“We’re not a democracy. It’s a terrible misunderstanding and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we’re a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy.”
~ Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
What would you say if I told you a group of American congressional representatives and senators met in secret during the worst recession since the Great Depression to conspire to sabotage the economy and do their best to prevent or slow down a recovery? Would you be angry if I told you that the American mainstream broadcast media had largely overlooked (or perhaps even suppressed) this EXPLOSIVE story? How difficult is it to write or produce a news story when someone else has already done the research for you? The mainstream media’s indifference and incompetence has forced me into the role of reluctant citizen journalist.
After reading the Prologue to Robert Draper’s new book Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives, I am OUTRAGED. Mr. Draper not only tells us precisely what the politicians discussed at this secret meeting, he gives names as well as dates and locations. He might as well be howling into the wind, however, for all the media attention this explosive story is receiving.
The evening of January 20, 2009 (President Barack Obama’s inauguration day), after attending the swearing in, a group of 15 Republican leaders attended a by-invitation-only dinner meeting in a private dining room of the Caucus Club Restaurant in Washington, DC. The exclusive guest list included the following : Rep. Eric Cantor (R,VA-7), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R,CA), Rep. Paul Ryan (R,WI), Rep. Pete Sessions (R,TX), Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R,TX), (Ex) Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R,MI), Rep. Dan Lundgren (R,CA) , Sen. Jim DeMint (RSC), Sen. Jon Kyl(R,AZ), Sen.Tom Coburn (R,OK), (Ex) Sen. John Ensign (R,NV), Sen. Bob Corker (R,TN), Fred Barnes (Exec. Editor for the Weekly Standard and Fox News political commentator), Newt Gingrich (former Speaker of the House [R-GA], Fox News political analyst, and 2012 Republican candidate for president), as well as Frank Luntz (conservative communications strategist). A few of the guest’s spouses also attended. Interestingly, Rep. John Boehner did not attend since Mr. Luntz planned it and he and Mr. Boehner didn’t get along.
The dinner meeting’s purpose was to devise a strategy to defeat President Obama and ensure that he wasn’t re-elected. Participants in the 4-hour long dinner agreed to secrecy and decided that they WOULD STOP AT NOTHING in order to regain the White House. At a time when the economy was already deep in recession combined with a banking and housing crisis and we were losing approximately 750,000 jobs a month, Republican leaders came up with the following strategy to regain the White House:
- challenge Obama and the democrats on every single bill;
- show UNITED and UNYIELDING opposition to the President’s ECONOMIC policies;
- attack Timothy Geithner;
- begin attacking Democrats on the airwaves;
- win control of the House of Representatives in 2010;
- attack Obama relentlessly in 2011, blaming him for the poor economy;
- gain control of the Senate in 2012;
- regain the White House in 2012
The group was nearly giddy when the dinner ended. At its conclusion, Newt Gingrich proclaimed, “You will remember this day as the day the seeds of 2012 were sown.”
- Senator Kyl began attacking Tim Geithner the following day.
- Eight days later, Representative Cantor followed through on his promise by holding the Republicans to a unanimous “no” vote on the President’s much-needed economic stimulus plan.
- The first RNC attack ads against vulnerable democrats ran approximately two months later.
- The republicans took control house of representatives leadership in 2010
- The only remaining goals not yet achieved are winning control of the Senate and Presidency in 2012.
MSNBC
SHOW: POLITICS NATION 6:00 PM EST
June 12, 2012 Tuesday
Rev. Al Sharpton, Newt Gingrich
Excerpt:
SHARPTON: I think the president clearly made clear what he was saying.
Well, let -- let`s say this. You -- you talk about what he had in Congress. Every step of the way, Congress has blocked his jobs bill, blocked even serious talks about the deficits. In fact, let`s go to a book that Mr. Draper wrote about the night of the inauguration. There was a meeting at a hotel near the inaugural ball, about a mile away, in which, that night, there was a -- a group of Republicans, you among them, that was committed to the defeat of President Obama. This is before any of this.
He writes about that night the plan was to show united and unyielding opposition to the president`s economic policies, begin attacking vulnerable Democrats on the air waves, win the spear point of the House in 2010, jab Obama relentlessly in 2011, win the White House and the Senate.
And Draper writes that you told the group -- you, Newt Gingrich, "You will remember this day...you will remember this day the seeds of 2012 were sown."
Now, you called the president and Democrats divisive. You said he hasn`t done anything.
If there was a commitment from day one, before he ever took a seat behind the desk of the Oval Office, that everyone was going to obstruct him, then what he`s done has been almost unbelievable, against those kind of odds, Speaker Gingrich.
GINGRICH: Well, look, I mean there -- there are three different things in this, Al, or Reverend Sharpton, if we`re going to be on formal names. I -- I`m happy to be Newt, but Reverend Sharpton.
The first is, it was an important meeting and I was glad and honored to be part of it.
SHARPTON: I`m glad you admit you had it.
GINGRICH: And -- and...
SHARPTON: But go ahead.
GINGRICH: And look -- but look, it`s obvious.
I mean don`t you think that in 2001, when George W. Bush was being inaugurated, a group of Democrats got together and said, how do we get the White House?
And in 2005, they got together and said how do we get the White House. In fact (INAUDIBLE)...
SHARPTON: No, but there -- there`s a qualitative difference in how do we get the White House and that we are committed tonight to block everything he does, that we are going to be relentless and really care nothing about the fact that he was inheriting...
GINGRICH: Well j
SHARPTON: -- the worst economy since the Depression by a member of your party.
GINGRICH: Look, I -- I said, at the time, that if he had stuck with - - there were three speeches President Obama gave that were truly historic an enormous opportunity for him -- the Manasa speech the last weekend before the election, the Grant Park speech election night, and his inaugural on -- and which was -- which I said to Callista when we left the wall -- because we were at the Capitol for the inaugural.
As we left, I said, you know, if he sticks to the kind of moderation and bipartisanship he`s been describing, he will split the Republican Party. He`ll govern like Eisenhower and he`ll get reelected. Now this is -- this is the inaugural day.
The reason we were able to unify the party is he basically cut a deal with Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and they rammed through a -- an $800 billion stimulus package with no Republican really being involved. And, in fact, no elected official even read the bill before it was voted on in the House.
And I think that was the decisive mistake of the presidency, because he was choosing...
There you have it, folks. New Gingrich, former Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House, independently confirmed the truth of the prologue to Robert Draper’s book in a television interview. He said he was honored to be at the meeting and didn’t dispute what they discussed.
It was a diabolical, if highly successful plan expertly executed. Anyone who has been following the political news since 2009 knows that Republicans steadfastly opposed every single economic stimulus or job creation act the President or Democrats proposed. When ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) finally passed, it was a much smaller stimulus than needed and passed without a single republican’s support. Republicans falsely accused President Obama of “exploding” the national debt. As a point of fact, the national debt as a percentage of GDP has increased LESS under president Obama than under Presidents Reagan, H.W. Bush or G.W. Bush. They blamed this debt “explosion” for the poor economy and said the solution to economic recovery was cutting taxes for the rich (a measure sure to further increase the debt), and cutting government spending (a measure certain to slow the economy). They also found a way to blame the deficit spending of the George W. Bush presidency (caused by unfunded wars simultaneous with huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans) on President Obama.
The U.S. unemployment rate rose from 7.6% in January 2009 to 9.4% in May and 10.2% in October. During the recession, approximately 1.2 million people lost their homes (source: MSNBC) and about 20,000 additional people became homeless (source: Washington Post). It was without question the “worst recession since the Great Depression.” In my home state of Michigan (headquarters of the automotive industry), the unemployment rates soared to a disastrous 15.1%. U.S. Automakers General Motors and Chrysler teetered on the verge of bankruptcy while Republican politicians urged, “Let Detroit go Bankrupt” and opposed any type of government-supported bailout.
What in the world was going on? Any Economics 101 student knows that the proven way out of a recession is for the government to provide a temporary stimulus plan to support the economy and help create jobs. In his book, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers our Future, Nobel Prize winning economist (and former World Bank chief economist) Joseph Stiglitz details how tax cuts for the wealthy do not generally stimulate the economy. Instead, they only increase economic inequality. The growing economic inequality and decline of the middle class the U.S. has experienced in the last 30 years contributes to an unstable economy. In a consumer-driven economy like the U.S., spending by the middle class is what gets us out of a recession. You can read the NPR interview with Mr. Stiglitz here: http://t.co/R8V4ttYP
Congressional Republicans proposed as a “solution” to the recession, measures that were likely to increase deficits and income inequality while failing to actually stimulate the economy. Did they think the public was stupid? Perhaps. However, if they could actually pass any of these measures, they could slow the recovery and blame the outcome on President Obama, further improving the chances of a Republican candidate in the 2012 presidential election. In the absence of passing new legislation, they blocked every single economic stimulus plan proposed by Democrats or the President. The current fight is over the Transportation Bill because it might actually create some jobs.
Why am I so outraged, you ask. Some may say this book isn’t even news. Nearly everyone who has been following the political news for the last few years suspected that Republicans were blocking legislation in order to hurt President Obama and improve their party’s chances in November 2012. We may have suspected what was going on, but Robert Draper’s book gives us the gory details in black and white: names, dates, locations, exactly what was agreed. Newt Gingrich has confirmed that it’s true. Except for a few small stories on MSNBC and CNBC, the mainstream broadcast media have largely ignored this bombshell of a story. Although Huffington Post as well as blogs like the Daily Beast and the Daily Kos have done stories on the book, I haven’t seen a single major American newspaper article on it. Some UK newspapers have covered the story, however. To my knowledge, MSNBC and CNBC are the only major American broadcast media that have covered the story on Mr. Draper’s book at all. Progressive political commentator Thom Hartmann did cover the story on his program “The Big Picture” on RT America Studios. Author Robert Draper did an outstanding job of research and investigation and wrote a compelling book. However, the media largely ignored the story. This treachery is SO MUCH WORSE THAN WATERGATE. I can’t help feeling that if the Watergate break-in happened today, the public would never even hear about it. What is wrong with the U.S. media and why can’t they be bothered to do their jobs? Freedom of the Press is useless with a passive, somnolent press.
The American Heritage Dictionary gives the following definition of treason (n):
1. The betrayal of allegiance toward one's own country, especially by committing hostile acts against it or aiding its enemies in committing such acts.
2. The betrayal of someone's trust or confidence.
Another Open Salon writer (A Patriotic American) has detailed the oaths of office taken by our representatives and senators. You can find the article here: http://t.co/BUmxdvGm . These politicians take an oath of office swearing to uphold the U.S. constitution and defend the United States. They do not take an oath to uphold the goals of the Republican Party. By putting Republican party goals above their allegiance to the constitution, the country, and the American people they serve, I submit to you that this group of republicans has committed treason against the American people. Treason is one of the few reasons for impeachment and removal from office.
Representatives and Senators are only rarely removed from office. The House carries out impeachment proceedings and the removal from office procedure requires the approval of 2/3 of the senate. With the present composition of congress, even if the conspirators were tried and convicted, it is highly unlikely that we would ever see a successful impeachment and removal from office. I am somewhat gratified that Representative Pete Hoekstra of Michigan lost re-election to the House in 2011. The constituents they betrayed must vote all of these conspirators out of office so they can experience first hand the unemployment and financial hardship they have imposed on innocent American people.
I don’t know about you, but one of my litmus tests in voting for a political candidate is that they MUST put the needs of the United States and Americans ahead of the goals of their political party. Please help me publicize this story, it s an important story that needs to be shared with ALL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. This story should be in the headlines of every newspaper and TV news program. Below you will find links to some of the limited TV coverage this issue has received thus far.
MSNBC Video on Do Not Ask What Good We Do:
Thom Hartman on DoNot Ask what Good We Do:
Thanks much for reading. I very much appreciate any and all comments, whether you agree or disagree with me.
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Comments
Thank you so much for reading (and commenting as well as rating). I was so afraid that I'd gone to the trouble of writing it and nobody would read it. It's an important issue indeed, one that deserves media attention. Stiglitz's book will be next on my reading list too.
Thanks so much for reading & commenting. I agree with you 100% on all counts. These traitors should not only be removed from office, they should be prosecuted for treason and JAILED.
Thanks so much for reading & commenting. I agree with you 100% on all counts. These traitors should not only be removed from office, they should be prosecuted for treason and JAILED.
Thanks for the comment. We musn't let their diabolical plan succeed. That's why we must get this information out to as many Americans as possible!
How could anyone who knows this possibly support the GOP, republican, democrat or independent? They are traitors, plain and simple.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I agree with you 100%. People should be making a HUGE stink over this issue, but they won't as long as the information doesn't get out. That is the reason, after all, that I wrote this article.
Thanks for helping get the word out!
r./
I appreciate the comment & think you may be right. Such evil and selfishness in our elected representatives is difficult to accept.
In the absence of MSM coverage, we must become our own journalists & publicize the story.
Thanks for helping get the conversation going--it's a very important one.
I'm going to share this with several friends. We cannot allow them to get away with this!
Thanks for reading & especially for sharing with friends!
With enough like-minded people we can get the message out.
“Anyone who has been following the political news since 2009 knows that Republicans steadfastly opposed every single economic stimulus or job creation act the President or Democrats proposed.”
The Democrats proposed an economic stimulus and job creation Bill? Keep in mind, calling a Bill an “economic stimulus” doesn’t mean it will stimulate anything. Nor does calling a Bill a “job creator” mean it will create jobs. If the Democrats wanted to stimulate the economy and/or create jobs, wasting taxpayer money was not the answer.
“U.S. Automakers General Motors and Chrysler teetered on the verge of bankruptcy while Republican politicians urged, “Let Detroit go Bankrupt” and opposed any type of government-supported bailout.”
FYI, GM and Chrysler did go bankrupt under Obama’s watch. The difference between the Obama bankruptcy and a bankruptcy not involving Government interference: wasted taxpayer money.
“Any Economics 101 student knows that the proven way out of a recession is for the government to provide a temporary stimulus plan to support the economy and help create jobs.”
That’s not what my Econ professor taught me. Regardless, 11+ years of deficit spending is not temporary (8 years of Bush and 3.5 years of Obummer).
“In the absence of passing new legislation, they blocked every single economic stimulus plan proposed by Democrats or the President.”
So Stimulus 1, Obamacare and Dodd-Frank were blocked? Didn’t think so.
Appreciate the read and the comment, but I must disagree. ARRA (the first stimulus package) was voted AGAINST by EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN in congress. It was an economic and jobs stimulus package. When it was finally passed, it had been pared down to a much smaller size than the original bill, in the futile hopes that some republicans might support it. It finally passed with ZERO republicans voting yes on it. Don't believe me? Look it up.
Three Republicans voted "yes" on the Dodd-Frank Act. Whoop-do-doo. They probably didn't get the memo.
The American Jobs Act (for economic stimulus and job creation) has languished in congress.
If you have evidence that the GOP has supported an economic stimulus plan, by all means, POST IT HERE! Good luck finding it.
Noted something else I forgot to address. GM & Chrysler went through a managed bankruptcy reorganization, rather than being dissolved by bankruptcy. For the record, both these companies have paid back their government loans WITH INTEREST.
Letting them go out of business would have been a devastating blow US manufacturing could not have recovered from. Three million jobs would have been lost. It would have made the recession FAR FAR worse and turned Michigan and perhaps other midwest states into "ghost states."
Noted something else I forgot to address. GM & Chrysler went through a managed bankruptcy reorganization, rather than being dissolved by bankruptcy. For the record, both these companies have paid back their government loans WITH INTEREST.
Letting them go out of business would have been a devastating blow US manufacturing could not have recovered from. Three million jobs would have been lost. It would have made the recession FAR FAR worse and turned Michigan and perhaps other midwest states into "ghost states."
“ARRA (the first stimulus package) was voted AGAINST by EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN in congress.”
We agree (that’s why they don’t have blood on their hands).
“It was an economic and jobs stimulus package.”
I disagree.
“When it was finally passed, it had been pared down to a much smaller size than the original bill, in the futile hopes that some republicans might support it.”
I disagree.
“It finally passed with ZERO republicans voting yes on it.”
"We agree (bless their souls)."
“Three Republicans voted "yes" on the Dodd-Frank Act.”
We agree (IMHO 3 RINOS voted “yes”).
"The American Jobs Act (for economic stimulus and job creation) has languished in congress."
I disagree.
“GM & Chrysler went through a managed bankruptcy reorganization, rather than being dissolved by bankruptcy.”
We Agree (but who was advocating dissolution?).
“For the record, both these companies have paid back their government loans WITH INTEREST.”
I disagree.
“Letting them go out of business would have been a devastating blow US manufacturing could not have recovered from.”
I disagree.
“Three million jobs would have been lost.”
I disagree.
"It would have made the recession FAR FAR worse and turned Michigan and perhaps other midwest states into "ghost states.""
I disagree.
So let's have some more perspective: The Republicans ALREADY HAVE the society they want, one where workers slave away for less and less pay and have to bow and scrape to the bossman when he walks by with his golfing buddies on the way out to the links. Obama, on the other hand, plays squash.
And that's the difference.
Oh, and have you heard, some funny guy doing bird calls ran in front of Webb Simpson at the US Open...it was something.
I agree that Obama has disappointed in some respects. He ran as a liberal & governed as a moderate. His "base" thinks he's not liberal enough. yet what other choice is there? Do you really think RMONEY gives a rat's ass about anyone except himself & his
Thanks for reading & commenting. Sadly, Democrats long suspected what was going on. However, it wasn't PROVEN until recently. The book came out in late April, I believe. Unfortunately, Obama is no Roosevelt. I think he wants too much for people to like him. He is our best choice, however, as well as our only hope at this point. How can we get the Press to get off their lazy asses and take note of this HUGE diabolical conspiracy?
Flopyti
I, too was shocked when I first read about this, but then everything started to make sense...the unyielding obstruction, the senate fillibusters, opposition to the auto bailout, etc. It's so tragic that politicians would do this to the people of their own country. I wouldn't wish those GOP conspirators on my worst enemy. Thanks for taking the time to read & comment.
I'm sure you'll be interested in this study:
The Impact on the U.S. Economy of the Successful Automaker Bankruptcies
From the study:
“Providing government assistance to General Motors and Chrysler through quick and structured bankruptcy proceedings avoided the worst case scenario. In reviewing the economic impacts using actual economic performance for 2009 and much of 2010, the net public benefit—the difference between what CAR estimated did happen and what CAR predicted might have happened to government transfer payments, social security receipts and personal income taxes paid—was just $4.2 billion in 2009 and $0.5 billion in 2010.
…Additionally, the government’s actions avoided personal income losses totaling over $96 billion, 1.1 million net job losses in 2009, and another 314,400 in 2010. ”
I'm aware of another study that examined the social costs associated with the structured bankruptcy, which showed similar results as the one above. If I find it, I'll post it here.
I noticed that you already know about Johnny’s blatant cases of plagiarism and stealing entire copyrighted newspaper articles (often from the paid subscription website of the Wall Street Journal). With this, don’t take his 'comments' seriously, since we don't know if he copied them from other posts.
Thanks so much for reading & commenting. Of course I "consider the source" when reading Johnny's comments. He seems to have the ethics and veracity of a typical Republican.
Thanks especially for the link. I will look into it. This subject is near and dear to my heart since my state, Michigan, experienced a MUCH WORSE RECESSION than the rest of the country. At one point, my husband (an automotive engineer) and I were BOTH unemployed. If it hadn't been for the generosity of relatives we could easily have lost our house.
In case you are so dense you haven't figured it out yet, your plagiarism isn't welcome here. FYI--repeated violatons of theTOS result in acct deletion on most sites. Typical republicon ethics.
"What is plagiarism?
Back
Plagiarism, believe it or not, comes from a Latin verb that means, “to kidnap.” If you plagiarize you’re kidnapping and stealing others’ hard work and intellectual property. It is academic and public dishonesty. You wouldn’t want someone stealing your hard work, intentionally or even unintentionally, would you? Of course not.
Still, writers sometimes purposely steal others’ work, and other times writers unintentionally plagiarize because they get confused, have poor notes, are lazy or intellectually unprepared, run out of time, or simply don’t know how to correctly reference sources. There’s a difference between plagiarism, of course, and misuse of sources. (See Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices. Reprinted by permission of the Council of Writing Program Administrators.) Because there is so much information accessible through the Internet, the temptation to plagiarize increases and what needs referencing becomes increasingly unclear. The Internet tends to make who owns what a little unclear. Just ask those in the music business. In any case, plagiarism is unacceptable. You don’t want people stealing your work, after all. It is outrageous, actually. We’re here to better ourselves and to better our communities. You can’t do that by stealing. To avoid plagiarism:
1. Do not use someone’s words without referencing the source or including the information in quotation marks or a block quote; and
2. Do not use someone’s ideas without referencing the source."
http://www.wadsworth.com/english_d/special_features/plagiarism/definition.html
Besides having the brains that a third grade student could easily surpass, You are an out and out unrepentant LIAR.
Copying and pasting someone's work without crediting the original source is indeed unethical -- moreover, it's a form of theft called plagiarism.
But then, why would I expect a RepubliCON to have any sense of ethics or veracity? I hope the WSJ sues you and terminates your online access. Why don't you try developing some of your own content instead of harassing others? Oh, I forget, that would be too much work for a RepubliCON. You are like a bad rash that keeps coming back.
They're not stupid, if they have to choose, they'll take control of Congress over the WH any day. It won't slow them down, they can just keep demonizing the President and get whatever they want through Congress.
Thanks for reading.That's exactly why I wrote this. We must not allow this group of diabolical traitors to succeed. We must get out the msj & the vote!
I am gratified by the number of comments on your article - Thank God people are waking up to what has occurred.
I hope this outrage gets written about over and over until it cannot be ignored anymore. Rated
Thanks for the read. We are inagreement that this issue hasn't gotten nearly enough attention. I was hoping Salon editors would take notice & maybe do a salon article on it. How do we get ut on the news?