I really like the analogy Bob Herbert uses in his latest NYTimes column to rebut the catfood-commissioners “Raising False Alarms“: … When you see surveillance videos of some creep mugging an elderly person in an elevator or apartment lobby, the universal reaction is outrage. But when the fat cats and the ideologues want to hack …
The Party of Fiscal Responsibility
A Death Trap, A Suicide Rap
This list of 100 programs the Republican Study Commission wants to cut to balance the budget is a political death sentence for the Republican party, since it cuts a number of popular and necessary programs. To pick on just one, consider “Essential Air Service”, a subsidy that allows rural areas to have a couple of …
Surprise
Jindal’s sand berm was a total boondoggle: [T]he independent commission appointed by President Obama to investigate the oil spill has chimed in as well. Its verdict is, if anything, more harsh than the assessment offered by earlier critics: In the report the commission’s members released today, they concluded the berm project was a total bust that succeeded …
Teabaggernomics
Don’t know how we missed this yesterday: Facing a huge budget deficit when he took office in January, Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano did not impose a hiring freeze. He did not stop borrowing to subsidize some of the richest school districts in the country. He did not eliminate the Police Department’s beloved mounted …
Further to The Sullivan File
Ah, Andrew. Sullivan is at it again. __ I don’t often write about Andrew Sullivan, in part because the two parts of his work I dislike the most — his propensity for “man on a horse” hero-worship and his difficulties with science and numbers — are both dealt with more than capably by others, including …
Change You Can Believe In
After banning earmarks and solving the deficit, Republicans in the House are going to ban symbolic resolutions, which by itself will lower the unemployment rate by at least a couple of percentage points. (Via Ezra Klein, who is wrong about these resolutions – they don’t make any difference in the House, which is a pretty …
Paradox My Ass
Here’s Ed Kilgore’s latest, Will Republicans Cut Medicare? A Paradox. I’ll save you the pain of reading the piece: After many strokes, Kilgore concludes that no, the Republicans will cut Medicaid instead. Why is this even up for debate? The core of Republican support in this country is old, and they love Medicare. And every …