Republicans are doing everything they can to convince the media and the public that using the budget reconciliation process to finish health care would be a grave crime against democracy.
But reconciliation is part of the Senate rules. And there’s perhaps no better person to make that point than Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)–the Senate Republicans’ top budget guy–who vociferously defended the use of reconciliation when his party tried to use it in 2005 to allow drilling in Alaska.
“The representation by the Senator from Massachusetts that somehow that this is outside the rules–to proceed within the rules–is a very unique view of the rules,” Gregg said on the Senate floor back when he was part of the majority. “We are using the rules of the Senate here, that’s what they are senator. Reconciliation is a rule of the Senate set up under the Budget Act. It has been used before for purposes exactly like this on numerous occasions.”
Gregg went on, “Is there something wrong with majority rules? I don’t think so.”
Unsurprisingly, Gregg feels differently about things these days. Last year he compared the majority-rules vote to “running over the minority, putting them in cement and throwing them in the Chicago River.”
Republicans have also advanced the meme that reconciliation amounts to the “nuclear option”–a term that came to fame when Republicans tried to change the Senate rules regarding the minority’s right to obstruct judicial nominations. But the “nuclear option” was a threat to change the rules. As Gregg pointed out very publicly, reconciliation is already part of the rules.
I could take three posts to explain the importance of Steely Dan to my life. This group was part of the background for most folks who are my age and were in college in the early ’80s. There wasn’t a party where Steely Dan didn’t fit. Everyone listened to Steely Dan. Everyone.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) — one of the most conservative members of Congress, according to a new National Journal ranking — decried the strained state of political discourse in an interview today with blogger-activist Mike Stark. While defending hate radio host Rush Limbaugh, Franks said bipartisanship and “true tolerance” is about “being halfway decent to each other in spite of the differences.” But when the conversation turned to abortion, Franks made a clearly indecent comment, claiming that African-Americans were probably better off under slavery than they are today:
FRANK: In this country, we had slavery for God knows how long. And now we look back on it and we say “How brave were they? What was the matter with them? You know, I can’t believe, you know, four million slaves. This is incredible.” And we’re right, we’re right. We should look back on that with criticism. It is a crushing mark on America’s soul. And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted.Far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery. And I think, What does it take to get us to wake up?
A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, producing powerful aftershocks and triggering a tsunami.
The epicenter of the earthquake was located off the coast in Maule, near the city of Concepcion, 212 miles (341 kilometers) from the capital of Santiago. The quake struck at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. ET).
At least 47 people have been confirmed dead, according to government officials, with the death toll expected to rise.
Concepcion is Chile’s second largest city with a population of 200,000. There are reports of collapsed buildings in Santiago. The quake was felt in several Chilean towns and in parts of Argentina as well. Some buildings in Buenos Aires were evacuated.
“This is a major event. This happened near some very populated areas,” said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with USGS. “With an 8.8, you expect damage to the population in the area.” (more…)
I have been working on my recent comments for over two weeks to get it to work. I think that it is finally working. Maybe.
I’m not sure why, but in spite of all the evidence I expected a small agreement on health insurance reform. Silly me.
I do think something was accomplished at the Summit yesterday. First, there’s no politician in America who can say that Americans are not completely and totally interested in healthcare reform. 3.9 million Americans watched the White House webcast. Secondly, Republicans never proposed any significant ideas.
Republicans have given Democrats the green light to scrap bipartisanship. Do the Democrats have the stomach to lead?
I was very surprised that Republican representative John Boehner was able to stay for the whole meeting. I think he missed a tanning appointment.
It may be time for Representative Charlie Rangel to step down from his chairmanship until this investigation is complete.
South Dakota legislators have passed a law urging public schools to teach astrological explanations for global warming. Seriously.
Just in case you forgot the Winter Olympics are still going on. This is probably the largest collection of sports that I never really cared about.
CIA asked to use mock burials. DOJ said No. Mock burials? Really?
My favorite financial tool (dripping with sarcasm) credit default swapsmay have played a role in the Greek financial crisis. The Fed is looking into the situation. My mind has now been put at ease. It is time to kill CDS!!!
The sad thing isn’t that Jon Stewart can select from hundreds of hours of tape to find amoral Republicans talking about all of the stuff that they don’t want. He can also find hundreds of Democrats being spineless jerks.
I just spoke with McJoan about the health care debate. We took about 15-20 minutes to discuss the recent developments in this healthcare debate.
As a trauma surgeon, I’ve been following this healthcare debate extremely intensely over the last few years. I would like to briefly tell you a story about how healthcare (single-payer — government payer) is so critical. The folks on Capitol Hill are heading in the wrong direction. This is a story that can happen to almost any of us.
A 25-year-old gentleman presents to the emergency room by helicopter. He is in extremis — his blood pressure is low and he is having difficulty breathing. 30 minutes ago, he was a perfectly healthy 25-year-old. He had no medical problems. He has no pre-existing conditions. He works in construction and has no health insurance. He simply lost control of his car on the extremely slick ice. His car slid off the road and down an embankment. He now has 2 broken legs and a broken arm. He has multiple rib fractures. Now what? With appropriate care, in six months, this young man can be as good as new. He can go back and be a productive citizens of our society. He should be able to get married and have kids like every other American. In order to get from this critical scene in the emergency room to a Norman Rockwell painting, he is going to need proximally five — seven surgeries, a stay in intensive care and extensive rehabilitation. His hospital bill will be well over a quarter million dollars.
Now, to get to my point, what is going to be discussed tomorrow at the Summit that’s going to help this 25-year-old? We need real healthcare reform in order to help Americans. We need something that is going to control costs, increase access and is portable. I’m not sure the public option comes close to this yardstick. I know that Ed Schultz and others are pushing this and that’s fine. The public option is better than nothing. It help control the premium increases that we’ve seen.
It appears that Representative Stupak has raised its ugly head, again. He does not seem to be focused on the millions of Americans in need help. We are focused on getting healthcare to millions of Americans and he is concentrating on abortion. Why? Write an anti-abortion bill if that is what he is interested in. This is not an abortion bill. It just isn’t.
I think the best that we can hope for out of the Summit is that the Republicans reveal themselves to the American people. I am hoping that the American people see that they are nothing but surrogates of big business. I hope the American people see that they have no ideas on how to seriously curb the rising costs of healthcare. That’s my hope. Maybe, I’m hoping too much.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has created between one and 2.07 million jobs. Sweet!
It’s been several days, but I’m not sure I understand the Department of Justice’s conclusions in the Anthrax Report. The only suspect happens to have committed suicide. I just don’t know.
Vice President Cheney remains in the hospital. I wish him well. I’m hoping that he can get out of the hospital and explain why he was so wrong about this report.
Some people make a big deal out of Canadian Premier Danny Williams’s decision to come the United States to get his heart surgery. This is in spite of the evidence that there is no difference in outcome between the United States and Canada in cardiac surgery. There are at least 50 centers in the United States that perform the operation that he needed. Yet he went to Miami. Miami isn’t known as the best cardiac center in the United States. I don’t even think it’s in the top 10. Maybe, just maybe, he wanted his pillows fluffed and a sweet atmosphere for recovery. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that — if you can afford it.
Rough day for Toyota on Capitol Hill: “The president of Toyota’s U.S. operations acknowledged to skeptical lawmakers on Tuesday that the company’s recalls of millions of its cars may “not totally” solve the problem of sudden and dangerous acceleration.” (Ed. It seems to me that Toyota has learned from the Americans how to cut corners. See the Ford Pinto.)
White House officially calls for health insurers to lose their anti-trust exemption.
Dick Cheney apparently suffered his fifth heart attack yesterday, but is expected to be discharged from the hospital within a couple of days.
Good to see House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) condemn Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for his tacit support for last week’s suicide bomber in Austin.
In light of Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) bizarre remarks about having been misled about TARP policy in 2008, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) called the conservative senator’s comments “pathetically untrue” and “cowardly.” Harsh, to be sure, but true.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is unimpressed with his party’s talking points on health care policy.
This may not turn out well: “GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed Monday he is working with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to break the logjam on closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and bringing the prisoners to trial.”
I was reading the Political Animal today. In my opinion, he is one of the best progressive bloggers. In the middle of one of his posts was it… the healthcare debate in a nutshell.
[R]ight there in the Cabinet Room, the President put a proposal on the table, according to two people who were present. Obama said he was willing to curb malpractice awards, a move long sought by the Republicans and certain to bring strong opposition from the trial lawyers who fund the Democratic Party.
What, he wanted to know, did the Republicans have to offer in return? Nothing, it turned out. Republicans were unprepared to make any concessions, if they had any to make.
This is the problem. The Republicans are happy to call Obama and the Dems names – socialist, fascist, etc but they have NO solutions to any problem facing the American people.
As a NFL Fan, I must start out with LaDainian Tomlinson’s release from the Chargers. I’m not surprised. He isn’t the same back that he was just three years ago, but damn.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney is back in the hospital with chest pain. Former Presidential contender and Senate minority leader Bob Dole is also in the hospital. I wish both a speed recovery.
Afghanistan: “An airstrike launched Sunday by United States Special Forces helicopters against what international troops believed to be a group of insurgents ended up killing as many as 27 civilians in the worst such case since at least September, Afghan officials said Monday.”
Senate vote on jobs bill still set for later today, though whether Republicans will allow senators to vote on the stripped-down bill remains unclear.
For those keeping score, there are now 21 Democratic senators who support using reconciliation to vote on a public option.
I can only hope that Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) does not support terrorist acts against the government of the United States.
Oklahoma’s outrageous anti-abortion law has been deemed unconstitutional. Good.
The “Volcker rule” picks up endorsements from five former Treasury secretaries.
Powerful piece from Adam Serwer: “Whereas al-Zawahiri and bin Laden turned to al-Sharif for a method to circumvent the plain language of the Koran, Bush and Cheney went to Yoo and Jay Bybee to circumvent the plain language of the law.”
Leonard Pitts Jr.: “To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper’s online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth…. [O]bjective reality does not change because you refuse to accept it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge a wall does not change the fact that it’s a wall. And you shouldn’t have to hit it to find that out.”
Not long ago, I had a friend of mine try to convince me of the righteousness of torture. He believes that if you are a terrorist that you deserve to be tortured. I mentioned that that is not consistent with our Judeo-Christian heritage. It didn’t matter to him. I mentioned that George Washington strictly forbade torture during the Revolutionary War. He almost asked, “George who?” I mentioned how we won World War II following the guidelines set out by General Eisenhower, which again forbade torture. He said that was different. I said we almost lost the Philippines by torturing captives. It’s only when we started acting humanely that we began to win that war. Finally, I mentioned that we signed on to the Geneva Conventions. As a matter fact, we would delete country to push for the rules that specifically address folks like Al Qaeda and innocent civilians. He wouldn’t hear any of it.
Now, we have the darling of the Right, four-star general David Petraeus. The architect of the surge. The commander who almost single-handedly turned Iraq around. He was on Meet the Press. He gave a resounding “no” to torture and recommended closing Guantánamo Bay. I wonder if he will stay the darling of the Right now.
MR. GREGORY: Can I ask it a slightly different way, if you don’t want to talk about what specifically is being learned? Presuming that both U.S. forces and Pakistani officials are doing the interrogation, do you wish you had the interrogation methods that were available to you during the Bush administration to get intelligence from a figure like this?
GEN. PETRAEUS: I have always been on the record, in fact, since 2003, with the concept of living our values. And I think that whenever we have, perhaps, taken expedient measures, they have turned around and bitten us in the backside. We decided early on in the 101st Airborne Division we’re just going to–look, we just said we’d decide to obey the Geneva Convention, to, to move forward with that. That has, I think, stood elements in good stead. We have worked very hard over the years, indeed, to ensure that elements like the International Committee of the Red Cross and others who see the conduct of our detainee operations and so forth approve of them. Because in the cases where that is not true, we end up paying a price for it ultimately. Abu Ghraib and other situations like that are nonbiodegradables. They don’t go away. The enemy continues to beat you with them like a stick in the Central Command area of responsibility. Beyond that, frankly, we have found that the use of the interrogation methods in the Army Field Manual that was given, the force of law by Congress, that that works. And…
MR. GREGORY: Well…
GEN. PETRAEUS: And that is our experience…
MR. GREGORY: In terms of recruitment threats…
GEN. PETRAEUS: …in, in the years that we have implemented it.
MR. GREGORY: In terms of recruitment threats, do you consider the prison at Guantanamo Bay in the same way? Do you consider it to be related, or do you think, in other words, should it be closed, or do you believe it was short-sighted to set a deadline certain for its closure?
GEN. PETRAEUS: I’ve been on the record on that for well over a year as well, saying that it should be closed. But it should be done in a responsible manner. So I’m not seized with the issue that it won’t be done by a certain date. In fact, I think it is–it’s very prudent to ensure that, as we move forward with that, wherever the remaining detainees are relocated and so forth, whatever jurisdiction is used in legal cases and so forth, is really thought through and done in a very pragmatic and sensible manner.
Errington starts the show by congratulating Aaron on his new full-time gig with Local Edge Radio, Monday through Friday 3 to 6 and then hits upon a few topical insights, starting with a private citizen’s billboard on Highway 1 in Wisconsin which suggests brazenly that we “impeach Obama.” The lawyer for this guy says it’s only an expression suggesting a change in Washington and a better focus on small business! We then go over a few other erstwhile concerns, like needing some definitive explanations about Afghanistan and how the 400 highest-earning American households grew by $345 million dollars in 2007, according to the IRS. Sure would be nice if my household had increased by 31%! Before heading into the segment with two great guests, Errington covers CPAC’s maverick-y no-show, Ms Sarah Palin, the inescapable and unexplainable tragedy of Joseph Andrew’s Stack’s last flight and the unnerving number of condoms distributed to each visiting athlete in Vancouver.
Errington’s guests for the show are Mark Karlin from Buzzflash.com and Professor Juan Cole from Informed Comment. With Mark Karlin, the conversation begins with the absurdity of Tiger Woods’ personal life coming before the healthcare crisis, the controversy about building nuclear power plants and the rising number of American deaths in Afghanistan. Karlin calls Republicans “complete hypocrites” with regard to the stimulus package, which did stabilize the economy, and challenges Democrats to give the Republicans the “back of the hand” and demonstrate some strength!
Professor Juan Cole, an expert on the Middle East who teaches history at the University of Michigan, lays out for us short-term and long-term rationale for the Obama Administration’s presence in and withdrawal from Afghanistan. Professor Cole, distinguished author of Engaging the Muslim World, puts into perspective the real concern about a “nuclear Taliban.” About purported exit strategies, he claims that, “stabilizing Afghanistan in an 18-month period is far-fetched.”
Errington wraps up with a reminder about his Foreign Policy Week blog posts, revisiting some important notes on North Korea’s bargaining chips and the mismanagement of the situation by the last administration. Now this is some great progressive radio!
Case closed: “After seven frustrating years probing the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings, the FBI closed the case Friday, concluding a mentally unhinged government researcher acted alone in the attacks that killed five people and unnerved Americans nationwide.”
The mortgage crisis isn’t over: “President Barack Obama used a campaign push for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Friday to announce a new fund to support homeowners in five states hit hardest by the housing crisis.”
In fact, the mortgage crisis may be shifting: “A mortgage crisis like the one that has devastated homeowners is enveloping the nation’s office and retail buildings.”
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has a cancerous stomach tumor, but is expected to make a full recovery. He may miss some Senate votes, but intends to keep working throughout his treatments.
Lawmaker in Utah suggests that Martin Luther King should share his holiday with John Browning, Utah gunmaker. I think that this is nothing more than a publicity stunt. It worked.
Utah State Sen. Mark Madsen (R) is introducing legislation to create a holiday honoring John Moses Browning — the Utah native and “gun pioneer” who founded the Browning Arms company — on the same day as Martin Luther King Day. Browning’s birthday is believed to be around Jan. 21, so “Madsen proposes doubling up Browning and King”:
“I see them as complimentary,” [Madsen] said. Browning is known for developing a variety of guns, including the gas-operated machine gun. Madsen said he plans to meet with the NAACP to discuss his proposal.
“We’ll see if they can take it in the spirit it’s intended,” Madsen said. [...]
“Guns keep peace,” [state Senate Majority Leader Scott] Jenkins [R] said. “I kind of like the idea of making his birthday a holiday. I’m all over that.”
Salt Lake NAACP President Jeanetta Williams said she was “furious” about the idea. “It is not acceptable for the name John M. Browning to jointly share the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday,” she said. “Dr. King was assassinated by a man using a gun. John M. Browning was a gun manufacturer. … To me it’s a very mean-spirited act.” King would probably be outraged aswell, having said that by allowing guns to be “purchased at will and fired at whim…we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes.” For several years, Utah “purposely” omitted King’s name from the holiday, calling it Human Rights Day until 2000. Madsen noted that he’s not committed to MLK day and will find another day “if the race baiters are out there looking for an opportunity” to start a controversy.
This week was supposed to be foreign-policy week here at Where Is the Outrage. I did start off well with North Korea then I got sidetracked. Now, let’s take a look at Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a country of approximately the same size as Texas. It’s extremely mountainous and dry. There’s never really been a central government in Afghanistan, as best I can tell.
The Taliban is nothing more than a religious political movement that is made up mostly of ethnic Pashtuns (the major ethnic group in Afghanistan, making up approximate 40% of the population). They took over the central government in 1996 led by a reclusive and rarely photographed leader Mullah Omar. Exactly how they came to power is not important, in my opinion. The fact that they were embraced by many Afghans is important. They were not thought of as outsiders. They did provide basic services including law and order, which many Afghans appreciated.
When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, we did not kill or capture members of the fleeing Taliban government. Instead, we pushed members of the Taliban into the Tora Bora mountains and into Pakistan. Many of the leaders were not captured. We had opportunities in 2002 and 2003 to provide basic services and help rebuild the country. Unfortunately, that was not the focus of the Bush administration. We never really dismantled or engaged the local tribal leaders/warlords. They are the ones who control the power.
By 2004, it was clear that the Taliban was regrouping. We never got adequate control in southern Afghanistan. Because the Bush administration was bogged down in Iraq, we didn’t have adequate troops in Afghanistan to push back against the Taliban surge. One of the biggest mistakes that the Bush administration made was to try to turn over security of Afghanistan to NATO. NATO is no better (and no worse) than UN security forces. Each member country sets up its own rules of engagement. All countries were risk-averse, which was perfect for the Taliban. They were able to engage in the heroin trade in order make money for weapons and food knowing that NATO was not really all that interested in a head-on confrontation.
Without spending an inordinate amount of time discussing the multiple failures of the Bush administration, let’s fast forward to where we are now. We now have a re-energized Taliban organization that is as strong now as it has ever been the last six or seven years. They are embedded in Western Pakistan, the Tora Bora mountains and southern Afghanistan. It is clear that they are making a big push to take over most of the altar country. It is also clear that they will be a safe haven for Al Qaeda. So, here’s what I think I know –
Al Qaeda and the Taliban are two peas from the same pod
the Taliban are skilled warriors they have been fighting nearly continuously for almost 20 years
defeating the Taliban will require a much greater effort than the “Surge” did in Iraq
we’re going to have to win over the population, not on a city by city basis but instead on a tribe to tribe basis
we’re going to have to provide basic services — new roads, better agriculture, including irrigation systems
in order to defeat the Taliban, we’re going to have to be in Afghanistan for some time
finally, in strengthening Afghanistan, we are strengthening the Pakistani government (remember… they have nuclear weapons)
Is this domestic terrorism? A software engineer who was anonymous before today is now known all over the country. It appears that he has intentionally flown his plane into a building that housed the IRS in Austin, Texas. Joseph Stack was a 53-year-old gentleman who set his house on fire before flying his plane into the seven story building.
As I’ve mentioned after all of these tragedies (I’ve been doing this blog now for over four years there’s been the Virginia Tech shooting, the shooting on a military base in Texas, the shooting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville and several others), there will be the psychological valuation by the news media. We will look into this man’s background and ask why it happened. The one thing that seems never to emerge from the mainstream media is that we cannot predict an individual’s behavior. There are plenty of people in the United States who are financially squeezed, who have been laid off, who hate the IRS, who don’t have a girlfriend, who are frustrated with life and who have no intention of flying a plane into IRS building or shooting their colleagues at work. All of this introspection is fruitless.
A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service launched a suicide attack on the agency Thursday by crashing his small plane into an office building containing nearly 200 IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing for their lives.
At least one person in the building was missing.
A federal law official identified the pilot as Joseph Stack and said investigators were looking at a long anti-government screed and farewell note that he apparently posted on the Web earlier in the day as an explanation for what he was about to do.
In it, the author cited run-ins with the IRS and ranted about the tax agency, government bailouts and corporate America’s “thugs and plunderers.”
“I have had all I can stand,” he wrote in the note, dated Thursday, adding: “I choose not to keep looking over my shoulder at `big brother’ while he strips my carcass.”
Stack, 53, also apparently set fire to his house about six miles from the crash site before embarking on the suicide flight, said two law enforcement officials, who like other authorities spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on. (more…)
“Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man…. Take my pound of flesh and sleep well,” is the Web browser title on embeddedart.com, the site registered to Stack.
The New Jersey-based Web host that served “EmbeddedArt.com” says it took down the site at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To see the full story, click here.
The note, which is about six pages of text when printed, begins: “If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, ‘Why did this have to happen?’”
What follows is a rambling complaint about the tax system, how it affects organized religion and corporations, and how at several turns it has derailed Stack’s professional career as a software engineer.
The note says that during the early 1980s Stack participated with others in “tax code readings and discussions” that focused on tax exemptions, such as ones that “make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy.”
“We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the ‘best’, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the ‘big boys’ were doing,” the note says.
The note went on to say: “That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie.”
The note does not say what happened to cause those results.
Stack then went to engineering school and later began working as a software engineer, according to the note. Later, the note says, a 1986 tax law setting out new rules for engineers essentially “declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave.” (more…)
Everyone seems to be using the medical analogy that the public option is not dead, but that it seems to be on life support. Once again, progressives see a ray of hope but I would urge caution. The public option is not a panacea. The public option is not even a watered-down version of what I would like to see in the United States. We need Medicare for all. That is the direction that we need to be going. A public option that does not lower costs and increase access does us no good.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) are the latest to indicate support for the use of reconciliation to pass health care reform legislation that includes a public option.
The Minnesota Independent published part of a prepared statement from Klobuchar:
I would want to make sure that the bill contains the Medicare care cost reform measures included in the existing bill. I am also supportive of the President’s efforts to forge a bipartisan agreement. We must reduce health care costs for the people of this country.
I support the House bill version of the public option which is based on negotiated rates. I do not support a public option based on Medicare rates because it exacerbates geographic disparities that already hurt Minnesota.
Susan Sullam, a spokeswoman for Sen. Cardin said Wednesday that “Senator Cardin has always been for a strong public option. He also has long thought reconciliation was a viable option for passing strong health care reform.”
Neither Klobuchar nor Cardin appear ready to sign a letter penned by by four other senators endorsing both the public option and the use of reconciliation. Eleven senators have signed the the letter. (more…)
I have been arguing for months that economic stimulus is doing exactly what it was supposed to do. It stopped a Depression. Yet, for reasons that are unclear, nobody seems to be interested. It is like this recovery was a foregone conclusion. I can tell you that if John McCain were president the unemployment rate would be sitting around 15% as he would have cut taxes and done little or nothing to stimulate the economy.
Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked.
Let’s say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let’s also imagine it was large enough to have had a huge impact on jobs — employing something like two million people who would otherwise be unemployed right now.
If that had happened, what would the economy look like today?
Well, it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren’t hypothetical. They are descriptions of the actual bill.
Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.
Yet I’m guessing you don’t think of the stimulus bill as a big success. You’ve read columns (by me, for example) complaining that it should have spent money more quickly. Or you’ve heard about the phantom ZIP code scandal: the fact that a government Web site mistakenly reported money being spent in nonexistent ZIP codes.
And many of the criticisms are valid. The program has had its flaws. But the attention they have received is wildly disproportionate to their importance. To hark back to another big government program, it’s almost as if the lasting image of the lunar space program was Apollo 6, an unmanned 1968 mission that had engine problems, and not Apollo 11, the moon landing. (more…)
Keith has more (BTW, I will be back to Foreign Policy Week tomorrow. I’m going to try to discuss Afghanistan and why Obama was right to increase the troop strength.):
Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, full-time sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
