Opinion
Showdown with ‘Teapublicans’
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
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B
elieve it or not, President
Obama’s decision to finally
stand up to Teapublicans –
a Republican Party hijacked by
Right-wing Tea Party zealots – in
the latest standoff over the Afford-
able Care Act and the debt ceiling
was the easy part.
Next comes the real fireworks
over the budget. And, judging
from the past, the Democrats are
likely to wave the white flag of
surrender, even before the first
shot are fired.
Don’t forget that although
Obama campaigned on the prom-
ise of extending the Bush tax cuts
only for individuals earning less
than $200,000 and couples making
less than $250,000, which would
cover 98 percent of all taxpayers,
he eventually capitulated under
Republican pressure, extending
the Bush-era rates on incomes
below $450,000 for families and
$400,000 for individuals.
And in his unsuccessful effort to
reach a grand bargain with House
Speaker John Boehner in 2011,
according to leaked confidential
documents, Obama expressed a
willingness to support cuts to TRI-
CARE,
the health insurance
program for the military and mili-
tary retirees; Social Security,
Medicare, housing, nutritional
assistance and other social pro-
grams.
Former Labor Secretary Robert
Reich explained why he, too, feels
Obama will cave in to Republican
demands.
“He’s already put on the table a
way to reduce future Social Secu-
rity payments by altering the way
cost-of-living adjustments are
another type of Medicaid, a pro-
gram perceived to be for the poor
T HE C URRY and therefore vulnerable to budget
R EPORT
cuts.
“But why even suggest cutting
Medicare at all, when the program
George E.
isn’t responsible for the large
Curry
budget deficits projected a decade
or more from now? Medicare itself
is enormously efficient; its admin-
istrative costs are far lower than
made – using the so-called commercial health insurance.”
Equally troubling are the signals
‘chained’ consumer price index,
which assumes that when prices the president is already sending on
rise people economize by switch- the budget.
“Keep in mind that the budget
ing to cheaper alternatives. This
makes no sense for seniors, who that we are going to pass under
already spend a disproportionate any deal is going to be the Repub-
share of their income on prescrip- lican budget. It will have cuts that
tion drugs, home healthcare, and are much more substantial than
medical devices – the prices of Democrats would prefer,” Obama
The tragedy is that Democrats usually
won’t stand firm even when public
opinion is on their side
which have been rising faster than
inflation. Besides, Social Security
isn’t responsible for our budget
deficits. Quite the opposite: For
years its surpluses have been used
to fund everything else the govern-
ment does.
“The President has also suggest-
ed ‘means-testing’ Medicare – that
is, providing less of it to higher-
income seniors. This might be
sensible. The danger is it becomes
the start of a slippery slope that
eventually turns Medicare into
said in an interview with New
York’s WABC-TV two days
before the government reopened.
“The Democrats have not asked
for anything to reopen the govern-
ment. The Democrats haven’t
asked for anything for paying our
bills on time.”
The last time I checked, the Sen-
ate and the executive branch were
controlled by Democrats. Republi-
cans control only the House. And
the only reason they control the
House is because of gerryman-
dered congressional districts. In
the last election, House Democrats
received more votes than House
Republicans. So why does Presi-
dent Obama feel that the nation
will be stuck with a “Republican
budget”?
The tragedy is that Democrats
usually won’t stand firm even
when public opinion is on their
side. The Pew Research Center for
the People & the Press conducted
a survey in March asking: What is
more important, taking steps to
reduce the national debt or keep-
ing Social Security and Medicare
benefits as they are?
According to Pew, 55 percent
favored keeping Social Security
and Medicare benefits as they
are 34 percent preferred taking
steps to reduce the national debt,
and 11 percent said both are equal-
ly important.
Yet, Obama is willing to make
concessions on Social Security
and Medicare.
With no demands on the table,
it’s impossible to know what, if
anything, is important to the Dem-
ocratic Party anymore. That’s not
the case with the Teapublicans.
Love or hate them, they have
clearly and forcefully stated they
want to privatize Social Security,
turn Medicare into a voucher sys-
tem, and want deep cuts in social
programs. They have not only
articulated their priorities, they
have demonstrated with the shut-
down how far they are willing to
go to fight for their misguided
beliefs.
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Is the Black Electorate ‘Stuck on Stupid’?
W
hy do we keep electing
the same people to the
same office year after
year, putting them in charge of our
lives, despite having the absolute
proof that they have not, are not,
and will not work in our best inter-
ests? The debt ceiling Kabuki
Theater is yet another in a long
line of what we have seen before –
just a few months ago – in our so-
called “government of, by, and for
the people.”
We, the electorate, are just stuck
on stupid. We have elected what
has literally become an aristocracy
to rule over us. They play games
with our lives by trying to trump
one another with their pompous
speeches and protestations. All
the while they are becoming mil-
lionaires and, to add insult to
injury, they are not subject to the
rules they make to govern us. As
the opening quote suggests, they
pay no price and feel no pain from
their ridiculous wrangling, debat-
ing, and decision-making.
They stroll out every now and
then to give us their “insights” on
what is going on in the “hallowed”
halls of Congress, but then return
to do nothing for us. For them,
however, they continue to draw
their pay checks, play golf, laugh
and joke, and live off the public
coffers by working for a govern-
ment many of them say is the
problem. What does that scenario
say about those of us in the prole-
tariat class?
Page 4 The Portland Skanner October 23, 2013
E CONOMIC
E MPOWERMENT
James
Clingman
Thomas Jefferson said, “When
government fears the people, there
is liberty. When the people fear the
government, there is tyranny.”
So what do we have, folks? Fear
or tyranny? I know one thing we
ducting political business as usual,
which means merely moving from
one crisis to the next and asking us
to vote for them the next time
around. Why should we?
The shenanigans we see on a
national level also take place
locally. The “Bi-Polar Electorate”
continues to put people in office
who have demonstrated incompe-
tence, a lack of business acumen,
and a total disregard for the people
who elected them. They only
come around when they want our
votes, and many of them have
absolutely nothing of substance to
show for their previous stint of
The ridiculousness of political
engagement must stop, especially
among Black people
do have is anger. In some cases
we have hopelessness, despair,
and desperation as well. People
are out of work, children are out of
food, and families are out of time,
while the men and women on
Capitol Hill make decisions affect-
ing our lives but exempting
themselves and their children from
the consequences of those deci-
sions. Have we come to the point
where the inmates are running the
asylum? Many U.S. citizens are in
fear for their very survival now,
and our Washington elites are con-
ruler-ship over us. Yet, we will
allow ourselves to be swooned and
swayed to vote for them again, for
the simplest of reasons, knowing
they have failed us in the past.
In Cincinnati, voters passed a
law that now allows council mem-
bers to reign for four years instead
of two years. That means voters
will have to suffer twice as long
under the ineptness, the self-inter-
est and pompous attitudes of
individual politicians, and the
myriad of financial crises that now
plague the city. That is, unless the
voters elect folks who are not only
concerned but competent, and can-
didates who have demonstrated
their professional abilities and
willingness to tackle and solve
tough issues.
The ridiculousness of political
engagement must stop, especially
among Black people. We must be
informed to the degree that no one
can simply hand us a flyer with a
list of candidates for whom we
should blindly vote. We suffer the
most from political incompetence
and disregard, yet we are so loyal
to those who do us wrong; we
keep coming back to them the way
an abused spouse keeps returning
for more abuse. We keep electing
folks who make empty promises
and lay out nebulous solutions
that, in the end, never benefit us.
We keep listening to and believing
political hacks that are only in the
game for their own self-enrich-
ment, as they lead us to the cliff
and then step aside to allow us to
plummet to the rocks below.
The Black electorate needs the
most from politicians but obtains
the least; our families are at the
highest risk from do-nothing
politicians; and we are the ones
most affected by cuts, layoffs,
pension fund reductions, and all
the other negative aspects of polit-
ical control. Don’t you want local
and national politicians who are
competent, solution-oriented, and
have the “audacity” to buck the
status quo to get things done?