- Should the United States government help American companies like GM by subsidizing the health insurance of employees?
- Should the government reward innovations that benefit the national war effort for the environment and alternative energy?
Sure, we have not yet declared war for a sustainable environment and the development of alternative energy; most of our domestic wars are ostensibly waged against something: Drugs and so forth.
How about a war for the environment and alternative energy? For full employment?
The 2,700-word piece illustrates well the desperation of and passion working people have for: Working.
Said ... Andy Richardson, who recently took office as the new president of (UAW) Local 95. 'If G.M. wants to build lawn chairs in Janesville, we’ll do it,' he said.Beyond the make-believe, free market world of the Republicans who like McCain think buy-American initiatives are a "disgrace" lies the reality of a shattered community with families facing financial oblivion.
"Community and political leaders from Janesville have pleaded with G.M. management to consider putting a new, small car into the plant. Workers don’t expect that to happen, though, and they see little hope of a reprieve," reports the NYT piece.
A reprieve, a Manhattan-Project size regearing of industry and the social contract that recognizes the reality that those who want to work are, as LBJ used to say, worth the risk and deserving of the respect of going to the well with.
- via mal contends
Sure Mal. just like the big bank bail out, bailed out the consumer, homeowner, and everyday Joe. The only think I got was a higher interest rate.
ReplyDeleteGive me a frickin break. Have you lost all your bearings.
So, they send Obama in to talk up fatherhood, and you get the corporate welfare straw.
You make several points, but as far I can discern I would reply as follows:
ReplyDeleteI do not think ignoring the plight and injury to one necessitates ignoring the plight and injury to others.
Certainly hard, fundamental questions ought to rise to the fore (though I would not look for these questions to be raised in the political campaign dominated by the PR industry and a depoliticized public).
I am hopeful that a New Deal can come out of this mess and address the needs and deficiencies that I believe you allude to.
Timing is everything, and the time is ripe. To borrow from RFK:
“Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged, and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that event.”
So let’s speak and debate together and start asking the basic questions that are ignored.
I mean I was for the bailouts. Without injecting some confidence into the financial system, it was goom-bye. I recommend reading RGE at http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/ for a discussion of how bad this crisis is.
But I think your point that most, including you (and me), are left out is valid.
I was responding to the GM corporate bailout, not a New Deal fantasy.
ReplyDeleteThe premise is an outright lie. That a GM / Chrysler bailout is about employee health care is laughable in deed. That's like sailing the 800 billion dollar bail out was about bailing out homeowners and consumers.
You are as bad as the righties. Obama is no socialist, new dealer, or even a progressive. He is a liberal rightist who has received less in small donations that Bush did inn either of his runs.
The fact that liberals like yourself have put out so much for so little in return is baffling to me.
This guy shares every position with Bush in which liberalism was defined by in 2004-06. He stands with him on a military presence in the middle east, Patriot Acts, energy, bail outs, immigration, domestic spying, FISA etc...