Obama Must Be Even Bolder Than FDR by Jim Hightower
When Franklin Roosevelt was accused of being a traitor to his own privileged class, he jauntily replied: “I welcome their hatred.”
He would feel right at home today, then, for FDR-haters are on the prowl once again, now led by right-wing think tanks and talk-show yackers who are busy rewriting history to belittle the achievements of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Their real target is Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan, which is largely modeled on the New Deal approach of government spending for roads, schools, parks, conservation, and other public works, putting millions of people to work on jobs that need doing.
[WS:] What we see so far is kowtowing to big business, especially the auto industry - bailouts for Detroit, billions for road construction while throwing pennies for public transit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090203/ap_on_go_co/congress_stimulus.
I did support Obama (earning wrath of some lbo-sters) but I do not expect much of his presidency other than a refreshing change of rhetoric. He is the POTUS, not an emperor, and thus subject to blackmail by those who actually own this country (bankers, corporate executives and the like) - and the last time I checked, their feathers may be ruffled a bit by a strorm, but they still hold fast at the helm of the empire.
Wojtek