How do you keep your legacy of Obamacare from being cut and left to bleed?
Easy. You turn Obamacare into a low priority for Republicans, by seriously challenging them on other things far more important, forcing them to drop the fight for Obamacare, because they have other battle to fight over…. Ones they will lose unless they become very lucky.
- You apply tremendous force to raise taxes on the top 1%
- You allow businesses the writing off capital investments the full amount spent.
- You keep benefits on Social Security, and raise the fee on top incomes.
- You do a Kennediesque moon challenge, but this time to it’s High Speed Rail connecting all major cities by 2025.
- You proceed with a challenge to find a way to capture coal CO2, making it eco-friendly.
- You push for keeping guns out of those who are mentally ill. Background checks and take on the NRA.
- You push for more union rights, and fewer right to work laws.
- You push for stronger controls on Wall Street.
- You push for more solar energy capture out west, more wind in the mid-west, and more tidal on both coasts….
You promise every American that if they vote for no Republicans in 2014, your goal for 2018 is that every American will be making $10,000 more than they are now.… Examples… If they are making $10,000, they’ll be up to $20,000. If they are at $40,000, the’ll be up to $50,000. And if they are making $100 million, they’ll be making $100 million plus $10,000 by the end of that time frame….
With a roaring economy, that is actually a conservative estimate…
The point is … as a lame duck president you have two options. One you can play defensive, and try to foil Republicans, the wealthy, Wall Street, and the backwards Tea Partiers, as they try and chip away at the edifice you have built of Obamacare. This I argue against, because this puts you in the position of looking weak, It puts them in the position of appearing to grow stronger… Just as does a football team which has a comfortable lead, and blows it by having their fourth string not play as aggressively as they would had they been playing a close game… The other team has nothing to lose, since they are already badly losing; therefore they play with a ferociousness unseen all previous season… This is what will happen to you….
Or..Two…. you can choose to run up the scoreboard. You can capitalize on how well the affordable health care will be received,(it’s reputation is starting to turn already). You can twist the knife in Republicans by showing how Democratic states are getting good health insurance cheaper than before, and how Republicans governors in Republican states, jerked around their constituents forcing them to pay more than are Democrats in neighboring states…. All you have to do is compare their numbers….
You can run up the scoreboards by filling up all court vacancies. You can run up the scoreboard by mandating environmental protections, by raising taxes on the top 1%. by Pushing for immigration reform, by floating the legalization of weak recreational drugs, by having them regulated and taxed as was done with liquor post-Prohibition.
You can run up the scoreboard by carrying the message to the American People that it is in everyone’s benefit if the top 1% are taxed and that money is used to pay for replacing a bridge that should fall, or a tunnel that will collapse into the river this decade or next.
You can run up the scoreboard by on every task, show that the Republican-way will hurt America, and the Democrat’s way will make it better….
Point is, you are a lame duck. You got nothing to lose… if you try all of these, you will no doubt be effective at some. And some you won’t…
But if you create the environment where the House is too busy playing defense to re-argue another case of the Obama bill, because Republicans are in a desperate fight for their very survival…. Obamacare will probably survive along with Obama….
The best defense is a good offense…Mr. President…. Let’s go run up that score….
kavips 
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December 24, 2013 at 10:14 am
fwarnock
We will never see another “roaring economy” unless oil prices drop back to somewhere around $30/barrel, and stay there for a long time. That won’t happen because Fracking requires at least $90 in EROI to be profitable. Households are spending more on transportation costs than ever before – far more. Many by still choosing gas hogs that now get 20 mpg instead of 18. More efficient cars help, but that only damages the economy further by starving the US Transportation Fund, hence our near-3rd world infrastructure. It would help the economy some if they raised the gax tax for the first time in 30 years, and brought our infrastructure up to par with Europe, including the high speed rail you mentioned. But that will never happen.
Carbon capture or not, coal will never be eco-friendly. Entire swaths of this country are already unlivable from the environmental damage caused by mining, especially mountain top removal. I’ve hiked and biked extensively around West VA and seen it first hand.
Otherwise, nice article.
December 24, 2013 at 12:43 pm
kavips
I would have to agree with your points, but make the next jump and wonder, how nicer things might be, if motorized bikes as in Europe, became more preferable to own over cars…
I think the difference between us and the Euro’s psychology is that very difference we see occurring here between rural and urban… They have lived within the constraints of space, for centuries. America is just reaching that point in some of its urban areas.. now.
Within a hundred years, the world powers will be the ones where one can flourish without need of a car. Whoever gets there first, is set to win.
As a side note I did this just now for my own curiosity…. Giving every person today a car….
Average car…8′ X 15′ ?? Area of 120 square feet….
120 square feet x 7 billion people… = 840 billion square feet.
Surface area of entire planet: 510 million square km (198 million) square miles, of which about a quarter is land.
1/4th of 510 million square miles is 128 million square miles… In square feet that would be 3.5684e+15ft² or 3,568,400,000,000,000 or 3.568 quadrillion sq.feet…..
The area percentage of land mass covered over by parked cars, would then be….
840,000,000,000 square feet
3,568,400,000,000,000 square feet…. or 0.0002354 decimal or 0.02354 of a percent.
That means two hundredths of one percent of our earth’s surface need to be reserved just for parked cars if we go forward with an automotive economy.
That may not sound like much… After all it is only the equivalent of 2 hundredths of a penny.
But still,… that percentage on big numbers, as in 2 hundredths of our national debt, becomes a whopping…..$320,000,000,000 or $320 billion….
Bottom line, an automotive economy is unsustainable, and those who recognize this and move forward with mass transit, will hold the keys to the future, Those who don’t, will be paying the margin calls coming in for the debt….
December 24, 2013 at 11:15 pm
fwarnock
Excellent job with the math – thanks so much. It’s going to take a more holistic approach than transit, though. Walking and biking (as in bicycle) also must become attractive options. This will happen as gas prices climb and folks begin moving closer to services or a downtown. Currently, 40% of all car trips in the US are 2 miles or less. If even a fraction of those can be converted, it will make a huge dent. Not only in fuel consumption, but multitudes of other things including obesity, carbon, traffic congestion, etc. Even without the increase, it is already happening in the more progressive US cities, most notably Portland OR, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, etc. With relatively little investment – mainly road striping – non-motorized modeshare has increased exponentially over the last half decade. Unfortunately, the likes of Rand Paul and his band of teabooger ilk fight this at every turn. Very ironic, because driving is the single most socialist (gub’mint subsidized) habit Americans have themselves in. Using your feet (and to a lesser degree, transit), on the other hand, is by far the most libertarian, least amount of govt intervention required.