As Beltway pundits staged imaginary 2016 presidential nomination cat-fights pitting progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren against former Secretary of State (and suspected DLCer!) Hillary Clinton and wanked prurient about “A Party in Turmoil,” actual President Barack Obama was preparing a progressive speech on income inequality, which he delivered yesterday:
On Wednesday, in one of his strongest economic speeches, President Obama pushed past all the distractions of his opponents and addressed the core of those fears. He will spend the rest of his presidency, he said, on “the defining challenge of our time:” reducing economic inequality and improving upward mobility.
“I am convinced that the decisions we make on these issues over the next few years,” he said, “will determine whether or not our children will grow up in an America where opportunity is real.”
An American child born into the lowest 20 percent income level has a less than a 1-in-20 chance of making it to the top, as Mr. Obama pointed out. But one born in the top 20 percent has a 2-in-3 chance of staying there. And the top 10 percent now takes half of the national income, up from a third in 1979. That’s a level of inequality on par with Jamaica and Argentina, and such concentrated wealth leads to more frequent recessions, higher household debt and growing cynicism and despondency.
You can read the speech transcript here. Mr. Obama has addressed income inequality all along, of course: Astute observers will recall that it got him in some trouble in 2008 via an encounter with a bullet-headed plumber’s assistant who is still desperately trying to extend his 15 minutes of political fame five years later — anything to delay the inevitable moment when he must grasp the plunger and earn an honest living again.
Despite hyperventilation about the ACA being a tongue-kiss to the insurance companies, it actually represents a significant transfer of wealth downward — primarily through the expansion of Medicaid — and it’s about damn time that income flow was reversed, even by just a trickle. It’s a start.
Mr. Obama is right: Economic inequality is the defining challenge of our time, and by focusing on it for the remainder of his term, the president can not only do more to fulfill his vision of a more just and equitable society, he can set a new narrative — like progressive forebears LBJ and FDR did. That would be good for him, good for us and good for the Democratic Party.
Ben Cisco
BUT IT’S JUST A SPEECH! ELEVENTY!!ONE!
Ben Cisco
Sorry, but you know it’s coming – just wanted it out of the way.
As to what he said – dead on target, and good that he said it, but this is the first I’ve heard of it.
Yet another reminder of just HOW shitty our FerengiMedia really is.
Comrade Mary
The CBC actually spent a few minutes on this last night. Of course, they also reported this week that the “controversial” ObamaCare program have given health care to some Americans but taken it away from others.
I can’t even.
BGK
EHarmony didn’t work out for our man Joe?
Turgidson
“and such concentrated wealth leads to more frequent recessions, higher household debt and growing cynicism and despondency.”
It doesn’t even really merit pointing out anymore, that to the GOP this a feature, not a bug.
Particularly the cynicism and despondency parts, which allow them to stay relevant politically by keeping the working classes pitted against each other along racial or other “us vs. the other” lines, rather than marching on them with pitchforks as they deserve.
Belafon
@Ben Cisco: Yeah, until he sells the White House it’s all just words.
Elizabelle
Betty: thank you for highlighting this speech.
Leaf-raking, but back asap.
NotMax
Obamacare subsidies to be paid in those platinum coins?
/next week’s right wing radio
Patricia Kayden
@Comrade Mary: Did they expound on which Americans lost healthcare insurance coverage? My understanding is that less than 5% have lost their junk insurance but can get better insurance at higher costs.
Jeremy
The ACA has a more progressive tax / finance structure than Social Security. It primarily taxes the wealthy in order to finance protections and health care benefits for the working poor and middle class.
cleek
Kevin Drum, apparently still suffering from lingering disappointment in Obama because the ACA web site wasn’t ready on the promised date, thought the speech weak tea.
dude needs to snap out of it.
Rob in CT
This is using the bully pulpit, init? So the believers in the power of said bully pulpit should be pleased, and praise POTUS for his bully pulpitting.
I, for one, think this was a nice enough speech that will have little or no effect because the majority in the House of Representatives is a wretched hive of scum and villany. If a miracle occurs and the Dems make major gains in the mid-terms, there might be action in 2015. The odds of that are really low, so the more likely scenario is action in 2017.
Ben Cisco
@BGK: Joe’s rap is weak sauce – even the farmers on that commercial talking about catching fish had better game.
Linda Featheringill
The Republicans have an obsession with Hillary Clinton that I don’t understand.
Belafon
@Linda Featheringill: She’s not Obama, and she’s currently whooping every Republican’s ass in polls for 2016.
MattF
@Linda Featheringill: ‘Obsession’ is their modus operandi.
Omnes Omnibus
Jen Rubin is raising the possibility of Caroline Kennedy running? That’s more unrealistic than her usual bilge.
Ben Cisco
@cleek:
There. Much better.
IowaOldLady
@Linda Featheringill: They do. She drives them nearly as crazy as Obama does. It’s partly that she’s a woman, and partly that she’s a likely candidate, but is there something else? Maybe just that she has power and doesn’t fear them?
Ahh says fywp
@cleek: Amen.
MattF
On the question of inequality and Mr. Obama, the Washington VSPs have their collective fingers in their collective ears, and they’re all simultaneously flapping their elbows and screaming “I’m not listening!!!”. It would be amusing, except that it makes me angry.
Comrade Mary
@Patricia Kayden: No, it was just part of a sentence leading up to a clip saying that the healthcare.gov site is working much better these days.
agrippa
Economic inequality is the biggest challenge of our time.
But, the GOP has no interest in any of that; nor, do most of the people who vote GOP.
ranchandsyrup
But but he made a campaign promise! *shoots self*
agrippa
@Ben Cisco:
Kevin Drum is quite ordinary.
he writes very pedestrian stuff.
Turgidson
Also too, Obama’s just using this so-called inequality “problem” to distract people from the fact that his website didn’t work last month and from his failure to LEEEEEAAAAAAAD.
MomSense
@Rob in CT:
Best description I have seen of them.
Tone in DC
@Ben Cisco:
LULz.
I have had a fairly shitty couple of days, so I needed a chuckle.
I gave up on Mr. Drum a looooong time ago. And Messers Chait, Klein (Joe and Ezra) and Matthews. Never mind Sullivan.
The time I spent on the aforementioned is time I could have used to watch Rachel Maddow, Amy Goodman and Katrina vanden Heuvel.
And ABL’s site, no doubt.
El Cid
You can watch or download the video of Obama’s speech at the White House site here.
Amir Khalid
@agrippa:
I don’t think that’s quite right. The Republican party does have an interest in economic inequality. It is, after all, the party of Americans who want to preserve it.
catclub
@Ben Cisco: I agree that it was weak tea, in terms of the actual proposals. It was still important that he was even mentioning this aspect of the USA.
Go look at those proposals and tell me which one brings socialism to its peak.
And they still will not pass the House. This means it is part of the Obama technique to propose something that is utterly banal and have the GOP still erupt into conniptions against it. It proves he is the adult in the room, which he might as well do, since nothing of value will pass the House.
Ben Cisco
@agrippa: Sounds like a clue-by-four has at least some small chance of improving our situation, if not his delivery.
Mnemosyne
@Rob in CT:
They interviewed Jared Bernstein on NPR when they covered the speech and he actually used the words “bully pulpit” when praising it. I think I laughed out loud.
? Martin
@agrippa: Well, he’s my neighbor. I can’t imagine anyone from where I live has a terribly good perspective on this stuff, myself included.
catclub
@Tone in DC: I think I am going to read the Technology Review article on how we filter out differing opinions and facts. And how to not do it.
NCSteve
@Patricia Kayden: Best current estimate is that 5-6% of insured Americans (not all Americans, just the ones with insurance) are covered by the individual market. Of those, approximately half have policies that were cancelled because the ACA doesn’t allow insurers to substantially raise rates or substantially reduce coverage on a policy that doesn’t meet ACA standards. The majority of those people will find a better deal on their exchange.
All in all, the best guess is that .6% of insured Americans (who earn too much to be eligible for subsidies) will have to pay more for a policy from their exchange than they were paying on the individual market.
p.a.
Now all he has to do is stake out a position between a Republican proposal from 1990 and a Republican proposal that is current and bargain against himself while Landrieu and Nelson urge caution, and Schumer defends Wall St.
Mnemosyne
@Linda Featheringill:
I remember seeing some commentary back in 2008 that Hillary reminded a lot of men of either their first wife or their mom. I think there’s something to that, because the vitriol hurled at her seems way out of proportion to her actual actions and stances.
J.D. Rhoades
“Bully pulpit” is one of those catch phrases that I am heartily sick of.
BTW, we finally broke through on the healthcare.gov website and were able to compare plans. We can get something close to our current plan (with a slightly higher deductible, but lower co-pays) for HALF of what we’ve been paying.
HALF.
It’s going to put about 550 more bucks a month in our pocket. Thank you Mr. President.
GregB
What is sad is how many working class folks have been consumed by the Randian borg and spout off such inane theories about the present state of work in America.
I have one pal that rails on and on about President Obama being a Marxist and a socialist who’s doing his best to screw the working class because Obama is a crony capitalist making sure that his paymasters on Wall Street are happy.
I don’t think any amount of reasoned debate will change such thick skulls.
Eric U.
I think Atros’ plan of saying you are going to increase SS benefits is a good one. The republicans plan on running on their lie about the Dem’s cutting medicare, which still has some traction.
Rob in CT
@Mnemosyne:
Huzzah!
And yeah, at this point that’s all he can do. He can make the case, but with GOP control of the House, that’s it. I hope he sticks with it, because the mid-terms matter and we want this topic in play. The GOP responds really poorly to it (or rather their stock responses, which used to work, don’t work as well anymore). They can’t help but ooze contempt for the poor, under/unemployed, etc. It’s not quite as good as getting them to talk about rape, but it’s solid ground for the Dems. They need to fight on that ground, as well as defending the ACA (strong defense, not “oh, it’s not so bad” fetal crouch defense).
taylormattd
I love you for that.
Kay
@? Martin:
Well, I like Kevin Drum, so you can tell him that. He’s great. His entire site today is income inequality! I don’t know what you people want from him :)
I do disagree with this, though:
The speech is just good politics. The issue is getting more media attention than at any time in my memory on all sorts of fronts so it’s a very good time for Obama to go out and hit on it.
You just have to repeat these themes over and over in 50 different ways and all kinds of venues, for years. That’s just how it is. It’s old news to Kevin Drum but a lot of people have never heard it.
catclub
@Mnemosyne: “I remember seeing some commentary back in 2008 that Hillary reminded a lot of men of either their first wife or their mom.”
Sounds like the crazy dolphin lady. I would ignore it. I don’t see her as someone who loves me no matter what, even when no one else would. …. oh, that is not the mother they had in mind? funny that.
They meant something that conjures up the terms nag and harridan. Hence the vitriol.
mdblanche
@agrippa: There are plenty of Republicans who care about it and mostly because it affects them personally. They’d be all for raising the minimum wage, strengthening unions, and making Social Security more generous. But it’s a deal-breaker for them that none of these things would be reserved for white Christians like they were in the past. I know these Republicans exist because I had Thanksgiving with them last week.
Bill E Pilgrim
RIP Nelson Mandela.
Southern Beale
Y’all probably have heard this already but I’ve just learned that Nelson Mandela has passed.
I’m stunned and speechless. But of course it’s not a surprise.
Just reminds me how petty all of our squabbling over shit like Martin Bashir and Sarah Palin is.
catclub
@J.D. Rhoades: “HALF. ”
Good news! Use it in good health.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill E Pilgrim: @Southern Beale: Shit.
IowaOldLady
@J.D. Rhoades: Excellent! Get out there and stimulate that economy.
mdblanche
@GregB: But do you know who else appealed to the economically disaffected by accusing a scapegoat of being communist and capitalist at the same time?
chopper
@Bill E Pilgrim:
goddammit.
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: He was 95.
Betty Cracker
@Bill E Pilgrim: Wow, didn’t know. Not surprising, but sad. He was a great man.
raven
@chopper: He was 95 and had been on the verge for months. I’m very sorry too but it was his time.
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: True, and he had lived in some pretty crappy condition for a good number of those years. I still stand by my statement. His death while not unexpected is a loss for humanity.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ben Cisco:
The Emissary, as he is wont to do, speaks truth.
chopper
@raven:
his time or not, still. goddammit.
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale:
He was a great man.
He is a legend, although no longer living.
He did something that damn near impossible.
Tone in DC
@Southern Beale:
Though I am sad to hear the news, I am still glad he lived to see his country integrated. He wasn’t just the prototypical civil rights leader, he was a great man. The world needs more like him, and he will be sorely missed.
raven
@chopper: OK, I’m done.
hoodie
This may be where a lot of the “single payer/public option” stuff gets off the rails. Rather than thinking about ACA as sellout or a step on the road to single payer, It may be better to view the ACA as a philosophical nudge that potentially changes the way people view themselves in relation to their nation, particularly in the younger demographics. Single payer or public option is not an end in and of itself; there may be multiple ways to skin that cat. The bigger issue is whether we are going to be a nation that cares about the fate of all its citizens or just a balkanized collection of individuals that eventually ends up being a banana republic. We’ve had thirty years of atomization starting with Reagan’s bs about big gummint, which, in turn, encouraged the growth of fyigmism (“it’s your money,” etc.), and this is a nudge in the other direction.
Patricia Kayden
RIP Mandela. A truly great man has passed.
agrippa
@Amir Khalid:
I take your point.
You may have put it better than I did.
feebog
I agree that one good proposal would have made this speech a home run instead of a triple. My suggestion would have been “eliminate carried interest for Hedge Fund Managers”. This issue is a win/win/win for so many reasons:
Remind everyone that this is how Mitt Rmoney managed to pay only 12% in taxes.
Even a lot of Republicans have no love for Wall Street, pointing out that Millionaire and Billionaire Hedge Fund Managers pay only 15% on what should be taxed at 39.6% is good politics.
When Republicans push back with the “Class Warfare” meme, Democrats can simply ask “whats wrong with taxing everyone the same?
Those Third Way Trustees, most of whom are Hedge Fund Managers, will shit in their pants while their heads explode simultaneously.
Omnes Omnibus
@hoodie: I have been arguing for a while that the most important thing about the ACA is its role in establishing the idea in the American psyche that healthcare is a right.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Charlie Pierce couldn’t resist dropping a “finally” in to his post on the speech, Joan Walsh of all people recalled that we’re just about two years from Obama’s Osawatomie KS speech on inequality, and Glenn Thrush (R- Politico) of all people said the inequality has been a theme for Obama’s whole political career.
agrippa
@Ben Cisco:
I stopped reading Kevin Drum some time ago.
J R in WV
I think we should reestablish the tax rates of the Eisenhower administration, with some slight adjustments for current conditions. Top income tax rates should be in the 90-95% range, on people making 7 digit incomes, as it was during the last respectable and elected Republican administration.
Estates with a gross value over somewhere in the 7 or 8 digit range should be liable to pay a tax similar to the top income tax bracket. Or, alternatively, heirs could just be taxed on the income from the estate that they benefit from at the standard income tax rate for that size of income.
All monies received by an individual should be treated the same, as simple income. Stocks should be exchanged as investments, not as wagers on market movements; stocks should be owned for at least a set number of months or years, with almost no exceptions.
People making less than \some amount that would tend to ameliorate the gathering income inequality\ should receive government payments aiming to create a more balanced range of incomes.
Creating a small company to undertake one’s ideas should be easy, low cost, and supported by government assistance until it becomes profitable on its own; at least for the first couple of years.
Pigs should be guided by FAA air traffic controllers whenever airborne …
agrippa
@mdblanche:
I have met a few of those myself.
Not many; but, a few.
Mike in NC
@J.D. Rhoades:
Well, we scheduled a visit yesterday with an insurance broker to assist with our ACA application. He set us up with a BCBS Silver plan that will cost $250 per month (would have been lower but my wife smokes). That compares to being on COBRA for the past year at almost $950 per month. Effective January 1 it’s bye-bye COBRA.
srv
It’s not fair that a former congressman (who later became VP) who led the fight against sanctions on South Africa is breathing and Mandela is not.
In other news, Democrats are clearly doomed:
Betty Cracker
@raven: My oldest grandmother is 95 (I’m lucky enough to have two living grandmothers). I took her for a drive on Thanksgiving Day, and when we were at a stop sign, she shook her fist at a nearby cow and said, “You’re beef! You’ll be eaten!”
“That’s a milk cow, Grandma,” I said. And we drove on.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s great timing, great coordination with the low wage workers strikes, as far as I’m concerned. Why does everything have to be ONE PERSON? It could be Sherrod Brown on increasing Social Security, Warren yelling at bankers, people (today!) striking outside McDonalds and Obama giving a Big Theme speech. We’re supposed to be the people that believe in collective action and coordination.
Roger Moore
@hoodie:
Which is precisely why it drives the Republicans crazy. They don’t want a new government program or system that everyone depends on because it will convince people that government is important and needs to be well funded and well run. That’s the worst thing ever for anti-government nihilists.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Yep, having different people on different issues also allows those people to develop real expertise in a specific area.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
Which just means it’s going to be cooked by an institutional kitchen rather than a steakhouse. Where else do you think school lunch burgers come from?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I hate to carp, but can we lose the “progressive” thing? I’m not a progressive, I’m liberal. I understand the inclination to steer away from a word that conservatives have made into an insult, but we need to begin to take back that word for ourselves. Senator Warren isn’t progressive, she’s liberal. Sherrod Brown, Al Franken, Raul Grijalva, these people aren’t progressive, they’re liberal.
gratuitous
A few thoughts on bully pulpitism: No, I don’t think the president can call something into existence through sheer will or just by talking about it. But sure as shit nothing will change if we don’t at the very least talk about it. Right now, ALEC is spending a lot of money and going through some intricate motions aimed at turning the United States into the Disunited States, relying on some nonsense interpretation of the Constitution to try to leverage power away from the federal government and arrogate it to the several states.
Will ALEC succeed? Probably not, I’m hoping. Can they succeed in turning our country into 50 separate little fiefdoms, where your rights as a citizen and your remedy for wrongdoing turns more and more on which side of a state line you find yourself. Yes they can. The upside for ALEC is pretty good: If they maintain control of state legislatures and create the appearance of a groundswell for their hare-brained ideas, they can stampede people into voluntarily giving away their own interests again and again. It’s a very long, very multi-pronged game. But they’re doing the foundational work now, setting up seminars and getting elected officials all over the country on board with the idea of taking power away from the feds and getting it into the hands of less-experienced, poorer, and easier to manipulate elected officials at the state and local levels. For the price of one U.S. congressman or senator, ALEC can buy an entire legislative caucus in a lot of states.
On the plus side for liberals, though, is our online and national organization. We seem more responsive to these kinds of shenanigans, so maybe ALEC will find the going a bit tougher at this point. They’ve been forced to come out of the shadows a little bit recently, which is where they and their stooges greatly prefer to operate.
The president’s remarks on income inequality, in and of themselves, aren’t going to do squat-ah. But in conjunction with the Pope’s encyclical, the nationwide fast-food strikes in support of a $15/hr. minimum wage, and other things, we stand a pretty good chance of jump-starting a national conversation. Force the repressives to justify their impoverishment of the masses, and present an alternative for a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources, and we could find ourselves on the way to a more perfect union.
Let’s work with a long-term, multi-pronged strategic vision. Not everything will work, but maybe enough things will work that we can reverse some of the damage inflicted on the country in the last 35 years by voodoo economics.
Fake Irishman
The ACA is a progressive achievement not merely because it expands Medicaid, but also because it taxes incomes over $250,000 to pay for it. Redistribution indeed.
J R in WV
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Smedley, I agree with you totally. I’m liberal too. Liberalism is why we have electricity in the countryside, where it isn’t very profitable. Liberalism is why our grandparents didn’t have to go to the county poor farm when they were too old to keep working.
Liberalism is why we aren’t speaking German (or Japanese) to our overlords.
danielx
@Linda Featheringill:
She’s a smart and highly accomplished woman, and a lot of Rs (think Rick Santorum) are not only threatened by this but feel in their heart of hearts that neither she not any other woman should be in politics at all. Then there’s the fact that after the Clinton wars of the 90s, Hillary Clinton knows very well that when your opponents try to do you in, you respond appropriately…say with a baseball bat studded with nails. None of this post partisan bullshit that Obama tried for six years or so; she’s very cognizant of who her enemies are and how to deal with them.
Good enough, says I.
Also, too – all you have to do is hear or read the names Richard Cohen or Jennifer Rubin either one* and you know you’re in for a lot of meaningless Villager wanking.
*The list could go on forever.
Dennis
The “defining challenge of our time” is difficult to define in real-time, but I think it will turn out to be climate change, and we are failing the test miserably.