Ed Schultz is at it again, on his show last night he threatened to withhold support for Democrats if they touch the Big Three. He did this in 2010 when talking about Dems not extending unemployment insurance passed 99 weeks.
And I'm announcing today, I'm not gonna vote in the midterm. I'm not gonna do it! You can say it's un-American. No, it's rather revolutionary is what it is. I'm at that point. I'm checking out. I'm checking out of the Democrats because they are proving to me that they don't know how to handle these big babies over on the right that say no. You know what you do? You get in the driver's seat, you hit the throttle and you run over 'em. That's what you do. And the Democrats just don't have the guts to politically do that. So they have to be taught a lesson.
It was ridiculous then and it was the last thing we needed that year as Koch fueled campaigns took over precious state governments as well as the House. Now he's writing a bullshit legacy for President Obama that ignores the fact that he expanded Medicaid by
$1.03 trillion over this and the next 9 years with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Add on top of that strengthening Medicare and the expansion of sCHIP and what you get is the legacy of the best friend the big 3 have had in fifty years.
I'm not sure if Ed is grandstanding for attention or maybe he just doesn't know what's in the ACA. But he should check it out, it's already a wild success politically. This week extreme right wing governor Jan Brewer is pushing her state to accept an expansion of Medicaid. Can you imagine a better policy than one that gets right wingers to expand the safety net? She said, "the human cost of this tragedy can’t be calculated!" Jan Brewer worried about human cost!! Unreal right! Right? Ed? The lady that would rather private prisons profit than have dark skinned people walk the streets without regular attempts to arrest them is now pushing for those people to get more free government healthcare (outside of prisons) in Arizona!
The right says Obama's a big spender for things he's actually done, the left now says he's a big cutter for things he's willing to do. But both sides can't see the forest for the trees. This President is a pragmatic progressive, he bounces from injustice to injustice in order of magnitude of need and he deals with each crisis according to the tools we provide. When he had a good Congress he worked to write into law a vast expansion and upgrade of the safety net. Now that there's an orange hand on the purse-strings and electoral maps through 2021 designed to elect similar men, it's a lot tougher. We still have more tools left besides trashing our friends, distorting the truth or giving up. We're smarter than that, we've been through worse than this, and we have injustices with far greater magnitude to focus on.
UPDATE: Great comment from TopCat
Can anyone imagine (2+ / 0-)
Dr. King threatening to not show up or actually not show up? The Freedom Riders not showing up? Call these people anything you want but don't call them Liberals. Liberals show up, without fail.
by TopCat on Fri Mar 08, 2013 at 04:10:17 PM PST