Obama touts an economic "legacy" of inequality and poverty
29 April 2016
In an interview published Thursday in the New York Times,US President Barack Obama expressed his “frustration” at the persistent
belief of the American people that their economic circumstances are not
improving.
Obama declared that despite the fact that his
administration managed the 2008 financial crisis “better than any large
economy on Earth in modern history,” leading to an economic recovery
that “outpaced that of every other advanced nation,” his efforts were,
in the words of reporter Andre Ross Sorkin, “vastly under-appreciated”
by the US population, a fact that left the president “frustrated.”
Obama’s
comments were a continuation of a theme laid out by Obama in March,
when he declared “America is pretty darn great right now” and disparaged
“an alternative reality out there from some of the political folks that
America is down in the dumps.”
The problem according to Obama, channeling the sadistic prison warden in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke,
is a “failure to communicate.” He told Sorkin, “We were moving so fast
early on that we couldn’t take victory laps. We couldn’t explain
everything we were doing. I mean, one day we’re saving the banks; the
next day we’re saving the auto industry; the next day we’re trying to
see whether we can have some impact on the housing market.”
Obama
attributed the feelings of the US population—according to one poll, 64
percent believe the economy is still in recession—to disaster-mongering
by the Republican Party. “If you have a political party—in this case,
the Republicans—that denies any progress and is constantly channeling to
their base, which is sizable, say, 40 percent of the population, that
things are terrible all the time, then people will start absorbing
that.”
Obama made these statements in the context of an election
campaign that has been dominated by enormous anger over social
inequality and Wall Street criminality, which has found expression in
broad support for the campaign of “socialist” Bernie Sanders, as well
as, in distorted form, that of the quasi-fascistic Donald Trump.
The
fact that in the midst of such a tumultuous election campaign, Obama
feels it is appropriate to make such statements is a testament to the
contemptuous attitude of the financial elite of which he is a part, who
see the great majority of the population as ignorant dupes that would be
happy if they only realized how good they have it.
Any serious
look at economic realities for working people in the US makes clear that
this widespread anger is entirely justified.
During the decade
between 2005 and 2015, seven years of which Obama was president, all net
job growth was accounted for by people working in “alternative work
arrangements,” or those working as independent contractors, temps,
through contract agencies or on-call. In 2013, a typical American
household had 40 percent less wealth than it did in 2007. The yearly
income of a typical US household dropped by a massive 12 percent, or
$6,400, in the six years between 2007 and 2013.
Suicide and
mortality rates are soaring, while life expectancy is falling for a
significant share of the population. Drug overdoses are becoming an
epidemic, and the gap between the expected lifespan of the top and
bottom 1 percent has reached nearly 15 years.
To the extent that
Obama accepts the existence of any of these social realities, he merely
presents them as inevitable byproducts of “sweeping changes transforming
the global economy,” outside of and working counter to his
administration’s supposedly egalitarian economic policies. Sorkin sums
up Obama’s views with the statement, “We’re not only losing jobs to
overseas competition, we’re losing them to technology.” In other words,
automation and globalization, and not the White House, are to blame for
the growing economic distress felt by broad sections of the American
population.
But any sober assessment of the policies described in
Obama’s interview makes clear that the growth of social inequality and
the impoverishment of working people under the Obama administration were
the deliberate and predictable outcome of the White House’s economic
agenda.
The Obama administration presided over a sweeping
restructuring of social relations in the US in the aftermath of the 2008
financial crisis, eliminating decent jobs, incentivizing companies to
gut health care, and carrying out an all-out assault on workers’ pension
benefits, while providing essentially unlimited amounts of cash for the
financial elite.
Even before taking office, Obama proved himself
a vociferous defender of the social prerogatives of the financial
oligarchy. In his interview with the Times, he recalls his role
as a presidential candidate in whipping the Democratic Party into line
behind the Bush administration’s 2008 plan to bail out the banks,
lending them trillions of dollars essentially interest-free, while doing
nothing to hold those responsible for the financial crash to account.
With
large sections of the Republican Party coming out in opposition to the
Bush administration’s bank bailout, and some Democrats inclined to make
at least a rhetorical show of opposition, candidate Obama, “convinced
that anything short of a major bailout could lead to economic
catastrophe, said Democrats should back [Treasury Secretary] Paulson’s
plan. They did.”
Once Obama came into office, the White House
imposed wage and benefit cuts on workers. The Obama administration’s
much-touted 2009 auto bailout was contingent on slashing the wages and
benefits of autoworkers, helping produce record profits for auto makers.
These
policies were designed to have precisely the effect they did: driving
the stock market, as Obama boasted in the interview, “from in the 6,000s
to 16,000 or 17,000.” This helped ensure that the wealth of America’s
richest 400 individuals nearly doubled, from $1.27 trillion in 2009 to
$2.34 trillion in 2015.
Despite their occasional invocations of
the growth of social inequality and the economic distress facing large
sections of the US population, the campaigns of Democratic presidential
nominees Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are notable for the complete
absence of any criticism of Obama’s economic policies, which they
consistently single out for praise.
Moreover, given the fact that
Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, has wrapped herself in Obama’s
mantle, the president’s statements are a clear indication that her
presidency would be even more hostile to the needs and sentiments of
broad masses of the population as that of Obama.
This fact
underscores one fundamental reality: The Democratic Party, no less than
the Republicans, is nothing more than the tool of Wall Street,
impervious to reform or popular pressure. In the 2016 election, there is
only one political party that represents the interests of working
people—the Socialist Equality Party and its presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Jerry White and Niles Niemuth.
Andre Damon
“The Clintons function as kind of a political Mafia,”
WATCH: Trailer for ‘Clinton Cash’ Movie Premiering During Cannes Film Festival
WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY - HILLARY SUCKS IN THE BRIBES!
here:
A new documentary film based on Peter Schweizer’s bestselling book “Clinton Cash” is premiering next month during the Cannes Film Festival. Watch the trailer above. The following is the press release about the film.
***
A Film Based on the Book the New York Times Called “The Most Feared Book of a Presidential Cycle” to Premiere at Cannes
Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich (published May 2015 by HarperCollins) dominated headlines for months as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall St. Journal and others confirmed the book’s investigative revelations of foreign donors and companies funneling tens of millions of dollars to Hillary and Bill Clinton. As Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig wrote in the Washington Post, “On any fair reading, the pattern of behavior that Schweizer has charged is corruption.”
Schweizer is editor-at-large of Breitbart News. The author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Clinton Cash, and Throw Them All Out, Schweizer’s investigative reporting has been covered by virtually every major U.S. media outlet, including: 60 Minutes, The New York Times, NPR, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, CNN, Forbes, Newsweek, Fox News, Politico, MSNBC, myriad others.
Clinton Cash investigates how Bill and Hillary Clinton went from being “dead broke” after leaving the White House to amassing a net worth of over $150 million, with $2 billion in donations to their foundation, wealth accumulated during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as Sec. of State through lucrative speaking fees and contracts paid for by foreign companies and Clinton Foundation donors.
Clinton Cash has been lauded by top progressives for its exposure of crony capitalism and self-enrichment. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University Earth Institute Director, called it “compelling reading on how Bill and Hillary have mixed personal wealth, power, and influence peddling.” Daily Beast columnist Eleanor Clift calls Schweizer “an equal-opportunity investigator, snaring Republicans as well as Democrats.” And Demos Senior Fellow Nomi Prins says Clinton Cash “provides a damning portrait of elite and circumspect power and influence.”
The film was directed by M. A. Taylor.
Peter Schweizer, who says of the film, “Cronyism and self-enrichment are a bipartisan affair, and Hillary and Bill Clinton have perfected them on a global scale,” will be in Cannes.
Also attending is Stephen K. Bannon, writer and producer of Clinton Cash. Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs banker, is the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News and was dubbed by Bloomberg as “the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America.”
Bannon says, “This film must be seen by every liberal, progressive, and independent voter in America, and the world, to fully realize the degree to which the Clinton’s are nothing more than high class grifters”
Dan Fleuette, producer of Clinton Cash, Occupy Unmasked, and Los Abandonados, will also be at the festival.
Global sales are being represented by Mark Holdom of ARC Entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment