Does Either Party Listen To Us?

      The spectacle of  Tea Party Republicans refusal to raise the debt ceiling, will drive new, independent citizen mobilizations challenging both Republican zealotry and Democratic cravenness. The debt-ceiling debate   lasted long enough for most Americans to start paying attention and to realize just how divorced both parties are from basic common sense. With the economy faltering and 25 million people in need of full-time work, most Americans want Washington focused on how to create jobs and get the economy going, not on slashing spending for the rising number of poor children while sheltering tax havens for millionaires. 

     President Barack Obama said a deal had been reached to raise the government's debt ceiling and avoid a default. He said the deal included more than $2 trillion in gradual spending cuts and no initial cuts (key word initial) to Social Security and Medicare. (July 31)

     A deal on the debt ceiling was reached, but the economy is far from fixed. Equally inexplicable is the president’s apparent eagerness to negotiate with a legislative faction willing to hold the entire economy hostage — and one prepared to extort concessions in backroom deals that it could not achieve in any normal legislative process. Negotiating with fiscal terrorists only encourages them.

The vast majority of Americans want Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid protected, not cut. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that nearly three-fourths of Americans oppose cuts in Medicare. Majorities reject raising the eligibility age for Medicare or cutting the Social Security inflation rate, two reforms President Obama has apparently embraced. For Americans, the most popular reforms to deal with the deficit are increased taxes on those making more than $250,000 (72 percent), hedge fund operators, and oil and gas companies.

        But after signing off on a skewed deal that targets Social Security and protects corporate tax havens, Democrats and the president will have a harder time convincing working Americans that they are on their side.That discontent is already seeping into Obama’s base. The same Post-ABC News poll showed the president’s poll numbers falling, even among liberals and African Americans — his most loyal backers. Only 31 percent of liberal Democrats expressed strong support for Obama’s record on jobs, a severe drop

With the economy weakening, wages stagnant and families struggling, this bipartisan agreement will only stoke public anger. Certainly, the Gang of 12 on the congressional rump committee will hear the rage. Americans will not allow Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to be cut without a fierce battle.

Already, various groups have come together to forge an American Dream Movement dedicated to challenging the corporate corruption of our politics, demanding that those who’ve done well do right by their country and fighting for the broad middle class. In recent weeks they’ve organized hundreds of demonstrations at congressional offices nationwide.

    In the August recess, the heat legislators encounter back home won’t come from the weather alone. The Tea Party captured the populist anger in 2010, representing a small fraction of the population. In 2012, legislators in both parties may just encounter a populist uprising that represents an American majority.