Category Archives: Politics

What’s really going on

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From a comment in the NYTimes: Letter to the Peasants of America from the Top 2%, You asked, Where did all the money and jobs go? We took the money. We can never have enough. We shipped the jobs overseas. We started international corporations where we seek out the cheapest labor and the least stringent regulations. We Invested in scams which produced nothing but debt for you. We crashed the economy. Now Americans are just as desperate to have a low paying job as anywhere else in the world. We arranged the largest theft in history and stuck you with … Continue reading →

What Gets Paid? You Choose

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I’m very fond of little gadgets like this one at the Washington Post. It gives you the amount we’ll have if the debt limit isn’t paid, and then let’s you decide which programs get cut or not. It’s clunky in that you have to keep or defund entire programs—there’s no partial option. But it gives you a good overview of what is at stake if we default, and how much we can actually afford without borrowing.

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About that $100 Billion…

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In the Republicans’ proposed “Pledge to America” which they published during the election, the GOP promised to shave a full $100 billion off of government spending the first year they were in charge of the budget. Apparently they over-promised, as the New York Times is now reporting that the actual number may be only half that size. From the GOP’s Pledge to America: “We will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone.” Another broken promise by the House Republicans, and it’s only their first day on the job!

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Hypocrisy from the GetGo

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So, the House is going to start out with a vote to repeal the affordable care act on Jan. 12. You can see the two-page bill here (.PDF file). It’s pretty amusing that in two pages of large double-spaced type, they manage to write “Job-Killing Health Care Bill” at least five times. Also too: they have exempted themselves from their own CutGo promise and won’t account for the added $1 trillion the repeal would add to the deficit (according to CBO estimates). And while they complained mightily when Dems didn’t allow them amendments on bills brought to the floor, they … Continue reading →

Get ready

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The 112th Congressional session starts this week, and it looks like it will be a doozy. Already Darrell Issa, who will have subpoena power on the oversight committee, has called this Administration “one of the most corrupt ever”, though he can’t point to anything concretely corrupt that Obama and his staff have done. And even though 61% of Americans want the deficit addressed by raising taxes on the rich, Republicans have taken tax hikes off the table entirely, and are preparing to increase the deficit by refusing to pay for any tax cuts they might make. In that poll, only … Continue reading →

Sanity abides

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In the face of all the fear and violence, and with much love for Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and all my friends who are off to D.C. this weekend, let me say “May Sanity Rule!” Talking Points Memo has the very best rally story of the day. TPM Reader JL recounts his unusual flight into DC for the sanity rally: My girlfriend and I cashed in our miles so we could fly in for the rally. As we boarded our flight from Minneapolis into Reagan, it was largely an older crowd, and we figured we must be the only ones … Continue reading →

Sore winners

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Tom Junod at Esquire has an important take on the nature of the Tea Party and the oddity of how these folks, who are generally among the winners of our society, feel as if they are put upon minorities and losers. Junod calls them the “Sore Winners” and uses the example of a friend of his. This friend has a good life, he is well-off and he and his family have everything they need and many luxuries. Rather than feeling blessed, they feel somehow persecuted by those they consider “less deserving” than themselves. Indeed, he wasn’t as happy for himself … Continue reading →