Daily Archives: December 7, 2010

President Agrees to Gut Social Security

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I was on the DFA conference call with Senator Bernie Sanders.

He pointed out that the 2% tax holiday for Social Security that the President tells us is his idea is actually part of the Republican plan to defund Social Security. (In the software business we used to tell customers, “That’s not a bug, that’s a feature.”  Having been on the that side of that argument long before he thought it up, I am not going to fall for it from Obama.)

This $100 billion cut in funds going to Social Security will be used as the reason why benefits have to be cut.  This temporary cut will be argued into permanency when the time comes because the Republicans will say that we should not raise taxes on working people.  We know the Republicans don’t want anyone to contribute anything to Social Security.

What are President Obama’s real goals when he makes these deals with Republicans while cutting out the voices of the Democrats?  All the time we thought he was working for us, but actually he was lulling us to sleep while he made deals with the Republicans.

The President’s deficit commission is going to recommend cutting the programs that did not lead to the deficit and rev up the programs that did.  Then the President will tell us that it is not his fault, but his handpicked members of the commission are recommending it.

Senator Sanders promised to fight this tax cut give-away (there is no compromise) with everything he has.  If he has to filibuster, then he will. He thinks he can even peel off a few Republican votes to vote against the capitulation to the wealthy few (if only because they don’t want to give tax cuts to the middle class.).

Nixon’s Madman Theory

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Wikipedia has a short article on Richard Nixon’s Madman Theory.

The article has this quote of him talking to Bob Haldeman.

“I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I’ve reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war. We’ll just slip the word to them that, ‘for God’s sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about Communism. We can’t restrain him when he’s angry — and he has his hand on the nuclear button’ — and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace.”

The article goes on to assess this theory:

Nixon’s use of the strategy during the Vietnam War was problematic. “First, while he would pretend to be willing to pay any price to achieve his goals, his opponents actually were willing to pay any price to achieve theirs. Second, Nixon had the misfortune to preside over a democracy growing weary and increasingly critical of the struggle.”[5]

When I think of applying the Madman Theory, I always add the caveat, “Never make a threat that you wouldn’t be willing to carry out.”  Therefore you do have to think about what you would do if forced to carry out your mad threat.

Can you think of any current President of the USA that could stand to learn a thing or two about the successful application of the Madman Theory?

President Obama’s Capitulation Press Conference

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C-SPAN has a video of President Obama’s Press Converence about his caving to Republican demands for tax cuts for the wealthy.

I watched a good bit of it, but after a while, I couldn’t take any more of it.  He just couldn’t get the concept that every time he is in a negotiation, the Republicans have him accurately pegged.  He thinks this situation is unique, but the Republicans know how to make every situation like this one.  Why wouldn’t the Republicans do this?  It has been such a successful strategy for them.

If the President could only stonewall the Republicans as well as he stonewall’s the press in this press conference, he would be doing much better in his Presidency by now.

The President seems to find it much easier to give in to his adversaries than he finds sticking with his constituency.  He’ll stonewall us, but give in to the opposition.  Would it help if we became his opposition?  I am ready to try that approach now.  It doesn’t seem like he could be much weaker.

When you see a tug-of-war where one side is constantly giving up a foot and taking back six inches, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion as to where the flag is going to end up.

The President is supposed to be a Constitutional scholar.  Perhaps he needs to go back and study the power of the threat of a veto, let alone an actual veto.  Maybe the veto occurs when the bill goes past your absolute limit.  He doesn’t seem to realize that the threat of the veto has to come with a large margin of safety.  The Republicans know how to use the filibuster.  Why can’t he observe and learn?  He seems to observe and give up.

Is it time to consider the President’s action may come under Greenberg’s Law of Counter-productive Behavior?

If you see a behavior that seems to you to be counterproductive, perhaps you have misunderstood what the actor was trying to produce.

Maher: Obama Looks Beaten Down

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This interview with Bill Maher explains what the Obama/Democrat problem seems to be.

On his television show, Maher frequently goes overboard, perhaps to make his show exciting.  In this interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, he calmly discusses his opinion.

When will Obama and the Democrats draw a line in the sand that is not to the right of their own bargaining position.  Apparently they don’t know about the bargaining principal of asking for more and compromising in the middle.  They only know about telegraphing their own bottom line and then compromising from there.