
Barry Ritholtz to my mind is a reasonable liberal Republican – or moderate Republican. Though he voted for Romney – I imagine he thought that the corporate world where he earns his living would have benefitted best. This is from his blog, The Big Picture:
I have been having fun mocking friends and family on both sides of the political aisle. GOP colleagues who keep telling me BHO is a Socialist, while Dems think he is the next JFK.
I enjoy disabusing them of their political biases by explaining to them Barack Obama’s actual politics…
• He extended Bush TARP;
• Like W, he refused to prosecute banks;
• He made 98% of the Bush cuts permanent;
• When Unions were under attack by various GOP governors, he mostly stayed silent.
• Oh, and he forced GM into prepackaged bankruptcy;
• His healthcare plan was a national version of RomneyCare, created by a conservative GOP ThinkTank;
• He continues to engage in a long distance war that he promised to end
• He was willing to throw Social Security under the bus at a moment’s notice
• His stimulus plan consisted mostly of temporary tax cuts and unemployment benefit extensions, not true Keynesian stimulus (infrastructure, defense, etc.)
• He keeps trying desperately to cut a deal with GOP members
I am not saying any of these things are good or bad — its merely an observation.
But its hard to avoid recognizing that all of these major policies are much more GOP-like than Democrat-like things.
The discussion that followed in the comments at his blog often makes sense, often doesn’t. Commenters divide along the lines of people answering the question as posed by Ritholtz – and rarely speak to the point that the Republican Party today is subservient to the Tea Party nutballs. Consequently, the Republicans he offers as Obama-like, Nixon and George W, couldn’t be nominated for Congress much less the presidency – today.
Saying that, he’s very right about a lot of Obama’s politics. Nothing speaks more to that point than his willingness to sell out Social Security. The best example of a so-called entitlement that not only pays for itself; but, currently produces a surplus that Washington politicians slaver over.
And the only sentence needed to revise SSA regulations to take the program into the 22nd Century is – Remove the cap!