Where's the Outrage?

I never liked Rep. Mickey Eric Cantor all that much. I think he is reactionary and hasn’t had a forward-looking thought during his public life. Maybe I have been too harsh but, then again, maybe not. One of his aides (Brad Dayspring) emailed a video “joke” to a reporter. Come on. A curse-filled joke from a Congressman’s office?!?! How did he think that this wasn’t going to get out?

Here’s the curse-laden video:

I’m sorry.  I love a great joke.  But this isn’t funny.  It is simply offensive.

For more on this story click here.

Tags: Economy, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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It is clear that Rep. Barney Frank loves the spotlight. This time he uses hearings to ask why we need to bribe employees to do their jobs.

watch:

Tags: Economy, House of Representatives by ecthompson md
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Early Wednesday Morning News Roundup

• The economic stimulus package passed the Senate yesterday by a 61-37 vote, which was no surprise. Lawmakers begin now the difficult task of reconciling the two versions of the bill. Remember that both the House and the Senate will vote on the compromise bill and if it passes both Houses then the bill goes to President Obama.
• Progressives and moderates seemed to like President Obama‘s news conference yesterday. Predictably, conservatives — not so much.
• Overseas — just to prove that the Bush administration did not corner the market on government scandals, Taiwan’s former first lady has admitted to laundering $2.2 million. To make matters worse, her husband is in jail and her son has already pleaded guilty to corruption charges.
• An internal Pakistani memo suggests that five of the 10 gunmen who attacked Mumbai, India three months ago were from Pakistan. Tensions between Pakistan and India remain high.

• There is a provision in the economic stimulus package, back here in the United States, that has set aside $1.1 billion for research comparing medical treatments/drugs/devices. The pharmaceutical industry and the medical device industry are not interested in such research projects. They are gearing up to pressure lawmakers to take this provision out of the bill while lawmakers from the House and Senate reconcile the two versions. I think this is a small window into what is going to become a much larger fight as president Barack Obama and the Democrats are planning on health-care reform.
• Just when you thought you’ve heard the last of Sarah Palin and Trooper-Gate it appears that the state Attorney General is resigning. Oh, by the way, Governor Palin was invited to speak at that big conservative convention (CPAC). Interestingly, she has declined the offer and will instead send a video.

• Yesterday, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner rolled out what was supposed to be the administration’s plan to fixing our banking system and take care of toxic debt. Unfortunately, it appears that the plan was not all that detailed. I was somewhat disappointed but, more importantly, Wall Street had a hissy fit. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down over 300 points. Remember, is the third major speech that we’ve heard from a Secretary of the Treasury on how they plan to fix our financial crisis. Each time, they have failed to come up with a clear and concise plan. Noble prize-winning economist Paul Krugman was less than impressed. With luck, over the next several days, Secretary Geithner will begin filling in the details.

NBC’s Brian Williams interviews Timothy Geithner.  Watch:

[Read more →]

Tags: Economy, Israel, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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Wow. There has there been a ton of emotion surrounding this press conference. Some journalists are upset that President Obama called on the reporter from the Huffington Post. Everyone knows that’s not a “real” news outlet. I thought that it was much better than Talon News. Conservatives don’t think that there was enough detail. They believe that Obama will turn this country over to Bin Laden.

I think that the world has gone mad. There is no middle ground any more, so we should stop looking for it. The Republicans have moved so far to the right that the only way now to compromise is to agree with them. That’s it.

So if you missed Obama’s news conference, here it is.

Tags: Obama administration, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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I was watching the Rachel Maddow Show last night and she had on Senator Ben Nelson.  It is always nice to hear from a real Senator. What were they thinking? Why did they do what they did? For example, for my money, the best hour on radio is Thom Hartmann’s first hour on Friday with Senator Bernie Sanders. Bernie is thoughtful, very progressive and his insight is always valuable. So I was ready to hear what Senator Nelson had to say. Rachel was straight and to the point. Why did you compromise?  Why did you cut stuff that would stimulate the economy? The big moment came and Senator Nelson, god bless him (we say that in the south when we feel sorry for someone), opened his mouth and not one thoughtful statement came out. It was a word salad. He made absolutely no sense.

Watch the video clip (enjoy Michael Steele making a fool of himself):

From Think Progress:

In a move that “flunks” every economic test, Sens. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Susan Collins (R-ME) hammered out a “compromise” stimulus plan over the weekend that “completely eliminated the original plan’s $16 billion for K-12 school repair and modernization, along with another $3.5 billion for higher education school construction.” Bemoaning the cuts, the Economic Policy Institute wrote, “By every definition, the school construction money is perfect stimulus.”

Last night, when MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow grilled Nelson on why he cut funds for new school construction, he could only offer a totally incoherent condemnation of “unfunded mandates” like No Child Left Behind. He suggested that if the federal government provided funds to build new schools, it could somehow represent a malevolent interference in local education issues:

NELSON: Well, the Republicans who are looking to join with us have an aversion to federal money going for that kind of a program. It is a state responsibility, local responsibility. Local governing boards — boards of education. I, too, am concerned about money coming from Washington. As governor, I faced the under-funded mandate of special education where the Federal Government promised to be a partner with it. I faced back here a decision about “No Child Left Behind,” another under-funded federal mandate.

When Maddow pressed him, saying that surely his problem should be with federal intervention into the content of education, not the buildings in which education takes place, Nelson made a 180-degree turn, forgetting his “concern about money coming from Washington” to insist that there was still “an awful lot of money going to education.”

Building new schools seems to be a win-win-win: It puts some of the nearly one million construction workers who have lost their jobs this year back to work; it helps facilitate better learning by improving the classrooms where children spend their days; and it provides a needed and timely jolt to the economy. “By even the most conservative estimates it would create about 150,000 jobs,” EPI wrote.

What’s more, as Matthew Yglesias pointed out yesterday, Nelson and Collins touted their plan’s education funding, specifically highlighting their funding for “special education” — two days before Nelson slammed special education as an unfunded mandate and derided Washington funding of education. All this while they CUT $7.5 billion in funding to help states make progress toward goals set by No Child Left Behind. All told, the Senate bill eliminates more than $25 billion in education funding originally included in the House version.

In other words, Nelson opposes school construction, which would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, because it is like an unfunded mandate. At the same time, he touts the inclusion of more mandated funds for special education, while also cutting money to fund the unfunded mandate of No Child Left Behind.

Tags: Economy, Obama administration, Rachel Maddow Show, Senate by ecthompson md
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Today the Senate should vote on the economic stimulus package. The bill isn’t close to everything that we need, but it is something. I wrote the following for a local journal.

———-

As I was growing up, in Texas, I began taking tennis lessons that a local tennis court. I remember the tennis pro saying over and over again, “keep your eye on the ball.” He was right. I tended to look away from the ball before I made contact. As we continue to debate this economic stimulus package, I would humbly suggest that we keep our eyes on the ball.

The purpose of this stimulus package is to put people to work. In November and December our economy shed over a million jobs. Just in the last two weeks we’ve heard of job cuts from Wall Street darlings — Starbucks and Microsoft. Auto sales for Ford dropped 40% in the month of January. Remember, Ford is the American manufacturer that is “doing well.” Almost every sector in our economy is faltering.

Over the last 30 years we’ve been told that the government is not the solution. I think we have to throw out this type of ideology if were going to come up with a solution that is going to help everyone. Frank Rich, New York Times columnist, recently noted “in March 1933, Hoover and Roosevelt acolytes had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats as they urgently tried to rescue their country.” Well, we don’t have to worry about Republicans and Democrats holding hands and singing. Republicans have continually tried to stuff every kind of tax cut and tax break into this bill. We’ve tried tax cuts. President Bush in 2003 past tax cuts and promised millions of jobs. Using the White House’s own estimates they fell 3.1 million jobs short. Tax cuts do not work to create jobs. Jobs is the name of the game. We have to keep our eye on the creation of jobs.

Most economists agree that we can approach this economic problem in one of two ways. One road will lead us out of this economic disaster and the other road will lead us closer and closer to our second Great Depression. Herbert Hoover and his advisers cut government spending and tried to balance the budget. They tightened monetary policy and believed in survival of the fittest. This worsened an already terrible job market. People without jobs stopped spending and removed any money they may have had from financial institutions. This caused more banks to collapse and caused people without jobs to tighten their belts even further thus perpetuating the cycle.

The other approach is the one that President Barack Obama is trying to take now. He wants the government to spend money. He wants to invest in projects that put people to work. If people are working and making money, they will begin to spend money.  Spending money will in turn help small businesses in the local community. The small businesses will begin to spend money and sign contracts with larger businesses. Both the small and large businesses will begin to hire more people. Now this is a perpetuating a cycle that we want to perpetuate. We must invest in infrastructure. By fixing crumbling roads, bridges, water treatment plants, updating the sewer systems and modernizing the electrical grid we will create millions of jobs. This is a start at repairing our broken economy. There are other things that we need to fix. The banking system needs to be fixed. The brokerage house system needs to be re-created and fixed. (There are no major brokerage houses left.) Hedge funds need to be regulated. But, the most important piece of this whole puzzle, the piece we must keep our eye on, is putting Americans to work at a fair wage. If we can’t do that, then we’re headed towards a Great Depression and everyone better hang on because this ride is going to get very bumpy.

Psst. Do not tell anybody but with more and more people out of work it becomes more imperative that we fix health care. I just thought that I would add this because almost no one is talking about health care.

Tags: Economy, Obama administration, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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I’m currently arguing with some physicians who are right-wing knuckleheads. They are complaining that Barack Obama’s news conference did not have any substance. I asked them compared to what? They said that all the questions are scripted, I asked them to provide proof. There are some of these right wing guys that are not to be happy unless Obama can walk on water. I thought he did great. He was thoughtful and detailed. He went into more detail about Pakistan and Al Qaeda then we have ever heard a president do on any subject.

President Obama on the need for a stimulus. Watch the video.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Economy, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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This is Jennifer Hudson singing the national anthem at this year’s Super Bowl. This is the best performance of the National Anthem that I can remember since Whitney Houston knocked it out over a decade ago.

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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Coldplay wins for Viva La Vida.

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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This is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In blue is the recession of the early 1990s. In red is the recession (and jobless recovery) of the 2000s. In green is what we are living through now.

…and Republican Senators are asking us to slow down.

Tags: Economy by ecthompson md
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I saw this on FDL. I thought it was exactly what I have been saying here and here). We need an economic stimulus and many of the senators simply don’t get what that is.

From FDL:

On Friday the Senate approved a Coburn amendment 73-24 that states,

None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project.

For the purpose of a Keynesian stimulus it doesn’t matter if it’s spent on a park or a highway beautification project.  Any spending is better than tax cuts, you could pay people to dig holes and fill them up again and that would be superior to tax cuts.  Spending on parks or museums would also be better than military spending, which most of these fools have no problem with, because military spending tends to be very inefficient at creating jobs.

A concept that’s important here is that of positive externalities.  A park or a museum or a theater or an art center is a positive externality for the community it resides in.  It brings in tourists and gets them to spend money.  People go to Chicago or Paris or New York just to see the theaters and museums, they go to Banff, for, well Banff. The museum or theater or art center doesn’t get all the money, but the community does and is richer for it.  And, for the record, the original New Deal spent a good chunk of money on both the arts… and parks.  This is a good time to spend on both, since they will be there for Americans essentially forever and they’re cheap right now.

Money spent on these things is money spent well.  It produces jobs and it has a positive effect on the community.  As with the “centrist” fools who want to cut money for schools, childhood nutrion, and food stamps (food stamps have the single highest stimulative effect of anything in the bill) and add it to defense spending, these people are either morons or putting their personal political preferences ahead of the country’s good.

Tags: Economy, Senate by ecthompson md
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Love’s in Need of Love today.  Stevie Wonder and Take 6.  Enjoy.

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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From Daily Kos:

In this morning’s weekly address, President Obama sounded a repeated mantra of jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs–and took aim at tax-cut only proposals as a “losing formula”–as he prepared to take his case to the American people in Indiana and Florida early next week in a barnstorming media blitz.

While acknowledging the role for scrutiny of legislation, he emphasized the the need for urgency in passing the recovery package, declaring, “We can’t afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary. The scale and scope of this plan is right. And the time for action is now.”

And even as he pulled out some trademark bipartisan blah blah blah (“The American people know that our challenges are great. They don’t expect Democratic solutions or Republican solutions – they expect American solutions.”), he clearly had one particular political party in mind when he let out an uncharacteristic, unObamic blast of blame:

Let’s be clear:  We can’t expect relief from the tired old theories that, in eight short years, doubled the national debt, threw our economy into a tailspin, and led us into this mess in the first place.  We can’t rely on a losing formula that offers only tax cuts as the answer to all our problems while ignoring our fundamental economic challenges – the crushing cost of health care or the inadequate state of so many schools; our addiction to foreign oil or our crumbling roads, bridges, and levees.

Gee, who doubled the national debt, expounded tired old theories and led us into this mess in eight short years?

Keep on keeping on with the reminding, Mr. President.

watch the video:

text of address: [Read more →]

Tags: Economy, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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I’m sorry that Republicans don’t like government or government spending. If you or anyone else knows how to put America back to work without using government spending, I’m all ears. The problem is that no corporation or group of corporations can do this. Only the US government has the tools to put millions of people to work.

Watch Rachel tell it like it is:

Tags: Economy, Rachel Maddow Show by ecthompson md
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Brian McKnight. Take 6. Quincy Jones. Now this is some serious harmony.

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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Houston, we have a problem… stupidity in Congress.

I am still dumbfounded over what Congress is doing. Our problem, in a nutshell, is that Americans saw the financial disaster that the crash in the housing market and financial institutions have created. Americans’ response to this was to stop buying; therefore, we have an economy with plenty of supply and no demand. The purpose of a stimulus bill would be to increase demand. As President Barack Obama said last night, the purpose of the stimulus plan is to spend money. Thus, let us increase demand and get the economy going.

The new job numbers are out and they are awful. 598,000 jobs were lost last month alone. Over 1.5 million jobs were lost in last three months. We’ve now had 14 straight months of job losses. 3.7 million people have lost their jobs since the start of this recession. The unemployment rate is now 7.6%. The employment rate for men, 66.1%, is the lowest level ever recorded. The unemployment rate for blacks is 12.6%; Hispanics, 9.7%; and for whites, 6.9%. We can take these numbers and slice them and dice them and dissect them, but the bottom line is it looks ugly. It looks ugly from every angle.

So a reasonable person would expect that the Senate will look at these numbers and act quickly to increase spending in the economic stimulus plan. We would expect that our senators, knowing at least a little something about the economy and economic principles, would come to their senses and pass a spending plan to help state and local businesses, government jobs and, more importantly, to help us, the American people. But no. The Senate is one place where logic and facts cannot penetrate cold stone walls. The package that appears to have come out of this “compromise” has over 40% of the overall spending is made up of tax cuts… not infrastructure… and not aid to states.

watch video:

Tags: Countdown, Obama administration, Senate by ecthompson md
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I’m not sure what Senator Collins is pleased about. She is talking about cutting spending from this bill as if it were a good thing. Thousands of state workers will have been laid off because of her actions. Cuts in education spending will mean that teachers will need to be laid off because state budgets are in the red. How is this a good thing? (This is one of the huge problems in our political system today. Susan Collins is looked at as a moderate Republican. Please. In 1970, Richard Nixon wouldn’t even have recognized her as a Republican. That’s how right of center she really is.)

Listen to her embrace bad policy:

This is what has been cut out of the Economic Stimulus Plan. Remember Senator Susan Collins thinks that this is good.

From Economic Policy Institute:

• $24.8 billion in state stabilization money will prevent the layoff of hundreds of thousands of workers in state and local government. Revenue sharing with the states to save jobs is far more effective than any tax cut in the bill.
• $6.5 billion in Title I education funding will employ teachers, janitors, school aides and administrators and help replace lost tax revenues from falling property tax assessments and other sources.
• $6.75 billion for special education, to pay for teachers and aides, equipment and classrooms, administrators, transportation, nursing staff and all the other costs of educating special needs students.
• $15 billion in state incentive grants to provide better assessments of children with disabilities and limited English proficiency and to make classrooms accommodate their needs. This provision will employ consultants, special education and ESL experts, architects and construction workers, school administrators, among others and will lead to greater educational achievement by America’s most challenged students.
• $1.0 billion for Head Start, which would cover rent, teacher and aide salaries, equipment and furniture.
• $13.9 billion in Pell grants to help low-and moderate-income students pay for college, community college and trade schools. This spending has an obvious longer-term payback from a better-educated workforce. But it also frees families to spend on other necessities, to make durable goods purchases such as a car. Supporting student tuition keeps college staff employed, from janitors and groundskeepers to teachers, coaches, cafeteria staff and administrators.

Tags: Congress, Economy by ecthompson md
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Though I have always been a city dweller, I am also concerned for America’s rural areas. I feel folks in rural America have been used by the Republican Party, just as Democrats have often taken city voters for granted. Depopulation of rural America, and the long-term decline of agriculture as a way of life, have severly impacted this part of our nation.

(Above–A sign welcoming visitors to Francesville, Indiana. The Fall Festival will be held in Francesville on September 18, 19 and 20 of this year.)

Here is  the link to the Rural Assistance Center. This resource has a great deal of information about rural demographics and the well-being of people living in rural areas. It’s main focus is health care. There is also a definition of what exactly constitutes rural America. You can plug your address in and see if you are a rural resident.

Here is a chart from the Census Bureau noting the decline of the American rural population from over 90% in 1820 to under 25% in 1990. If you poke around the Census web home, you’ll find all sorts of facts about rural America.

In the book How Barack Obama Won by Chuck Todd, a table lists 21% of American voters as rural in the 2008 election. While all people merit help and concern, it should be noted that these voters are not monolithically Republican. Rural voters selected John McCain over Barack Obama by a margin of only 53% to 45%.

Iowa and Vermont are rural states that Mr. Obama carried last November. It is hard to imagine that Mr. Obama could have won states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana without at least a fair amount of rural support.

I don’t discuss the politics here to show that rural folks are somehow “better”  or more open to a black man as President than urbanites such as myself might think. I say it only to suggest that just as many Republicans live in big cities, America’s rural areas also diverse and complex regions worthy of our respect and care. We should not make assumptions about any group of people. 

[Read more →]

Tags: Domestic Issues by Neil Aquino
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Over the last two days, President Barack Obama has started to take the argument to the American people. Up until now, the Republicans have been defining the debate. Obama is taking control.

A portion of President Barack Obama’s remarks at the House Democratic Caucus:

The American people know that our challenges are great. They’re not expecting Democratic solutions or Republican solutions – they want American solutions. And I have said that to those who have criticized the plan.

But what I have also said is – don’t come to table with the same tired arguments and worn ideas that helped create this crisis.

We’re not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that in eight short years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin. We can’t embrace the losing formula that offers more tax cuts as the only answer to every problem we face, while ignoring critical challenges like our addiction to foreign oil, the soaring cost of health care, failing schools and crumbling bridges, roads and levees. I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV – if you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction.

The American people are watching. They did not send us here to get bogged down with the same old delay and distractions. They did not vote for the false theories of the past. They did not vote for the status quo – they sent us here to bring change, and we owe it to them to act. This is the moment for leadership that matches the great test of our time.

If we do not move swiftly to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, an economy that is in crisis will be faced with catastrophe. Millions more Americans will lose their jobs. Home will be lost. Families will go without health care. Our crippling dependence on foreign oil will continue. That is the price of inaction.

Tags: Economy, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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From McClatchy News:

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has undergone surgery for an apparent early stage pancreatic cancer, the court’s public information office is reporting.

The 75-year-old Ginsburg underwent the surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Her attending physician, Dr. Murray Brennan, (ed note: Dr. Brennan is one of the premiere surgeons in the country) said Justice Ginsburg would probably remain in the hospital for between seven and 10 days.

Ginsburg reported having no symptoms prior to the discovery of a lesion during a routine annual check up in January at the National Institutes of Health. A scan found a small tumor, approximately one centimeter across, in the center of the pancreas.

Ginsburg has served on the Supreme Court since being appointed by President Clinton in 1993. The graduate of Cornell University and Columbia Law School is one of the most liberal members of the court.

Tags: Obama administration, Supreme court by ecthompson md
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