones for actually proposing what he actually believes in,
but, I don't think this is what the average American wants.
-----------------
Yes, the average American wants soaring budget deficits, runaway inflation,
and unsustainable entitlement programs. Time for some very difficult
decisions and all Americans ought to be willing to share in some of the pain
for the next generations. Bravo to Mr. Ryan.
----------------
The average person doesn't just shun "soaring budget deficits, runaway
inflation, and unsustainable entitlement programs" they do everything they
can to fight it. Take the Tea Parties, take VA, NJ, MA, and you can say even
NY where they lost but the people kicked out a candidate that supported
higher taxes and these other programs and from no where had a person almost
win though the party there was split, especially after the old candidate
supported the opposition or the person she use to fight.
The people are speaking through the ballots and though the President and the
left doesn't want to listen, doesn't mean this revolt is not happening.The
majority of Americans want responsibility in DC, not unchecked power to
those who have their own agenda that doesn't match with the people.
SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH OUR BONDS AND DEBT, COUNTRIES ARE TALKING ABOUT
DUMPING IT: http://www.americanparchment.com/library/us_debt_selloff.html
-------------------
Sounds like a good time to see if Bill Clinton can run for another term. And
get back to a balanced budget and a possible surplus.
-------------------
James, a budget "surplus" built on accounting tricks and cuts to the
military thanks to the "peace dividend" after the end of the Cold War.
Clinton/Gore's "reinventing government" was a sham. Let's rather hope Bill
recovers from his heart surgery and starts to take it easy, riding into the
sunset.
---------------------
Bill Clinton had a Republican congress for the last 6 years of his
presidency. It was the Republican congress that kept Bill Clinton's spending
in check. And as Mr. Meyer just said, the "surplus" was built on accounting
gimmicks.
-------------------
Just as the current deficit disaster has been caused by a democrat Congress
since 2007 with an assist from President Obama in the 2009-10 budgets.
*****************
Ain't that the truth!
No surrender!
Dionysus
John Galt
> FROM WSJ
>
> HEAD: Obama's Attack Machine�II
>
> SUB-HEAD: The White House is deflecting questions about its ugly budget
> by hammering on Paul Ryan's plan
> By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
>
>
> 'Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it," wrote
> Saul Alinksy in his "Rules for Radicals." The White House would appear
> to have a copy.
>
> His agenda stymied and his approval numbers sinking, President Obama has
> realized this year's midterm election is shaping up as a referendum on
> failed Democratic governance. The new White House plan? Change the
> discussion, talk about Republicans, and frighten the nation about GOP
> ideas.
>
> This is the way to read Mr. Obama's sudden re-embrace of his
> opposition�his unexpected appearance at the House Republican retreat,
> and his more recent invitation to Republicans to a "bipartisan"
> health-care summit. And it's the way to understand the recent Democratic
> targeting, freezing, personalizing and polarizing of Rep. Paul Ryan.
Let him. Ryan and his economic thinking are America's last best hope for
surviving the economic mess we've made since Vietnam. There are no
solutions amongst the Dems nor the traditional GOP.
I agree with Robert Samuelson that Ryan's plan is not aggressive enough
in its break-even date (the CBO scoring has it bringing us back into
balance in the 2060's), and that it must search out waste rather than
blanket-freezing the discretionary, and at some point in time (and soon)
the GOP is going to have to admit that the military (a) needs to be
frozen as well, and (b) freezing it does not make us less safe; and the
(c) Dems have to admit that the Medicare funding mechanism is not
salvageable, and needs to be a means-tested program.
When all that occurs (and it will never occur under this White House --
far too partisan) we'll have a real national discussion. Hopefully, we
don't have to wait until Ryan is president, because the problems only
get worse the longer we wait.
JG
Michael Coburn
> Dionysus wrote:
>> FROM WSJ
>>
>> HEAD: Obama's Attack Machine—II
>>
>> SUB-HEAD: The White House is deflecting questions about its ugly budget
>> by hammering on Paul Ryan's plan
>> By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
>>
>>
>> 'Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it," wrote
>> Saul Alinksy in his "Rules for Radicals." The White House would appear
>> to have a copy.
>>
>> His agenda stymied and his approval numbers sinking, President Obama
>> has realized this year's midterm election is shaping up as a referendum
>> on failed Democratic governance. The new White House plan? Change the
>> discussion, talk about Republicans, and frighten the nation about GOP
>> ideas.
The GOP has no ideas other than obstructing Democrats.
>> This is the way to read Mr. Obama's sudden re-embrace of his
>> opposition—his unexpected appearance at the House Republican retreat,
>> and his more recent invitation to Republicans to a "bipartisan"
>> health-care summit. And it's the way to understand the recent
>> Democratic targeting, freezing, personalizing and polarizing of Rep.
>> Paul Ryan.
I was not aware of any of this and it is probably yet another of the long
list of concocted Republican pig shit stories. The fact is that Ryan has
been disowned by both sides of the isle. The GOP is busy moving away
because they are total wackadoodles and the Democrats have legitimate
fears about SS and Medicare privatization.
Obama is not re embracing anything. The fool has tried to reach out to
Republicans since day one. It does no good and the time for that has
passed. It is now time to call them out and kick their silly asses.
> Let him. Ryan and his economic thinking are America's last best hope for
> surviving the economic mess we've made since Vietnam. There are no
> solutions amongst the Dems nor the traditional GOP.
That is true. But the "solution" is taking Medicare and the Medicare tax
system totally off budget and dealing with the problems in above board
fashion without mixing them up with one another or general government and
defense. These are social insurance systems and they are not an attack
on capitalism or American freedom or anything else.
> I agree with Robert Samuelson that Ryan's plan is not aggressive enough
> in its break-even date (the CBO scoring has it bringing us back into
> balance in the 2060's), and that it must search out waste rather than
> blanket-freezing the discretionary, and at some point in time (and soon)
> the GOP is going to have to admit that the military (a) needs to be
> frozen as well, and (b) freezing it does not make us less safe; and the
> (c) Dems have to admit that the Medicare funding mechanism is not
> salvageable, and needs to be a means-tested program.
The Medicare system needs to be a budget all its own with a tax system
all its own. Medicare tax should be slightly progressive and broad
based. Not a flat tax on wages only. We should see 3 distinct budgets
here and not just one. The SS trust fund and separate FICA tax does a
pretty good job of that but we do not do that with Medicare. Therefore
all sorts of lying and pig prancing goes on and on.
> When all that occurs (and it will never occur under this White House --
> far too partisan) we'll have a real national discussion. Hopefully, we
> don't have to wait until Ryan is president, because the problems only
> get worse the longer we wait.
This White House was done a lot to try to deal with Republicans. It has
been the Republicans that obstruct as opposed to allowing the majority to
move ahead.
>> The idea-driven Wisconsin Republican first released his "Roadmap for
>> America's Future" in 2008. The nation can argue about its particulars,
>> but what is inarguable is that Mr. Ryan's plan is a real attempt to
>> solve America's biggest problems, with bold tax, health and entitlement
>> reforms to put the country back on the path to solvency.
>>
>> At the time, Democrats could barely muster a yawn. So imagine the
>> surprise when, after Mr. Ryan re-released his plan in late January, it
>> became a sudden sensation. Two days later Mr. Obama used his visit to
>> the Republican retreat to thrust it into the national spotlight. The
>> cameras rolling, the president praised Mr. Ryan for putting forward a
>> "serious proposal." He in fact singled out the congressman at least
>> three times. Having done his spotlight bit, Mr. Obama then left it to
>> the rest of the Democratic Party to systematically distort and trash
>> the road map.
Yet another dreamed up line of pig shit from the pig party.
>> Within two days of the retreat, Obama budget director Peter Orszag had
>> begun deflecting questions about the White House's ugly budget by
>> hammering on Mr. Ryan's plan, claiming it "shifted costs" to families.
>> Congressional Democrats held a conference call with reporters devoted
>> to road map trashing, howling that it showed that Republicans would
>> privatize Social Security, voucherize Medicare, and give tax breaks to
>> the wealthy. Speaker Nancy Pelosi lambasted the Ryan plan in a speech
>> to the Democratic National Committee.
And they were correct. Left to the Republicans these are exactly the
things that would transpire. Instead of taking the Medicare system off
budget and dealing with it that way and instead of removing the rich
bitch cap on FICA taxes, the Republicans opt for privatization. There
are definitely ways to improve the economic conditions of the nation and
its people. But total privatization based on religious zealotry is
stupid.
>> Democrats used it to turn the health discussion, claiming it was
>> hypocritical of Republicans to hit Democrats for slashing Medicare when
>> Mr. Ryan's plan would also cut the program. They used it to stoke
>> populist fears. California's Loretta Sanchez claimed the road map would
>> both "privatize" Social Security and leave it to the "whims of Wall
>> Street."
>>
>> Connecticut's John Larson (a member of the Democratic leadership)
>> introduced a resolution to force Republicans to oppose Social Security
>> "privatization" in a high-profile vote. The Democratic Congressional
>> Campaign Committee has already announced ads targeting 12 House
>> Republicans, "calling on them to come clean with seniors" whether they
>> support "House Republicans' extreme budget plan that privatizes Social
>> Security and Medicare." As hoped, the assault re-energized liberal
>> bloggers and the base.
OK... We need it.
>> Better yet for Democrats, some Republicans are falling into the trap.
>> As with its campaign last year to smear Republican Whip Eric Cantor,
>> the White House's attack on Mr. Ryan is designed to isolate and
>> discredit one of the GOP's brightest thinkers.
Notice how the rightarded have now switched from congressional Democrats
getting on Ryan to it being an attack from Obama? It always gets back to
focus on Obama because that the the "head". The energy spent attacking
Obama is an attack on the Democratic party. He isn't running but the
congress is.
>> So it only aids the
>> White House when "anonymous" Republican members—annoyed that they must
>> have this debate—gripe to the press that Mr. Ryan doesn't "speak" for
>> them.
Yes... Republicans do not want open debate. They want rightarded Faux
Noise and rightard radio.
>> Mr. Ryan, by contrast, isn't apologizing for offering ideas to the very
>> president who keeps claiming Republicans are the party of "no" and who
>> claims to want entitlement reform. A handful of House reformers are
>> calling the Democrats' ruse—reminding voters that what makes this
>> surreal is that the only choice right now is between bad Democratic
>> ideas and worse ones.
Yet the president is again inviting Republicans to present some positive
contributions.
>> These are the smart GOP members willing to do the hard work of
>> explaining the difference between, say, Democratic legislation that
>> would strip money from today's Medicare beneficiaries and funnel it to
>> a new, unsustainable, middle-class entitlement, and Mr. Ryan's plan,
>> which would preserve today's program for older Americans while plowing
>> money from reform back into long-term solvency. As cheap as the attack
>> on Mr. Ryan is, they understand that this debate was always coming, and
>> that what they say now matters to the GOP's future ability to govern.
The proper move is to combine all medical insurance using a progressive
Medicare tax totally separate from the income tax and the FICA tax. The
broadened Medicare tax (all income and not just wages) would reinstate
the 5% surcharge on high income taxpayers but go somewhat deeper into the
middle an add some progressive increase at 250, and 500k. Those under
$250k would see no change in taxation. The mandates could be dispensed
with and Medicare would still be an old age entitlement as it is now. I
am hopeful that this will be the "reconciliation".
>> Should Republicans take back the House this year, or the White House in
>> 2012, they will own giant deficits and runaway entitlements.
poor babies.... The Demorcats, of course, inherited an cream pie.
>> Reality
>> will force choices. They will either have to embrace politically tough
>> ideas like those included in Mr. Ryan's plan, or flail through, doing
>> nothing or succumbing to bigger government.
They already had this chance, liar. They inherited a budget surplus and
a very minor, barely discernible recession and blew the biggest financial
bubble the world has ever seen.
>> The longer the GOP hides or runs from those reforms, the harder it will
>> be to embrace them later. Instead of spending so much time telling the
>> press that Mr. Ryan's road map is not the "official" GOP plan, the
>> party would be better off asking themselves why it isn't. If Mr. Obama
>> is so eager for a debate about who is more serious about the country's
>> future, they should give it to him.
>> *************
When Republicans understand monetary economics we can have a discussion.
Right now and for the last 30 years Republicans have cared only about
destroying government.
The real issue being hidden by the health care debate and all the crap
about deficits is whether the banks or the people should control the
money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartalism
Are the assets of the Federal Reserve owned by Wall Street banks or by
the elected government??? As the Federal Reserve acting on behalf of the
United States created 8 trillion US dollars to buy out and otherwise
"shore up" Wall Street and housing then who owns these assets?
--
"Senate rules don't trump the Constitution" -- http://GreaterVoice.org/60
Dionysus
"Michael Coburn" <mik...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:hl732...@news5.newsguy.com...
> On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:01:03 -0600, John Galt wrote:
>
>> Dionysus wrote:
>>> FROM WSJ
>>>
>>> HEAD: Obama's Attack Machine—II
>>>
>>> SUB-HEAD: The White House is deflecting questions about its ugly budget
>>> by hammering on Paul Ryan's plan
>>> By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
>>>
>>>
>>> 'Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it," wrote
>>> Saul Alinksy in his "Rules for Radicals." The White House would appear
>>> to have a copy.
>>>
>>> His agenda stymied and his approval numbers sinking, President Obama
>>> has realized this year's midterm election is shaping up as a referendum
>>> on failed Democratic governance. The new White House plan? Change the
>>> discussion, talk about Republicans, and frighten the nation about GOP
>>> ideas.
>
> The G
There, there, Smelly Curmudgeon, now that we all know your debilitated
condition, your unwillingness to be self sufficient, and thus your kowtowing
to a gov't bureaucracy, none of what you write matters anymore. Just put
your head down and thumb back in your mouth. Your soma will soon be
administrated by your keepers.
No Surrender!
Dionysus
Nickname unavailable
your header says it all.
The most reliable barometer ever known for assessing what Republicans
are
really thinking and doing: look at what they're accusing their
enemies of.
Jim