Category Archives: Politics

Quote of the Day: “…a million dollars is not a lot of money”

06 Saturday Feb 2010

Posted by in Politics, Republicans

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Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and wannabe (allegedly) Senator from New York, Harold Ford, squared off in a 90 minute joint appearance at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Thursday. The topics ranged from health care to abortion to taxes. The Boston Herald reports:

The two often traded jokes, especially when Steele panned President Barack Obama’s long-stated plan to let income tax rates return to higher levels for families making more than $250,000 a year.

“Trust me, after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money,” Steele said.

I wonder if Mr. Steele is growing accustomed to the taste of leather?

Who’s In Charge Here? Follow the Money

06 Saturday Feb 2010

Posted by in Congress, Democrats, Financial Crisis, lobbyists, Politics, Wall Street

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The Washington D.C. game of finger-pointing, blame-shifting, and buck-passing rolls on. Robert Reich in Thursday’s Salon:

“Senator Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, scolded Wall Street representatives at a hearing Thursday for sending “an army of lobbyists whose only mission is to kill the common-sense financial reforms” needed by the public. “The fact is,” Dodd said, “I am frustrated, and so are the American people.” He charged that Wall Street’s intransigence was the reason for Congress’s failure to pass any bill to regulate the Street.

Dodd left out the most telling detail, of course. Wall Street is where the campaign money is. Dodd of all people knows that. He’s been on the receiving end of lots of it over the years.

…In other words, it isn’t Congress’s fault. It isn’t the Senate Banking Committee’s fault. It certainly isn’t Dodd’s fault. The reason more than a year has passed since the biggest bailout in the history of the world and nothing has been done to prevent a repeat performance…is what, exactly, Senator? Because the Street has sent an army of lobbyists to Capitol Hill?

Call me old-fashioned, but I thought Congress was in charge of passing legislation, not Wall Street.

A little over $6 million, that’s all. Which leads to the REAL reason for the lack of Congressional action:

“Congress isn’t doing a thing about Wall Street because it’s in the pocket of Wall Street. Dodd’s outburst at the Street is like the alcoholic who screams at a bartender “how dare you give me another drink when all I’ve done is pleaded with you for one!”

Make Room Under the Bus

06 Saturday Feb 2010

Posted by in Democrats, health care, Obama, Politics

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Dear Congressional Democrats,  

Welcome to the undercarriage of Barack Obama Mass Transit:

“And it may be that — you know, if Congress decides — if Congress decides we’re not going to do it [health care reform], even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not. And that’s how democracy works. There will be elections coming up and they’ll be able to make a determination and register their concerns one way or the other during election time.”

Sincerely,

Grandma,

Reverend Wright,

Public option supporters,

Defenders of civil liberties,

And a litany of other once upon a time hopers and changers.

P.S. We feel your pain.

Senate Democrats Ready to Act on Jobs Bill……..Almost

05 Friday Feb 2010

Posted by in Democrats, economy, Politics

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Cat-herder-in-Chief Harry Reid is ready to get to work on job creation:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote on a jobs package for next week…Reid (D-Nev.) and other Democratic leaders unveiled their jobs agenda Thursday, a plan they say will begin creating work for the nearly 7 million people who have lost employment since the start of the recession.

Reid said he would bring the first of several jobs bills to the Senate floor on Feb. 8 and hopes to pass it through the chamber by Feb. 12, when lawmakers are scheduled to start the Presidents Day recess.”

Just a few loose ends to tie up first:

“But Reid and other leaders declined to discuss key details, such as how much the package would cost, how many jobs it would create and how it would be paid for. Reid had yet to secure a Republican co-sponsor for the package.”

“Key details?” So, other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

A Carefully Scripted Spontaneous Discussion

04 Thursday Feb 2010

Posted by in Congress, Democrats, Obama, Politics

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Question-and-answer session or dog and pony show? You decide (emphasis mine):

“Senate Democrats held back from asking President Barack Obama about healthcare reform during a carefully scripted question-and-answer session in front of television cameras…With the cameras rolling, a group of senators selected in advance by the Democratic leadership asked questions about such topics as partisan gridlock and GOP obstruction.

Democratic leaders planned their question time with Obama well in advance, discussing during a meeting earlier in the week who would get to ask questions.”

…There was a vigorous discussion about that afterward with some of his top advisers and others,” Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said regarding the healthcare discussion.

“I think people were probably aware that there was no easy answer and this is being broadcast on live national television and didn’t want to put him on the spot,” Bayh said.

I’ll take dog and pony show for $1,000 Alex.

Facing Tough Choices on Deficit and Debt

04 Thursday Feb 2010

Posted by in economy, Politics

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I think most people who live in the real world (leaving out the gutless wonders who inhabit Washington, D.C.) will agree that if we ever hope to get our fiscal house in order some tough choices will have to be made. David Pauly has a piece at Bloomberg today with 9 suggestions:

1. Restore all income taxes to the pre-President George W. Bush level, not just those for people earning $250,000 or more.

2. Tax the banks $90 billion as proposed by President Barack Obama to pay for their bailout. Then break them up — making them small enough to fail and eliminating the need for more trillion-dollar rescues.

3. Eliminate income-tax deductions for property taxes and mortgage interest. Phase it in over five years so it hurts less.

4. Break Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into four mortgage- buying companies and get them off the federal dole.

5. Raise the retirement age for collecting full Social Security benefits to 72. Cut cost-of-living increases for beneficiaries to half the inflation rate for 10 years.

6. Raise the age for Medicare eligibility to 68.

Regarding numbers 5 and 6: Keep in mind that when Social Security was passed in 1936, life expectancy was 62. When Medicare was passed in 1965 it was 70. Today it’s 78.

7. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the current schedules.

8. Kill farm subsidies.

9. Reduce government.
Pauly lists some of the overlapping agencies and departments which could eliminated:

The government has both the U.S. Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission. Doesn’t competition from e-mail and FedEx Corp. keep postal rates in line?

[Does] the president really needs both a Council of Economic Advisers and a National Economic Council?

Government housing officials will have less to do if we cut Fannie and Freddie loose.

Whole agencies might be suspect. We, for instance, have a Selective Service System but no draft.

Certainly food for thought.

Cooking the Books: Fannie and Freddie Not In the Budget

04 Thursday Feb 2010

Posted by in economy, Financial Crisis, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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As if the staggering numbers that are in President Obama’s budget weren’t enough, take a look at what’s not there:

“Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — Look through President Barack Obama’s proposed 2011 budget and you’ll see a line calling for a $235 million increase in the Justice Department’s funding to fight financial fraud. Lucky for them, the people who wrote the budget can’t be prosecuted for cooking the government’s books.

…They are keeping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac off the government’s balance sheet and out of the federal budget, along with their $1.6 trillion of corporate debt and $4.7 trillion of mortgage obligations...Fannie and Freddie aren’t merely wards of the state. Practically speaking, they are the entire U.S. housing market. Their liabilities are the government’s liabilities.

White House budget director Peter Orszag on September 9, 2008, two days after Fannie and Freddie were seized, when he was director of the Congressional Budget Office:

“The degree of control exercised by the federal government over these entities is so strong that the best treatment is to incorporate them into the federal budget.”

That control is stronger today. Congress and the Treasury have given the companies a blank check to blow through whatever taxpayer money is necessary to keep the U.S. housing market afloat. Anyone buying large quantities of U.S. government bonds knows these liabilities exist. So why pretend they don’t?”

A good question for those who promised openness and transparency.

What Will Be Done About the Debt? Nothing

03 Wednesday Feb 2010

Posted by in Congress, economy, Obama, Politics

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The national debt is like the weather. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Nobody who CAN do something about it, that is. Reactions to President Obama’s proposed $3.83 trillion budget, which is projected to add $8.5 trillion to the debt over the next decade, prove that point, and can be summed up in a few words in this McClatchy article:

“Complicating the debt reduction picture is the desire by members of both parties to preserve what they see as important local programs, as well as to give themselves something to boast about in this election year.”

A few examples:

“There really isn’t anything in this budget which I can take home or talk about in favorable terms with respect to coal when I want to.” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.”

“Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., criticized Army Corps of Engineers funding. The Howard Hanson dam has been getting weaker and may not be able to control flooding in the Green River Valley, south of Seattle, she said.”

“Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent..wanted the president’s proposed three-year freeze on non-defense discretionary spending to be extended to the Pentagon..[White House Budget Director Peter] Orszag said that wouldn’t be practical; Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., agreed…”Because the nation is at war, we need to have more flexibility,” Warner said.”

One would think that a defense budget equal to the rest of the world’s military spending combined might have room for cuts somewhere. I guess one would be wrong.

OK, no defense cuts. What about entitlements?

“Orszag, who showed no emotion during his testimony, calmly said that Obama had a long-term plan to reduce the deficits, notably an as-yet un-appointed bipartisan commission to recommend remedies…Any commission recommendations also would have to be approved by Congress, where expected recommendations to cut the future costs of popular programs such as Social Security and Medicare and to raise taxes would face stiff resistance…There’s also no assurance that Congress will agree to a commission that has clout.”

So let’s review. Everybody in D.C. wants to reduce the debt and cut spending, but:

They won’t cut Defense.
They won’t cut entitlements.
They can’t stop paying interest on the debt.
They won’t cut any discretionary spending because it’s all somebody’s pet project or program.
They won’t raise taxes.

That leaves…….NOTHING.

Another Round of AIG Bonuses

03 Wednesday Feb 2010

Posted by in economy, Financial Crisis, Politics, Uncategorized

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Under the word “chutzpah” in the dictionary, it should say “also see AIG.”

“American International Group plans Wednesday to pay another round of employee bonuses, worth about $100 million, said several people familiar with the matter, a year after similar payments at the bailed-out insurance giant infuriated many Americans and inflamed Washington.”

Yes, Washington was “inflamed.” And they did what? Bluster, as usual.

“This week’s retention payments go to those employees at the company’s Financial Products division who agreed recently to accept 10 to 20 percent less money than AIG had initially promised them two years ago.”

How very generous of them. Especially taking into account that the Financial Products division is the “unit which traded in the derivatives that imploded in September 2008, leading to the biggest government bailout in history.” That would be the implosion that left the taxpayers on the hook for over $180 billion. These are the people AIG needs to retain? They don’t need to be re-tained, in fact some of them should be de-tained. Like in the crossbar hotel.

It gets better:

“The agreement calls for employees who still work for the financial products unit to accept 10 percent cutbacks, while employees who have left the company must take 20 percent cuts…But some people have not agreed to the cutbacks and are insisting on the entire amounts. People with knowledge of the negotiations said that a vast majority of those still employed at A.I.G. had accepted the cuts, but only about a third of the former employees had done so.”

Some are even going to court:

“Andrew Goodstadt, a New York lawyer who represents more than a dozen current and former Financial Products employees, said he hoped the deal would be a step toward normalcy. “My clients are looking forward to getting paid their contractual entitlements,” he said, “and resolving this matter once and for all.”

Yes Mr. Goodstadt, your honorable clients who just want AIG to make good on its agreement with them. How about what they agreed to do after the last round of obscene  bonuses hit the fan:

“At the height of the controversy last spring, employees at the firm signaled they would return a total of $45 million by the end of 2009. A government audit in the fall showed that only about $19 million was returned.”

So by my calculations counselor, your clients still owe us $26 million. Cash only please, no checks.

Intelligence Officials Warn of “Certain” Terrorist Attacks

03 Wednesday Feb 2010

Posted by in Democrats, Politics, terrorism

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I’m no defender of George W. Bush, but I’m even less of a defender of the double standard. And let’s be honest, if Bush’s C.I.A. director and members of his administration said this 9 months out from an election, cries of “fearmongering” and “trying to influence the election” would be going up from the Democrats:

“The nation’s top intelligence officials warned Congress on Tuesday that terrorists are “certain” to attempt another attack on the U.S. within the coming months…CIA Director Leon Panetta said the foremost risk was of another al Qaeda attack using recruits that have relatively low or “clean” profiles that are hard to detect.

Panetta’s warning came at the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual threat assessment hearing…It was echoed by Blair, FBI Director Robert Mueller, acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research John Dinger, and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess, Jr.

While no one referenced specific plots against the U.S., all of the officials agreed with Blair that they were “certain” another attempt would be made in the next three to six months.”