I was just reading an article about Obama's decision to retire the notion of a 'Car Czar' and go instead with a group of advisors to determine the government response to the auto-maker's meltdown in Detroit. The two names mentioned are Geithner and Summers, the current brains behind the Wall Street bailout. The bailout seems to be headed nowhere fast, basically because they can't seem to get past the bankrupt (ha - pun) mindset that got us into this mess in the first place. For gosh sake's, Lindsay Graham is on the TV talking bank nationalization and Geithner and Summers are still behaving as if the whole idea is some crazy wacked out hippie delusion..
It just seems that Obama is leaning over backwards to keep the right happy. What I see happening is that he tends to listen and adopt ideas fom the right but he is scared of ideas from the left. Case in point: Health and Human Services, best man for the job, Howard Dean. He's a doctor, he engineered a state health care program in Vermont, he's an excellent speaker. But word is the Obama administration considers him too partisan. Hmmmmm. So, Judd Gregg, not partisan. Howard Dean, partisan. Got it.
Now we have this whole economic problem here, and the people who have been right for the last decade are still just voices in the wilderness. Krugman, too partisan? Roubini, too partisan? Geithner and Summers, corporate apologists, just what we need? Got it.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
List of Dreams
About a month ago, pre-inaugeration, I surveyed my family on their hopes for the Obama administration. I came up with the following list. I plan to come back in a year and ask for a grade on each item.
1. A special prosecutor gets appointed to investigate the crimes that have occurred in the last 8 years.
2. A big chunk of the stimulus package goes for non-car transportation purposes - especially high speed trains with a station in CIncinnati, and more bike paths.
3. He breaks up the media conglomerates that have a stranglehold on our airwaves and print media.
4.universal health care. the american health care industry is a huge engorged tick sucking the life blood out of the american economy, a sick old emaciatrd dog. The economy will never be strong again unless we stop paying tens of millions of dollars a year to people whose only job is to deny health care.(Virginia)
5.food policy reform. Our current policies support and promote the expansion of agri-business. This not only impacts small family farmers, but also has devastating consequences on public health, our dependence on foreign oil, and environmental degradation. It's a four-fer! (Andrea)
6. Improved corporate control - major corporations be expected to pay taxes and an end to trading with countries that do not have a minimum standard of workers' rights and environmental protections. I would like to see some logical revision of the legal doctrine of "corporate personhood" that allows corporations to have the rights accorded to citizens but cannot ever hold them to the same standard of ethical conduct. (Sam)
7.major reform in our nation's drug laws. On one hand, I would like to see an end to the so-called war on drugs (and all of its class- and race-selective enforcement) and a more rational attempt made to address the social ills of substance abuse and addiction. On the other hand, I would also really like to see more strenuous requirements before FDA approval is granted to new pharmaceutical drugs. I also think that the advertising of brand name drugs is a disgrace and that the system of perks and luxuries that pharmaceutical companies grant to select physicians is a deeply corrupting influence on our medical establishment. (Sam)
8.immigration law reform (Sam's friend Rachel)
9.Reformed banking and credit systems - predatory credit practices, corrupt student loan corporations, failing bank systems, and other bits of general mayhem among the personal finance sectors of our nation. I'm afraid that to significantly change the system of debt that we are all forced to participate in for such basics rights as a place to live, transportation and higher education (to name a few), would require an overhaul of such massive proportions that it may forever remain a utopian dream. (Elizabeth)
10.increased access to higher education by several means: Create restrictions on student lending companies that will cap interest rates and loan periods. Diverting funds away from million-dollar basketball coach salaries and back into the pockets of teachers and struggling students. Return standard consumer protections to student loans (Elizabeth)
1. A special prosecutor gets appointed to investigate the crimes that have occurred in the last 8 years.
2. A big chunk of the stimulus package goes for non-car transportation purposes - especially high speed trains with a station in CIncinnati, and more bike paths.
3. He breaks up the media conglomerates that have a stranglehold on our airwaves and print media.
4.universal health care. the american health care industry is a huge engorged tick sucking the life blood out of the american economy, a sick old emaciatrd dog. The economy will never be strong again unless we stop paying tens of millions of dollars a year to people whose only job is to deny health care.(Virginia)
5.food policy reform. Our current policies support and promote the expansion of agri-business. This not only impacts small family farmers, but also has devastating consequences on public health, our dependence on foreign oil, and environmental degradation. It's a four-fer! (Andrea)
6. Improved corporate control - major corporations be expected to pay taxes and an end to trading with countries that do not have a minimum standard of workers' rights and environmental protections. I would like to see some logical revision of the legal doctrine of "corporate personhood" that allows corporations to have the rights accorded to citizens but cannot ever hold them to the same standard of ethical conduct. (Sam)
7.major reform in our nation's drug laws. On one hand, I would like to see an end to the so-called war on drugs (and all of its class- and race-selective enforcement) and a more rational attempt made to address the social ills of substance abuse and addiction. On the other hand, I would also really like to see more strenuous requirements before FDA approval is granted to new pharmaceutical drugs. I also think that the advertising of brand name drugs is a disgrace and that the system of perks and luxuries that pharmaceutical companies grant to select physicians is a deeply corrupting influence on our medical establishment. (Sam)
8.immigration law reform (Sam's friend Rachel)
9.Reformed banking and credit systems - predatory credit practices, corrupt student loan corporations, failing bank systems, and other bits of general mayhem among the personal finance sectors of our nation. I'm afraid that to significantly change the system of debt that we are all forced to participate in for such basics rights as a place to live, transportation and higher education (to name a few), would require an overhaul of such massive proportions that it may forever remain a utopian dream. (Elizabeth)
10.increased access to higher education by several means: Create restrictions on student lending companies that will cap interest rates and loan periods. Diverting funds away from million-dollar basketball coach salaries and back into the pockets of teachers and struggling students. Return standard consumer protections to student loans (Elizabeth)
We'll see what unfolds......
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