What digby
says:
Popular Populism
As most readers know, I'm a big believer in the power of rhetoric to help change the course of the national agenda over time. It's important that leaders speak in terms that can help people understand their world in ways that at least open the door to new policies. Conventional wisdom is built slowly, it rarely just spring up spontaneously. So this is good:
President Barack Obama wants to sound like a different kind of Democrat.
He’s connecting to progressive populism with an aggressive, spending-oriented, activist government approach to the economy personified by Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio. Obama’s already backed raising the minimum wage, the start of what White House officials say will be a 2014 domestic agenda — including his State of the Union address and budget — that centers around income inequality and what the government is doing to increase economic mobility.
That means changing how he talks about some familiar items, including the Affordable Care Act and the universal pre-kindergarten plan from his 2013 State of the Union, as well as pitching an array of new proposals flowing from this new emphasis.
Obama needs his base invested to help him recover from his low poll numbers and give his party a platform as Democrats try to make the House competitive and hold onto to their majority in the Senate. And those in the coalition that won Obama two elections — young people, African-Americans, Latinos, single women and immigrants — are precisely the ones hit hardest by the doldrum economy.
The Dow keeps breaking records while unemployment’s still at 7 percent. Bankers are getting bigger bonuses while a Bloomberg News poll Wednesday showed 64 percent of people saying America no longer offers an equal shot. Angry voters have elected the tea party, and they’ve elected de Blasio mayor of New York, put Warren in her Senate seat and Ted Cruz in his. People who’ve watched Obama and recent election results closely say there is a danger of the country — and the Democratic Party — getting past him.
The president has been paying attention to the kind of response generated by Warren and de Blasio, the latter one of several new mayors meeting with Obama at the White House on Friday.
“He senses the same thing they do,” said a White House official.
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I'm happy to see this. If he's setting the table for a robust debate on these issues it's all to the good as far as I'm concerned.
But we're not total idiots --- it's also important to at least attempt to put your money where your mouth is. Here's dday:
The Obama Administration is close to nominating Sharon Bowen, a Wall Street securities lawyer, to become one of five commissioners on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to multiple sources who have learned of the nomination. Bowen would replace outgoing commissioner Bart Chilton, an outspoken voice for tougher regulation; he was instrumental in beating back bank lobbyists and writing unexpectedly robust rules for derivatives and restricting proprietary trading. But advocates for tighter rules on Wall Street, who are working on the nomination and requested anonymity, expressed concern to The New Republic that Bowen, a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins, which has represented several big financial institutions, has little background in derivatives, commodities or agricultural markets—the core subjects of CFTC regulation—and no track record for reform.
Her nomination, combined with the replacement of Chairman Gary Gensler by another securities lawyer without significant derivatives expertise, Timothy Massad, would put two “blank slates,” as one source put it, in charge of a commission that has acquired massive new responsibilities under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law for policing derivatives trading.
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Come onnnn. Does even the most obvious and simple stuff require progressives to go to the mattresses? |
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—Our Broken Health System: It's Not Just about Insurance:
As part of a comprehensive reform plan, we're going to have to figure out a way to get and keep more doctors in primary care. Insuring the un- and under-insured is absolutely critical, but providing insurance doesn't do you a helluva lot of good for people who don't have any doctor to accept it.
Among the issues that must be addressed are 1) the huge costs of medical education; 2) the significant pay differential between primary and specialty care; and 3) reduction in overhead costs for family practitioners, meaning a reduction in bureaucracy and paperwork. Consider this, from the Statesman story about Roser:
At the University of Washington medical school, which has a special program to take in some Idaho students, 87 percent of graduates are in debt. The median debt was $105,202 in 2006, according to a study published by the university.
Being a specialist helps pay off that debt the fastest. A new primary care doctor initially earns about $130,000 to $150,000 a year, compared with $250,000 to $500,000 a year for newly minted specialists, Patmas said.
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Getting the insurance companies to the negotiating table is going to be challenging enough. Getting the AMA and the nation's medical schools to agree to take a hard look at both compensation and at pushing a course of study in primary care is going to another big ol' ball of wax, but one that has to be dealt with to fix this system. |
Tweet of the Day:
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, we wove together a themed show today, starting with
National Journal magazine's "The Return of the Welfare Queen," and held that up against the "Affluenza" story out of Texas.
Armando joined in to link Hobby Lobby, tax breaks for passive income, the 1% versus the rest, etc. And from there, the Swiss proposal to adopt a national policy of a minimum guaranteed income. Contemptible socialism? Or an ultra-conservative "block granting" of welfare? Chait on the "The Heritage Uncertainty Principle." Also: the
NYT smuggles Snowden documents, but is awesome when it does it, unlike Glenn Greenwald, who was clearly so communist-y.
High Impact Posts. Top Comments.