Friday, January 22, 2010

The Dems Get The Memo Early

The Morning Joe Rebuttal for January 22nd, 2010


Observations:


1) The most prescient thing I’ve heard all week came from Joe Scarborough and his guests in the last hour of this Friday show: that the Massachusetts election solving the Democratic tone deafness 10 ½ months earlier than would’ve otherwise occurred could be the biggest blessing ever for the Democratic party. The fact that the state of the union address will not be a false cheerleading and ‘where’s the carfax’ sales job by the President of an omnibus health care bill that by all accounts is the single largest occurrence of myopia and citizen betrayal in western history, is a great victory for me: a registered Democrat who voted for Obama.


No, it’s back to the drawing board for the advocates of health care reform, and still on the table are all the things Axelrod was pointing to in the Dean flap up: preexisting condition insurability, additional coverage options for uninsured, etc. But it is far more important to look at what’s likely off the table: a mandate, the Nebraska compromise, the Louisiana compromise, anything for Lieberman, the pharma handout, the insurer handout, and the bad stuff that hasn’t even been found out yet. And it’s far more important to see whats back from the dead: repeal of anti trust, portability, repeal of interstate restriction, and tort reform.


Why? Because horse trading as I described earlier this week is the only way to go. The free market will get a fair chance of insuring the health of America before we enact Medicare for all one incremental horse trade at a time. Axelrod and Obama could get the four or five good pages of the 2600 deal with the devil bill passed into law by the fall elections and tell the electorate: we got the memo. Thanks, Massachusetts, you’re leaders.


2) That all sounds nice, but what do we think the various associations representing the health insurers and pharmaceutical companies are making of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling? Do you think that the game has changed for the 2010 elections? If Goldman Sachs pays out $14 Billion in bonuses over $12 Billion in profits, what percentage of the estimated $1 Trillion dollars in aggregate corporate profit would be allocated to the new return on investment bonanza of shaping government for growth of said profit?


As if it wasn’t bad enough. It’s as if two memos were in the inbox this week. ‘Wake up!’ read one, while the other said ‘We regret to inform you that we now retain the right to freely distort civil elections going forward, and in fact have an obligation to our stockholders and stakeholders to do so as efficiently as possible in order to grow our profitability at the highest rate possible. Sincerely, your Chamber of Commerce’.


3) I have a beef with the common theme of Joe Scarborough fawning over Goldman Sachs. They are not crooks, they are not evil, but they do not have any conscience or obligation regarding main street and are defiant in their refusal to curate any domestic job growth not associated with their bottom line. That’s understandable. The proprietary trading in unregulated private markets is not as understandable, but in a capitalist society market manipulation is an open secret. Yea, it’s brilliant. But it’s also damaging the world we live in by siphoning goods and services through a private tariff process and leading us towards an entropic abyss. When oil or corn is traded 50 times on it’s way to market, it’s not to benefit farmers or Mexico. It’s to charge pension funds a fee to create paper wealth, which is then taken back systematically later.


Joe, please take a second to understand that if the smartest guy in the room is stealing from you, albeit legally, he is not your friend and you’re going to need to find recourse at some point before you’re broke.

I have suggested an alteration to the capital gains tax that encourages trades with a domestic job benefit. I have heard others ask that all markets be made transparent. I have heard Tim Geithner resist these things on the basis that proprietary markets would simply move overseas. But before we can get anywhere or battle any apparent conflicts of interest, there has to be a starting point for reflection by the American people.

Your fawning delays and obstructs that necessary process. Therefore everyday you tell America that ‘You want to be Goldman Sachs when you grow up’ sends another batch of American jobs to China. Erin Burnett indirectly told you you’re doing it when she tried to explain that they really aren’t any smarter but are benefiting from the perception they are via empowering statements like the one you made today.
S T O P D O I N G I T.

I mean really, what if there was video of you out there saying 'I want to be Bernie Madoff when I grow up'.


That’s all for today, see you Monday.

2 comments:

  1. Dude! You're the bomb! You actually changed the colors. I can't tell you how much easier it is for me to read. Thank you for doing this.

    I'm going to try to remember to read this every weekday and pass on the points I think that Joe would truly benefit from.

    Thank you!

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  2. hope youre still reading this stuff. i can't really do it every day, due to a lot of sameness. i wanted to point out that if you actually do forward stuff to the show, the fact the joe scarborough blocks me on twitter seems misplaced.

    i mean really, i don't care if he reads or doesnt, its more catharsis for me, but the stalker treatment should be reserved for others.

    dontcha think?

    ReplyDelete