Once again, U.S. automakers are arguing that stricter fuel efficiency standards will ruin their businesses. Evidently, they prefer to do that themselves. But maybe they think we’ve forgotten that we just bailed out their sorry rear bumpers. Maybe they think we’ve forgotten that they spent decades clinging to their gas guzzlers and …
Viewpoint
Tea or Sanity
Well, this was one of the more exhilarating days of legislative politics we’ve had in quite some time. The Senate’s Gang of Six came up with the deal everyone thought impossible–upwards of $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases with some very attractive tax reform thrown in. …
The Bum Economy, Explained
David Leonhardt does his usual excellent job explaining why the economy is lagging: People are still more concerned about working down their debts than in buying new things (and running up new debts). As candidate Barack Obama told me in October, 2008, “The easy credit economy is over and we have to find what’s going to drive the …
A Party or A Cult?
Mark Blumenthal has put together an array of polling that shows the influence of the Tea Party on the Republican Party. The bottom line spells dark times for reasonable conservatives. The Tea Party represents a critical mass of Republican primary votes, and a distinct minority of the general electorate. This means one thing short-term …
Unwilling to Compromise
Daily Sanity Watch: Paul Ryan seems very reasonable on TV except for one thing–the President has put $1.5 billion in budget cuts on the table (and more, for a grand deal that includes entitlements). Ryan has put zero revenue increases on the table. Once again, that number is…0. So who’s unwilling to compromise?
Partisan hack watch: …
Cantor to the Woodshed
David Rogers over at Politico, who has been doing this–extremely well–for about as long as I have, has word that the President of the United States monstered down on Representative Eric Cantor in Wednesday’s deficit ceiling squabble. This is so refreshing on so many levels. Cantor has been using this crisis to undermine his leader John …
Accept McConnell’s Debt Ceiling Deal
Mitch McConnell proposes simply raising the debt ceiling. This is supposed to be some sort of brilliant political move. Obama will be blamed for the ever-increasing debt ceiling. The Republicans will be able to hammer him with it …
Department of Vile
Pete Wehner simply can’t get over the notion that the President of the United States is a narcissistic messianist. The latest evidence: Obama’s call, on Monday, for both Republicans and Democrats to make concessions in order to reach a budget deal that begins to solve some of our long-term debt problems. Outrageous, huh?
Don’t Mess With the Stimulus! It Had All Your Creamed Spinach and More
Oh, Joe, it is on! You can trash-talk me or my family or even my questionable taste in basketball teams. But how dare you take a backhanded swipe at my dearly beloved stimulus? You know, the poor thing has no one to defend it but me. And me again. And yet again. So, its infrastructure spending was too “rushed,” and sent cash to the …
Incandescent Light Bulb Insanity and the Groucho Marx Republicans
The William Wallaces of the Republican Party are defending our freedom again, this time our freedom to buy inefficient light bulbs. The GOP-controlled House is about to pass a bill to repeal the lighting efficiency standards that Congress passed and President Bush signed in 2007, standards that the lighting industry actually supported. …
More Creamed Spinach
I just got off the phone with Senator John Kerry, who told me more about his Infrastructure Bank proposal. It sounds pretty good to me. The basic bottom line is this: a $10 billion federal contribution will leverage about $640 billion in private investments…money from entities as diverse as union pension funds to foreign sovereign …
Eat Your Creamed Spinach
The President was masterful, and prohibitively Cheshire catty, in his debt-ceiling press conference Monday morning. He was in the position he likes best: way above both parties, asking sacrifices from all, the grownup in a roomful of Congressional infants. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself, which is nice–he deserves a little …
Despair
Alright, back to work after a week at the beach…Hmm…Errr…Do I really have to? I mean, there are times–almost always, in fact–when work is the most fun I have in life. I’ve had the privilege of a front row ticket for the world’s best ongoing drama, the saga of the United States at its apogee. Now, though, I am just not looking …