Rahm Emanuel: 'Priority one is the economy'
Rahm Emanuel made his first appearance on the talk shows after accepting the Chief of staff position from Obama with ABC's THIS WEEK and made it very clear that Obama is going to be focused on the economy and tax cuts for the middle class.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And I understand that, that's going to be the focus, but clearly, you just said that the president-elect is going to move on the middle class tax cut right away. I'm just asking if he wants to postpone, not cancel but postpone, the tax increase on the wealthier Americans.
EMANUEL: The core economic part of his strategy is the middle class. That is the basis of it, George. And the economic plan was built on that. And whether -- when it's dealing with, A, the first year of the tax cut, but also the immediate things of dealing with the reforms that are related to both education, health care, energy, taxes.
The Villagers are promoting the right wing talking point that Obama shouldn't govern the way he wants because of the problems the country is facing, but that's exactly why he should do what he promised during his campaign and Paul Krugman agrees...He got elected to do these things. Please Villagers, stop watching the Saturday Morning FOX Stock Show round ups.
I know there's been a lot of talk regarding Rahm on the web and elsewhere. You know my feelings about Rahm so I won't repeat myself, but I think I'd rather see Rahm out of the Congress so we'll be able to have more liberals and Progressives elected there so it really didn't bother me at all. And if Republicans are complaining about him, well, that's a good thing too.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I know that the president-elect also believes he
has the right economic plan, overall, which includes a tax increase on
wealthy Americans. But is he willing to consider postponing that tax increase until the country has emerged from the recession?
EMANUEL: George, President-elect Obama and Vice President --President-elect Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have all said that their economic plan at this juncture is based on giving 95 percent of the working Americans a tax cut, about $1,000.
EMANUEL: It is a net tax reduction. It was built around this basic premises, as I just outlined, that the fact over the years, the middle class have been squeezed consistently by rising costs on education, health care and energy, as
well as a diminishing income. And their median household income has declined $2,000. And you must have an economic program that focuses on them.
It was not built for any particular, you know, data at this particular moment. It was built on the fact that the middle class had been hurt, and to have a strong recovery and a sustained recovery over a period of time means that the middle class must be the focus of the economic strategy.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And I understand that, that's going to be the focus, but clearly, you just said that the president-elect is going to move on the middle class tax cut right away. I'm just asking if he wants to postpone, not cancel but postpone, the tax increase on the wealthier Americans.
EMANUEL: The core economic part of his strategy is the middle class. That is the basis of it, George. And the economic plan was built on that. And whether -- when it's dealing with, A, the first year of the tax cut, but also the immediate things of dealing with the reforms that are related to both education, health care, energy, taxes.
Those immediate -- those issues that are usually referred to as long-term are immediate, and this opportunity in crisis provides, as the president-elect has said repeatedly, the opportunity to do things that Americans have pushed off for years.
Health care costs for median -- seven years ago, the health care
costs were $5,000 plus for a family of four. Today they're $12,000.
Today, we export $700 billion of our wealth to foreign countries. You
cannot sustain an economy for the middle class and for the entire
country in which two issues -- just take energy and health care -- are
really squeezing the middle class.
So this provides an opportunity to finally tackle the issues that for too long have been postponed, kicked down the road, kicked down the road basically. And so that's what he says. We should use this opportunity, this crisis, to finally tackle the issues that have hurt the economy, both in the immediate basis as well as over the long term.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I think we're going to put off that question for now. But let me just ask two quick political questions before I let you go.
No. 1, Senator Reid...
EMANUEL: Thanks.
STEPHANOPOULOS: ... signaled that he's going to -- wants to deny the chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee to Senator Lieberman. Do you think that's appropriate, or in the interests of getting beyond this election should Senator Lieberman be allowed to retain his position?
EMANUEL: This is -- look, as the chief of staff for the new president, he's going to be focused on the basic problems facing the country. As you outlined, it's the first time in four decades we have -- there's going to be a transfer of power while you have American troops fighting not just one but two wars.
Second, we have a huge economic crisis here at home that is looming large. That is going to be the focus of his policies. What happens on the House and Senate, on chairmanship is their business. But the business of what we have to do when we get sworn in is focusing on what the American people care about. Priority one is the economy.
Rahm Emanuel: 'Priority one is Israel"
What message is Obama sending us by choosing Emmanuel for Chief of Staff
Rahm Emmanuel will control who will get Obama’s ear. So all will stay the same in the Israeli Palestinian issue.
Rahm voted for the 2002 war resolution, vocally supports occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and supported Israel’s attack and invasion of Lebanon.
What’s the message here? Unless they are hoping that Rahm will go to far and get bumped for being out of line.
Rahm Emmanuel voted for H.R. 1400 So did many others. Barack has been repeating unsubstantiated claims
about Iran. This is worrisome.
Text of H.R. 1400: Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007
http://www.govtrack.us/congres.....=h110-1400
Rahm co-sponsored this horseshit legislation on Iran.
http://www.govtrack.us/congres.....=h110-1400
Read this legislation and there is no need to know who wrote it
There are so many unsubstantiated claims in this legislation it is frightening. Juan Cole has debunked many of the claims in this legislation.
http://www.aipac.org/Publicati.....HR1400.pdf
Legalize then tax weed.
I'll do my part to support that tax.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
If they "legalize" it and "tax" it then it will become a U.S. government crop that only the feds can grow.
It should be treated like any other harmless herb, such as parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
The only person I ever heard of who died from pot was a guy who was being chased by the cops. He tried to eat an ounce, choked on it and died.
There are many seeds and plants that can be bought openly at nurseries that cause one to hallucinate as if on LSD, such as Morning Glory seeds.
Decriminalize. Don't legalize.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Marijuana Should Be Decriminalized New
Sun, 11/09/2008 - 10:22 — Abbybwood
If they "legalize" it and "tax" it then it will become a U.S. government crop that only the feds can grow.
It should be treated like any other harmless herb, such as parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
__________________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEhAXQ5QQzs
Tobacco and alcohol are produced by private firms but are regulated for safety and taxed.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
obama and emanuel are being prudent and rightly so in my opinion.currently the stock market is very violatile . comments from the obama administration could have reprecussions not needed currently. the economic situation is vulnerable to comments/speculation. i feel the obama administration has intentions to support/stimulate the middle class.
Why does Rahm look like Mr. Buzzcut?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
You might also want to work on that ending-the-war thing. It's why some of us supported your guy in the first place.
Saving a billion dollars a week in Iraq might help the economy some.
Just sayin'...
That's a lot of savings right there.
Some of us? Your guy?
when Rahm says the key to the economy is the Middle Class. He is right.
However, he intends to squeeze the rest of it out of existence too.
Just watch.
They wont fix it, unless its to the benefit of their elite benefactors.
...is that this new Administration will govern from the center, NOT the left...get used to it, 'cause there's nothing "Netroots" can do about it...You're not gonna see a Lefty congress, either...sorry, but the truth is just that.
I'd really like to hear this discourse:
Stephanopoulos: According to British Intelligence, the war in Afghanistan has already been lost and cannot ever be "won". Also, all the U.S. Intelligence estimates point to the fact that Iran is NOT working toward developing nuclear weapons. Considering that Israel possesses over 300 nuclear weapons with the missiles to deliver them to Iran and the fact that the U.N. never sends El Baredei in to Israel to check on what THEIR nuclear weapons program is, plus considering the fact that the CIA claims the reason for 9/11 was "Blowback" against the U.S. due to our support for Israel and the fact that those in the Middle East want the U.S. out of Saudi Arabia and because they want Israel's ill-treatment of the Palestinians to stop, why doesn't President-elect Obama promise to begin negotiations with all parties in the Middle East as soon as he is Inaugurated with the purpose of removing ALL U.S. military from the areas? Wouldn't this make the American People more secure at home and when traveling abroad? Wouldn't it then be possible to cut wasteful military spending that is costing us dearly with American blood and the blood of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the tax dollars of the American People that could otherwise be used to create jobs re-building the infrastructure and developing a national model to deliver the healthcare all Americans need?
Emanuel: Humina, humina, humina, humina.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
my setiments , exactly! if we are to be saved it will not be by way of iraq, afganistan or packistan! not while our borders can be acessed by any who wish america harm, and not while our ports are in countrys hands such as china, that longbeach port is a possible grave security risk to america, it would be like the japanese owning pearl harbor prior to dec 7th 41, so will that port thats being built in mexico its an open invatation to subversives for infiltration into americas citys, our troops would better serve the american people by being used to inspect the cargo containers and trucks that carry goods into our citys, wheres the logic to fighting in other countrys against what is really only an ideal, that being terriosts, they can never be eliminated they never have been ,
I've no doubt whatsoever that Rahm Emanuel will do all he can to make sure that working Americans starve while his wealthy elite Republican pals get those new yachts and private jets they've been wanting. With that said it really is hard to tell from this interview which one is lower IQ Emanuel or Stephanopoulos.
Why do they keep blaming McCain's loss on the market collapse? Can't they face reality and admit that it's the republican party and their lack of ability to govern?
That never stopped them from winning before.
Obama has Rahmbo in the White House where he can keep an eye on him, instead of in Congress, where obstruction was sure to follow.
Shrewd!
C'mon, Evolution, you can do better than this...
Pelosi a job. too!
Pelosi is assigned to shovel fertilizer in the Rose Garden?
C'mon, Evolution, you can do better than this...
or donkey poop?
If it's elephant poop, Mojo has the picture:
http://mojopo.blogspot.com/2008/11/republican...
Check it out, it'll make you chuckle (or spew!)
C'mon, Evolution, you can do better than this...
Taxing the rich has never hurt the economy and has never hurt jobs. Full speed ahead on tax increases for the rich.
Every republican campaign commercial in my area has included the phrase "job-killing taxes". How can something be widely accepted as conventional wisdom when it has never once been seen in real life?
exactly! this is the same old negative linguistic framing strategy. obama's tax proposal is to roll back taxation close to what it was under the clinton administration. personally i see no reason to be fully commited to their intentions until some of this economy and credit crisis plays out the next couple months. the economy has to be 'number one' priority it's both fragile and volatile.currently, there is a critical window of opportunity. if NOT acted upon it could take much more to bring back. how this recession shapes could be very dependent on proper/optimal intervention. i agree the war(s) need to be addressed and they will. obama is officially in office the latter part of january 2009.BUSH is still in charge.
That's the only reason the republican party exists. To convince stupid people that if rich fuckers pay taxes, the sky is gonna fall!
Wasn't that their reason for the massive rich guys tax cuts passed when Bush took office? Yeah, they really created alot of jobs didn't they?
Funny thing is, when the richest pay low taxes, we go into recession or great depressions. Their talking points never reflect reality.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Mr. Emanuel said "YES! We ARE going to TAX the RICH!"
Dem's floating idea to seize private retirement accounts, IRA's and 401k's, and letting the Social Security Admin manage them..
quoted:
Notice the word - CONFISCATE -
Karen McMahan, Carolina Journal Online
RALEIGH — Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.
Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.
The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers’ retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.
source: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/...
Funny how you don't see that in the mainstream American press
Isn't it weird how nobody, not even liberals, seem able to devote any significant energy to pointing out that Republican/Washington establishment tax dogma completely defies common sense? We can't raise taxes on people making oodles of money because it will destroy their incentive to make more. The poor and middle class, however, shouldn't get any real breaks or any kind of help because, if you want to keep our consumer-based economy strong, it's vitally important that we cut salaries and benefits to ensure that we impoverish as many consumers as possible. Also, we don't want to encourage socialism so let's sell our national debt to the only remaining communist superpower.
There was a time when Republicans understood the benefits of regular folk being able to make ends meet and have a little something left over to buy stuff instead of running up credit card debt so they can temporarily maintain the pretense of a lifestyle they can no longer afford. Perhaps some significant time in the political wilderness will help straighten these fatheads out. But first please do nominate Sarah Palin in 2012. It's going to take some time to clean up the current mess.
Go Rahm. Kick some blue dog Democrat ass.
I think he's going to be a good asset for Obama. I saw him this morning on Face the Nation. I especially liked how he wasn't willing to say that Obama should compromise campaign promises because the right wingers want to force him to be centrist.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11072008....
Hail to the Chief of Staff
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
The first trumpet blast of change ushers in Rahm Emanuel as Obama’s chief of staff and gate keeper. This is the man who arranges his schedule, staffs out the agenda, includes, excludes. It’s certainly as sinister an appointment as, say, Carter’s installation of arch cold-warrior Zbigniev Brzezinski as his National Security Advisor at the dawn of his “change is here” administration in 1977.
Ralph Nader's letter to Obama
"You know quite well that only when the U.S. Government supports the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements, that years ago worked out a detailed two-state solution (which is supported by a majority of Israelis and Palestinians), will there be a chance for a peaceful resolution of this 60-year plus conflict. Yet you align yourself with the hard-liners, so much so that in your infamous, demeaning speech to the AIPAC convention right after you gained the nomination of the Democratic Party, you supported an "undivided Jerusalem," and opposed negotiations with Hamas-- the elected government in Gaza. Once again, you ignored the will of the Israeli people who, in a March 1, 2008 poll by the respected newspaper Haaretz, showed that 64% of Israelis favored "direct negotiations with Hamas." Siding with the AIPAC hard-liners is what one of the many leading Palestinians advocating dialogue and peace with the Israeli people was describing when he wrote "Anti-semitism today is the persecution of Palestinian society by the Israeli state."
http://www.counterpunch.org/nader11032008.html
these preemptive strikes are going nowhere. obama trusts rahm period. if they do something wrong then criticize them then.
Have you noticed that the press is now using the word "Fix" instead of "Change"?
The press is telling us that Obama only needs to "Fix" things and not do anything radical and "Change" anything. Things are just perfect the way they are .... just a bit of "Tinkering" is needed. Reagan was the "Teflon" president and Obama is the "Tinkering" president.
And the very first thing that a "Tinker-er" should do is to bail out all the corporations and then apologize for not having any funds left to "Tinker" with when it comes to the average citizen.
Calm
Clinton's team back in house as Rahm Emanuel is. Now if only Clinton's Communication Dictor George Stephanopoulos hadn't been a turn coat he to might have been asked to serve. George did everything he could with his show to spin/lie/attack Senator Obama and Hillary Clinton. Like Joe Lieberman, George rolled the dice for the Republican Party. Yes two years of propaganda in hopes Republicans would have 4 more years of the crime wave. Even Charlie Gibson did his part to attack Obama. Now George is interviewing Rahm and it has to hurt. George nor Charlie will be invited to the White House and as for the Republican cheerleader Katie Courtic who Sarah smacked down will not be invited either. Fox News will have to get their news from another news station. The American People have the country back and we hired an employee for the job of President.
It doesn't look like he's working for me.
If I were his boss, I would say, "End the goddamn war in Iraq - right now. I don't mean the day after tomorrow. Now. End it."
and I can see that is a consistant thing again. I don't like where he won't answer geore's question, raise taxes on righ people? he wouldn't answer, Hey rahm, the election is over, say what you mean, the people on your side out here didn't get to be in the meetings, we want to know what's going on, just tell us.
PE Obama at his first press conference declined to directly give a yes/no answer to the question of whether he was definitely going to go through with his intention to let the tax cuts for >$250K individuals expire or not. He declined twice, going back to the non-answer of "I'm focused on the 95% of working Americans who will see their taxes go down."
On George Stephanopoulis's show, Rahm "Spaceknight" Emanuel took THREE opportunities to address the exact same issue and THREE times gave the same non-answer about the focus on the 95%/tax cuts thing. He buried George in details until George basically gave up.
I'm worried. This is the kind of obfuscation I expect from Bushies, not from Obamos. That's five dodges on the exact same point, from a pre-administration that we expected to be epitomized by transparency and forthrightness. Someone wanna "Talk Me Down"?
well put. I definitly couldn't have said it better, and didn't. the campaign is over rahm. Just say it.
They said it to death during the race, why not now?
during the race they were bullshitting us to get our votes.
There's no way they can afford to give the middle class a tax cut without making up the lost revenue somewhere, like raising taxes on the wealthy.
The only thing that struck me in this morning's "interview" was the fact that Rahm does not appear to be able to directly answer direct questions. Time after time, he repeated the mantra of the incoming administrations "focus," without every directly answering the questions asked.
THAT, folks, is just the beginning of what we have to look forward to for 4 (and hopefully not 8) more years.
not one peep about Iraq.
It doesn't worry you that Obama picked Emmanuel because you want him out of the House?
It should worry you because of what it tells us about Obama and his judgement.
Less than one week into Obama winning, and a whole bunch of trolls are already flaming left and right about Rahm's and Obama's speeches.
I'm looking mostly at TeaEyeIs as a plant. OH MY GOD EMANUEL IS EVIL. Yes, it's well documented that he's not the most cordial person in DC. You know what? I don't care if he's gonna be vague about details right now. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT IN POWER YET. But don't let that stop you from railing on them already.
Does it not occur to you guys that first off, idiot is still in the White House? Obama can call for the end of the war today, doesn't mean diddily dick. It will matter on 1/20/09. Secondly, by all what I'm seeing here in this shithole state and around the country, the right wing is already trying to delegitimize the Obama Presidency and have been since Wednesday morning at 12:15 AM.
There's a ton of clusterfuck to clean up, being vague about points that were talked about for 2 years during a campaign on a talk show isn't the first thing you should be worried about.
I'm starting to dislike Rahm already.
He's pushing talking points, but now they're from the Obama campaign.
All he should have said is, "Why postpone the tax increases that will help rebuild the economy?"
I'm losing 'hope' for this new administration.
Just in case you hadn't noticed ;D
Second, it's the right thing to be vague about this. The GOP is alredy expecting the general notion of tax increases for those making $250K+ per year- why get more specific now? Keep 'em guessin. It will only give the GOP less time to react once Obama is sworn in.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
I am starting to appreciate Rahm as Obama's Chief oof Staff in the Adm already.......He's on message.
doesnt seem like these two were close when they worked for clinton.
on his head-
An oil portrait of Rahm Emanuel with lox and a bagel on his head.
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