Federal gummint looks to double in size under Obama. Valerie Jarrett most powerful staffer after Emanuel.
Barack Obama has launched the era of the political economy, where, to an unprecedented degree, the White House will determine the course, structure and function of the American economy; where, if reports of $2 trillion worth of stimuli are to be believed, the size and scope of the federal government has the potential to nearly double over the course of eight years. He’s already shifted the paradigm’s default from private enterprise to public action. To the extent that your program or pet cause gets to share in the spoils, it must justify itself to the Obama administration.
Valerie Jarrett. Jarrett has appointed as her chief of staff Michael Strautmanis, one of the Obama family’s best friends and another trusted confidant.
The bigger the federal government gets, the more important these offices become. They’ll probably be THE powerhouse in the Obama White House from the perspective of politics, constituency relations, interest and client groups, the Washington community, state, local and tribal governments. Jarrett won’t just pass messages between the outside world and the president. Her job will be manage the relationship between the outside world and the president, and, vitally, she and her staff will have the juice to make decisions about how the relates to just about every external constituency.
Jarrett shares a senior adviser title with David Axelrod, who will informally supervise the White House communications operation. But Jarrett’s job will probably be more important. Outside of Rahm Emanuel, she’s destined to become the second most powerful staffer in the place.
SOURCE: The atlantic
Change we will get so are you ready for the Obama big government called socialist? Is this really what you voted for? Really! To get the big picture you need to go read the source page at The Atlantic.
LINKS:
(1) George W. Bush’s political epitaph
So many of these key positions are going to be filled by O’s crooked Chicago cronies, and, at the same time, so much of the nation’s economy will suddenly be directed by the government.
Yes, we can … wreck America in a few short years!
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” — R. Reagan
I see London here with Socialist B. Hussein Obama.
Funny how you work this blog of yours, GTP.
You post every blast against Obama, whether or not they’re factually accurate. You have NO PROBLEM with “personal attacks” if they’re made against Obama.
I pointed out that Bushie is still President and it’s Bushie who is captain of the ship when $8 TRILLION has been directed in “bailouts” of Big Business — and you delete it, likely because you deem it a “personal attack” on one of your favorite guys.
And what’s the ONLY bailout that’s received criticism? What’s the ONLY bailout that’s been rejected? The auto industry. About one-tenth of one percent of the total bailout scenario! And why? Because the auto industry provided Republicans with an opportunity to pin it all on unions. So they stuck it to the auto industry. (Paulson, to his credit, found them the money, because he realized how hypocrticial and dangerous all the political postering by the Republicans was.)
You wanna blame Obama for what you see as Big Government Around The Corner? Go ahead. But you better be willing to also see that Really Biug Government is already here, and it’s not of Obama’s doing.
di, you’re right, government is far too large and has gotten larger under Bush. Which programs, and, in particular, which bailouts and which entitlements do you think the Obama regime will be cutting?
Oh, and how long do you think it will be before the automakers fail, once they have their bailout?
Dunno. Unless management changes their ways, not long. If and when they go, they’ll take millions of jobs that we can’t afford losing, especially right this moment, so the auto bailout was one of the few that made any “sense” at all.
Which bailout to drop? How about AIG? How about some of the financial institutions, if they can’t figure their way out? I forget which one, actually, but it was suggested yesterday that one of them will be coming back to the trough for a second or third time because they simply cannot continue doing business the same way they had before, and they don’t want to change as long as the cash till is left open. And why should they?
The financial sector bailout was a mistake. The Detroit bailout is a mistake. And there is *no* management team that can stay in the black longterm under the present UAW regime. Let ‘em burn.
And it’s probably AIG that’s coming back for more. They’ve done it once already. And, btw, O’s treasury secretary-designate was instrumental in the AIG bailout.
Hooray for bailouts. No one will ever again lose money, ever!
Don’t for get that the democrats voted for the bail outs as well did the republicans! Now it was the democrats and Bush trying to push the bail out for auto companies, the republicans want rules in place to make sure that the money is used right and not wasted as some of the 800 billion has been.
Not only that, but most R’s in the House voted *against* the Wall St. bailout, bucking the Administration and their own leadership. Made me, briefly, proud again to be an R.
How on earth did Congress manage to pack so many earmarks into such a bill. Here are some of the tax benefit recipients, as listed by the San Francisco Chronicle:
$2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children
$100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners
$192 million in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry
$148 million in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers
$49 million tax benefit for fishermen and other plaintiffs who sued over the 1989 tanker Exxon Valdez spill
http://www.wisebread.com/how-a-700-billion-bailout-became-a-800-billion-rescue-plan
Don’t take those congressmen long to add up a billion dollars does it?
Do you know anything about those “tax benefit recipients”? The kids’ arrow manufacturer, for instance, was unfairly slimed.
There’s really only one U.S. manufacturer of kids’ target arrows. A tax bill was enacted that was intended to address manufacturers of expensive hunting arrows, but the wording got screwed up and the manufacturer of the kids’ target arrows got included in the tax. The tax cost more than the arrow itself. And foreign manufacturers, particularly from China, didn’t have to pay the tax and they came in and undercut the hell out of the U.S. manufacturer. So he was given a “tax benefit” according to the pork-finders, but he really had an unfair tax liability removed, which allowed him to get back in business.
Appearances can sometimes be deceiving.
And as for the UAW, that whole story is a misrepresentation, too, in large part. First, they bandied about a $78 per hour salary for UAW workers, which cannot be true. Then it became salary-and-benefits, which also seemed high. Now it comes out that it’s salary-and-benefits-and-RETIREE-BENEFITS (“legacy benefits”)included in that $78 figure. So, yeah, all they have to do is cut off all those retirees and dump their retiree health benefits, and the Big Three will be healthy again. Of course, the retirees who had planned on those benefits are screwed, but who cares, right?
Nawwww, we don’t need a better system of health care benefits, do we?
Can’t say as I understand your point, di, about Detroit’s labor cost. First, you imply that it’s not really $78/hr. Then you imply that, if the automakers try to renege on their $78/hr pledges, it is a great injustice.
In fact, the total (I can’t recall anyone ever claiming it was just the takehome gross) really is $78/hr, and it is quite impossible for the automakers to cover it, even when cash flow covers this week’s paychecks. You are suggesting that taxpayers pick up the tab for UAW retirees, yes?
No.
The $78 figure includes current employees’ pay PLUS the cost of their benefits PLUS the cost of what they term “legacy benefits” which is the costs paid by the Big Three for retiree health benefits. So the current employees do NOT make anywhere near $78 per hour. And it isn’t even a matter of the corporation’s costs for each employee being $78 per hour (which they tried as a fallback position, when their original lie, that the slaary costs were $78/hr, was exposed). No, the Big Three spreads the costs of retiree benefits out over the current employee “overhead” to super-inflate their costs. They’re trying to con people into believing that the current UAW auto workers are getting paid $78/hour because they know that that figure is WAY above what most “average” workers make, so as to turn other workers against the UAW workers. In fact, what it truly is is deceitful accounting legerdemain.
By falsely claiming that UAW labor costs are $78/hour, the Big Three, with the assistance of the GOP, are trying to dissolve the labor agreements. In doing so, they’re trying to break the UAW (boo hoo for them; they’re big boys and they’ll take care of themselves) BUT they’re also trying to walk away from the commitments they made to their retirees to provide medical insurance coverage.
I really don’t mean to be crude, but there’s no better way of putting it than this: they (the Big Three and the GOP) are saying “Hey, they’re old, they don’t work for us anymore, they’re dead wood, they cost us money, so FUCK’ EM.” And these retirees have no recourse to stop it from happening. It’s a common Big Business tactic in recent years: cut loose the old folks and raid their pension and benefit funds: free money for the taking!
I’m not suggesting that taxpayers pick up the tab for UAW retirees. But that is exactly what WILL happen if we allow these retirees to be abandoned by the Big Three, or if we alow the GOP to force the Big Three into bakruptcy. Listen to Mitt Romney; that is EXACTLY what he’s saying.
OMG what an unenlightened buffoon! And coming from the guy who had government-paid benefits all his life, apparently!
THAT is one piece of pork that should surely be trimmed from the federal budget!!
Well, LOL, who’s gonna pick up the tab for all the retirement benefits that are/aren’t on the automakers’ books? And is the Big Three beggar routine just a ruse … a cunning plan to break the UAW, or do they really need the Paulson bucks? Give us a narrative that makes sense. By trying to include *all* the talking points, you’re contradicting yourself.
They need bucks AND they want to break the UAW. The GOP probably wants to break the UAW as much or more than the Big Three do, as union $$ usually goes to the Dems, not the GOP.
I do truly apologize for clarifying my thoughts in detail. I was under the misapprehension that you really wanted to understand what it was I was trying to say. Now that I know you’re dismissing it all as talking points, I won’t bother.
So, what, if anything, should the UAW be required to give up in return for the bailout? And why should taxpayers be on the hook for Detroit’s mistakes, be they mistakes on the part of orgnized labor or on the part of management?
And, the latest news is good — bankruptcy, not bailout.
Bankruptcy is exactly what they (the GOP) wants. It breaks the union, and it dumps those retirees off the corporate books.
Old people are soooooo annoying. Why don’t they just go ahead and die? What are they waiting for? A handout?
So, I guess you’re saying that taxpayers should be funding the autoworkers’ retirement bennies. What other private sector retirement plans should be transferred to the puplic sector? A lot of them, especially the defined benefit plans, are going to fail. Or, more to the point, for what private sector failures are taxpayers’ *not* liable, in your view?
You two are now talking about what The New Party (Socialist Party) wanted to do is for the government to own the companies and spread the wealth around! Yes from all I read Obama was a member of The New Party!
Yeah, Obie’s got lust for socialism in his heart. One of the scarier things about him is that he seems completely innocent of economic undertanding.
Money for eveyone!
What part of this is so difficult to understand?
The Big Three should be funding the retirement benefits that were promised to their retirees. Not the government. Not the taxpayers. The employers should keep their promises and meet their responsibilities.
IF the Big Three are allowed to walk away from their promises and their responsibilities, then those retirees will be funded, one way or another, by the government and the taxpayers — either through Medicare or Medicaid.
It’s not a “talking point” that the Big Three is trying to dump their responsibilities to their workers and their retirees on the taxpayers.
The answer? Give the Big Three their lifeline, in the form of loans, but force them to dump management. And force them to quit shirking their responsibilities to their workers and retirees. Force the UAW workers to take a pay cut; there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t buy into the propaganda of the Big Three and the GOP. There is NO DOUBT that they have an ulterior motive in all this, if you take a look at it with an unprejudiced eye. .. if there is such a thing here.
Ford is ok right now and the other two are talking about a merge and bankrupt instead of bailout!
I’m happy to be driving a FORD!
“The Big Three should be funding the retirement benefits that were promised to their retirees. Not the government. Not the taxpayers. The employers should keep their promises and meet their responsibilities.” Sounds good to me. Of course, as you point out a couple lines later, they won’t be able to do this without taxpayer bucks, and that doesn’t sound good to me. Let ‘em burn.
Btw, think the UAW would go for hourly pay cuts outside of Chapter 11? Nah, me neither.
GTP, good point about the merger being a possible solution. Anti-trust laws, as presently interpreted, are in the way, however. In general, government interference makes change (and hope, for that matter) more difficult.
Well thats what they are thinking now and President Bush has also started rethinking of its bad to pour more money on bad money!
Looks like the UAW get their bailout. If you want to buy an American brand next time out (remember, Toyota, Honda, etc. now make their cars over here, with US workers), then buy a Ford. The extortionists must be punished. And here’s a list of other products manufactured by the UAW.
http://www.uaw.org/uawmade/index.cfm
In a way President Bush made a smart move, he gave them just enough to keep them going to baby Obama boy will be forced to make a decision for a change….did I say that word “change”! Yes where Obama knows it or not he will have to make decisions where the people will see if he’s right or wrong! Not like it was as a senator voting present! Yes thats it time to stop the smooth talk and do the walk baby Obama boy!
Auto industry gets a short-term fix
Carmakers get some breathing room to work out restructuring plans. But the results are unclear, and to complicate matters, there will be a new government and Congress next month.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-qna20-2008dec20,0,4052616.story
I just have to add to this, yes a new government and a president with no experience! Hold on to your hat for a rough ride down the socialist path!
Ford smart!
Make better cars, better than the Japs make. Make ‘em in Mexico, so the UAW can’t eff things up and so the cars come in cheaper. Don’t take handouts.
http://tinyurl.com/3lbxaz
I’ve heard nothing but good things about the new Fiesta, btw.
I drive a Ford Contour and have had no problems with it. From what I understand its build for the Europeans.