Republicans, on the other hand, would cut taxes for the rich and cut almost all of that spending, heedless of the pain that it would inflict on the economy and the millions of Americans still reeling from the downturn’s effects.

Read More…

Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Time: 7 PM
Location: Cook Memorial Library (meeting room, lower level), 413 North Milwaukee Avenue, Libertyville, IL 60048

All Libertyville Township Democrats dues paying members, in good standing as of January 8, living in Libertyville Township, will be allowed to vote for endorsement in contested primary races. Candidates are welcome to attend, only those in contested races will be allowed to speak. Endorsements will be announced at the conclusion of the meeting. All voting will be done by secret ballot. For more information please visit the Libertyville Township Democrats website at: http://libertyvilledems.org/

In a speech meant to echo a historic address given by former President Theodore Roosevelt in the same Kansas town more than 100 years ago, Obama railed against “gaping” economic inequality and pressed the case for policies he insisted would help ordinary Americans get through hard times.

He seized the opportunity to step up pressure on congressional Republicans to extend payroll tax cuts that independent economists say are vital to economic recovery, and also vowed new legislation to punish Wall Street fraud.

But Obama’s broader message was a sweeping call for the working class to get a “fair shot” and a “fair share” as he pushed for wealthier Americans to pay higher taxes and demanded that big corporate interests play by the rules.

“This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class,” Obama told a cheering crowd in a high school gymnasium in Osawatomie, Kansas.

“At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement,” he said.

With the election just 11 months away, Obama’s speech was part of a strategy to cast the Republicans as the party beholden to the rich and blame them for obstructing his efforts to boost the fragile economy and slash high unemployment, considered crucial to his re-election chances.

“Their philosophy is simple: we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules. Well, I’m here to say they are wrong,” he said.

But Republicans said it was another attempt to distract from what they see as Obama’s failed economic record. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell accused the president and his fellow Democrats of resorting to “cheap political theater.”

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, in an interview on CNBC, said Obama’s policies made him the “finest food stamp president in American history” because more people will end up getting government aid than new jobs.

SWEEPING CAMPAIGN THEMES

Obama’s attempt to lay out the ideological foundations of his re-election campaign marked a shift from recent speeches that have concentrated on small-scale executive actions or campaign-style harangues against Republicans to stop stalling his $447 billion jobs plan.

This time, Obama sought to channel Roosevelt, a Republican who provoked deep anger within his party with his landmark “New Nationalism” speech in 1910 that hailed the government’s role in promoting social justice and warned against the abuses of rich business interests. Roosevelt lost the 1912 presidential election running as a third-party candidate.

Obama sharpened his tone against Wall Street, reflecting what aides see as a message that increasingly resonates with working-class voters whose taxes have gone to business bailouts while their own incomes have flatlined.

He was also seeking to revitalize his liberal base amid fears that an “enthusiasm gap” could cut into Democratic turnout and cost him a second term.

Obama sounded themes of economic inequality and corporate greed that have driven the Occupy Wall Street protest movement that was spawned in New York in recent months and has spread to other major cities and even other countries.

“President Obama is attempting to energize Democrats for the campaign, define himself as something more than a passive president and take populism back from the Tea Party,” Princeton University political historian Julian Zelizer said.

The risk for Obama is that tougher rhetoric against Big Business could turn off some of the centrist voters he needs to win re-election. After his Democrats suffered major losses in the November 2010 congressional elections, he launched an outreach to the business community to try to mend fences.

Obama used his speech to accuse Republicans of suffering from “collective amnesia” about the recent financial crisis, and he strongly defended his Wall Street regulatory overhaul that many Republicans opposed and want to roll back.

He said he would call for legislation to toughen penalties against Wall Street companies that break anti-fraud rules.

“Too often, we’ve seen Wall Street firms violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there’s no price for being a repeat offender. No more,” Obama said.

He again prodded Republican lawmakers to extend the expiring payroll tax cut beyond this year.

Many Republican lawmakers are skeptical that it will spur job creation, but party leaders, fearing a possible backlash from voters in 2012, have expressed a willingness to find a way to prevent the tax cut from lapsing.

They remain at odds with Democrats on how to fund it.

(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis, writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Philip Barbara)

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LTDO CANDIDATE ENDORSEMENTS *** JAN 11, 2012 ENDORSEMENT MEETING. Location TBD. The LTDO will be endorsing Democratic candidates for the MAR 20th Primary Election.  Scope. Any elected office which is elected wholly or partially within the Libertyville Township. Voting Eligibility. For purposes of endorsements, persons entitled to vote shall be LTDO members residing in Libertyville Township, in good standing at least 10 days prior to the JAN 11 endorsement meeting.  Paper ballots will be used. A simple majority vote by those eligible will determine the endorsed candidate. Members will have a chance to meet candidates at our 2011 Holiday Party!

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Get out and Vote for Democratic candidates!

Friday August 26th 7pm
PLUMBERS LOCAL UNION 93, U.A.
31855 North U.S. Highway 12
Volo, Illinois 60073

Spend an evening with Jill Morgenthaler and learn what we all need to know about legislation currently on the books and in process. The next few months could set women and women’s rights back to the turn of the century if we do not pay close attention to what our elected official are doing. Few are as well versed as Jill on this topic so come join us and arm yourself with knowledge and action steps to make sure Women’s Rights are protected!

Jill is a sought-after speaker who captures an audience, informing and motivating in a natural and easy way. She was the 2008 Democratic nominee for Illinois’ 6th congressional district, a retired Colonel from the United States Army, serving for nearly 30 years. Jill handled disaster recovery during the San Francisco earthquake of 1989. In 2004, she handled press duties for the Army, including addressing the Abu Ghraib scandal. She was appointed deputy chief of staff a for public safety in Illinois and served as a homeland security adviser.

RSVP: lcdemscw@gmail.com or 847-886-9445

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What is a Precinct Committeeman/woman?

The Precinct Committee members are the core volunteers of political party activity. They are, in effect, the governing body of both the County Democratic Party and their Legislative District Party Committee. Their duties include those activities which go to strengthen the Democratic Party and to assist in the election of Democratic candidates to public office. For example, such activities include (1) Assisting in the registration of persons as Democrats, (2) Persuading voters to vote Democratic by phoning, walking, mailing, etc. , (3) attending meetings to help strengthen the Democratic Party organization at various levels, (4) Assisting in raising funds to support Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party.

These are only some of the suggested duties Precinct Committeemen/women may engage in. Whatever activities achieve the goals of furthering the Democratic cause are appropriate functions of the Precinct Committee Members.

How does one become a Precinct Committeeman/woman?

Precinct Committeeman/womans are actually elected officers. They are chosen every two years at the Primary Election by the voters in their Party. After qualifying for the ballot by obtaining a required number of petition signatures (a minimal number – never more than 10), they appear on the primary ballot and are elected when they obtain a sufficient number of votes.

Each political party is allotted one Precinct Committee slot for each precinct. When vacancies exist within a precinct, the party may select Precinct Committeeman/womans by appointment by the County Chair.

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By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — “My G.O.P. destroyed the U.S. economy.” Yes, that is exactly what David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece. Not “is destroying,” the GOP has “destroyed” the U.S. economy, setting up an “American Apocalypse.” And it’s getting worse.

Update: With the 2012 election lineup up for grabs, Stockman may be the GOP’s best candidate for president. A hero in American politics, he’s a rare no-B.S. truth-teller who’s been delivering the same message since his 1986 “Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed,” an expose written after leaving the White House.
Click to Play
GOP searching for go-to candidate

Jonathan Weisman reports the decision by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to not enter the 2012 presidential race has allowed other candidates and potential candidates to grab some of the spotlight.

Better yet, he’s the kind of fighter who could easily go the distance with Obama on the key issues that will dominate the 2012 election: the economy, employment, interest rates, entitlements, war budgets, the devalued dollar, our rapidly collapsing monetary system, another meltdown.

Last fall, Stockman’s hard-hitting op-ed was loaded with jabs like: “If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. The nation’s public debt” screams “for austerity and sacrifice,” instead, the GOP insisted “the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase.” Obama blinked, pulled his punch. Let’s get both in the ring. See Paul B. Farrell’s ‘Reagan insider: GOP destroyed U.S. economy.’

Stockman’s latest attack proves he’s still a powerful fighter. Recently, Reason magazine’s editor-in-chief Nick Gillespie did a long interview with Stockman. The title builds on the book: “The Triumph of Politics Over Economics.” But instead of just looking back at the failure of a self-destructive Reaganomics, an older and wiser Stockman focuses us on the paradigm shift that’s destroying America from within.
Warning: GOP’s self-destructive capitalism wrecking U.S. economy

In this new “Triumph of Politics Over Economics” we see America at a crossroads, struggling to redefine itself. Politicians have become the new economists. Politicians and their big money backers and lobbyists now rule the American economy like banana-republic dictators. Stockman calls this corrupt system the new “crony capitalism.” The old capitalist economics that made America the world’s greatest superpower no longer exist.

Today, professional economists are no more than hired guns for politicians with myopic ideologies and huge bankrolls that make it easy to justify lying, cheating and stealing from investors, workers, consumers, savers and taxpayers. Capitalism has morphed into a monopoly ruled by politicians who are serving a wealthy elite. Competition is a joke. Democracy is a farce. “We the People” no longer exists.

Stockman has seen all of it. And he knows that while his message hasn’t stopped the “GOP from destroying the U.S. economy,” the coming crisis will trigger another megacrash, bigger than the dot-com crash and subprime meltdown combined.

Reuters
David Stockman, former budget director for former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, following a 2007 court appearance in New York.

Indeed, Stockman warns of an inevitability: Another major crisis is necessary to wake up Wall Street and Washington to the fact that Reaganomics really is destroying America from within. We dissected the Stockman-Gillespie interview several times, gleaning 10 principled facts seen fueling the political drama surrounding the 2012 elections and challenging all Americans at this historic turning point, facts demanding we wake up, before it’s too late:
1. Politicians are addicts, can’t stop spending America’s future

Reagan’s big government policies “led to the utter failure of spending control.” Today America is “living way beyond our means,” and yet politicians are incapable of thinking past the next election. “They hear the squeaky wheel, and they respond. … money has become such a massive force in the electoral process” making politicians “slaves” to big money and special-interest lobbyists.
2. Cutting taxes: a cruel joke, defers big tax burden onto kids

“In pure philosophy, lower tax rates would be better.” But when we got a “Republican government in the Bush era … nothing was cut. Everything was ratified. In fact, they added to Medicare through the drug benefit.” Our “welfare state that seems immutable politically … you’re kidding yourself if you think cutting taxes today is really cutting taxes. We’re simply deferring massive tax increases into the future, unfairly and immorally putting huge debt burdens on future generations.” Tax-cutting is a “massive Christmas tree of special-interest tax benefits and loopholes … reducing the revenue” and “almost no spending was cut, and the defense budget soared out of control.”
3. Social Security is a myth: Forget 2036, there’s no money today

“The combination of Medicare and Social Security” is “the heart of the budget, and the top one-third of that goes to retirees who have private assets, private pensions, other sources of income. They shouldn’t be dependent on the government … and there really is no trust fund there — that’s all fiscal mythology … that money wasn’t saved or hived … it was spent on cotton subsidies and bribes to warlords in Afghanistan. The fact is, this is simply an intergenerational transfer program. … social insurance is a myth,” that bank is empty.
4. Reaganomics loves war: Military spending is off the table

“Reagan was utterly uninterested in any detail of the defense budget, of any of the claims for dollars made by the Pentagon,” says Stockman in a passage that sounds like the GOP’s policy in 2011. “He gave them a blank check, without question, and that … ballooned spending just as we were massively reducing the revenue” and “it created an enormous political impasse. … Spending increases were so huge in defense that it became almost impossible to get anybody to … go after the food-stamp program or school lunches, when you’re just showering tens of billions of dollars on ammunition accounts and spare parts replacements and a massive expansion of the Navy.” Or wasting another “hundred billion dollars on wars of occupation in places that are the ends of the earth.”
5. Gross leadership failure: clueless ex-Goldman CEO at Treasury

“[Henry] Paulson frankly is the most incompetent, reckless secretary of the Treasury that we’ve had in modern history, if ever. He had no schooling in public policy, he had no schooling in the longer-term issues of fiscal management, or even what sound money is all about.” When “the crisis metastasized in” 2008 Paulson got “panicked calls from his buddies on Wall Street who were seeing their pyramids of debt coming crashing down.” And when Goldman Sachs’ stock cratered, Paulson really panicked. “There was no philosophy behind it; there was never an analysis done.” Driven by a clear conflict of interest, he wanted to protect the $600 million fortune he built at Goldman, while saving his Wall Street buddies from bankruptcy. So Paulson failed the American people.
6. Bank bailouts: Bad economics now accelerating America’s decline

Paulson’s panicky failure “was a profound moment in political history in September 2008, … Even the House Republicans knew in their better judgment that it was a terrible idea, and they voted initially against it.” In fact, “the only panic that occurred was in” Paulson’s panicky mind. “Big pyramids of debt on Wall Street were coming crashing down. Had we allowed nature to take its course, maybe Goldman Sachs stock would have gone down to $10. But that’s their problem and that’s the problem of speculators who owned the stock, not a systemic problem for the economy.” Instead, Paulson’s panic made matters worse.
7. In a “free market,” Wall Street banks must be free to fail

“The fundamental principle of free-market capitalism is that you have to be free to fail as well as succeed,” but “when you go in the opposite direction and socialize losses and privatize gains, you will destroy” our system of capitalism. Why? Because moral hazard encourages new “reckless risk taking, misallocation of capital.”
8. Today’s “crony capitalism” is destroying our faith in America

Wall Street is killing trust in the economy: “Once the broader public sees that the cronies of capitalism are bailed out by their friends in Washington or the Fed, why should they believe that the system we have is fair or is working in their interest? It’s just politicizing even further the economy and suffocating the only hope that we have for real prosperity.”
9. Derivatives speculation: Wall Street gambles in shady casinos

Gold was “at the heart of it a fixed exchange rate system” before 1971 obligating “each country to settle its accounts at the end of every year … Chronic payments deficits and you were going to… lose your monetary reserves.” But when we “went to pure fiat money … financial volatility and instability” created a “massive speculative casino … Today probably 99% of currency futures are for speculation and 1% might be for legitimate trade hedging. That’s the problem we have in the whole financial system today.”
10. Too-greedy-to-fail banks are creating another bigger meltdown

Before the crisis hit in 2007, “the top four banks in this country had $5 trillion of assets combined. After the whole crisis of too-big-to-fail and all of the bailouts, today the top four banks have $7 trillion of asset footings.” Simultaneously, fear has “been generated on Main Street, and the appropriate antipathy that’s developed towards the crony-capitalist policy of bailing out anybody that’s big and strong like GM and Goldman Sachs” has created a new “generation of workers that’s going to be turned into tax slaves … That will have to change … but it will only change when the crisis comes … it’s unavoidable.”

Yes unavoidable: American capitalism is so corrupted that change is impossible without a megameltdown, a historic paradigm shift with an inevitable collapse. Stockman knows well the political process is manipulated by a wealthy elite that cares nothing of the people, nothing of Main Street, nothing of the future of America. They care only for themselves.

Money has corrupted our political system. We’ve lost our moral compass. “The Triumph of Politics Over Economics” is a self-destructing ideology. Money has driven all politicians into a bizarre conspiracy that’s destroying America from within. And nothing can stop this overarching historical cycle …nothing but a thundering crisis will shock America awake.

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