Month: April 2010

Sacrifice

by digby

I can hardly believe this is happening, but apparently, it is:

Since the U.S. recession began in December 2007, Congress has extended the length of unemployment benefits for the jobless three times. Now, the lawmakers may have reached their limit. They are quietly drawing the line at 99 weeks of aid, a mark that hundreds of thousands of Americans have already reached. In coming months, the number of those who will receive their final government check is projected to top 1 million. It’s a deadline that has rarely been mentioned in recent debates over jobless benefits, in which Republicans have delayed aid because of cost concerns. The deadline hasn’t been lost on Teauna Stephney, a 39-year-old single mother from Bothell, Washington, who said she could become homeless once her $407 weekly checks stop in June. “What are people like me supposed to do?” said Stephney, who said almost two years of benefits haven’t proved long enough for her to find work after she lost her last job in August 2008. Referring to lawmakers, she said, “I would like them to come and talk to me and spend a day in my shoes.” Democrats who have pushed through the past extensions agree there’s insufficient backing to go beyond 99 weeks, largely because of mounting concern over the federal deficit, projected to reach $1.5 trillion this year. “You can’t go on forever,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, of Montana, whose panel oversees the benefits program. “I think 99 weeks is sufficient,” he said. “There’s just been no discussion to go beyond that,” said Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat.

Right, the deficit projections are so dire that we need to throw people into the streets today. Because the “atmospherics” are problematic:

Baucus said extension legislation would fail in the Senate because of both the deficit and the negative “atmospherics” of lengthening the weeks of aid into triple digits.
“The best thing to do is get this economy turned around” to create jobs, said Baucus.

Ya think?

I seriously cannot believe that they are going to do this when the country is still hovering at 10% unemployment. Just what are these people supposed to do? Become prostitutes and thieves? Break down and take that job that Goldman Sachs has been offering? (Same thing, actually …)

Stuart Rothman blithely describes the politics of this as “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” because voters are “sensitive these days to spending and deficit issues and yet there are going to be people who need help, and if the administration ignores them, they’ll look rather callous.” Well, they’ll “look rather callous” because they are callous. Unless people believe that most of these people really would rather stay home and collect 200 dollars a week than work at a real job with benefits and that there a millions of unfilled jobs out there that they could be doing, this is a cruel and unnecessary capitulation to the deficit fetishists.

The ruling class has determined that Americans need to suffer for their sins. After all, they themselves have all suffered terribly and it’s only right to share the pain:

You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust. As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes…

The long term unemployed have been coasting for too long while the poor overclass has been subject to all manner of indignity. It’s their turn to do their part.

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Wall Street Rally Today

by digby

… but not the kind they like. If you’re in New York and you can get away from work this after noon, this is worth doing:

National People’s Action issues a Call to Action for everyday people–small business owners and union members, homeowners and tenants, faith leaders, the employed and the unemployed–to join together in recognition of our shared fate and our commitment to democracy. Today at 3:30pm ET, thousands will converge on Wall Street to reclaim America with one simple message: Americans deserve an economy that works for all of us, not just Wall Street! Wall Street and big banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo crashed our economy leaving millions without housing, work, and critical services. WHEN: 3:30pm: Assemble • 4pm: March and rally
WHERE: Next to City Hall Park, NYC (Enter at Broadway and Chambers St.)

For the rest of us, the AFL-CIO has kindly offered a livestream of the event, so click here at 4pm to see the goings on.

I hope this keeps up even after the financial reform bill is (probably) passed. It doesn’t end with that piece of legislation — people have to be educated about the fact that if the government is the problem in this case, it’s because they didn’t do enough, not that they did too much. Until people understand that, we will go from bubble to bubble, the upper classes gaining each time at the expense of everyone else.

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Sounding American

by digby

Media Matters:

Beck asks: “What has [Obama] said that sounds like American?”

He has a point. I haven’t heard Obama use the words ni**er, k*ke, sp*c, g*ok or r**head even once.

Other than that notable omission, every word he says sounds American.

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Unpack The Fainting Couch

by digby

The Republicans are feeling a faint coming on:

In the wake of the superheated debate over health care reform, Reid and his confidants have used fierce rhetoric to portray the Republicans as tools of Wall Street who spread lies about the financial regulatory reform bill as a way to protect well-heeled donors. Meanwhile, Reid has been forcing the Republicans to vote again and again on the regulatory reform bill, hoping to jam at least one GOP senator into flipping to the Democratic side for fear of coming off as entirely obstructionist.

The tactic seems to be working; Republicans on Wednesday allowed debate to proceed on the bill. But hard feelings persist. “People become irritated after a while,” Indiana Republican Sen. Dick Lugar said. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said that part of the Republican senators’ Tuesday lunch session “was focused on Reid” because “there’s a huge feeling of frustration over this.” Privately, Republicans are even more critical of the majority leader, blaming him for the stalemate over financial services reform and other high-profile issues. They argue that Reid is being driven by internal Democratic polling data showing the majority party has to recapture the “reform” mantle rather than compromise — or risk huge losses in November. In order to do that, Republicans say and Democrats privately acknowledge, Reid will have to play the “populist card” and paint the GOP as the defender of special interests while the majority leader and his Democratic colleagues are protecting average Americans. And, Republicans say, he’s using tough talk along the way to fire up the Democratic base ahead of the November midterms — including the tough election Reid will face in Nevada. “I think everyone thinks he is just gaming this thing politically and is a lot more interested in having issues right now rather than having solutions,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in the Senate GOP leadership, told POLITICO. “There’s a lot of speculation about his own political prospects, as well as that of his party. Right now, party politics is trumping what’s right on some of these issues.”

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“Or Whatever”

by digby

There’s a lot of talk about appointing a Supreme Court justice who has some real world experience and this certainly does indicate that it’s something that’s sorely lacking, at least by the Chief Justice. This is from an article about the oral arguments yesterday regarding whether or not prospective employees are being “coerced” if they are expected to sign arbitration agreements.

It should be noted that these fanciful hypotheticals discussed at today’s oral argument do not cover the most frequent, real world “gun-to-the-head” scenario faced by job applicants, in which their only “choice,” if they want the job, is to agree to arbitrate, on the employer’s terms, any and all future disputes —a “choice” characterized by Chief Justice Roberts as “economic inequality or whatever.”

Whatever …

But this shouldn’t surprise us. Chief Justice Roberts isn’t exactly a man of the people:

…here’s John Roberts when he worked in the White House counsel’s office in 1984:

I hate to sound like one of Mr. Jackson’s records, constantly repeating the same refrain, but I recommend that we not approve this letter. Sometimes people need to be reminded of the obvious: whatever its status as a cultural phenomenon, the Jackson concert tour is a massive commercial undertaking. The tour will do quite well financially by coming to Washington, and there is no need for the President to applaud such enlightened self-interest. Frankly, I find the obsequious attitude of some members of the White House staff toward Mr. Jackson’s attendants, and the fawning posture they would have the President of the United States adopt, more than a little embarrassing.

It is also important to consider the precedent that would be set by such a letter. In today’s Post there were already reports that some youngsters were turning away from Mr. Jackson in favor of a newcomer who goes by the name “Prince,” and is apparently planning a Washington concert. Will he receive a Presidential letter? How will we decide which performers do and which do not?

Auntie Roberts was 29 when he wrote that. He was a real man of his time. The 1890s.

And the idea of someone criticizing fawning over show business figures in the Reagan White House is just funny.

Whatever.

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Sacrificial Scams

by digby

Dean Baker attended the Pete Peterson Social Security Destruction summit earlier today and made this important observation at the revolting sight of Peterson and Robert Rubin patting each other on the backs and demanding that everyone buckle down and sacrifice for the greater good:

Peter Peterson and Robert Rubin are both enormously wealthy men. (They joked about dividing their lunch tab based on their net worth.) They are lecturing the country on the need to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits for retirees who have a tiny fraction of their wealth. Many of the victims of the cuts that they would push are people who are already struggling.

This is so common among the ruling elite that people don’t even recognize it anymore.

Here’s my favorite example from Mrs Alan Greenspan way back in January of 2009:

MSNBC commentator: … The subtext of all of this [call to service] is “hey Americans, you’re gonna have to do your part too. There may be some sacrifices involved for you too.” Do you think he’s going to use his political capital to make those arguments and will it go beyond rhetoric?

Andrea Mitchell: It does go beyond rhetoric. He needs to engage the American people in this joint venture. That’s part of the call. That’s part of what he needs to accomplish in his speech and in the days following the speech. He needs to make people feel that this is their venture as well and that people are going to need to be more patient and have to contribute and that there will have to be some sacrifice.

And certainly, if he is serious about what he told the Washington Post last week, that he wants to take on entitlement reform, there will be greater sacrifice required from a nation already suffering from economic crisis — to ask people to take a look at their health care and their other entitlements and realize that for the long term health and vitality of the country we’re going to have to give up something that we already enjoy.

As I noted at the time:

Right. Old and sick people are going to have to give up something they “enjoy.” That’s assuming they “enjoy” being able to eat and go to a doctor. Of course, Andrea Mitchell won’t have to give up what she “enjoys.” She’s a multi-millionaire.

And her husband, Uncle Alan Greenspan, works for John Paulson. That’s right. That John Paulson.

This is the where the Village metaphor really hits home. Mrs Greenspan and the rest of the beltway insiders have all convinced themselves that their little village represents Real America. So when someone suggests that “entitlements” have to be cut for the common good, that seems like something that nobody should really squeal too much about since they don’t know a single soul who will be even slightly inconvenienced by such a thing. SS is chump change to these people, not even really worth collecting (but just try to take it from them.)

Now, repealing their tax breaks — that’s the kind of sacrifice no self respecting Real American should ever stand for. Here’s Baker again:

…there are ways to get the long-term deficit down to size that don’t involve nailing middle income and/or poor people. However, it would be hard to find two people who have benefited more from taxpayer handouts than these two individuals.

Peter Peterson has been the recipient of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars through the fund manager’s tax break. This tax break, which is also known as the “carried interest tax deduction” allows managers of hedge and equity funds to pay tax on their earnings at the 15 percent capital gains tax rate, instead of having it taxed as normal income. As a result, Peterson paid a lower tax rate on much of his earnings than tens of millions of people working as school teachers, fire fighters, and other middle income jobs.

Peterson not only collected the money himself, he came to Washington in 2007 to lobby Congress when it debated ending the tax break. He apparently wanted to make sure that his friends would still be able to benefit from this tax break even after he had retired.

After setting the country on a course for the current crisis with the policies he pushed as Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin went to work as a top executive at Citigroup. In this capacity, he earned $110 million before leaving the company in the middle of its 2008 meltdown. As we know, Citigroup was one of the major actors in the housing boom. It produced hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mortgage backed securities.

We all know what happened with Citi.

These rich bastards are telling people who work hard their whole lives that they have to “sacrifice” their meager public pension to refill the treasury that these same rich bastards have looted — and which they continue to refuse to help replenish, despite the fact they are still swallowing firehoses full of money. This, after the middle class in this country just suffered the biggest loss of wealth since the Great Depression as a result of these riverboat gamblers playing with the economy like it was their favorite Baccarat table in Monte Carlo. Chutzpah doesn’t even begin to describe it. Sociopathy is more like it.

If they can’t do the right thing, the least they could do is slither off in to the the darkness to count their winnings. Instead, these arrogant jerks are out there lecturing everyone about “sacrifice” while they buy off every government official in town to make sure they aren’t among those who have to heed that call.

It’s sick.

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Toying With Huck

by digby

You can always count on Gloria Borger to keep you up to speed on the Village conventional wisdom. For instance, here’s the headline of her piece today:

Why Democrats shouldn’t toy with Lindsey Graham

Why? Cuz he’s a mavericky maverick. Sure, they probably don’t have the votes for either the climate bill or the immigration bill, with or without Huckleberry, but still, they should kiss his ring at every opportunity because he’s well … him.

She does point out that they don’t have the votes for either bill, which puts Graham’s hissy fit into a rather different light (and naturally there’s no mention of the odd coincidence that Graham was being outed by anti-immigration teabaggers back in South Carolina — since the rumor is an open secret in DC, they figure that everyone in South Carolina knows it and doesn’t care, which isn’t true at all.) But then Gloria is deep into the Village, which continues to believe things like this:

I’ve spoken with a number of Democratic strategists who shake their heads at Reid’s move.

“What Democrats need to do is spend the rest of the year voting on issues where Democrats are on the same side as the public,” says one Democratic strategist. “It’s all going to crowd out the message of jobs, economic reform and health care reform.”

Right. The “public” (aka Real Americans) don’t care about immigration reform. Or as Gloria puts it:

…with a 10 percent unemployment rate, voters may well be less hospitable to a measure that ensures that there will be more people competing for jobs

Certainly, no self respecting Democratic strategist should care about such silly things as this:

Arizona immigrant law animates Hispanics, Democrats

If that keeps up, the Democrats might even have a chance of getting out the vote in November. Who wants that?

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It Spreads

by digby

They’re loving it:

Last week, Wonk Room reported on the involvement of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) — the legal arm of a designated nativist-extremist hate group — in drafting Arizona’s controversial immigration law. IRLI lawyer Michael Hethmon boasting about being “approached by lawmakers from four other states who have asked for advice on how they can do the same thing.”

Guess what?

STATE	BILL	STATUS
Utah	Require immigrants to carry proof of status, require law enforcement officers to question anyone they believe is in the country illegally, and target employers who hire or transport undocumented immigrants.	Legislation still has to be drafted, but Rep. Stephen Sandstorm (R) claims he “has the support to do it.”
Georgia	Nathan Deal (R), who is running for Governor, wants to propose legislation that mirrors Arizona’s.	Tentatively pending Deal’s election.
Colorado	Today, Colorado gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis (R) said that if he were governor, he would seek to pass something “very similar” to what Arizona enacted.	Tentatively pending McInnis’ election.
Maryland	State Delegate Pat McDonough (R) “plans to start sending a survey to every candidate for the General Assembly — along with the candidates for governor — asking them whether they agree with Arizona’s approach.”	McDounough’s survey will start being circulated this week as he hopes to “know who is in favor of the Arizona bill and who is not” by this summer.
Ohio	Butler County Sheriff Rick Jones and Ohio Rep. Courtney Combs (R) sent a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland asking him “to employ” his “leadership role” “to assure legislation is passed that will mirror” Arizona’s.	Strickland’s press person says he “hasn’t had an opportunity to review Arizona law” and is concerned it might be unconstitutional.
North Carolina	Local anti-immigrant groups claim that lawmakers have told them that “the chances similar legislation will be filed here is over 95%.”	The same groups also concede that such legislation wouldn’t “get far” in their state.
Texas	Republican state Rep. Debbie Riddle of Tomball says she plans to push for a law similar to Arizona’s.	Riddle says she will introduce the measure in the January legislative session.
Texas	Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb of 30,000 people, passed an ordinance written by IRLI lawyer Kris Kobach which would prevent landlords from renting houses or apartments to undocumented immigrants.	Last month, a U.S. District judge ruled the ordinance unconstitutional. IRLI is helping Farmers Branch repeal the District judge decision.
Missouri	The state legislature is considering a law, likely written by Kobach, that would make it unlawful for any person to conceal, harbor, transport, or shelter “illegal aliens” and would also make it a crime for undocumented immigrants to transport themselves.	The bill has been referred to the Missouri House International Trade and Immigration Committee.
Oklahoma	Restrict the ability of undocumented immigrants to obtain IDs or public assistance, give police authority to check the status of anyone arrested, and make it a felony to knowingly provide shelter, transportation or employment to the undocumented.	After IRLI filed an amicus brief in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of HB 1804, the court refused to reconsider its decision that prohibits Oklahoma from enforcing two of the main parts of HB 1804.
Nebraska	Residents in Fremont Nebraska likely will vote in July on a proposed ordinance to ban the “harboring,” hiring and renting to undocumented immigrants.	Last Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that there was no authority to stop an election on the ordinance following a petition filed by Kobach.

It looks as though a lot of people are very excited about moving ahead with this. Even lected Republicans are very open about their feelings:

LAURA INGRAHAM: This boycott is intended to do, what? I would imagine to intimidate people from supporting this law which, as far as I can tell, is wildly popular, but to intimidate because they’re using dollars. Is there anything wrong with that?

REP. STEVE KING: Well, it looks like the case is that, that he’s trying to scare the businesses out of Arizona, or he’s trying to get the businesses to change their position and press the legislature to reverse the law that was just signed by the governor the other day. I’m wondering if we look at the map of Congressman Grijalva’s congressional district if we haven’t already ceded that component of Arizona to Mexico judging by the voice that comes out of him, he’s advocating for Mexico rather than the United States and against the rule of law, which is one of the central pillars of American exceptionalism.

Yes, American exceptionalism is so exceptional that right wingers are allowed to carve out exceptions to any part of the constitution they don’t like. Strangely, the parts they don’t like most often seem to be the ones that enumerate rights for people who don’t look like them.

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How’s That Oily Drilly Thing Working Out For Ya?*

by digby

Charlie Christ has pulled his support for drilling. I’m guessing this might have something to do with it:

Crews struggling to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will light some of the petroleum on fire at 11 a.m. Central time in an attempt to burn it off before it reaches shore.

A Coast Guard spokesman said on Wednesday that crews would begin with an initial burn in a confined area of the spill to determine the density of the oil.

According to a statement released by the group of industry and government officials supervising the burn, the oil will be consolidated “into a fire resistant boom approximately 500 feet long; this oil will then be towed to a more remote area, where it will be ignited and burned in a controlled manner.”[…]

Officials turned to the burning option when the slick of oil, released when a drilling rig caught fire 50 miles offshore and sank last week, drifted to within 23 miles of the ecologically fragile Louisiana coastline on Tuesday.

[…]

A joint government and industry task force had been unable to stop crude oil from streaming out of a broken pipe attached to a well that the rig had been drilling nearly a mile below sea level. The leaks in the pipe, which were found on Saturday, are releasing about 42,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico southeast of Venice, La.

Officials said on Tuesday that wind projections indicated that the oil would not reach land in the next three days, and it was unclear exactly where along the Gulf Coast it might arrive first.

“If some of the weather conditions continue, the Delta area is at risk,” said Charlie Henry, scientific support coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry noted that the coastal area near the spill contains some 40 percent of the nation’s wetlands and is the spawning ground for countless fish and birds.

I hope all Virginians are looking forward to similar despoiling. At least it’s a jobs creator — lots of work cleaning off the beaches and washing down the oil covered wildlife that’s lucky enough to live through it. It kind of destroys the eco-system and tourism but that “drill, baby, drill” thing is just so much fun to chant at tea parties. I suppose they can change it to “spill,baby, spill” and have just as much fun.

Update: Fox is reporting that Crist is going to run as an Independent.

*h/t to Clammy C at Dkos for that one …

The Cure

by digby

If any of you happen to find yourself or anyone you know infected by the propaganda at the Peterson Deficit Summit today, Campaign For America’s Future’s Virtual Summit is the antidote. There is a ton of useful information about deficits and rebuttals to the nonsense that’s spewing forth from nearly every villager in the land.

Yesterday, they held a conference call, which is summed up here. (You can hear the audio at the link.):

[Yesterday] morning, the White House debt commission convened and largely presented a skewed picture of America’s finances, with much scapegoating of Social Security and Medicare. [Yesterday] afternoon, Campaign for America’s Future convened top economic experts to offer journalists facts and views that the commission has yet to pursue.

Campaign for America’s Future Roger Hickey expressed deep concern that Pete Peterson deficit hysteria propaganda is taking hold on the commission, noting that a new key staff member was hired from a Peterson-funded organization, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Hickey also pointed out while Social Security and Medicare were repeatedly flogged, there was little mention of the Bush-era tax cuts that actually vaporized the surplus.

The American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner offered an entirely different approach to deficit reduction, one based on strong economic growth with “more social investment in the short-run.” He mentioned you certainly can cut the deficit with an “austerity approach” but “if you put the cart before the horse, it’s the more painful way to get to budget balance.”

Institute for Women’s Policy Research President Heidi Hartmann emphasizes the pain that will be inflicted on elderly women if Social Security is needlessly slashed, and the attacks on “greedy geeezers” have nothing to do “the typical retiree in America today.” She raised an eyebrow at Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comment that we should go after Social Security because “that’s where the money is.” As Dr. Hartmann recalled, the quote was originally about “bank robberies.”

And Center for Economic and Policy Research Co-Director hammered the commission for pushing the false assertion that “everyone agrees” on the basic issue, saying that’s “not an honest way to proceed.” Baker rejected the commission’s arbitrary goal of major budget cuts by 2015, which is before anyone expects unemployment to come down to a reasonable level.

There are many motives for flogging the deficit right now, not the least of which is political. Republicans use this as a weapon whenever Democrats get into office Case in point:

Clinton’s experience shows what such pressure can do to a president’s agenda. Promises of spending on education, public works and a middle-class tax cut fell by the wayside as advisers led by Robert Rubin, who later became Treasury secretary, convinced the new president the best thing he could do for the economy was to show investors his resolve on fiscal discipline
“You mean to tell me that the success of the economic program and my re-election hinges on the Federal Reserve and a bunch of fucking bond traders?” Clinton raged at aides, according to journalist Bob Woodward’s book, “The Agenda.”

Obama got health care, which is hardly an “entitlement” so I’m guessing the Grand Bargain is in full effect: agree to be deficit hawks going forward. Those are the terms set forth by the Big Money Boyz. (You didn’t think they were going to allow the peons in congress to insult them to their faces and get nothing in return, do you?)

Here’s a handy primer which explodes the myths about the Social Security. Everyone needs to bone up on this subject — it’s going to be with us for a while. Pete Peterson has a billion dollars devoted to this cause and he’s going to use it.

And sadly, our president seems to have a burning desire to be the Democrat who “fixed” Social Security. I suppose he thinks it will make all those important people respect him in the end. But it won’t. Bill Clinton left a surplus and Pete Peterson and instead of devoting it to social security, all his buddies took that money for themselves and ran. There is no margin in pandering to the millionaires. They think these presidents are chumps either way.

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