Are You Better Off Today…?
Posted by Michelle Moquin on September 10th, 2012
Yes!!
Good morning!
How Democrats Should Respond to the ‘Better Off’ Question
Three top Obama surrogates dropped the ball over the weekend when they seemed unable to provide a simple answer to various versions of the old Ronald Reagan question, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
How To Answer The Question
The answer to the “better off” question should have been “Yes” without equivocation. Four years ago, America was bogged down in two costly and deadly wars, the economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month, the stock market had crashed, Wall Street had to be rescued with a $700 billion bailout, the auto industry was on the verge of collapse, and color-coded terror alerts reminded us of the lingering threat of Osama Bin Laden.
Under President Obama, we’ve ended the war in Iraq, created 4.5 million new jobs, doubled the Dow Jones Industrial Average, generated record profits for the auto industry, and taken out Osama Bin Laden. And that’s to say nothing of health care reform, financial reform, repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and hundreds of other major accomplishments from this administration.
If Democrats can’t remember this history and fail to repeat it every day until November 6, they don’t deserve to win re-election. Sure, America hasn’t solved all its problems in four years, but Democrats have to stop apologizing for not being perfect and start letting people know what they’ve actually done. If Americans don’t share that sense of accomplishment in the polls right now, Democrats have only themselves to blame for failing to articulate it. The way to change the polls is by spreading the gospel of the truth.
The best teacher of this lesson may be Reagan himself. Remember, Reagan’s famous “better off” question helped him defeat Jimmy Carter in 1980 when unemployment stood at 7.5 percent. But four years later, when unemployment had climbed to 8.3 percent, the same level where it stands today, President Reagan had the audacity to declare that “America is back, standing tall” in his January 1984 State of the Union address. It was “morning in America,” we were told that year.
If only Democrats had Reagan’s chutzpah.
How To Turn The Question Around
Reagan’s “better off” question essentially reversed two generations of progressive government philosophy that helped redistribute wealth for the common good.
It was John F. Kennedy who famously encouraged Americans to think beyond self-interest. “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,” he said in his 1961 Inaugural Address.
Kennedy’s exhortation to community service over selfishness surely seemed virtuous in his time. But today’s Republicans would simply call its socialism. Unless Democrats learn to fight back.
In the 1930s, government helped to modernize America by building the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam and providing electricity to rural communities that had been hurt by the Great Depression. In the 1940s, after the nation rallied to win World War II, government provided college education and home ownership to veterans with the G.I. bill. In the 1950s, government invested billions of dollars to connect faraway parts of the country by building an elaborate interstate highway system. In the 1960s, America raced to space and to the moon by investing public funds in NASA. In the 1970s, government cracked down on environmental pollution by expanding the Clean Air Act and enacting the Clean Water Act, massive new regulations passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by a Republican president.
All these accomplishments were financed by a progressive tax policy supported by both Democrat and Republican presidents — including Eisenhower and Nixon — in which the top tax rate ranged from 70 to 90 percent, more than double today’s tax rate under President Obama.
But the massive government projects from the 1930s to the 1970s would become vilified in Reagan’s selfish and short-sighted America of the 1980s, and that anti-government legacy still endures in the public consciousness.
That’s why Democrats should use their convention this week not just to sell Barack Obama or to bash Mitt Romney. They should articulate, explain, and defend their vision of government itself.
Instead of asking us if we individuals are better off from one election cycle to another, it’s time for leaders to ask if America is better off by one party’s policies or another. While decades of anti-government individualism have made a few people fabulously wealthy, it’s also left America with growing income inequality and stagnant wages. Conservative policies may help a few people get rich, but progressive policies enable millions to join the middle class.
Yesterday on Labor Day, Vice President Joe Biden finally gave a speech that answered the “better off” question the way every Democrat should respond for the next two months. “America is better off today than they left us when they left,” he told a cheering crowd, thus answering the question but also reminding voters where we were four years ago under the destructive policies of George W. Bush.
That’s the short-term answer, but the long-term answer requires us to re-focus the question. Ultimately, if liberalism is to survive and succeed, liberals and progressives must not be afraid to define and defend it publicly, repeatedly, and unapologetically to the American people.
******
Readers: Okay…so do we all know what to say now? I certainly do. And I can even add to that: Being where I am this morning, waking up to the sound of the ocean, steps away from my bedroom, I can definitely say I am better off today than I was at least three days ago. :) Im blessed and so grateful. Life just keeps getting better and better. I HOPE so for all of you as well! Care to share? Blog me.
I’ll try and connect and respond tomorrow. Have a beautiful Monday!
Peace baby…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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September 10th, 2012 at 9:46 am
Why Your Meds May Not Be Effective
Many years ago, I was getting tension headaches. Along with trying natural treatments, such as exercising and drinking more water, I bought a large bottle of ibuprofen for extra help whenever my head severely throbbed.
The largest bottle gave me the most bang for my buck, and since it contained so many pills, I figured that I wouldn’t have to buy any more for a long time. As it turns out, my thinking was foolish.
A year and a half after I bought the bottle, I took a pill from it and it wasn’t making me feel any better. At first, I wasn’t sure why.
But then I realized that the bottle of pain reliever—though I hadn’t even used
one-quarter of it—had expired.
I used to think that most expiration dates were mere ploys devised by drug companies to make us toss perfectly good medications and buy more.
I wanted to prevent my readers from making the same mistake I made, so I spoke with Amy Tiemeier, PharmD, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in Missouri, who explained that expiration dates do, in fact, serve a real purpose, including to help ensure the chemical stability of the drug.
WHAT EXPIRATION DATES REALLY MEAN
Until a medication’s expiration date, the manufacturer guarantees that the drug will be chemically stable, so it’s essentially guaranteeing its full potency and safety…but after that date, it can’t, said Dr. Tiemeier.
In other words, the drug might work perfectly well after that date or it might be less effective or totally ineffective—you just won’t know for sure.
And on rare occasions, taking a pill past the expiration date can hurt you, she added.
Very few drugs become toxic, she continued, but antibiotics in the tetracycline family (including tetracycline, doxycycline and minocycline), for example, are ones that do.
Something else to consider: This guarantee of potency and safety applies only if the drug is stored under ideal conditions, as the label instructs.
So if you don’t store the drug properly, it’s possible that it may become less effective, ineffective or unsafe even sooner than the expiration date. (More on how to store your drugs properly in a minute.)
SHOULD YOU BE CONCERNED?
It’s important to acknowledge that studies have shown that many drugs maintain full potency and safety long after their expiration dates—even years after.
Plus, in my particular situation, I wasted my money but I wasn’t going to die if the pill didn’t help.
When it comes to certain life-sustaining medications, such as nitroglycerine and insulin injections, however, expiration dates become a whole lot more important, because your life depends on those drugs being effective.
The bottom line is that all drugs—especially life-sustaining medications and the antibiotics mentioned earlier—should be stored properly to make sure that they are potent and safe at least through their expiration dates, said Dr. Tiemeier
MAKE YOUR MEDS LAST
Medications should be stored in a cool, dry place where they won’t be subject to big changes in temperature and humidity, said Dr. Tiemeier.
Contrary to popular opinion, the bathroom cabinet is usually a terrible place to store medicine, because showers tend to heat up and steam up that room.
Leaving pills on the windowsill where the summer sun can beat down on them is also a bad idea—the light ages them. Instead, store your medicines in a cool and dry closet, dresser drawer or kitchen cabinet (not near the heat of an oven or stove).
If you notice a change in how your medicine looks or smells, that may be a sign that the drug has deteriorated, so replace it.
If you’re buying a drug that you’re going to take only on occasion (such as the ibuprofen that I mentioned earlier), look at the expiration date before you buy the bottle and ask yourself whether you’re really going to get through the whole bottle by that date. If not, choose a smaller bottle!
Source: Amy Tiemeier, PharmD, BCPS, director of professional affairs, associate director of experiential education and assistant professor of pharmacy practice, St. Louis College of Pharmacy, St. Louis.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:49 am
Mitt Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts as the man who could balance the state budget and cut spending.
The reality?
Spending increased every year he was in office, and he left his successor $1 billion in debt.
See how Romney economics failed to match up against reality, and make sure to pass it on:
http://www.barackobama.com/romney/economics/debt
September 10th, 2012 at 10:08 am
The question of whether we are better off may mean less that we think because the republicans are planing on contesting the election using last-minute legal battles over when and how ballots should be cast and counted, particularly if the race remains tight in battleground states, if they lose those states.
They have already gotten 3 of STARK on board to issue decrees to declare Romney the victor in a close disputes if they involve Ohio and or Pennsylvania.
By the time the election is over they will have the other two of STARK on board for close results in Wisconsin, Florida, Iowa and South Carolina.
There are going to me 10s to hundreds of thousands of voters in those states with legitimate claims that their votes weren’t counted.
It will be up to STARK to step in and pull another Bush result.
In the 2000 presidential election, a deadlock over ballot design and tallying in parts of Florida led the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, to stop a recount of ballots, which led to George W. Bush defeating Al Gore. Since then, both parties have focused on voting procedures.
The facade of the United States being a country that is governed by freely elected people is all but gone.
Mike,TM
September 10th, 2012 at 10:11 am
The GOP seek to limit voting (pretty much outright in Ohio – limiting early voting doesn’t “fix” real or imagined fraud), and apparently by asking the courts to rule on these laws’ adherence to the Constitution, the Democrats also “pushed for regulations that it believes offer it an advantage”? I guess, if you think the Constitution is a “regulation” giving the Dems an “advantage.”
Don’t let Fox News cow the NY Times into bad journalism in the name of “balance.”
September 10th, 2012 at 10:12 am
Gotta love Conservatives! If you can’t beat em, disenfranchise em!
September 10th, 2012 at 10:13 am
These tactics simply make me livid. The current GOP is treasonous and shameful. The only power we, as citizens, have against them is our vote.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:13 am
This year, for the first time, there were more babies born to minorities that to whites. I think this fact explains a lot about what is motivating Republicians to supress the vote. Just look at the conventions and who attended them. The good news is that time is on our side.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:14 am
Makeing voting more dificult and exclusive is not Democratic it is the precurser of an Oligarcy Government or the tea party turning it into a Theocracy, just like the Taliban ….
The real source of voter fraud will be or already is the computer we use to cast our vote. We have no receipt or anyway to make sure our vote was applied the way we cast it. Voter fraud large enough to turn an outcome of a national vote will not be from individual voter fraud at the polls, but by high tech computer tampering, yet the right wing attack thoes that would vote against them and ignore the obvious threat to a democratic election.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:15 am
These people who are trying to keep Americans from voting should be tried for treason.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:16 am
The Conspiracy Theory people’s minds are running overtime after listening to the Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck type pundits.
The only fraud going on is the laws being passed in Republican controlled legislatures. It is best summed up by the Republican leader in the Pennsylvania House when he bragged that his state’s new voter ID law is “gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state.” Pennsylvania can show zero voter fraud cases.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:16 am
This is little if any voter fraud. Not enough to sway an election. So It’s quite a joke that Republican’ts are using this as an excuse for these voter id laws. The supreme court knows this and will ultimately strike down these laws.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:17 am
In the words of one of their own – Matthew Vadum of the American Thinker:
“Why are left-wing activist groups so keen on registering the poor to vote? Because they know the poor can be counted on to vote themselves more benefits by electing redistributionist politicians. Welfare recipients are particularly open to demagoguery and bribery.
Registering them to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country….”
Reducing turnout among poor Americans IS the logic upon which GOP-led voter ID legislation rests, pure and simple.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:20 am
Patrick;
You’re joking right? You’re speaking about the same Supreme Court that voted for citizens United and Bush V Gore?
The same Supreme Court – STARK – that stole the election from Gore still holds a 5 to 4 advantage.
Manny
September 10th, 2012 at 10:23 am
Michelle, my answer is You’re Damn Right We’re Better Off!
September 10th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Yes.
The stock market was at 7,000, now it is above 13,000. That is better.
The auto industry was about to collapse. Now GM has risen to be number 1 in the world. that is better.
The nation’s economy was at the brink, now it has stabilized and even started growing again. that is better.
We were losing 650,000 jobs per month, now we are gaining over 120,000 per month. That is better.
We still have a black man in the Oval office. Is that what you are really getting at?
We are no longer fighting two unpaid for wars. that is better.
We are no longer living in fear that Bin laden is planning another attack. That is better.
We still have a black man in the Oval office. Is that what you are really getting at?
September 10th, 2012 at 10:26 am
Pres Obama created 4.4 MILLION JOBS in 28 months while repubs harassed planned parenthood and birth control…shows me the president is serious about creating jobs and repubs are serious about…uh, sex! The obstructionists will never get my vote!
September 10th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Psst. We were all watching as the republican house refused to do anything to help the country.
We were also watching as the republicans in the Senate filibustered over 350 bills that would have helped the country.
Did you really think no one noticed this?
September 10th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Repubs have obstructed every bill to promote jobs and middle class in favor of the top 1%. Pres Obama created 4.4 MILLION JOBS in 28 months while repubs harassed planned parenthood and birth control…my vote will be for Pres Obama!
September 10th, 2012 at 10:27 am
I remember the fear and panic caused by the financial crisis 4 years ago and can honestly say the country is better off today. I am surprised Republicans want to remind people what is was like under Bush.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Thank you! I proudly say my family and all my friends are–and would say–they are better off now than they were 4 years ago.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:40 am
I think people need to start listing all the important things that HAVE been accomplished under the President! Instead, too many people have been pulled under the veil of illusion that not enough has been done by the very people who want it to appear that way!
Get informed and start with The Lilly Ledbetter Act, Auto bailout, credit card reform, hate crimes prevention act, affordable care act (Obamacare), student loan reform, wall street reform, middle-class tax cuts, repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, raising fuel efficiency standards, ending the war in Iraq, Osama Bin Ladin, and as far as the economy, from the bureau of Labor Statistics, in Dec. of 2008 we were losing 750,000 jobs a month.
We are now creating them – more than 4.5 million private sector jobs. In my state of Ohio alone there have been 171,000 new jobs in the past 29 months.
So before you fall prey to all the Republicans propaganda machine, get informed and see the truth!
This is a man who is always working on our behalf. Unlike his predecessor who spent more time hangin’ out in Texas or on a golf course!
September 10th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
I’m not better off. Four years ago I was getting laid regularly.
September 10th, 2012 at 1:51 pm
You and me both.
September 10th, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Friends helping friends. Let’s rendevous, Anon2.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:05 pm
Doing my part to get out the vote!
—-
Just when the pundits and everyone else thought they knew the equation in this race — you’re changing it.
I learned today that, for the first time since April, we closed the gap. We outraised Mitt Romney and the Republicans.
We can’t let it be the last time.
More than 3 million Americans now own a piece of this campaign — in August alone, more than 1.1 million people stepped up to make a donation.
Let’s close that gap for good. Show what we’re capable of with a donation of $75 or more:
https://contribute.barackobama.com/
What an incredible week.
Barack
—–
Please show your support and donate today!
/SB
September 10th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
I wanted to share two quotes I heard today, each for different reasons:
“The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It’s about a socialist, anti family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” – Pat Robertson
“I’m a black, gay woman. I think the only way to make the GOP hate me more is if I sent them a video of me rolling around on a pile of welfare checks.” – Wanda Sykes
We are a country divided.
/SB
September 10th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
These House Republicans should get off their high horses and take a hike. We are more aware of their shenanigans .They put their agenda of getting President out after this one term ahead of the recovery of the American economy.
How dare they ask over and over Where are the jobs???The jobs are where they left them ..on their desk in a document called the American Jobs Act .
This has been sitting for 12 months on their desks.They should have cooperated.Now it is time to vote them out or have them removed along with their bias agendas.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
Women listen to Social Butterfly. Women take them on!!!!!!!!!!!! lies are lies call them out and just see how much sweat can be produced by huevos of political dishonesty!
If you want to run my country speak the the Damn truth!
September 10th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Bob Woodward always release a book or two during the election time to boost the sales (and his royalty) criticizing the current leadership. He has already put out ‘Obama’s War’ before Bin Laden was nailed.
I agree he did a great job with the watergate scandal which resulted in Nixon’s departure from politics. But some of his opinion, to me is questionable and without credible sources.
He said he wasn’t providing any ammunition for Romney to blast Obama. But, Ryan has already quoting Woodward to Norah O’Donnel to blame Obama on defense cuts, which ultimately backfired.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Bob Woodward says that Clinton and Reagan would not have allowed the Republicans to treat them in this manner. Neither Clinton nor Reagan were BLACK !!
The Republicans would NEVER have treated a white President with that kind of disrepect!! Although they came close with Clinton. Wake up America!!
The Republican Party has stooped to incredible new lows!! If there is any hope to salvage this country, only a clean sweep of this fascist leaning Republican Party must happen!!
Michelle, we need you to get Madeline to guarantee a victory for Obama with coat tails as she did in the 2008 election. Otherwise we could end up with an Obama victory and a Congress full of those LSOS traitors.
Juanita
September 10th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Just keep in mind that all of Bob Woodward’s books are basically his opinion, his two cents as it were, on what he observes in Washington.
This quote for instance:
“Others will say it’s the president’s job to figure out how to tear down that brick wall. In this case, he did not.”
That is his opinion, and some will agree, and some as he noted, will disagree.
President Obama from the very beginning stated that he wanted to change the political climate in Washington, to engage in meaningful discussions about how best to solve the nation’s problems. President Obama did not want to twist arms, make back room deals or tear down brick walls.
He wanted to work with Congress to work for all the people, for the country’s future, but instead he was stabbed in the back and now he is slandered for being a gentleman.
Bob Woodward needs to stop getting his insights at cocktail parties from brown nosing PR assistants!
September 10th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
I don’t think either Reagan or Clinton had to deal with people as insane as the Tea Party Republicans. Most of them inexperienced in politics. All of them rabid ideologues determined to bring President Obama down. Cantor is certifiable. Boehner is weak.
What happened was treasonous and cost this country greatly (Chinese state newspapers calling America a country in decline originated with that Congressional disfunction).
I was horrified at the things President Obama was willing to put on the table, but still no give by the GOP. To imagine for a minute that one could shrink the deficit by addressing only the expenditure part of the arithmetic and not raise revenues was madness.
My blood still boils over this and to hear Paul Ryan using Bob Woodward’s book as campaign material against our President makes me want to sequester Bob Woodward with a den of vipers (he knows where to find them) for bringing this book out before the election.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:31 pm
I just finished watching Rachel Maddow interview Dan Rather concerning his view as to what is the state of the present election process.
She won’t say it because she knows that she would be tarred and feathered by the white boy controlled media, but I am certain she sees the idiot for what he is only slightly smarter that the other dumb white boys we have been told by other white boys how great they are or were(if the idiots are dead).
He did his best to tell us how Clinton’s speech was better than Obama’s because ex President Clinton knows how to talk to the “people.” Here he was referring to whites and meaning “the people.”
Like the rest of his ilk, he had no problem lumping the outright lies Romney was telling with the difference of interpretation Obama was referring to.
Dan Rather is a typical white boy who has been given accolades by other white boys.
Hence, he says he expected Paul Ryan to be cool under pressure. It took Rachael Maddow to point out the Dan Rather the error of his assumption.
She told the white boy that she knew that Paul Ryan would not be “cool under pressure,” because he had never been exposed to the kind of media scrutiny that a bigger arena that the small town state of Wisconsin presented him with.
She concluded with the example that the fact that Ryan thought he could get away with lying about an easy checkable fact as the time in which he finished a marathon in was proof of that inexperience.
One would think that the “great” Dan Rather went away with a clue that he should have thought of that before he went on her show giving the kind of white boy deference to another white boy he gave to Ryan.
Yes, white boys, if women and OTWs had been given an opportunity to anchor those chairs that the Dan Rather and Walter Cronkites were given we might have real intellects to honor rather than the new “icons” we are told that we should revere.
This is no small thing. Like the Office of the President and all the other offices, and positions that up to now only white boys were privileged to hold as the true Affirmative Action Beneficiaries, it is becoming apparent that they did not do a very good job.
Certainly nowhere as good a job as they have at telling us how good a job they have done.
Alycedale
September 10th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Michelle, your country is so full of bigots that hate Obama because of the color of his skin. I don’t think it matters that he successfully got Osama to the white men in your country.
Bin Laded was a hero to millions of muslim men throughout the Middle East. Yet, probably more american white men hate Obama for being black than the millions of muslim men who hate him for killing Bin Laden.
Your country portrays the Middle East as a place where dictators use religion to control the population and dehumanize women. How is that different from what white men in your country do?
Your country says the dictators of our countries control the polls and limit voter participation. How is that different from what the dictators(white men) do in your country?
Zahrah
September 10th, 2012 at 11:05 pm
The billionaires against Obama have spent tens of $millions of dollars trying to torpedo the Chevy Volt because they are committed to bringing Obama’s bet on General Motors down.
They manipulate the stock at every opportunity and they spend $millions on negative ads to keep the public from buying a Chevy Volt.
Mike,TM
September 11th, 2012 at 6:57 am
“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream
And she be Beautiful.