For Those That Call Obama a Socialist

[Z06PDQ]

Here's what the *real* socialists are saying about him.-----
World Socialist Web Site
Hailing 111th Congress, Obama prepares further shift to the right

Excerpts:

As the 111th congressional session came to a close, the Obama administration and the US media have stepped up the propaganda offensive over the past two days to justify an even further shift to the right by the political establishment next year.

The “narrative” being constructed takes the following form: The two years of the Democratic-controlled Senate and House of Representatives, along with the Obama administration, carried out historical social reforms on a scale not seen in decades. For some unexplained reason, these measures led to a defeat for the Democrats in the 2010 elections. Since the elections, and supposedly in response to popular pressure, Obama has shifted into a more “bipartisan” spirit, which has already produced fantastic results in the “lame-duck” session since the election.

This eruption of self-congratulation was led by Obama himself at an afternoon press conference on Wednesday. The lame-duck session, the president declared, was “the most productive post-election period we have had in decades, and…it comes on the heels of the most productive two years that we have had in generations.”

The overriding theme of the conference was Obama’s pledge to work with Republicans more closely in the coming year.

“A lot of folks in this town,” the president declared, “predicted that after the midterm elections, Washington would be headed for more partisanship and gridlock. And instead this has been a season of progress for the American people.”

By “American people,” Obama evidently means the most wealthy sections of the population, which will benefit enormously from the principal measure adopted by the Congress over the past month: the extension of the Bush administration’s tax cuts for the rich. The top income bracket will get on average $70,000 out of the deal, with the wealthiest netting much more. The bottom 40 percent of the population will actually see their taxes increase.

Comparisons of the past two years to the New Deal period (which established among other things a whole network of federal jobs programs, as well as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are ludicrous. Far from introducing a new era of social reform, the measures passed under the leadership of the Democratic Party have initiated a major attack on the reforms implemented in the 1930s and 1960s.

The principal aim of the health care bill, passed under the guidance of Obama, was to cut corporate expenditures on health coverage, along with federal spending, beginning with Medicare. It mandates that individuals purchase private insurance, handing millions of captive customers to the giant insurance companies.

As for what is invariably described in the media as a “sweeping overhaul” of Wall Street, this measure was dictated by the interest of the banks, doing nothing to alter their overwhelming power over the financial system and American society as a whole. In the form of a “resolution authority,” the bill institutionalizes government bailouts of the banks.

As for the initial “stimulus” measure passed in the early months of the Obama presidency, it was crafted to prevent a complete collapse of the capitalist system while ensuring that the wealth of the corporate and financial elite would remain untouched.

These policies have made possible an unprecedented rebound in corporate profits. The nationwide attack on wages and benefits was given the lead by the administration and the Congressional leadership. The forced bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler last year was predicated on a massive attack on auto workers.

Coming to power after the departure of the Bush administration — the most hated government in US history — the Democrats oversaw the expansion of war, including Obama’s “surge” in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have intensified the attack on democratic rights, including the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Democrats in the Senate declined to use their subpoena power to carry out any investigations of the criminal actions of the Bush administration, including the use of torture and the expansion of domestic spying. Guantanamo Bay and the network of US-run gulags remain in place, a fact underscored this week when Congress rejected any funding for closing the prison in Cuba. This was quickly followed by reports of a planned executive order to institutionalize indefinite detention without charge.

The gushing in the media and political circles over this record is a prelude for even more rightwing policies. In another article published in the New York Times on Thursday, the newspaper makes clear that for the liberal establishment the Democrats’ debacle in the 2010 midterm elections — a product mainly of mass disillusionment with the Obama administration — is seen as a welcome opportunity to escalate attacks on the working class.

The newspaper reports, “White House aides are hoping that the bipartisan tax accord reached with Republicans this month will form the basis for similar agreements on deficit reduction next year. Mr. Obama has already called for freezes in discretionary spending and federal salaries, and the feeling inside the White House is that if the president can establish that he is serious about reining in federal spending, Republicans will have no choice but to negotiate over how much and how to do it.’

The chairmen of Obama’s bipartisan budget deficit commission have already released recommendations for major cuts in Social Security and other federal programs—extending the measures already introduced as part of the health care overhaul. These are accompanied by plans for a “reform” of the tax code to significantly reduce taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

Among the other policies to be implemented in the next session, the newspaper cites “education reform” — that is, an escalation of the administration’s attack on public education. This is “an issue that divides the president from a lot of his allies because of his support for performance-based teacher pay and testing for both students and teachers,” the Times writes.

The mythmakers in the mass media can do little to cloak the essential lesson of the past two years: that the entire political system, including the Democratic and Republican parties, is under the iron grip of the corporate and financial aristocracy, allowing no expression of the interests of the vast majority of the population.

[Z06PDQ]

Hailing 111th Congress, Obama prepares further shift to the right

[Exotix]

For some reason the Reich-Wing assumes that if McPalin had come into office it would be called something different ... and it would still be the Liberal Socialist Communist National Socialist Fascists fault for an economic collapse because nuking Iran led us into a nuclear world war ...

Fake Bush U.N. ambassador *Walrus Face* -yet another 2012 GOP POTUS hopeful-John Bolton just cryed like a Bohner wussy about this today ...

The Reich-Wing idea is to keep wacking out America and the world based on the same idea ..

Coming to power after the departure of the Bush administration — the most hated government in US history —

[Y2Kvert4me]

Originally Posted by Z06PDQ

For some unexplained reason, these measures led to a defeat for the Democrats in the 2010 elections.

And that "unexplained" is sure to repeat in 2012 if the farce known as Obamacare isn't repealed by then.

[Z06PDQ]

Originally Posted by Y2Kvert4me

And that "unexplained" is sure to repeat in 2012 if the farce known as Obamacare isn't repealed by then.

yeh....what a "farce" to think that besides South Africa,we are the only industrialized nation in the world without health care.

[Z06PDQ]

Originally Posted by TxAg

Incorrect.

Go to any hospital and you will get care for your health issue. Guaranteed.

Additionally, there are many options of heath INSURANCE available.

There is not need for the government to get involved in forcing people to get health INSURANCE of some kind (private or gov't backed).

obviously you don't know anyone that is without health care insurance. I do. yeah you can get approved, but it takes awhile.you live in Houston,right? Google Harris County Gold Card. you could die before you get approved. is health care the only reason you people call Obama a socialist?

[ChasC5]

Originally Posted by Z06PDQ

obviously you don't know anyone that is without health care insurance. I do. yeah you can get approved, but it takes awhile.you live in Houston,right? Google Harris County Gold Card. you could die before you get approved. is health care the only reason you people call Obama a socialist?

I had a brief conversation with an ultra Conservative Republican last week about Health Care. I asked him one simple, easy to answer question. The Health Care Reform Bill has been in existence for a few months now; exactly how has this Bill affected “you” personally? He went on and on for several minutes about what might happen, what could happen and never once could answer the question about how this Bill actually affected him personally.

I just smiled and ordered us both another drink, because he obviously needed a nerve relaxer.