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Someone hand me the large polo mallet.
Centrist Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) on Saturday urged President Barack Obama to call for a freeze in discretionary spending in his State of the Union address next week. [...] “The president could say in his State of the Union address, I’m going to include in my budget a freeze on discretionary spending, I’m drawing a line in the sand, and I’m going to use my veto pen to enforce that,” Bayh said on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital.”
Yeah, screw all of the millions of lazy people who don’t have jobs and need services and health care and schools for their kids and whose wives aren’t paid millions of dollars by sitting on the board of WellPoint. We really must tighten our belts.
For example, we’re spending a record $700B on defense this year.
What about cutting some of that, Evan?
BAYH: No, I don’t think it’s a good idea, not at this point…First of all, you need to provide for the nation’s security regardless of your financial situation, and there’s no bigger deficit hawk in Congress than I am.
Because for the DLC-types like Evan, tax cuts and defense spending don’t add to the deficit — only programs for the unwashed masses.
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Evan Bayh needs to be [Edited by Mod. No, we don't go there, no matter the provocation].
He doesn’t give a flying crap about the nation or the people, he only cares about his own insane bullshit and enriching his corporate masters.
Sad thing is, I’m sure the rest of the Democrats are right behind him.
Or in other words, your kids are hungry and their clothes are ragged and they have no shoes, but you’ve got the biggest truck and gun collection in the county, and that’s the way it should be.
Does he consider himself a religious person with that attitude? What religion would that be? Satanism?
Thanks BT.
effing DINO
This is what the Democratic Party has become,a party of sellouts to Big Business that was given Trillions,no questions asked at the expense of every American that does not feed at the Trough.
I am almost at the point of working against these Corporatist Dims and have already alerted my Union Brothers and Sisters to do so.
US corporate greed holds the third world at gunpoint. We have been pulling this imperial crap for over a century now, since 1898. Haiti has been economically raped by American corporations for a century now. The US cycle in Haiti: Invade, Kill, Occupy, Appoint a dictator, wash blood off, leave. Repeat.
Bayh is just another lying imperialist corporatist pig.
Thanks for that, it gave me a good laugh.
When the small mallet simply won’t suffice…
I have alot of respect for Evan Bayh though I am to the left on most of his positions. I really think if our president would move forward on some of his many campaign promises (remember the election a year or so ago) that people voted for it might free up some money (a billion or so) to pay for Health Care Reform and a decent Jobs Bill. End the war in Iraq, get the rest of the world to pony up on Afghanistan and close gitmo for a couple of starters eh?
And oh…. almost forgot, start acting like a Democratically Elected President…..and Congress !
Now that cant be too much to ask can it? if he/they dont. beware the ides of November.
Top 3 Politicians whose spontaneous disappearance off the face of the Earth would be a great gift to the people:
#3. James Inhoffe
#2. Tom Coburn
#1. Evan Bayh
I was driving through eastern Kentucky yesterday & stopped for gas. There on the counter of the convenience store was was an old jar with a printed page attached. Under the photo of an attractive young woman there was a plea to help the family of this high school girl who was stricken with cancer.
Why in America do we send sick children into the streets to beg while bloated defense contractors get billions? She didn’t look like a “lazy low-life”, she looked sick & putting brave face on her plight. Senator Bayh, instead of being a lousy self-serving politician, try being a compassionate statesman. I know it’s a lot to ask.
Bayh is up for election this year.
Indiana is pretty much a red state even though it went for Obama in 2008.
There is no primary opponent yet so put out the word for Democrats and Independents to vote for the Republican. With 59 Dem seats, we can burn a few DLC Democrats.
Senator Dickhead is one of my senators. The other is Senator Loogie. It almost makes me sick to even think this but I WILL be voting for Pence in 2010 (R) who is now considering a run against the Dickhead…unless there is a Green or (gulp) even a libertarian on the ticket to vote for. Nothing on this planet could get me to vote for Senator Dickhead (or Loogie).
“Centrist” = to the right of 65% of the American electorate and 95% of the Democratic Party
If Birch were dead, he’d be spinning in his grave.
Out of respect for the mods, I won’t state what I think Birch should do to his progeny. Or what the voters of Indiana should do either.
And the Center Corpate plays on.How many Of The People did you walk on today.Center Democrats and Center Republican’s will handle this game.Following there Corpate Power and all shinny objects there given.
Well, Evan, let’s freeze all payments to mercenaries or to DoD contractors. I’m sure there’s a “for the convenience of the government” clause in those tens of thousands of contracts somewhere that would allow it. That would save a lot more money.
If top Democrats think that becoming deficit hawks is the way to fly through the next two elections, they are about as high as Icarus and will have the same flight path.
Bayh has spit on his father and the legacy of his father. Bayh, the senior and former senator, was a REAL Democrat instead of the effete elitist and Wall Street pole smoker that the younger Bayh is.
His father is spinning in his grave for what Bayh has become: a goddamned Repubican.
Now, now, if that girl wanted care, she should have bought insurance before she got cancer, shouldn’t she have?
It’s not THE GOVERNMENT’S job to take care of people when they have every opportunity to do it themselves. That’s just some flimsy pretext to rob hard-working real Americans of their tax dollars to fund child molestation and communism.
Tell that girl in the jar to go get a job and pull herself up by her own bootstraps! Otherwise, relying on the charity of private citizens is exactly where she deserves to be.
This is how conservatives actually think. Pretty horrifying, isn’t it?
Your Icarus comment put a huge grin on my face.
Sadly, this is the path they will choose and are choosing. It doesn’t really matter to them, though, they know that given enough time with Republicans in power, the people will get outraged and tired of them and come clamoring back to Democrats. Democrats have ZERO incentive to change their ways.
If Dems are waiting for the sound of clamoring they may have a long wait this time.
See my #14 – Birch ain’t spinnin’ yet since he ain’t dead yet.
I agree. I am not sure how to do this, but I think that every time a politician is quoted, a list of his/her corporate money givers should be listed. This and a list of votes on past progressive bills.
I guess the reason that the democrat leadership would find this unpalatable is that the amounts and list would be telling. However, we need to remove the worst of the crooks, and this will be a good way to find out the worst of the worst.
Thats not how Conservatives think.Thats how the Corpate Center tells you how conservatives think.A lot of Conservative people Voted for Obama.We thought we could trust what he campaigned on.Not his center corpate alliance.
Does anyone out there disagree with this approach to turning the Obama presidency around?
Step 1
Expand health care coverage to 40 million people useing reconciliation:
Expanding Medicaid to everyone below 215% of the FPL, and expanding SCHIP coverage to all uninsured children, should give roughly 30 million more Americans insurance for a cost of just under $800 billion.
The Medicaid expansion could be structured to also work as a de facto extreme catastrophic insurance policy for people over 215% FPL. You could set it up so that if anyone suffered from a major medical emergency, which cost so much it effectively made their yearly income below 215% FPL, they would, at that point, be covered by Medicaid. This would effectively put an end to medical bankruptcy in this country.
Early Medicare buy-in could be added for people without insurance who are between 47-65. This is the group who, even if they have money, tend to have the toughest time finding affordable, quality health insurance.
Expanding Medicaid, Medicare, and SCHIP are all doable under reconciliation. A bill that does these three things would only need a simple majority in the Senate, would be cheaper than the current Senate bill, and probably be no more than 30 PAGES long.
Have Wall Street fat cats and other low-life pay for it all.
Step 2
Create monumental Infrastructure Bank for large job creation and investing in future productivity ( Krugman was right. You didn’t do enough the first time with the “stimulus” program). Have the professionals make all of the decisions and not pork-barrel politicians.
Step 3.
Put Elizabeth Warren in charge of the new Consumer Protection Agency.
Replace Bernanke with Volker. Fire Summers, Geithner and Rhambo.
Step 4
The United States Senate is an inane, corrupt and dysfunctional institution that no longer serves the interests of the American people. Bypass it on energy. Use the full powers of the EPA to mandate change!
Step 5
Get out of Iraq immediately! Leave a few drones. Reverse the dumb decision on Afghanistan escalation. (Remember, you don’t like dumb wars). Leave a lot of drones.
Mr. President – you have allowed the Congress to create a 2000 page health care bill monstrosity and you call it a success. With respect, that’s Bull Shit! It’s time for you to descend from the clouds (or at least, the golf course) and walk upon the earth and make a critical decision. Are you for the people or against the people? The fate of the Democratic Party and the nation awaits your decision.
“Because for the DLC-types like Evan, tax cuts and defense spending don’t add to the deficit — only programs for the unwashed masses.”
Exactly, this makes no freaking sense to me. Tax cuts and defense spending = always a must. Programs that actually do some good = omgomgom start cutting. The fact that Bayh was thought of as a potential VP is frightening. I don’t get why Bayh feels like he’s got to say the stupidest things possible, I mean Dorgan, Rockefeller, etc all refrain from bringing the stupid although they’re from Red states. Makes no sense to me.
No, the way for Democrats to get back on track, is clearly by listening to Hendrik Helzburg, of the New Yorker, who expresses a lot of common sentiments.
Meanwhile, and not unrelated, how did our Supreme Court get so bad?
Bayh’s okay, he’s a reasonable, moderate,Republicans. Except since the Republican Party has been hijacked by its right wing, Bayh calls himself, and we call him, a Democrat.
And how is it that the Republican Party has been hijacked by its own right wing? it couldn’t have anything to do with how Democrats have approached the issues, or, for example, how they can’t even pass a decent health care bill without botching both the bill and the politics, despite having a strong majority in both houses, and the White House. And why did they?
Because,ONCE AGAIN, they let their opponents define the debate, did not explain or show anything themselves, and took it for granted what people “thought” or think.
“First of all, you need to provide for the nation’s security regardless of your financial situation”
Got cause and effect in the wrong order here, Byah.
Not: Good defense protetcts Better economy WRONG
Is: Higher defense spending through deficits leads to a weaker economy, and our use of the “defense” dept. leads to further insecurity.
Oh? DO explain how what I said in that statement does not fit in with conservative ideology.
Personal responsibility for problems like getting cancer, not expecting the government to give you a handout or anyone else to support you with their taxes…
Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, as in getting a job and working hard to take care of your own problems by being responsible for your own problems.
Relying on private charity and whether or not private citizens DECIDE and CHOOSE to give you their money instead of wanting the government to care for you with other people’s tax money.
Please tell me how these notions don’t fit in with conservatism.
That he was a serious contender for HRC’s and Obama’s VP., tells us about what the New Democratic Party thinks of the public, – about the same that the Republican Party does.
The whole Banking, cum Corporate, cum Political Class needs to experience some populist driven nullification, and the sooner the better the final outcome will be for the people.
Is it ok to say that, Mod?
This is something you definately wont see on the 6 o’clock news:
(MA) 1/10 – BIPARTISANLY YOURS:
COAKLEY WON THE HAND COUNTS
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
(sorry if already posted)
This budget commission is similar to the Maastrict Treaty in the EU. It is a way of saving the bankers and austerity for the rest of us. I am sorry to say as an African American liberal economics teacher Obama has turned out to be a monster. This budget committee via executive order is not even constitutional! We must get Summers, Orszag, Geithner, Bernanke, and Rahm Emmanuel out of there within 2 months or we lose our country. It is that bad.. Here is a link on the budget commission.
http://www.larouchepac.com/node/13239
He is dead inside.
That is exactly how conservatives in my own family think. “If they couldn’t afford health care for their children they shouldn’t have had children.”
Tweety should’ve asked the Senator how he defines “security.”
What’s really sad about this is that Evan’s dad is an honorable man and not a total corporatist schmuck like his son.
It’s like the falling off in quality from Mike Wallace to Chris Wallace.
when has a Democrat ever decreased the military budget?
when you vote (D), you say you are fine with the continual expansion of this sector, at the expense of the social needs you allude to. that has been the deal for decades.
I would advise you to be careful with ANY information you get from Lyndon Larouche. The man is nuts.
That being said, the country’s not been ‘ours’ for ages now. Money controls all in Washington, and if you think that anybody in the government is going to do ANYTHING about the recent SCOTUS ruling, then you don’t understand politicians.
All of what your saying gets the thumbs up and vote it in by the center Democrats and center Republicans and thay take cover by I was for the good change for the people left side or right side there allways for the good of the people but can’t deliver.No different center for the corporation.
Works for me sounds like a plan
We’ll get the same IMF treatment that we’ve been imposing upon the global south for eons now.
Serves us right? – no!, no people deserve these sort of austerity, privatization and in effect broadly destructive of the population measures, that we’ll be facing unless we rise up and nullify this program and the fucks who seek it!
Nah, that would be Evan, not Birch.
that’s fine but what choice did the children have? – tough luck?
Linking to LaRouche? What, Prison Planet was unavailable?
Are they also forced birth proponents and anti-contraception?
The three components do tend to stay grouped together quite frequently.
What are you waiting for? The return of the crusades?
I have no idea what you just said. Everything I talked about is a hallmark of conservatism. It’s COMPLETELY in line with conservative thought. This isn’t a centrist issue, it’s about conservatism. If you’re REALLY a conservative, this is how you approach problems logically. If you don’t like that, maybe you should stop being a conservative.
… Yeah. It’s tough luck in their heads.
‘They shouldn’t have made the choice to begin with if they didn’t want the consequences.’
Completely in line with conservative thought.
Unfortunately, that other 5% of the Democratic Party is holding public office.
Just look at that Evan Buy grin, who could turn down slick corporate advice like that? you’d have to be a dirty subversive hippie to distrust that hollywood smile.
American conservatism isn’t about thinking things through its about going along to get along in the hopes and expectation that you will be invited into the in group.
Your letting the center Democrats define conservatives.The same way the center Republicans define Progressives.
Assuming that Congressman Mike Pence runs against Bayh, we have at least one good piece of news coming out of the November elections already. One of them will be out of Congress.
Guess they don’t realize that God is testing them and they are flunking it.
whatever, – just don’t try to explain.
The only thing I’m defining is conservatism. I’m not letting center Democrats do anything.
If you really thought you could point out to me how I’m wrong based on what I said, you would have done so. Right now you’re just desperately trying to discredit what I say based on a false correlation.
Everything I said is completely in line with conservative thinking. If YOU are a conservative, then you have every opportunity to explain how I’m wrong. But I know you can’t, because everything I’ve said is spot on.
Yup.
‘Just believe in all this stuff and everything will work out alright in the end somehow. Jesus says so.’
I’m sorry you don’t get it.Your anger is in the wrong place.
Doesn’t this guy have to face election? The only solution to this type of problems is in your votes and corporate money. Snark snark
Of course it’s not the fault of the children. Conservatives don’t care.
There is a broad populist coalition that is neither right nor left but democratic with a small d, in favor of constitutional democracy not corporate rule.
Populism can be manipulated to the left or to the right if there is insufficient counterbalance. The best check against that is to be sure that both left and right have equivalent presence in a populist coalition. As an added plus, a balanced populist coalition brings a degree of legitimacy that neither party can claim much less aspire to.
The two bad choices are either mass bankruptcies or Keynesianism. The first is a non starter politically, the second requires nerves to see through, because it appears suicidal but is not. If anyone else has a third course to confront a deflationary spiral and the continued insistence of banks on valuing their toxic assets at fantasy prices, I’d like to hear it.
It is clear to many now that there is a permanent government ensconced in the military and intelligence segments of the state. The straight line between Clinton and Obama could have passed as easily through Gore as it did through Bush II.
Progressives, liberals, conservatives and tea partiers all hold common ground that the sovereigns in our system are the voters, not the corporations or unions. The only voices that should be permitted to influence elections are sovereigns, electors who are not hiding behind a shield of limited liability.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about your Holy War or spending 700 billion to slaughter innocent people for your empire, Evan.
These people are beyond belief. Like kings and queens, shamelessly taking a verbal shit on us every day with their variations of “let them eat cake.”
Why, in God’s name would anyone waste their time going to the polls ever again? Congress is now free to reveal the utter disgust and contempt they have towards the people, and openly pimp for Wall St.
Here, fixed it for you:
American conservatism isn’t about thinking.
Constitutional? We still going off that old thing?
I don’t doubt for a minute that’s just what they are going to do. Remember, the White House has already announced that their target for 2010 is deficit reduction. That committee to review entitlements will be getting up and running too, so Democrats can really put the screws not only to working people, but retired people as well. They probably think there are not enough unemployed and retired willing to vote for a Republican to make a difference, and after all, “where are they going to go”. This unemployed, probably-soon-retired-because-there’s-no-work voter is registering as an Independent as soon as she can obtain the form from the county.
I am asking all the viewers of this post to help see that following Senators are voted out of office on their next election. The way we do this, is by spreading the word through viewer comments on posts throughout the internet on news sites and blogs. Keep posting their names and date when their up for re-election. We can do this so please help we can’t keep re-electing the same people over and over again and expect a different result.
1. Blanche Lincoln in 2010
2. Evan Bath in 2010
3. Ben Nelson in 2012
4. Kent Conrad in 2012
5. Joe Lieberman in 2012
6. Mary Landrieu in 2014
7. Max Baucus in 2014
These Senators more than any other have consistently voted against their own party and with the Republicans on legislation going through the Senate. These Senators are the main reason Health Care Reform turned into such a bad bill no one in their right mind could support it. These Senators with the help of Republicans water down, added amendments and stretched out and stalled the Health bill in order for it to fail.
He’s undoubtedly a Christian. And please do not give me any ridiculous blather about how he’s “not a real Christian”. Religious belief of any stripe is no guarantee against being an uncaring sociopath or defender of an immoral status quo that protects the wealthy and powerful and ignores the needs of everyone else. Since no one who does not profess an undying adherence to some Bronze Age mythology would ever be taken seriously as a candidate for any major elective office in this country it’s idiotic to argue that anyone in the power structure is not “a religious person”.
Evan Byah is personification of the problems with nepotism, and a hereditary aristocracy.
How he can claim the be a “Representation of the people of his State” is ludicrous in the extreme.
Book Salon a couple of flights upstairs with Joseph Stiglitz’s Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy hosted by William Black
If we will stop letting the center pick the fight between the left and right while the center watches and adds just enough to keep you Democrat or Republican not American.
This is exactly the reason why I won’t vote ever again. I worked my ass off to get Sherrod Brown elected in Ohio, but as long as you have Republicans like Evan Byah, it doesn’t matter how progressive you vote. It all comes down to nuttin’. Fuck it. I’m done.
Probably Mammon. He certainly doesn’t seem to be able to follow God at the same time.
Wrap him in wire and use him as a generator. They could probably power all of Indiana off him.
Vote anyway. if nothing else, you might keep someone from getting the winning vote.
You think corporate influence was bad?
Now it’s both parties groveling for corporate billions in a fight to see which party can cut more back room deals to funnel taxpayer money into corporate coffers.
Everything in this country will be sold off and privatized as state coffers crash and burn. Public education is going broke. Charter schools will be marketed as the only solution and Wall Street’s emperors will have the kids goosestepping for God in no time.
Still wanna play their game of fair elections in our faux democracy?
Or accept the fact that whoever wins now will be fully owned.
Whether Democrat or Republican, Wall St. wins and we lose.
Reject the charade. Refuse to vote.
Losing proposition: not voting.
You may not have much say in government now when you vote, but I guarantee you, if you don’t vote, you won’t have any say whatsoever. And I won’t have any sympathy for you.
But, PJ, why vote? You see what happens. Nothing changes. Nobody’s got the balls to stand up for We, the People. And all I’m left with are broken promises. Example: I thought the health care reform was gonna get paid by increasing taxes on higher incomes. Well… Now I hear the pre-existing condition elimination may only apply to children up to 19 years of age…
So, where is the part where you explain why you respect Bayh?
It comes with the territory.
Voting isn’t necessarily fun in the results (I’m more than a little ticked at these guys myself), but it’s part of being a citizen.
The next step from voting is pitchforks and torches, and that’s liable to be even worse in its results (the other side having far more dangerous stuff in its armory).
pitchforksntorches.com
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With the supreme court decision, we will only have elected officials that look out for the corporations bottom line. This certainly includes Evan Bayh and his wife’s bottom line.
Fair point, indeed.
I didn’t get here overnight. Years, watching them kill every good piece of legislation and pass legislation that crushed democracy and the American people. I see a group of high handed snobs looking down their noses while they systematically beat us into “battered wife syndrome.” They keep on kicking us in the teeth then tell us how much they care or how hard it is to govern, and we keep coming back for more. They’ve become a syndicate for Wall St. and they haven’t done right by us in decades.
Then SCOTUS drops the A bomb to finish us off.
I think the idea of voter influemce has become a feel good illusion. The recent MA., N.J. and VA. elections did’t change either party’s agenda one iota. A party now succeeds by conning Americans into feeling grateful for the next ream job. It’a about the next election. Obama’s response to the signs of rejection is to adjust his sell job but he’s still selling the same shit.
Maybe you’re right and I’m wrong. But until I see their words backed by their actions I refuse to be treated like a jerk and play their sick game.