[les3547]

Deep down les you may be right about his want to redistribute wealth (why not the GOP did it for years/decades/centuries in the other direction) but he is more right wing in many ways than some previous republican presidents (like Nixon and Ford definitely)

I have a slightly different take on it. I think the "progressive" movement has moved right of many liberals but it is still comfortably left of the Far Right.

Bill Clinton was the first President in this genre, Hillary is that way, and President Obama is as well. I'd call them Pragmatic Progressives. They embrace the main tenets of the Left, but with one clear difference: they work to make sure social programs are paid for. This differs from many on the Far Left who would go ahead with social programs whether they have a way to pay for them or not. If you don't have to worry about paying for something, then you can move much faster, and can give away all sorts of great benefits. In contrast, the pragmatic approach of Obama makes him appear more "right" than he really is because he resists going ahead without a way to pay for it (also, don't forget that to get anything done at all with a far, far right congress, Obama has had to compromise).

From the Wikipedia:

The progressive school, as a unique branch of contemporary political thought, tends to advocate certain center-left or left-wing views that may conflict with mainstream liberal views, despite the fact that modern liberalism and progressivism may still both support many of the same policies (such as the concept of war as a general last resort). . . . American progressives tend to advocate progressive taxation and oppose the growing influence of corporations. Progressives are in agreement on an international scale with left-liberalism in that they support organized labor and trade unions, they usually wish to introduce a living wage, and they often support the creation of a universal health care system.

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Last edited by les3547; 08-31-2012 at 04:05 PM.

[jeffkrol]

I have a slightly different take on it. I think the "progressive" movement has moved right of many liberals but it is still comfortably left of the Far Right.

Bill Clinton was the first President in this genre, Hillary is that way, and President Obama is as well. I'd call them Pragmatic Progressives. They embrace the main tenets of the Left, but with one clear difference: they work to make sure social programs are paid for. This differs from many on the Far Left who would go ahead with social programs whether they have a way to pay for them or not. If you don't have to worry about paying for something, then you can move much faster, and can give away all sorts of great benefits. In contrast, the pragmatic approach of Obama makes him appear more "right" than he really is because he resists going ahead without a way to pay for it (also, don't forget that to get anything done at all with a far, far right congress, Obama has had to compromise).

From the Wikipedia:

Read their budget:
Economist's View: 'The Progressive Budget Alternative'

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70&sectiontree=5,70

Our Budget Puts America Back to Work & Restores America’s Competitiveness
• Trains teachers and restores schools; rebuilds roads and bridges and ensures that users help pay for them
• Invests in job creation, clean energy and broadband infrastructure, housing and R&D programs

Our Budget Creates a Fairer Tax System
• Ends the recently passed upper-income tax cuts and lets Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of 2012
• Extends tax credits for the middle class, families, and students
• Creates new tax brackets that range from 45% starting at $1 million to 49% for $1 billion or more
• Implements a progressive estate tax
• Eliminates corporate welfare for oil, gas, and coal companies; closes loopholes for multinational corporations
• Enacts a financial crisis responsibility fee and a financial speculation tax on derivatives and foreign exchange

Our Budget Protects Health
• Enacts a health care public option and negotiates prescription payments with pharmaceutical companies
• Prevents any cuts to Medicare physician payments for a decade

Our Budget Safeguards Social Security for the Next 75 Years
• Eliminates the individual Social Security payroll cap to make sure upper income earners pay their fair share
• Increases benefits based on higher contributions on the employee side

Our Budget Brings Our Troops Home
• Responsibly ends our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to leave America more secure both home and abroad
• Cuts defense spending by reducing conventional forces, procurement, and costly R&D programs

Our Budget’s Bottom Line
• Deficit reduction of $5.6 trillion
• Spending cuts of $1.7 trillion
• Revenue increase of $3.9 trillion
• Public investment $1.7 trillion

Not very newsworthy I'm afaid.. I have much fewer issues w/ this than Obama/Romney/Ryan/Bowles ect...though from a MMT/MMR perspective it needs some tweaking...

[ihasa]

The lesson here is that if people are aware of the possibility, even remote, of some great calamity befalling them, they’re on guard…they’re prepared… their defenses are up, and those who would commit evil, will back down fearing a confrontation they can’t win. The more we talk about the potential for a staged, bogus presidential assassination that would trigger massive civil unrest and possible martial law, the stronger is our defense against it actually occurring. The nation will be watching. Patriots everywhere will be on alert. The Obama administration will be under scrutiny more intense than ever before. It doesn’t have the guts to take on millions of Americans when we’re ready for anything.

Brilliant, so when this entirely made up calamity doesn't happen, as it quite obviously WON'T, these paranoid, sheep-like, racist people will pat themselves on the back for having helped avert it. Too funny.