In a campaign
almost as frenzied as the effort to get Barack Obama into the White House,
liberal groups are now mobilizing against the White House and reported deals
that would cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. They accuse
President Obama of being weak and willing to “cave” to corporate and
conservative forces bent on cutting the social safety net while protecting the
wealthy.
Those accusations are
wrong.
The accusations imply
that Obama is on our side. Or was on our side. And that the right wing is pushing him around.
But the evidence is
clear that Obama is an often-willing servant of corporate interests -- not
someone reluctantly doing their bidding, or serving their interests only
because Republicans forced him to.
Since coming to Washington,
Obama has allied himself with Wall Street Democrats who put corporate
deregulation and greed ahead of the needs of most Americans:
·
In 2006, a relatively
new Senator Obama was the only senator to speak at the inaugural gathering of the Alexander Hamilton Project launched by Wall Street Democrats like Robert
Rubin and Roger Altman, Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary and deputy secretary.
Obama praised them as “innovative, thoughtful policymakers.” (It was Rubin’s
crusade to deregulate Wall Street in the late ‘90s that led directly to the economic meltdown of 2008 and our
current crisis.)
·
In early 2007, way
before he was a presidential frontrunner, candidate Obama was raising more
money from Wall Street interests than all other candidates, including New York presidential
candidates Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.
·
In June 2008, as soon
as Hillary ended her campaign, Obama went on CNBC, shunned the “populist” label and
announced: “Look: I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market.” He
packed his economic team with Wall Street friends -- choosing one of Bill Clinton’s Wall Street deregulators,
Larry Summers, as his top economic advisor.
·
A year into his
presidency, in a bizarre but revealing interview with Business Week, Obama was asked about huge bonuses just received by two CEOs
of Wall Street firms bailed out by taxpayers. He responded that he didn’t
“begrudge” the $17 million bonus to J.P. Mogan’s CEO or the $9 million to
Goldman Sachs’ CEO: “I know both those guys, they are very savvy businessmen,”
said Obama. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success
or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”
After any review of
Obama’s corporatist ties and positions, the kneejerk response is: “Yes, but
Obama was a community organizer!”
He WAS a community
organizer. . .decades before he became president. Back when Nelson Mandela was
in prison and the U.S. government declared him the leader of a “terrorist
organization” while our government funded and armed Bin Laden and his allies to
fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. That’s a long time ago.
It’s worth remembering
that decades before Reagan became president, the great communicator was a
leftwing Democrat and advocate for the
working class and big federal social
programs.
The sad truth, as shown by
Glenn Greenwald, is that Obama had arrived at the White House
looking to make cuts in benefits to the elderly. Two weeks before his
inauguration, Obama echoed conservative scares about Social Security and
Medicare by talking of “red ink as far as the eye can see.” He opened his doors
to Social Security/Medicare cutters -- first trying to get Republican Senator
Judd Gregg (“a leading voice for reining in entitlement spending,” wrote
Politico) into his cabinet, and later appointing entitlement-foe Alan Simpson
to co-chair his “Deficit Commission.” Obama’s top economic advisor, Larry
Summers, came to the White House publicly telling Time magazine of needed Social Security cuts.
At this late
date, informed activists and voters who care about economic justice realize
that President Obama is NOT “on our side.”
Independent Senator
Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- widely seen as “America’s Senator” -- is so
disgusted by recent White House actions that he called Friday for a challenge
to Obama in Democratic primaries: “I think it would be a good idea if President
Obama faced some primary opposition.”
Although Sanders has
said clearly that he’s running for reelection to the senate in 2012 – not for
president -- his comment led instantly to a Draft Sanders for President website.
Imagine if a credible
candidate immediately threatened a primary challenge unless Obama rejects any
deal cutting the safety net while maintaining tax breaks for the rich. Team
Obama knows that a serious primary challenger would cost the Obama campaign
millions of dollars. And it may well be a powerful movement-building
opportunity for activists tired of feeling hopeless with Obama.
It’s time for
progressives to talk seriously about a challenge to Obama’s corporatism.
Polls show most Americans support economic justice issues, and that goes double
for Democratic primary voters.
If not Bernie, who? If
not now, when?
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