The Second Inaugural—an eloquent, spirit-lifting call to act

The darkly handsome American President looked at a throng of hundreds of thousands of his citizens and spoke to them with clarity, common sense, and compassion--three of the qualities that won an election and have bred a devout new political majority.

            In his 18-minute Second Inaugural Address, he precisely expressed the feelings, the wishes, the ideals of the millions who voted for him. He reaffirmed their belief that their ideals are based on the vision of our Founding Fathers and on our historic commitment to the “the most evident of truths” that all men are created equal.

That truth, the President declared, “is the star that guides us still just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall”—Seneca Falls, site of a first step toward women’s equality; Selma, Alabma, where cruelty to blacks spurred action toward civil rights; Stonewall, where barbarity toward homosexuals gave rise to gay power.

            The inaugural address made history. No previous President had spoken the word “gay” in an inaugural, and Mr. Obama linked the cause of lesbians and homosexuals seeking their civil rights with the cause of blacks and other minorities.

             “We will respond to the threat of climate change,” he insisted. And although the nation must “make hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit…we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generations that will build its future.”

            For many if not most who heard his powerful and passionate voice, his words gave comfort and assurance. He understands their craving for a country built on confidence, optimism, and concern for those who need help to free themselves from poverty, illness, and despair.

            Mr. Obama’s speech contained news. It sounded a call for “We the people” to realistically address the major concerns of our time. “For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militia.”

            As Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson pointed out, no President since Ronald Reagan in 1981 has given such an ideological speech. But where Mr. Reagan demanded curtailing government programs, Mr. Obama has rightly declared we will continue them sensibly. He signaled that to the extent he and his majority can, they will block the Far Right’s 80-year fight to demolish Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and vastly diminish the solace it has given the nation’s jobless, aged, and sick.

During coverage of Mr. Obama’s address, CBS Anchor Scott Pelley asked CBS’s venerable commentator, Bob Schieffer to analyze the speech. Said Schieffer, “There were no really memorable lines.” No lines similar to President Franklin Roosevelt’s declaration that “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” or President John Kennedy’s insistence that we should “Ask not what your country can or for you, but what you can do for your country.”

            It’s true. But that’s an observation not an analysis.

In fact, Mr. Obama’s speech is historic and memorable in its entirety.

It eloquently expresses the feelings of those who wish to live in a strong, noble, caring nation that surges forward based on optimism, inventiveness, hard work, and sensible change.

He challenged us to act. “For now decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.”

Maybe, just maybe—or hopefully—the not-so-loyal GOP opposition will carefully consider those words and not react as Texas Representative Pete Sessions did after the speech. The New York Times reported that Mr. Sessions said:

“It was apparent our country’s in chaos and what our great president has brought us is upheaval. We’re now managing America’s demise, not America’s great future.”

Poor Mr. Sessions. He doesn’t understand that as Mr. Meyerson explained, Mr. Obama was speaking “secure in the knowledge that the nation’s minorities had joined with other liberal constituencies to form a new governing coalition.”

Most Americans prefer Mr. Obama’s thinking to the grumpy thoughts of GOP Frightfuls like Mr. Sessions. Soon ,we can hope, the Frightfuls may be forced to flee to the exit.

                                                                        Gus Gribbin

Ø  Mr. Meyerson”s column appeared on the Washington Post Op Ed Page on 1/23/13. meyersonh@washingtonpost.com

 

 

Obama Refuses to Play Congress’s Nasty Game

                The GOP’s far-right Frightfuls again are snarling and gnashing their teeth. They’re growling that they will blackmail the President, sayings they won’t raise the debt ceiling unless he yields on their demands that he slash spending on the poor, the sick, children, and the infirm among other cuts.

 The Absurdists insist he must make enough cuts to equal the amount the U.S. is authorized to spend to pay its creditors. That would be $16.4 trillion, and that would be devastating.

                Despite the President’s insistence that he won’t yield and deal as he did in the past, the Fringe Dwellers think he will. They seem to believe he has no choice because the results of failure to raise the debt ceiling are so ghastly and destructive.

                But the President is telling them they’re wrong.  He will not bargain over the debt ceiling.  “They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy. The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not bargaining chip,” Mr. Obama said at his January 14 press conference.

                Here’s hoping Mr. Obama doesn’t relent. It is Congress’s job to pass enabling legislation to allow payment of the bills Congress has already racked up through its legislation. The legislators must do their job. The President has said he will have the “conversation” about measure to decrease the nation’s deficit later.

                Less zany legislators are, of course, worried. On January 11, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Charles E. Schumer of New York, and Patty Murray of Washington, sent a letter to the President. They asked him to take “any lawful steps” to avoid a default on the debt if the Republicans continue threatening to shut down the government.

                In response the President has indicated he won’t take such steps. “There are no magic tricks here, no loopholes. There’s no easy way out.”

                So now the suspense increases. Who will blink first in what economist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman calls the ”vile absurdity of the debt ceiling confrontation”?

                There may be a couple tricks—well, possibly one—the   President might use if the Absurdists decide to shut down the government to get their way.

                On the off chance you haven’t heard, here’s what some have suggested.

                Way One:  Mr. Krugman has explains in his New York Times column that the President could order  the Treasury Department to mint a platinum coin (or coins) with a face value of, say, a trillion or so dollars. The Treasury would then deposit the coin at the Federal Reserve. The Reserve would credit the trillion or more dollars to the government’s account, and the government could write checks against that account.

                This gambit is possible because of an arcane law that allows Treasury to mint and issue special platinum coins as commemoratives—as collectors’ items. The number or denomination of such coins isn’t specified. The law allows the President to use what Mr.  Krugman calls a “legal coin trick” to save the country from domestic upheaval and international scorn.

                To those concerned that issuing the magic coin might trigger inflation, Mr. Krugman states:

                “Aside from the fact that printing money isn’t inflationary under current conditions, the Fed could and would offset the Treasury’s cash withdrawals by selling other assets or borrowing more from banks, so that in reality the U.S. government as a whole (which includes the Fed) would continue with normal borrowing. Basically, this would just be an accounting trick, but that’s a good thing.”

                There’s a problem with the coin trick.  The Treasury has declared it won’t mint the coin.  It’s not clear what would happen if the President ordered it to do so. Most say it’s a silly idea anyway.

                Way Two: The President could issue “registered warrants,” meaning script or “IOUs” to the nation’s creditors, especially including federal workers, federal health care providers, contractors, Medicare recipients, and those on Social Security.

The idea comes from Edward D. Kleinbard, a law professor at the University of Southern California and former chief of staff at the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. He explains in a New York Times Op-Ed article that the IOUs could be redeemed for cash when the Treasury Department could assure there was enough money available in the general fund to cover the payments. Presumably that would occur when Congress raised the debt ceiling.

In favor of his idea, Mr. Kleinbard, states that the IOUs would not violate the debt ceiling because they, “wouldn’t constitute a new borrowing of money backed by the credit of the United States.”

Furthermore, he notes the IOU gimmick works. In July 2009 California began issuing 450,000 IOU’s, promising to pay creditors $2.6 billion. The IOUs went to aid workers, persons owed tax refunds, government contractors, and others. The IOU holders were in most cases able to sell those registered warrants to banks at face value.

That move by Gov. Jerry Brown broke the deadlock in the California legislature. The lawmakers quickly agreed on a budget.  And on January 10 this year, Gov. Brown announced that California’s famously devastating budget “deficit is gone.” He said, “For the next four years, we are talking about a balanced budget.”

There might be other Presidential options too. But the President is right in dismissing them. He must hang tough, and not let the GOP Nasties blackmail him. He should show he can be as uncompromising as the Frightfuls. After all, they started the fight. And if they decide to bludgeon the nation and its citizens to get their way, they’ll surely regret it later.

                                                                                                                      --Gus Gribbin

The Season's Excitement? Gone. Fled North

                January 2, 2013 rolled in like a flat tire. It led a caravan of days that thud and thump along, towing winter’s drab days.

                Gone is the excitement and suspense of Christmas.

 Gone is the lesser excitement of watching the ball fall in New York’s Times Square.

                Calls from the kids and grandkids about what to bring to the parties—stop.

                Lights that brightened and dazzled the neighborhood— switched off, unplugged.

                The wreathes, tree balls, little statues of Santa, elves,  galloping reindeer, and so much more  had been placed accompanied by carols, hymns, and season songs. They’re put away tunelessly.

                November and December’s excitement—all gone.

 Where to?

       At the university in a grand city by a Great Lake, events replaced the vanished excitement.  You moved immersed in the whirr of cheery  undergrads pounding up and down stairs, flopping into classroom seats, shoving into the arena’s student-section, screaming, “Shoot, shoot, shoot!…Defense, defense, defense!” 

                Would the Golden Eagles make the Big Dance? Oh my god! They will. They will!

 Fresh excitement. Rising hopes.

                In the grand city by the Great Lake, white flakes filter down and mound. Out the skis would come. Friends soon would glide along winding trails though evergreen forests.

                In the grand city by the Great Lake, excitement thrived in bright wintry days. And Nature added her own decorations.

                In a small city by a little lake near the World’s capital, Nature provides a less spectacular show.

                How long ‘till spring?

                                                                                                                                                ---Gus Gribbin