Quote of the Day

“While others stick their fingers in the wind to see what the election results from last night mean for their support of the Ryan Plan, I remain steadfast in my support. In fact, my only complaint with the Path to Prosperity Plan is that it does not go far enough, fast enough, to address Washington’s unsustainable spending."

Adam Hasner, on the Paul Ryan plan.

I hope the DSCC remembers this quote. As Digby pointed out, Ryan's plan to make Medicare a voucher program is extremely unpopular with seniors. The Congression Budget Office letter to Ryan gives good reason for people not to support the plan.

To summarize, a typical beneficiary would spend more for health care under the proposal than under CBO’s long-term scenarios for several reasons. First, private plans would cost more than traditional Medicare because of the net effect of differences in payment rates for providers, administrative costs, and utilization of health care services, as described above. Second, the government’s contribution would grow more slowly than health care costs, leaving more for beneficiaries to pay.

If you are a senior or have a pre-existing condition, good luck trying to get private health insurance without insurance companies being required to cover you. Which is what the CBO tells Ryan.

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Digby's Must-Read Post

Digby has a fantastic post on why President Barack Obama's neoliberalism is a failure policy-wise and politically.

Therefore, his political advisers should know that when the country is still reeling from unemployment and foreclosures after nearly two years, the passage of an inadequate stimulus bill, which unrealistic benchmarks and a giddy victory party ensured would be the only chance they got, the only people who will consider that a "success" would be beltway insiders. They should have realized that a health care bill that nobody in their right minds would have designed from scratch, the worst aspects of which liberals will be asked to defend for years to come, would be met with dampened enthusiasm by those who watched the process devolve from a sense of progressive purpose to an exhausting farce. They are expected to be able to predict that financial reform without accountability for what's gone before, combined with the administration's unwillingness to confront the civil liberties abuse of the last administration -- indeed expanding on them in some cases -- would show a lack of fundamental concern for justice among those who care about such things.

Howard Dean was a more convincing advocate for health care reform than Obama. Dean even advocated killing a health care bill that didn't have effective cost controls. Obama's centrist approach to health care was hated by progressives, the Tea Party and the media. Obama is tailoring his entire administration to 2012 undecided voters. The question is will progressives come out in 2012?

Digby pointed out a quote by Rep. Marion Berry from January of this year.

“They just don’t seem to give it any credibility at all,” Berry said. “They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’ We’re going to see how much difference that makes now.”

Democrats are mad that Obama hasn't been campaigning or fundraising for candidates. White House Press Sec. Robert Gibbs angered Democrats by saying the House may switch to Republican control. This administration has attacked unions and progressives off-the-record. A Politico article (you can take with a grain of salt) details how Beltway Democrats cannot stand Obama and his White House political team.

Many Democrats on the Hill don’t much like Obama — or, at least, his circle of advisers. They think the White House makes them take tough votes but doesn’t care that much about the problems those votes create for politicians facing tough races in November’s midterm elections. Numerous Democrats have complained privately that Obama cares only about Obama — a view reinforced by Gibbs’s public admission that Democrats could lose the House.

It was no coincidence that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this week criticized Obama for not being tough enough in some legislative showdowns — and that Democrats leaked word that Nancy Pelosi ripped into a top White House official about Gibbs’s comments.

The Obama team believes every American voter is Mickey Kaus or Harold Ford. Obama can't dump the neoliberism because that is who he is. The Democratic Party needs to show neoliberals the door. Neoliberalism gave America President Bill Clinton repealing the Glass Steagall Act and the creation of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I have had enough neoliberalism to last several lifetimes.