Buyer's Remorse...

Buyer's Remorse...

On Tuesday, November 2nd, the United States electorate spoke or at least 41.5% of the spoke.  The Democrats held on to the Senate, barely, and the Republicans took back the House of Representatives. The question now becomes what do the Republicans intend to do with their partial victory.

Tea Party Candidates were elected to both houses of Congress and far-right enthusiasts like Senator Elect Rand Paul from Kentucky want to roll back all of the legislation passed by the last Congress.

For your information, this includes bills on Wall Street Regulation and the Health Care Legislation. Republican Minority Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell has already made an appearance at the Heritage Foundation (the Republican Think Tank) stating that Cap and Trade, the legislation to prevent Global Warming was DOA.  You can expect attempts to freeze or diminish Social Security, lower payments to Doctors accepting Medicare, an attempt to raise the retirement age, again, as well as a push to privatize the Social Security Program putting it in the hands of Wall Street, the denizens of which did so well with your 401K and pension plans in 2008. You can also expect no more unemployment extensions for those of you who have been out of work since the beginning of the recession and no proposals passed to provide good paying construction jobs by financing public works to improve our aging and failing infrastructure.

The push to have the United States regain technological superiority by funding research into energy alternatives is also up on the chopping block.  The oil and energy companies who funded all those Republican PACs and SUPERPACs will want a return on their millions invested.  The United States Chamber of Commerce will make sure their dollars speak loudly and there will be no hikes in minimum wage. The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell will be under attack as well as the court decision Roe vrs Wade which gave a woman the right to choose what to do with their own body.  In fact, if enough Blue Dog Democrats in the Senate join with the Republican Party you can basically look forward to a return of the Bush years which brought you two vastly expensive wars, deregulation of any environmental legislation, zero quality control and repeal of  some of the OSHA laws that protect worker safety.

The Department of Education could be dismantled in an era where American Schools trail fifteen countries in math and science.  The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy could be dismantled when all the rest of the globe is worried about climate change.  Did the average American voter realize what they brought upon themselves by a vote for the Republican Party in 2010, probably not.

The fault here lies with the Democratic Party and its nominal head, President Barrack Obama.  The Democrats did a terrible job of marketing their accomplishments and let the Republicans control the message delivered.  Lies like calling the Health Care Legislation, "Death Panels," misrepresenting the cost estimates of programs like the auto bailout which has resulted in a profit for the Government as soon as GM completes their IPO. The President did come out of the Oval Office late in the election cycle, but unfortunately too late to move the electorate back to the Democratic column.  What the Democrats needed was an organized, on message campaign, touting their accomplishments.  What they got was individual races with no central theme where the candidates ran like herds of buffalo away from legislation that was beneficial to the general public. The Democrats need to wake up and learn how to present their successes.  They need to know how to frame the conversation before their opponents do and they need to do this before 2012.

You can follow my blogs on my website www.ackatt.com, or fan my block talk radio show, AC Katt's Books and Politics on Thursdays at noon-eastern, eleven-central, ten-mountain and nine-pacific time at www.blogtalkradio.com/ackatt.

No Defense Necessary...

A List of Presidential    Accomplishments

I can't see why Democrats are running from the Congress and Presidential accomplishments of the last eighteen months.  Perhaps if we look at those accomplishments, we can see exactly how effective the Obama legislative agenda has been.

Consider the conditions under which President Obama took office.  The banks and mortgage companies were failing underneath a pile of bad debt and even worse business decisions.  The automotive industry was going under for the last time. Wall Street had devised such complicated investment instruments that even the brokers who traded and sold these instruments had no clear understanding of their worth.  We were heavily involved in two wars, one of which upon we never should have embarked.  The President promised change and a new direction, he delivered. Just consider the following (partial) list of political accomplishments:

• TARP - This program was created by the outgoing Bush administration and supported by Republicans. It was (largely) managed by the Obama administration.  And, to date, the banks and AIG have paid back most of the money loaned to them. There may even be a profit for the taxpayers in the near future.
• Automotive Bailout - This program was proposed by the Bush administration and enacted by the (mainly) democratic congress allied with the Obama administration.  This initiative directly saved 100s of thousands of jobs for the big three automakers plus indirectly saved millions of jobs for at the auto industry suppliers.  As a result of this program, only 18 months after its inception, GM has paid back the American public and Chrysler is on its way to a payback.  More importantly, the restructuring of both GM and Chrysler under the guidance of the Obama administration has seen both companies thriving in the highly competitive international auto market space.
• Iraq War - Troop levels in Iraq have been drawn down to 1/3 of 2009 levels and the US mission in-country has been recast to concentrate on: Iraq troop training; providing logistics and support for the Iraq army; combating anti-terrorism operations.

• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – During Q1/2009, the Obama and the democratic congress crafter this (Stimulus) plan to save and/or create 3.5 million jobs.  As of October 1, 2010, the Congressional Office of Management and Budget reported that the Stimulus plan is close to meeting this objective by saving and/or creating 3.2 million jobs.     
• Health Care – The (mainly) democratic party members of congress and the President worked ceaselessly, all through 2009, to deliver healthcare reform legislation to the American public.  The final bill wasn’t perfect, but it did close down the most blatant abuses practiced by the health insurance industry.  The reform legislation also set in place national pricing evaluation rules that will bring healthcare costs under control in the future.

The same bill enabled parents to keep their children on their health insurance policy until the age of twenty six.  It also forced insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, lifted the ceiling for lifetime expense for an illness and provided incentives for small businesses to provide health coverage for their employees.  The legislation also moved to gradually decrease the “donut hole” in prescription coverage for seniors.

·        Wall Street Reform -- This legislation provided existing regulatory agencies with a set of laws that will foster a much healthier and more effective regulatory environment for Wall Street’s investment banking community.

·        Consumer Protection Legislation – As part of the Wall Street Reform act, congress created an independent consumer protection agency.  This agency will ensure that the design of financial products don’t threaten the well being of the consumers they are sold to.  This covers consumer loans (personal, mortgage, etc.), credit cards, bank accounts, etc.

·        Student Loan Reform – Congress passed legislation that revamped the system for distributing and managing student loans and Pell grants.  Prior to this legislation, these services were handled by banks making huge profits for not much effort on their part.  This legislative action will free up more than $60 billion over the next 10 years to be folded back into more student loans and Pell grants.

·        As part of managing the effects of the BP oil spill, the President negotiated with British Petroleum for a more than $20 billion settlement for the people of the Gulf Coast who lost income and property from the horrendous oil spill.

These and many other achievements benefited the American public despite the Republican Party's opposition and use of the Senate filibuster against each and every piece of proposed legislation.  I wonder what could be accomplished without the Republican threat to halt every piece of Progressive Legislation. 

The Hidden Agenda of the "New" Republican Party

Minimum Wage

Watch out! For those of you who are currently depending on minimum wage jobs to feed your families during the current economic crisis, be aware that if certain Republican candidates have their way, your wages will go well below the poverty line.

Joe Miller, Republican candidate for the Alaskan senate seat wants to eliminate minimum wage.  He has company.  Linda McMahon, the millionaire owner of the WWE and the Republican candidate for the Senate seat in Connecticut; Dino Rossi, Republican candidate in Washington State; Rand Paul, Republican candidate for the Senate from Kentucky, all agree with Mr. Miller.  With no federally set minimum wage, your take home pay could seriously diminish.

For Senior Citizens in the future, the news is just as bad.  The Republican Party has designs on your Social Security Payments.  Future Senior Citizens will have to work longer hours, in addition to a sharp raise in the retirement age.  While the trend in retirement age throughout the world is for the age of retirees to decrease, the Republican party has plans to raise the retirement age for future seniors.  As if that isn't bad enough, there are also plans afoot to privatize Social Security.  For those of you who think this is a good thing, think about what happened to your 401K during this latest economic crisis.  And, for those of you living close to the poverty line, the reduction in minimum wage and the elimination of Social Security in its present form could leave you destitute when you are no longer capable of work.

As a point of general information, Social Security does not only provide income for retirees.  The disabled and orphaned children also collect Social Security.  The Republican Party would have us return to the age of Dickensonian work houses and orphanages for the indigent.

Additional horrors also await those who do not read between the lines of the so-called Pledge to America. Women are especially at risk.  The Republican Party would seek to overturn Roe vs. Wade and make abortion illegal for even those victims of rape and incest taking away completely a woman's right to choose.  Thus making her twice a victim.

These draconian measures are only some of the tenets of the new Republican Agenda.  Unlimited campaign financing by mega corporations sits squarely as a giant roadblock to democracy.  Current regulations do not even require the disclosure of where the PAC money originates that goes into candidates war chests.  PACS with innocuous sounding names front money for corporations whose agenda is not favorable to the general public.  For example, a PAC named Citizens for Clean Energy may be a front for the same mine owners who ignored safety violations and that caused the collapse of the coal mine that killed and injured miners recently.

For those of you who are now benefiting from sections of the new health care bill, by the relaxation of restrictions on pre-existing conditions, the inclusion of children under twenty-six on the family health policy and the help small business will receive to insure their employees, be assured that this will vanish under a Republican Congress and Senate.  The propaganda war against health care reform will continue and be financed by the insurance companies who want to continue to earn obscene profits by only insuring the healthy and dropping anyone who actually uses health insurance from their rolls. Unlike the lies told by the GOP about death panels you can be assured that your mega insurance company will be dropping grannies like hot potatoes once their condition warrants expensive care.

Is this the type of America you want to sign up for, then vote Republican in November.  If not, get off your sofa and vote for your local Democratic candidates.

As always, I encourage comments.  To find out more about my ideas and opinions visit my website at www.ackatt.com.  To investigate my books look for Shattered Glass from Captiva Press at www.captivapress.com and A Matter of Trust from XOXO Publishing at www.xoxopublishing.com.  My first novel, The Sarran Plague will be re-released later this fall from Captiva Press. Additional information can be found on my blogs at www.ackattsjournal.blogspot.com, www.ackattspolitics.blogspot.com, www.thesarrans.blogspot.com.