Political Bloviation

I haven’t posted here in a long while and I’m not sure if I will again or not. I guess I’ve decided I don’t have much to say that others can say better. Part of it is simple disgust with the American political system. There doesn’t seem like either party speaks for me. President Obama has been a huge disappointment. He’s so anxious to compromise its hard to know what he stands for. He’s marginally better than the Republicans, but not by much. Maybe I’ll comeback here as the election draws nearer, who knows.

Here’s a great graphic from the NY Time showing where the debt came from:

It seems to me that the GOP concern that any tax increases will kill the economic recovery is just a wee bit odd. At the same time they insist that we need to cut billions from federal spending. I suspect I’m not the first to notice, but the economic impact from a tax increase is probably less than the economic impact from a spending cut. Cutting spending in the face of a faltering recovery will lead to more job losses, not less, We’re at historically low level of taxation as a percentage of the economy. We’re also at historically high levels of income inequality.

We need a tax increase on the wealthy, support for American jobs and a common sense trade policy that doesn’t place corporate profits before American workers. We need to end the wars we’ve already started and to avoid other bottomless commitments of blood and treasure. We need to stop imprisoning more of are population than any other western democracy. We need to end the war on drugs.

YouTube – The Truth About the Economy.

Robert Reich gets to the heart of the causes of ever increasing income inequality and the squeezing of the middle class. I’d add one other piece to it: trade policy.

If India applies a 40% import duty and China has a 20% rate, we should do exactly the same thing to their imports into this country. We don’t and allow them to dump goods in our markets. At some point we have to decide if cheap imports are worth the loss of American jobs.

Seniors, Guns and Money – Paul Krugman – NYTimes.com
Krugman on the attempt by the GOP to try shame Democrats into not saying that their attempt to dismantle Medicare is, in fact an attempt to dismantle Medicare.

But the Democrats aren’t engaging in scare tactics, they’re simply telling the truth. Policy details aside, the G.O.P.’s rigid anti-tax position also makes it, necessarily, the enemy of the senior-oriented programs that account for much of federal spending. And that’s something voters ought to know.

After the GOP’s utterly mendacious “death panels” attack on health care reform, there’s no reason to do anything different. The truth is what it is. If the budget is to be balanced, the unwillingness to raise taxes or cut defense spending significantly means that programs for the elderly will have to bear the brunt of cuts. The rest of the budget is small potatoes. It’s not a partisan statement, it’s simple math.

If All the Atheists Left the U SA… [PIC].

Conclusion: Following Jesus leads to prison? I knew there was some reason I don’t like going to church…

It’s better to have McJob, rather than no job, but it doesn’t bode well for the nation’s future. “The Hollowing Out of the Middle Class” sounds about right.

How the McEconomy Bombed the American Worker

The Hollowing Out of the Middle Class

By Andy Kroll

Think of it as a parable for these grim economic times. On April 19th, McDonald’s launched its first-ever national hiring day, signing up 62,000 new workers at stores throughout the country. For some context, that’s more jobs created by one company in a single day than the net job creation of the entire U.S. economy in 2009. And if that boggles the mind, consider how many workers applied to local McDonald’s franchises that day and left empty-handed: 938,000 of them. With a 6.2% acceptance rate in its spring hiring blitz, McDonald’s was more selective than the Princeton, Stanford, or Yale University admission offices.

via Tomgram: Andy Kroll, Welcome to the McJobs Recovery | TomDispatch.

My favorite quote this week:

“Justice is expensive. That is why there’s so little of it, and that reserved for those few with the money and influence to afford it.”

Black Powder War – Naomi Novik (Yes, I’m ashamed to admin that I read alternative history/fantasy of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons.)

the GOP promises to block any nominee to the new Consumer Protection Agency, until the agency is stripped of authority to do anything significant.

Democrats should seize this opportunity and strike while the iron is hot, just as they did in standing up to Walker, Kasich, and Ryan. Being willing to stand tall and fight back against those unpopular right-wing policies, and the moneymen behind them like the Koch brothers, has already paid off enormously for Democrats. Just think how picking a fight with the most unpopular entity in America (now that Osama bin Laden is dead) –the big banks on Wall Street — could help them politically. The President should immediately announce he is appointing Elizabeth Warren as director of the CFPB, and when the next recess comes, immediately put her in as a recess appointment. There is no longer any reason not to, because the Republicans gave us our opening: if they are going to oppose anyone no matter how weak in that job, there is no reason to offer a compromise candidate. Obama should just give it to the person who would be the best director, which Elizabeth would clearly be. Having a big blow-up with Republicans, with us fighting for consumers and homeowners and them fighting for the banks, would be a great political fight to have.

They really have taken away any reason not to go the recess appointment route. Since compromise is precluded what’s the point of negotiation? My fear is that Obama will resume his pattern of pre-emptive negotiation with himself and roll over and give the GOP what it wants. Sometimes you have to make a stand, this is one of those times. Banks are afraid of the CPA which means it has the potential to actually be effective.

Lee presses balanced budget vote with debt ceiling – On Congress – POLITICO.com.

This brings to mind an obvious question: So what will happen if we find ourselves in another crisis like the one that precipitated the bailout in 2008? The GOP has actively undermined financial regulation legislation. Their efforts will have the effect of ensuring future crises will be more frequent and more damaging.

If there’s a balanced budget amendment it will tie the hands of the federal government and prevent it from trying to fill void left by lax private demand. Instead of a bailout and recession we’ll have a full scale depression instead. Why do they insist on repeating the mistakes of the past? We’ve been down this road and we know where it leads.

If I hear another politician blather about how the federal budget is like a family budget I’m going to scream. It’s not even apples to oranges, it’s more like comparing apples to the moon. Like many other things politician say it’s designed to stoke up resentment and make people think “I have to balance my budget, the federal government should too”. We already have a clear example of how that worked in the picture above.

Claim: Krugman is top prognosticator; Cal Thomas is the worst | Poynter..

A Hamilton College class and their public policy professor analyzed the predicts of 26 pundits — including Sunday morning TV talkers — and used a scale of 1 to 5 to rate their accuracy. After Paul Krugman, the most accurate pundits were Maureen Dowd, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “The Bad” list includes Thomas Friedman, Clarence Page, and Bob Herbert…

…Those scoring lowest – “The Ugly” – with negative tallies were conservative columnist Cal Thomas; U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC); U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI); U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, a McCain supporter and Democrat-turned-Independent from Connecticut; Sam Donaldson of ABC; and conservative columnist George Will.

It is odd that those who get the most TV facetime are the least accurate. You’d think there was some kind of plot to intentionally mislead the public. That’s impossible, isn’t it? Isn’t it!!??