The Commentariat -- Feb. 7, 2014
Internal links removed.
Lawrence Downes of the New York Times: "[Thursday] Speaker John Boehner cast doubt on the possibility of the House passing immigration legislation this year, probably dashing whatever slim hopes there were for a deal. The problem this time wasn't ... any of the ... familiar excuses Republicans have given over the years for doing nothing. It was that the Republicans can't fix immigration because: President Obama.... Lost in all the squalid electoral scheming is the moral dimension of this debate: Thousands of families are being torn apart and citizen children are suffering needlessly.... Mr. Obama should use his authority to slow that enforcement machinery down, as he did to wide acclaim in deferring the deportations of thousands of young immigrants known as Dreamers." ...
... Conservative Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson on Boehner & the Coca Cola ad. Immigrants get it: Republicans don't care about them. ...
... Steve M. "Nobody could have predicted...."
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The Senate failed to move forward on a three-month extension of assistance for the long-term unemployed on Thursday, leaving it unlikely that Congress would approve the measure soon while undercutting a key aspect of President Obama's economic recovery plan. Fifty-nine senators, including four Republicans, voted to advance the legislation, falling one vote short of the 60 needed to break a Republican filibuster effort." ...
... Sarah Mimms of the National Journal: "For the fifth time this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid brought an unemployment insurance extension to the floor on Thursday, even though several members of his party admitted that they didn't have the votes to pass it.... But ... they once again got Republicans on the record opposing assistance for the long-term unemployed.... With Republicans voting against the issue or avoiding it altogether, while simultaneously 'spending a full day debating new restrictions to women's health,' one national Democratic operative said, that fits in well with the party's broader electoral message."
Paul Krugman: "... the campaign against health reform has, at every stage, grabbed hold of any and every argument it could find against insuring the uninsured, with truth and logic never entering into the matter.... We had the nonexistent death panels. We had false claims that the Affordable Care Act will cause the deficit to balloon. We had supposed horror stories about ordinary Americans facing huge rate increases, stories that collapsed under scrutiny. And now we have a fairly innocuous technical estimate misrepresented as a tale of massive economic damage.... No, millions of Americans won't lose their jobs, but tens of millions will gain the security of knowing that they can get and afford the health care they need." ...
... E. J. Dionne: "The reaction to the CBO study is an example of how willfully stupid -- there's no other word -- the debate over Obamacare has become. Opponents don't look to a painstaking analysis for enlightenment. They twist its findings and turn them into dishonest slogans. Too often, the media go along by highlighting the study's political impact rather than focusing on what it actually says." ...
... ** This post by conservative Ron Fournier of the National Journal is shockingly on-point: "The biggest 'disincentive for people to work' is not Obamacare. It's the lack of jobs in a fast-changing, post-industrial economy that's leaving millions of Americans behind.... Republicans initially twisted the [CBO] analysis to suggest that Obamacare would throw 2 million people out of work. Quickly proven wrong, they shifted their attack. They warned that millions of lazy, unmotivated Americans would take advantage of the law to live on the government dole.... The GOP argument has more than a whiff of Reagan-era racial 'welfare queen' politics." ...
... Ross Douthat -- a purveyor of the "disincentive" argument -- heartily objects. He has some points, but he misses the main one: if aspects of the ACA do work as a disincentive to working more, then suggest a fix. Don't just whine about it.
... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Here's a remarkably constant factor to bear in mind in the debate over the federal health-care law: Most Americans say it hasn't really impacted them one way or the other. A new Gallup poll out this week shows that 64 percent of Americans say the law has not affected them or their family, even as many of Obamacare's features have been implemented. Among those who say they have felt an impact, 19 percent say it has hurt them and their family, while 13 percent say it has helped." ...
... Greg Sargent: "But who are those 19 percent? It turns out those telling Gallup the law has hurt them or their family are very disproportionately Republican and conservative." ...
... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong blamed the babies of two employees for increasing the company's benefit costs on Thursday, explaining in a conference call that AOL had to pay millions out in medical bills and alter its entire benefits package. The remarks came just hours after the company announced changes to its 401(k) plans and complained that Obamacare has increased costs by $7.1 million.... But health care experts ThinkProgress contacted questioned why a large self-insured company with more than 5,000 employees could not absorb the additional health care costs associated with the pregnancies. Large employers typically purchase reinsurance, which could cover a substantial share of big claims and ensure stability in cases of larger-than expected medical payouts. 'The Affordable Care Act is simply a convenient whipping boy for any decision an employer makes to cut benefits,' Tim Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee, said." ...
... Joe Coscarelli of New York: "Tim Armstrong should probably stop doing conference calls. The AOL CEO, who fired a guy during one for taking his picture, was perhaps too brash once again today, baldly telling his entire company that their benefits were being rolled back because two women went and got themselves pregnant.... The Huffington Post, which is owned by AOL, covered the comments in its business section, while some employees expressed their collective 'WTF' in public." CW: The HuffPo tweets are pretty good, & all this is another reminder of why I don't follow the HuffPo but respect its top reporters.
Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Here they go again. As of Friday, the Treasury will no longer have the authority to issue bonds as necessary to pay the government's bills. In a matter of weeks, the government could run out of cash and begin defaulting on some payments unless Congress acts to raise the official ceiling on the national debt.... In the past, the Treasury has managed to keep paying the bills for months after hitting the debt ceiling, using 'extraordinary measures' to move cash from pocket to pocket. But it is currently sending out billions of dollars of tax refunds, warning that Congress probably has only until the end of the month to act."
Infrastructure. Adam Edelman of New York Daily News: "Vice President Joe Biden, never one to hide what he's thinking, said Thursday that New York's LaGuardia Airport feels like it's 'in some third world country.' ... Officials from the Port Authority, which operates LaGuardia, did not comment."
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will sign the $956 billion farm bill on Friday as he travels to Michigan State University to extol the benefits of a thriving agricultural sector on the nation's overall economy.... Last month, Gov. Cuomo announced plans for the state to take over a major rehabilitation project of the aging airport, from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to speed up the renovation process."
Every Single Senator Wants to Send Max Baucus to the Other Side of the World. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will serve as the next U.S. ambassador to China after his colleagues confirmed him Thursday for the critical diplomatic position. Senators voted 96 to 0 to confirm Baucus; he voted 'present.' He replaces Gary Locke, who is stepping down...."
I'm going to predict that that interview that I did is going to go down in journalistic history as what should be done. It takes a certain skill to pose questions in a factual way and be persistent without being disrespectful. -- Bill O'Reilly on his interview of/attack on President Obama
Well, Bill, this will go down in 'journalistic' history. -- Constant Weader ...
I was not pleased with the disrespect he showed to the President, so that wasn't a warmer-upper. -- Nancy Pelosi, in response to an O'Reilly "reporter"'s insistence that she do an interview with O'Reilly
Ginger Gibson of Politico: "A reporter from Bill O'Reilly's television program attended House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's weekly press conference to confront her about why she won't sit for an interview with the Fox News anchor":
The Billionaires' Club
Andy Kroll & Daniel Schulman of Mother Jones: "There's one main rule at the conservative donor conclaves held twice a year by Charles and David Koch at luxury resorts: What happens there stays there.... But last week, following the Kochs' first donor gathering of 2014, one attendee left behind a sensitive document at the Renaissance Esmeralda resort outside of Palm Springs, California.... The one-page document, provided to Mother Jones by a hotel guest who discovered it, offers a fascinating glimpse into the Kochs' political machine and shows how closely intertwined it is with Koch Industries, their $115 billion conglomerate." CW: Likely the careless attendee is accustomed to having others pick up after her/him. Thanks to Barbarossa for the link.
The very rich are different from way more obnoxious than you and me. Billionaire Sam Zell is out to prove it. The worst part begins at about 2:45 min. in (Zell's attack on President Obama (and his ignorance of press reports), which precedes his One Percent hubris, is disgusting, too):
... Steve Benen: "... to say, out loud, on purpose, that the wealthy 'work harder' than everyone else is about the most elitist sentiment possible. It gives Romney's '47 percent' video a run for its money in the Obnoxious Snobbery Hall of Fame. And ... let's not forget that Zell didn't even bother making 'a perfunctory disavowal of the Nazi comparison.'" CW: Both of Zell's parents -- who were Jewish -- fled Poland just before Germany invaded it in 1939.
New Jersey
Michael Linhorst of the Bergen Record: "There were no public events. There were no public statements. There wasn't even a list of people he met with or how much money he raised. This was the life of Governor Christie, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, on Thursday as he made his second fundraising trip since the George Washington Bridge scandal became national news."
Kate Zernicke of the New York Times looks into David Wildstein's career as political blogger "Wally Edge": "He loved stories about politicians caught in a lie, and nursed grudges with sources who had lied to him. And he had a rule: Do not attack political operatives for doing stupid things, because they do what they do for their bosses, the politicians.... He used his column to needle people with whom he had feuds -- mostly, politicians he thought had lied to him."
Star-Ledger Editors: "Nearly 2,000 Sandy victims were wrongly denied grants by the state. A full three-quarters of those who appealed the rejections won, and are now back in the program.... And those are just the people who appealed. What if there were others who were also wrongly rejected, but simply trusted the system? ... Federal officials are already auditing the Christie administration's use of $25 million in federal Sandy funds for television commercials starring the governor and his family during his re-election campaign. They should audit these rejections, too, as housing advocates and lawmakers have called for."
Old Russia
Paul Sonne, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "Rooms without doorknobs, locks or heat, dysfunctional toilets, surprise early-morning fire alarms and packs of stray dogs: These are the initial images of the 2014 Winter Olympics that foreign journalists have blasted around the world from their officially assigned hotels -- and the wave of criticism has rankled Russian officials. Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, seemed to reflect the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi's big debut out of bias against Russia. 'We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day,' he said."
Alec Luhn, et al., of the Guardian, July 2013: Edward "Snowden praised Venezuela, as well as Russia, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador for 'being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless' and for 'refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation'."
Constant Weader: I'm looking forward to human rights activist Vladimir P.'s posting those YouTube videos of Ed in the shower, Ed taking a shit, Ed tweezing his nosehairs, etc. (See also yesterday's News Ledes.)
Presidential Election 2016
Kate Bolduan & Lindsay Perna of CNN: Vice President Biden will make a decision next summer about whether or not to run for president.
In the Washington Post, Liza Mundy reviews HRC, by Jonathan Allen & Amy Parnes, "a step-by-step recounting of Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, but it's also a revealing window into the le Carré-like layers of intrigue that develop when a celebrity politician who is married to another celebrity politician loses to yet another celebrity politician, and goes on to serve the politician who defeated her."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Moody's Investors Service downgraded Puerto Rico's general-obligation debt to junk status on Friday, compounding the commonwealth's difficulties as it seeks fresh sources of cash. It was Puerto Rico's second downgrade to junk this week after Standard & Poor's took the same step on Tuesday."
New York Times: The tense Russian-American jockeying over the fate of Ukraine escalated on Thursday as a Kremlin official accused Washington of 'crudely interfering' in the former Soviet republic, while the Obama administration blamed Moscow for spreading an intercepted private conversation between two American diplomats." Here's the tape:
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Reader Comments (8)
I call your attention to this NYT op-ed:
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/know-nothings-meet-the-do-nothings/?hp&rref=opinion
It's clearly time to quit diddling around on immigration liberalization (fuck "reform", Jesus y Maria).
Http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/bill-nye-creationism-evolution
This isn't politics per se, but it does shed some light on evolution. Not that creationists and their ilk will pay any attention to facts. We're looking at you, Paul Broun.
Many decades ago, I living in Los Angeles & was married to a man who worked for a major corporation (which provided an excellent family health insurance plan). I had an interesting, challenging, well-paying job at a good company.
My husband was offered a promotion & transfer to San Diego. I could have kept my job & he could have taken an apartment in San Diego & commuted on the weekends. But when we sat down & figured out the math, we realized I would have been working for about $50/week after expenses, which BTW was less than the raise his new job gave my husband. If I had absolutely loved my job, maybe we would have worked out a commuting arrangement, but I was glad to have the option to quit & move to San Diego. That's what I did.
Families make those sorts of calculations all the time. And those calculations obviously involve more than just the bottom line. They have to do with the quality of life people hope to have. So if the ACA allows a spouse to stay home & take care of the kids, or take up macrame or whatever, I think that's swell. There's more to life than $50/week, no matter what economists & Ross Douthat think.
Marie
First a word about Bill O'Reilly: since his interview with Obama he has been talking it up non-stop on his program. It's as though that interview has given him the gravitas he desperately seeks, but he is chagrined about the negative press on how he conducted the interview. He often says in a false foxy way, "I'm just a simple man,"–––so far no one has argued against that.
Watched the IRS probe hearings where Catherine Englebrecht, queen mother of the King Street Patriots and their True Vote(Tea Party) affiliation had a volatile exchange with Elijah Cummings who she is accusing of sending the dogs of regulations on her and family for applying for a tax exempt status for KSP three years ago. Cummings denies this and became emotional when he spoke of his passion for having everyone a right to vote. The Rep. (R OH) Jim Jordan, a tea party person, caught my eye: This guy is like a wiry, nervous terrier who jumped to Catherine's defense as if going for a running ball. He used to be a wrestler––it shows. He is one of the members of congress that voted for shutting down the government and will do it again. I found him rather chilling.
Marie,
Good point.
Details matter. Understanding of the vagaries and vicissitudes of life matters. And an appreciation for proportion and nuance help us understand.
Opponents of health insurance for all Americans, aka conservatives, gearing up for midterm elections are cleaving, like a blind baby to its mother, to a cherry picked statistic (2.5 million Americans leaving their jobs by 2024) from a much more detailed CBO report with which they hope to tar and feather Democrats in the coming months.
Lyin' Ryan, in a hearing the other day, cornered the CBO chief, Doug Elmendorf and got him to admit that this "loss" would reduce America's economic productivity. Two things about this. First, Elmendorf should have said it may, and it may not. If it happened right now, if 2.5 million employees walked off the job today, you could say that productivity would be reduced, probably by a couple of percentage points. But it ain't going to happen today. Or tomorrow, or next year.
AND, as Marvin Schwalb mentioned, the other day, this isn't a loss of jobs, it's a loss of employees in jobs that will very likely need to be filled by others. It's a choice. The kind of choice you (Marie) had a chance to make and one which millions of others will now be able to make as well.
Second, the CBO report never said this would happen tomorrow, as Republicans try to make it seem. Elmendorf's people are talking about 2024. Ten years from now. Ten years! Can a lot happen in ten years? Just look at the last ten.
The most salient point here is that the ACA, in addition to giving millions of uninsured Americans a choice in protecting their health and that of their children, will, over time, also allow them to make other choices that improve their happiness and well being. And those are both great things.
Republicans, in so many ways, are against choice. All kinds of choices. They talk a lot about FREEDOMMM, but they don't mean it. Because choice, and an intelligent exercise of freedom both require an appreciation for life in all it's nuance, and wingnuts don't do nuance. But large bore lies and willful ignorance they do quite well.
PD,
Did you say that Bill O'Reilly was a simple man or a simple ton?
And great description of Jim Jordan's canine proclivities. I didn't see the clip but it probably wouldn't match the image I have from your comment.
Bow-wow, 'baggers. Sit. Roll over. Play dead.
I wish.
Barbarossa,
Great link. The snarky response would be that plenty of creationist 'bagger types have a lot in common with monkeys, but that's kind of an insult to the monkeys.
In any event, primates like Koko the gorilla, who has mastered some 1,000 signs, are much more friendly and much better at reasoned conversation, not to mention possessed of a better sense of humor than many fundamentalist screamers.
The gorilla has more humanity...
After watching the Zell interview, I need to brush my teeth and take a shower. A more foul creature one seldom sees publicly displayed. Unless of course one watches Bill O. I'd rather hang out and chat with Koko; s/he likely has much better manners than O and Zell.