Month: October 2013

Killing the planet and funding your enemies all rolled up in one big bad decision

by digby

There are many substantial reasons for the president and the Democratic Party to oppose the Keystone Pipeline on the merits. But if this report is true, it is the single most potent political reason not to do it. And if they agree to it anyway, knowing they are helping to finance enemies who already have so much money they can overwhelm the political system, there really is no hope for them:

A new study released today concludes that Koch Industries and its subsidiaries stand to make as much as $100 billion in profits if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is granted a presidential permit from U.S. President Barack Obama.

The report, titled Billionaires’ Carbon Bomb, produced by the think tank International Forum on Globalization (IFG), finds that David and Charles Koch and their privately owned company, Koch Industries, own more than 2 million acres of land in Northern Alberta, the source of the tar sands bitumen that would be pumped to the United States via the Keystone XL pipeline.

“The Kochs have repeatedly claimed that they have no interest in the Keystone XL Pipeline, this report shows that is false,” said Nathalie Lowenthal-Savy, a researcher with IFG.

“We noticed Koch Funded Tea Party members and think tanks pushing for the pipeline. We dug deeper and found $100 billion in potential profit, $50 million sent to organizations supporting the pipeline, and perhaps 2 million acres of land. That sounds like an interest to me.”

Nathalie continued, “We all know they will use that money to fund and expand their influence network, subvert democracy, crush unions like in Wisconsin, and get more extremists elected to congress.”

And, by the way, if this is true the unions need to do some soul-searching and ask themselves if the promise of a few jobs is really worth funding their greatest enemy.

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Note to Obamacare critics

by digby

As I watch the talking heads all clutch their pearls over the insurance exchange website, I can’t help but notice once again that none of them seem to know a thing about what’s really happening out here to people who have to deal with the private insurance market. I’m sure they have the best cadillac plans in the world and don’t think too much about how a person who doesn’t have one makes health care decisions.

Right now insurance companies are sending letters to most of their private insurance clients telling them that their rates are going up substantially next year. They are, and that’s because the new law mandates better coverage. Most of the people who’ve been buying lousy coverage have done so because they don’t have enough money to pay for the good stuff. Therefore they will likely be eligible for subsidies under Obamacare.

Take my word for it: people in this situation will not throw up their hands and give up just because the exchange web-site isn’t working well at the outset. They will keep trying. The status quo is no longer operative and the money involved is just too substantial for them not to. My husband and I are very healthy people who pay a lot for insurance because we are old. People like us are going to do whatever it takes to sign up on the exchanges. We can’t afford not to. There are plenty of people like us out there and we are as much of a necessity to the system working as are the young (maybe even more-so — healthy older adults are willing to pay a whole lot of money into the system for peace of mind.)

So, we know that the most desperate people — those with pre-existing conditions who have been denied health insurance — will not give up. We know that people with lousy private insurance who have been informed that their policies will be improved and their premiums will increase next year will not give up. I’m going to guess that people who already have good insurance will not give up either, just in case they might qualify for a savings.

The only people who might give up are people who are not insured already and who don’t think they’re going to need it — that’s mostly young people in their 20s. That’s always been the toughest group to persuade and this is just another roadblock.They are reachable, however. It’s just going to take extra effort.

But the idea that people like me, adults who are already paying through the nose for private insurance and who have been informed their premiums on the open market are going way up, will just forget about getting insurance through the exchanges is silly. It’s too much money. Most people are probably doing what I’m doing — waiting for the rush to die down and the glitches to be straightened out. I have every intention of signing up for insurance on the exchange. I can’t afford not to.

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The lies they tell the rubes (and each other)

by digby

Former press secretary Ari Fleischer reluctantly admits that the Tea Party overreached with their effort to defund Obamacare. He says they were perfectly right to want to do it, it’s just how they did it that was wrong. And that’s because the Obama of his nightmares (since the one he describes bears no relationship to the president)is the Real Extremist:

The tea party rebuttal? That type of practical approach is why Washington is a mess to begin with. They say they don’t care about the politics, they ardently are trying to save the nation. Fair points. But the nation won’t be saved if they can’t muster the votes to save it.

As for President Obama, if he wanted to achieve a fundamental grand bargain with Republicans, he would have done so in 2011 when an agreement with Republicans was in sight. He talks like a centrist willing to break with liberal economic ideology, but from the stimulus to Obamacare to his push for tax increases, he has no record of governing like one.

Instead, he is driven to redistribute things, whether it’s income, wealth or in the case of Obamacare, health insurance. He views the role of government as taking things of value from one citizen so they can be given to another. He promised that if you liked your health insurance you could keep it. Of course it’s not as simple as that, as people are now realizing. For example, some companies may be dumping part or all their health coverage as Obamacare comes online, leaving employees to pay higher premiums and in some cases getting less coverage on the exchanges, according to a National Journal analysis.

Obama says the debt is a “long-term” problem, ignoring that it has grown from $10.6 trillion to nearly $17 trillion on his watch. He refuses to make any fundamental changes to Obamacare but he insists that Republicans agree to additional tax increases. Throughout the recent impasse, he refused to negotiate.

His poll numbers are around the worst levels of his presidency. The Real Clear Politics average shows more than half the country disapproves of the way he is handling his job. He is an unpopular president.

The tea party gets stuck with the extremist label, but for many, it’s Obama’s policies that are extreme.

Funny, I came to this article from another CNN story:

According to the survey, 54% say it’s a bad thing that the GOP controls the House, up 11 points from last December, soon after the 2012 elections when the Republicans kept control of the chamber. Only 38% say it’s a good thing the GOP controls the House, a 13-point dive from the end of last year.
[…]
Forty-four percent say they approve of the job the President is doing with 52% saying they disapprove.

“Barack Obama’s numbers are pretty anemic, but he remains in much better shape than the GOP,” Holland said. “Even though Obama’s approval rating remains stuck in the mid-40s, it didn’t take a hit during the shutdown — 44% just before the shutdown began; 44% now.”
Cruz: I don’t work for the party bosses McCain: Shutdown tactics ‘fool’s errand’ Could the Democrats retake the House?

According to the survey, 44% also say they have more confidence in Obama rather than the GOP in Congress to deal with the major issues facing the country today, a 5-point drop from last year; 31% say they have more confidence in congressional Republicans, unchanged from last December.

I can’t say that the people are very impressed with any of our political leaders at the moment. But this is a two party country and people choose between them. I’d bet even Fleischer can do the math.

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Generic Democrats lead in 37 of 61 Republican districts

by David Atkins

It’s early days, of course, and leads for “generic” candidates often evaporate when real, flawed flesh and blood candidates present themselves. The smart money says Republicans still hold onto the House. But even so, these numbers from PPP are nothing short of astonishing:

A new round of post-shutdown polling shows that Democrats not only have an opportunity to take back the House of Representatives next year, but that they could win a sizable majority if voter anger over the shutdown carries into 2014. Public Policy Polling has just completed surveys in an additional 25 GOP-held House districts, which means we have now surveyed a total of 61 such districts since the beginning of the government shutdown. The surveys were commissioned and paid for by MoveOn.org Political Action. Republicans will likely find this third round of surveys to be the most alarming yet, given that the new results show substantial Republican vulnerability in many districts that were not even supposed to be close.

Incumbent Republicans trail generic Democrats in 15 of the 25 districts we most recently surveyed. This means generic Democrats lead in 37 of 61 districts polled since the beginning of the government shutdown. Democrats only need to net 17 seats in order to retake the House. And the bad news for Republicans doesn’t stop there, because in the minority of the 61 districts where Republicans lead in the initial head-to-head question, 11 more Republicans fall behind once voters are informed that the Republican supported the government shutdown and 1 race becomes tied. This means that our results indicate Democrats have pickup opportunities in an astounding 49 of the 61 districts surveyed.

Anecdotally, the Washington Post has a story about constituent reactions in one GOP-held district in Virginia:

Rich Anderson knocks on doors seven days a week, for at least two hours a day. He’s not selling anything. He’s listening.

After 30 years in the Air Force, he’s used to straight talk. But what Anderson, a Republican who represents 80,000 residents of Prince William County in the Virginia legislature, is hearing these days is blunt to the max.

Knock-knock: “I’m fed up with all of you,” says Tony Smathers, a retired research physicist at the Naval Research Lab.

Knock-knock: “It must really suck to be a Republican right now,” says a federal worker who, truth be told, is a Republican herself.

Knock-knock: “Lifelong Republican,” says the woman at the door, a senior executive in the military. “I’m sorry — I have to tell you, I’m not apt to vote for anyone in my own party this year. Can’t do it.”

These voters will help choose a new governor in two weeks, and they are gearing up to send a message about the most recent horror show in Washington.

At many doors, voters tell Anderson that they plan to hold his party and its candidate for governor, Ken Cuccinelli II, to account for the D.C. follies. Anderson winces and explains that Virginia does business differently from the jokers in Washington. Things get done, budgets get balanced, opponents work together.

At some doors, there’s a grudging nod, maybe even a thin smile. But at many, this genial state delegate is the convenient guy to vent at.

It’s possible if not probable that this anger will have dissipated by this time next year. But that also assumes that Tea Party Republicans won’t pull any more stunts between now and next year’s elections. If they do, the ill will they’ve built up over the shutdown could be reinforced over other issues.

The biggest danger for Democrats at this point is being shortsighted enough to enact the Republican agenda by needlessly cutting Medicare and Social Security in order to solve phantom budget problems 20 years down the road during the greatest recession since the Great Depression. Let the Republicans own shutting down the government in order to deny people healthcare, and let the Republicans and cocktail circuit pundits own attempting to cut Social Security and Medicare so that rich people won’t have to pay extra taxes. The public is angry enough as it is.

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A foreigner experiences American “exceptionalism”


by digby

A woman from another land finds herself in America’s health care system. She characterizes it as the Wild West. A few choice quotes:

“Kind and attentive as the hospital staff may be, it’s hard to appreciate that you’re recovering when you have that constant, underlying fear of a giant bill.”

“Somewhere nearby, I can hear a nurse talking about the government shutdown. ‘They just have to have their Obamacare,’ she says, her words oozing contempt. I begin to wonder how the Republicans have managed to convince even those in the very midst of a system that punishes the poor, that the slightest implementation of state-funded healthcare is an evil, communist conspiracy. “

 “A good-natured Polish nurse has just hooked me up to a drip and given me an injection of blood thinner in the stomach. Carmen is leaving.’Get better, darling,’ she says, ‘And remember – if you need anything – money talks.'”

I honestly don’t think that Americans, most of whom don’t travel outside the country, understand just how unusual it is to be petrified that you are going to go bankrupt or be denied care due to money.  The rest of the developed world has found a way to provide universal health care to their people. In this case we are exceptional. Exceptionally heartless.

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QOTD: EJ Dionne

by digby

“A lot of times, though, when people say the president should lead, what they want him to do is adopt Republican positions and then push for those. That’s not leadership, that’s capitulation.”

Thank you. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Weirder than Goldfinger

by digby

Heh:

“@MattZeitlin: Who was the last person as genuinely weird as Assange to have such a big impact on global politics?”Goldfinger
— Richard Yeselson (@yeselson) October 20, 2013

Oh no, there is one very powerful weirdo who makes Assange look like John Tesh by comparison:

… [Keith]Alexander brought many of his future allies down to Fort Belvoir for a tour of his base of operations, a facility known as the Information Dominance Center. It had been designed by a Hollywood set designer to mimic the bridge of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, complete with chrome panels, computer stations, a huge TV monitor on the forward wall, and doors that made a “whoosh” sound when they slid open and closed. Lawmakers and other important officials took turns sitting in a leather “captain’s chair” in the center of the room and watched as Alexander, a lover of science-fiction movies, showed off his data tools on the big screen.

“Everybody wanted to sit in the chair at least once to pretend he was Jean-Luc Picard,” says a retired officer in charge of VIP visits.

He’s resigning, by the way.  And as Marcy Wheeler points out at that link, it preents an opportunity for President Obama to chart a new NSA course.  If he wants to.

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Worst analogy of the decade

by digby

Ross Douthat:

Like the Bush administration in Iraq, the White House seems to have invaded the health insurance marketplace with woefully inadequate postinvasion planning, and let the occupation turn into a disaster of hack work and incompetence.

Yes, except for all the actual human carnage, torture and death, it’s exactly the same. Good insight.

Once again, I’m struck by how the right sees Obamacare in such violent terms. I thought I was immune to how weird these people are, but I still have things to learn. These are people who valorize our out of control gun violence and cheer on any war the nation decides to join. But affordable health care is a fundamental threat to life and liberty. Ok.

And you have to love this:

“… somewhere there must be a tech-world David Petraeus capable of stabilizing HealthCare.gov.”

Always looking for a hero ….

Update: To be fair to Douthat, he does admit that these exchanges are basically a conservative idea and their failure will make conservative health care solutions look ba. He thinks we’ll end up getting some sort of early Medicare buy in and a medicaid expansion in that event which he sees as a terrible outcome. I don’t think he should worry. if this doesn’t work we’ll just go back to the conservative status quo — letting people go broke and die. He needn’t worry.

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These Village enablers have a lot of nerve …

by digby

I know I’m sounding very shrill and resentful, but I can’t help it when I hear so-called intellectuals like Fareed Zakaria today on his show suddenly waking up to fact that the GOP is a bunch of reactionary fanatics — and selling it like it’s some kind of new thing. Might I just point out that he has been an enabler of this bunch of nuts for years?

Like this, from January of 2010:

Barack Obama campaigned as the man who would bridge the divides of right and left, reach out with ideas to red and blue America and create a United States of America.

Now, the Republicans have been very obstructionist. They have played hard-to-get. But certainly on health care, Obama never really tried to make the compromises that might have gotten some key conservatives on board.

In a recent “Wall Street Journal” poll, Obama did all right on most categories of leadership. The public still admires him as a person and as a leader. But his worst score was in response to the question, has he changed the way Washington works?

See, America wants a president who at least tries to effect that change. That’s the change we all want to believe in.

Here he is four years ago:

Three weeks ago the new chancellor, 39-year-old Tory George Osborne, presented a budget that promised to get Britain’s fiscal house in order with sharp cuts in spending, coupled with tax increases. It landed in the midst of a heated debate across the industrialized world about how to best get the economy back on track. Osborne and his boss, Prime Minister David Cameron, have come down firmly on one side of this debate, hoping that a major effort to reduce the deficit will reassure bond markets and investors that Britain is a safe and compelling place to put their money.

Leaving aside the economics of this, what struck me as I spent time in Britain last week was the politics of deficit reduction. Having announced major cuts in popular programs, plus hefty tax increases, the Cameron government might be expected to be losing popularity by the day. But in fact the budget was well received by the public—though attacked ferociously from the left—and the governing coalition has actually inched up a bit in the polls…

It’s heartening to see a government do something that it must have thought would be deeply unpopular, and then be rewarded by the public…

Yes, that’s worked out just swimmingly.

How about this pile of BS from 2011?

The good news is that Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican chair of the House Budget Committee, has put out a budget plan for the next year and beyond that tries to tackle America’s biggest long-term problem, entitlement spending that is careening out of control.

The bad news is, his plan wouldn’t work. But I still applaud him for his courage in taking on the toughest topic and for proposing painful remedies. Any solution to Medicare will involve cuts and they will be unpopular.

So, what’s wrong with Ryan’s plan? Well, it’s an odd proposal from a man who seems genuinely committed to a solution to the U.S. fiscal crisis. The plan does not touch social security. It actually increases defense spending over the next 10 years, then it never actually explains what it will cut from discretionary spending. It simply asserts spending will go down massively…

So why do I applaud the Ryan plan? Because it is the first serious effort to begin talking about restructuring entitlements, which is a necessity. Democrats can attack the plan but they, too, must face up to the fiscal reality and come up with their own plans.

I won’t even go into the fluffing he gave George W. Bush for years on end. Well… ok, here’s a prime example:

MATTHEWS: Fareed, you’re watching that from–say you were over in the Middle East watching the president of the United States on this humongous aircraft carrier. It looks like it could take down Syria just one boat, right, and the president of the United States is pointing a finger and saying, `You people with the weapons of mass destruction, you people backing terrorism, look out. We’re coming.’ Do you think that picture mattered over there?

Mr. ZAKARIA: Oh yeah. Look, this is a part of the war where we have not–we’ve allowed a lot of states to do some very nasty stuff, traffic with nasty people and nasty material, and I think it’s time to tell them, you know what, `You’re going to be held accountable for this.’

The reactionary right has been in the drivers seat of the GOP for some time now, impeaching presidents, stealing elections, starting wars against countries that didn’t attack us. Demagogueing national security, talking about Social Security and medicare as if they are Stalinist gulags and basically living in an alternate universe in which those who don’t agree with them are enemy combatants is who they have been for years. And up until now, Fareed Zakaria and his ilk have been clutching their pearls over some delusional threat from the left . (Check out this absurd dialog he had with Joseph Ellis and Walter Isaacson back in Novermber of ’08, if you don’t believe me.)

And by doing that, they have been instrumental in the rise of the revanchist right wing. They should take a good look in the mirror before they start pronouncing judgment on it — it’s partly their baby.

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Rupert Murdoch: a “class” act

by digby

You know, I can think of one better way to deal with this sort of thing: throw the entire executive suite and Board of Directors in jail. That’s what happens to regular Americans who commit or aid and abet crimes. These people are getting off easy.

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