The Commentariat -- November 29

I see [us Americans as] an insular people who are insensitive to foreign sensibilities, who are lazy, obese, complacent and increasingly perplexed as to why we are losing our place in the world to people who are more dynamic than us and more disciplined.
-- Edmund Morris, historian, on "Face the Nation"

Paul Krugman comments on President Obama's decision to freeze the wages of non-military government employees:

Yep, that’s exactly what we needed: a transparently cynical policy gesture, trivial in scale but misguided in direction, and in effect conceding that your bitter political opponents have the right idea. ...

    ... That's all he wrote. Here's the backstory.

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "As President Obama’s fiscal commission faces a deadline this week for agreement on a plan to shrink the mounting national debt, liberal organizations will unveil debt-reduction proposals of their own in the next two days, seeking to sway the debate in favor of fewer reductions in domestic spending, more cuts in the military and higher taxes for the wealthy.... On Monday, the progressive policy organizations Demos, the Economic Policy Institute and the Century Foundation will unveil a liberal blueprint.... On Tuesday, a separate coalition ... — the Citizens’ Commission on Jobs, Deficits and America’s Economic Future — will release a similar outline. Both plans are comparable to one recently proposed by Representative Jan Schakowsky, a liberal Democrat from Illinois who is a member of the Bowles-Simpson commission." CW: here's an overview of Schakowsky's plan, and here's a pdf of the detail. ...

... Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "Job-based health care benefits could wind up on the chopping block if President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans get serious about cutting the deficit. Budget proposals from leaders in both parties have urged shrinking or eliminating tax breaks that help make employer health insurance the leading source of coverage in the nation and a middle-class mainstay." ...

... Elisabeth Bumiller & Tom Shanker of the New York Times: Defense Secretary Robert Gates is attempting "... to contain the exploding cost of health care for nearly 10 million eligible beneficiaries against the pain and emotions of those who say they have already 'paid up front' with service in uniform, particularly those who deployed to America’s two current wars. The 10 million figure includes active-duty personnel, retirees, members of the National Guard and Reserves and their families."

Shannon McCaffrey of the AP: "At least 13 state lawmakers in five states have defected to Republican ranks since the Nov. 2 election, adding to already huge GOP gains in state legislatures. And that number could grow as next year's legislative sessions draw near."

American Exceptionionalism. Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "... with Republicans and tea party activists accusing President Obama and the Democrats of turning the country toward socialism, the idea that the United States is inherently superior to the world's other nations has become the battle cry from a new front in the ongoing culture wars. Lately, it seems to be on the lips of just about every Republican who is giving any thought to running for president in 2012.... Some, however, wonder whether Obama's conservative critics are sounding an alarm about the United States' place in the world - or making an insidious suggestion about the president himself." CW: Tumulty is a straight reporter, but her report zeroes in on the insidious us-against-them demagoguery that we will be subjected to for the next two years. ...

... New York Times Editorial Board: "... more than 70 percent of voters in Oklahoma still approved a state constitutional amendment [against the enforcement of Islamic law]..., apparently persuaded by anti-Islamic activists, and a few cynical politicians, that Oklahoma was about to be brought under Islam’s heel.... It is fear-mongering, of course, and all too successful.... The issue helped drive the high Republican turnout at the polls in Oklahoma.... The voters of Oklahoma were badly misled by demagogues into passing a profoundly un-American measure."

Michael Pollan & Eric Schlosser in a New York Times op-ed: "The Senate should pass the food safety bill that would allow the F.D.A. to prevent food safety problems, rather than respond only after people have become ill."

William Glaberson of the New York Times: "As part of his annual budget, New York’s chief judge [Jonathan Lippman] will propose a $100 million increase in state financing for lawyers who represent the poor in civil cases that deal with 'the essentials of life' like eviction and child support, according to people who have worked on the plan.... If approved by the Legislature, it would ... be a striking acknowledgment that the state’s court system is being overwhelmed by some 2.3 million people a year who cannot afford representation." CW: bear in mind that, with the exception of small claims, this still leaves out the poor & middle class who still cannot afford to bring suit against parties they believe have wronged them.

** Happy Birthday, Bush v. Gore. Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker: "Over [the] decade, the Justices have provided a verdict of sorts on Bush v. Gore by the number of times they have cited it: zero.... [But] Bush v. Gore would resonate.... The case didn’t just scar the Court’s record; it damaged the Court’s honor." For more on Bush v. Gore, listen to one of the dissenters below.