Proof-texting

I guess I'm not surprised Republican opted for the white-washed version of the text for yesterday's Let Us Read Our Glorious Constitwoshion Day.

It parallels the Bible fundamentalism popular among the conservative coalition in which while the whole of the Sacred Text is defended vociferously against all potential defamers and urged upon all heretics, literalist believers actually make very little use of the full material available.

For example, while Exodus 20 (The Ten Commandments) are a key part of Christianism's creed, I have yet to hear a sermon based on Exodus 21:

2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges.[a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

7 “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. 8 If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself,[b] he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. 9 If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. 10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. 11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

12 “Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death. 13 However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place I will designate. 14 But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death.
15 “Anyone who attacks[c] their father or mother is to be put to death.

16 “Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.

17 “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

18 “If people quarrel and one person hits another with a stone or with their fist[d] and the victim does not die but is confined to bed, 19 the one who struck the blow will not be held liable if the other can get up and walk around outside with a staff; however, the guilty party must pay the injured person for any loss of time and see that the victim is completely healed.

20 “Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, 21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.

So when conservatives talk about Constitutional "originalism" and Biblical inerrancy/literalism, they don't really mean it.

Genocidal Deregulation

Steven Pearlstein is really shrill:

What's particularly noteworthy about this fixation with "job killing" is that it stands in such contrast to the complete lack of concern about policies that kill people rather than jobs.

Repealing health-care reform, for instance, would inevitably lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths each year because of an inability to get medical care.

Although lack of effective regulation led directly to the deaths of 78 coal miners last year in West Virginia, Republicans continue to insist that any reform of mine safety laws is bad for miners' employment.

Republicans also continue to oppose food safety legislation that could save the lives of hundreds of Americans killed each year by contaminated food, just as they oppose any regulation that would effectively keep assault weapons out of the hands of convicted criminals and narco-terrorists who kill thousands of innocent victims on both sides of the Rio Grande.

And although a blue-ribbon panel has now concluded that a lack of effective government regulation contributed to an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that led to the deaths of 11 oil rig workers (along with countless numbers of birds, fish and other wildlife), all Republicans can talk about is the jobs that might be lost as a result of more vigorous oversight of deep-water drilling.

I wonder how Republicans and their media posse would like it if Democrats started referring to "genocidal" deregulation or the "murderous" repeal of health-care reform. Or if Republican economic policies were likened to the infamous neutron bomb - they kill the workers but leave their jobs intact.

More of this, please.

There are numbers from the CBO, and then there are numbers...

Republicans have scribbled on a napkin:

House Republicans countered with their own report, containing their portrayal of the financial effects of keeping the law intact. The report, filled with the incendiary language the GOP has adopted to discuss the law, is entitled: "Obama-care: A budget-busting, job-killing health care law" and features on its cover a gate padlocked with a thick chain.

Considering napkin-scribbling gang is also the same outfit whose new House rules stipulate that tax cuts won't increase the deficit, it's not hard to decide who's being more truthful here.

I remember when this was a free country: special debt-deficit edition

With all the media outcry over the past two years about deficits and the debt (but no noticeable outcry in the eight years prior), it's worth remembering that only a mere ten years ago, the country had a balanced budget.

Of course, then, the top marginal income tax rate was an "unconscionable" 39.6%, there was still a real estate tax, we weren't occupying two middle eastern countries and...

America: Dollar Stores are our business and business is GOOD

Remember when America used to make things, like cars?

Dollar General plans to create 6,000 new jobs in the next year, the discount retailer said Monday.

The increased hiring is part of Dollar General's (DG, Fortune 500) plan to open 625 new stores during the year, the company said in a statement.

The retailer said the hiring is the latest phase in its ongoing expansion. Dollar General will have created more than 15,000 new jobs from 2009 to 2011, the company said.

In addition to the 35 states where Dollar General already operates, the retailer will open stores in Connecticut, Nevada and New Hampshire. It is also planning to "remodel or relocate" 550 stores.

Shares of Dollar General rose slightly in Monday trading.

The news is part of what many economists believe is a brightening employment picture nationwide, with forecasts of between 2.5 million and 3 million jobs created in the coming year.

So, remember this little tidbit the next time you hear something about private sector job growth and our recovering economy, etc.

I wonder how the Israeli's handle it

And all the other sane countries to which the USA has finally added itself in allowing open gay service in the military.

Also, too, Massachusett's teabaggers apparently weren't happy with Scotty Pickup Truck Brown's support in the Senate for ending DADT. Maybe Christine O'Donnell can move to the Bay State and run in its teatard primary thus subtracting another Senate seat from the Republican column.

Also, too, teabaggers don't care about social issues, etc.

Forget Slavery For A Minute

Even if southern secession had not been based entirely on the rights of white men to own black men, which it was, why would the act of southern secession still be worth celebrating?

Isn't secession, the abandonment of the union, the ultimate rejection of the American national state, just plain old fashioned treason? Would it be if only northern states had seceded?

I can see the purpose and interest in a remembering of the people and events surrounding secession and the Civil War. But to celebrate a rejection of the country and flag that today's conservatives loudly proclaim to value and defend? What's worse is the tendency of today's conservatives to brand themselves as the only true "patriots" in the country while insinuating that liberals fail to express adequate devotion". Total chutzpah.

Democratic Idiocy on Taxes

Tax cuts for everyone forever:

Perhaps more consequential at the moment are the Democrats' intra-party negotiations over the Bush tax cuts. House leadership is still looking to hold a standalone vote on the tax cuts for income under $250,000. But some in the Senate -- including Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez, and Claire McCaskill -- are pushing a compromise that would extend $400 billion of the $700 billion in tax cuts for income above $250,000 by extending them for everyone making less than $1,000,000. So those struggling members of the middle class making between $250,001 and $999,999 will get their tax cuts, too, and Democrats will have extended about $3.6 trillion of the $4 trillion in Bush tax cuts, or 90 percent of the total.

If that's the ultimate agreement we see on the Bush tax cuts, it'll be worth taking a moment to appreciate how far Democrats have backslid on this issue since BIll Clinton. Clinton, of course, raised taxes in the face of large deficits. The Obama campaign, by contrast, swore not to raise taxes on any family making less than $250,000, and Democrats might now effectively raise that to $1,000,000. In setting up the expectation that taxes can't go up for anyone but millionaires, Democrats take most of them off the table. And given that Republicans have no interest in taxes, either, that basically removes them as a tool of fiscal policy going forward.

This is embarrassing. And completely nonsensical.

Senate Passes Food Safety Bill

Senate actually does some good. Although Glenn Beck's disciples don't like the bill because...

As with any business regulation, opponents protest that "it'll hurt small business/farms." As if we should allow small farms to poison us. But apparently, George Soros has single-handedly thwarted the Faux media complex in getting this bill passed.

This might be the best news we have for a long time.

Caught Off Guard

Obama re-nominates a conservative chairman of the Federal Reserve, nominated previously under a conservative president, who, because U.S. unemployment is generously listed at about 10%, is finally taking some action to fulfill the institution's mandate for full employment, is feeling the wrath of President Palin and her teatard followers in the Faux media:

WASHINGTON — Faced with unusually sharp ideological attacks after its latest bid to stimulate the economy, the Federal Reserve now faces a challenge far removed from the conduct of monetary policy: how to defend itself in a hyperpartisan environment without becoming overtly political.

Caught off guard by accusations from Congressional Republicans, Sarah Palin, Tea Party activists and conservative economists, the central bank and its chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, are pushing back, making their case on substantive grounds but also haltingly adopting the tactics of Washington battle, like strategically placed interviews, behind-the-scenes assuaging of opponents and reaching out to potential allies on Capitol Hill.

The stakes are high. Last week, one House conservative announced legislation to strip the Fed of its mandate to promote jobs and have it focus solely on containing inflation.

The attacks, coupled with criticism from foreign officials, have introduced enough uncertainty into global financial markets to potentially undercut the Fed’s plan to drive down interest rates, which rise or fall as investors anticipate Fed action.

(snip)

Mr. Bernanke, who had thought the worst was behind him, was unsettled by the suddenness of the recent attacks. He has said that the Fed was in a no-win situation; if it had not acted, it would have been criticized for ignoring the painfully slow pace of the recovery.

This is really quite astounding. The conservative position is now that no branch or institution of the federal government should have to address the problem of unemployment.

This seems like a pretty big fekin deal

Sebellius's Department of Health and Human Services issues new health insurance regs:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration issued new federal rules on Monday that will require many health insurance companies to spend more on medical care and allocate less to profits, executive compensation, marketing and overhead expenses.

The rules, intended to benefit consumers, vastly expand federal authority to direct the use of premiums collected by companies like Aetna, Humana, UnitedHealth and WellPoint. While some states have had such requirements, Monday’s announcement is the first such mandate by the federal government and grows out of the new national health care law.

“Millions of Americans will get better value for their health insurance premium dollar,” Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said in issuing the rules.

Ms. Sebelius said the rules would protect nearly 75 million people: 10.6 million with individual policies, 24.2 million with small-group coverage and 40 million covered by large employers.

Starting next year, she said, insurers in the individual and small-group markets must spend at least 80 percent of their premium revenues on medical care and activities to improve the quality of care. Insurers in the large-group market must spend at least 85 percent of premium dollars for those purposes.

Insurers that do not meet the standards next year will have to pay rebates to consumers, starting in 2012. Ms. Sebelius estimated that up to nine million people could get rebates worth up to $1.4 billion. About 45 percent of people with individually purchased insurance are in health plans that do not meet the new standards, known as medical loss ratios, federal officials said.

I can't wait for the hysterical freak out by the teatards.

Stripping the FED

The Media Villagers, through the pen of spokesman George Will (Washington Post station, no linky), have begun jumping on the Hell No Quantitative Easing! bandwagon. With 10% unemployment, zero percent inflation, and a Federal Reserve that possesses the Congressionally-set mandate to ensure Full Employment (which it has heretofore done little to nothing), our new teabagging elite, from Sarah Palin to Eric Cantor to Fred Hyatt's crayon scribble page, instead wants the Fed to cease and desist?

So all of sudden the Fed isn't supposed to do anything about high unemployment? When did this happen? How did this suddenly become acceptable discourse, let alone conventional economic wisdom?

So our institutions are basically not supposed to respond to economic emergencies now?

To make this all the more bizarre, Fred Hyatt's crayon scribble page also includes, next to Will's Hell No QE! column an even more bizarre rant from the Media Village Dean, David Broder (no linky, trust me, it's just a bad column), complaining because the Dems have...added a third leadership member in the House when the loss of the House majority was supposed to result in them only having two. And that this atrocity amounts to the Dems "changing the rules" and not "making the hard choices" in regards to the 2009 stimulus bill and HCR, which Broder apparently hated.

I can't make sense of it. It shoudl be a fun next two years.

On Social Security, Dems Should Take The Deal

President Obama's deficit commission released its preliminary proposals yesterday, which include changes to Social Security. While I can't applaud the commission's broader tax and spending proposals, Democrats should welcome the commission's Social Security options. The Social Security changes include:

1) an increase in the "tax max"--the amount of taxes subject to Social Security taxes;
2)a new, wage-indexed, special minimum benefit for lifelong low earners;
3)an additional minimum benefit for the oldest Social Security beneficiaries, to kick in later in retirement;
4)a slight reduction in the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA);
5)a slight reduction in the benefit formula that will only affect those with higher than average earnings; and
6)a very gradual increase in the full retirement age (FRA) from 67 to 69.

Of these, only the FRA change can be considered as "regressive", but it's by no means a radical proposal, and there are several minimum benefit sweetners to make sure the lowest lifetime earners aren't adversely affected.

But why agree even to these? Because it isn't going to get better. A poorer performing economy means the estimated exhaustion date for Social Security's Trust Fund, currently projected to be 2037, will in all likelihood, only continue to creep closer. And the longer a long term fix is put off, the worse the fixes will need to be. Besides this, we can't know what the political climate will be in six, ten or 18 years. Quite possibly, it could well be worse than today.

This Social Security package would restore long term solvency, go a long way towards protecting it from would-be privatizers, and enhance benefits for the lowest lifetime earners through two new provisions. It also includes a tax max increases, which progressives tend to support. The benefit formula reduction--which some Progressives erroneously liken to "means-testing"--is actually just an extension of the already existing progressive benefit structure. This criticism seems particularly odd coming from progressives who normally want the more well to do to bear the brunt of any Social Security fixes. Progressives can't clamor for higher payroll taxes or higher limits to the "tax max" while simultaneously criticizing benefit reductions that affect higher-than-average earners. In short, this is overall a pretty progressive package of changes to the program, which Progressives and Democrats should support.

The point of being in Congress is to actually do good stuff

This seems like kind of an important point:

To me it seems obvious that having the 111th Congress press hard to get big things done was the right call, even if it contributed to electoral defeat. This is especially true because as I said yesterday you need to do the analysis at the margin. Losing 65 House seats is way worse than losing zero House seats. But dropping the Affordable Care Act wouldn’t have saved 65 House seats. Maybe it would have saved 15. But that’s not nearly as big a deal. The reason you try to win elections is it gives you the chance to pass important laws, so saying you want to avoid passing laws in order to slightly reduce your midterm losses seems silly.

Yglesias goes on to quote conservative writer Ross Douthat:

Politics often gets covered as though the legislative sessions are just a long prelude to the real action of election season. But for all the breathless horse-race coverage, elections only matter to the extent that they produce (or forestall) actual legislation. And where the policies of the United States government are concerned, all the ground the Republicans regained tonight doesn’t change the fact that what liberals achieved in Barack Obama’s first two years in office was more consequential than any conservative victories in recent memory.

So, the point of being in Congress and holding majorities in Congress is to actually get good legislation that helps people passed. The point of being in Congress and holding majorities in Congress is not to just keep being in Congress and holding majorities in Congress the next time. Hopefully the no-guts, no brains assclowns muttering about Nancy Pelosi will figure that out.

Surviving

Even though the Democrats got shellacked in the U.S. House, I'm feeling much better today than maybe I should. At the moment it appears that the Democrats will hold the Senate with a 53-47 edge. If Republicans had not nominated teabaggers in several key states, we would be looking at a Democratic minority in the Senate as well. And locally, Maryland Democratic candidates generally did really well.

But the House losses were huge and it will take several more cycles, and probably a lot of bad legislation, to reverse those. And the Democratic's hold over the Senate may be short-lived because they will need to defend more tough seats in '12. So, it's possible that even though last night's vote prevented an outbreak of full-blown-crazy, it might only be a temporary salve, especially if the economy does not improve significantly or if there is another significant terrorist attack.

Nonetheless I was greatly relieved to see Harry Reid win his seat over Sharon Angle. Hopefully, Patty Murray will hang on in Washington State.

I doubt any legislation of consequence will get passed in the next two years. Any that will, will be bad (i.e. extending all of the Bush tax cuts).

Elsewhere in Maryland

Martin O'Malley cruising to a re-election victory over Bob Ehrlich. This was a closer race at one point, and Ehrlich signs are ubiquitous in my area of central Maryland (above DC, below Baltimore). Maryland, Oh My Maryland. Guess signs don't win elections.

Also too, Frank Kratovil, blue dog "independent" Dem who voted against the HCR bill is losing to the Repub. Kratovil's ads have been all over the tv. Can't feel sorry for this guy. See ya, Frank.

Dems to hold Senate

CNN has the Dems with 47 seats in the Senate (counting the two Independents) with Hawaii, Oregon and California still to close. Assuming the Dems win those three Senate seats, and there aren't any party switches, that would give them 50, with VP Biden providing a tie-breaker. And there's still Murray in Washington and Reid in Nevada in close races. So the Senate looks promising. At least we may forestall the really supercrazy for another two years.

Hoyer could be in trouble (updated below, update II, update III)

The #2 Dem in the House, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer is trailing his Republican opponent 53%-46%, with 14% of the vote in. Still early. But the Repub is an African-American and this is a heavily African American district.

Good Democrat Rush Holt of NJ also trails with about 25% of the vote in.

Update I: CNN is now projecting Hoyer to win, although he still trails 53%-46% with 17% of the vote in. State-wide, the Republican vote tends to come in earlier, but for this district, I don't know.

Update II: 39% of the vote now in and Hoyer way ahead with 65% of the vote. Sorry for the false alarm.

Update III: CNN has now projected that Good Democrat Rush Holt of NJ will retain his House seat. Very good news.

Before the Morning After

I know tonight's going to be bad, but I did a lot of hand-wringing after the ‘94 mid-terms, then again in ’95 when the pundit class told me Clinton was toast, then in ’98when the pundit class wanted Clinton impeached before Dems won seats, then in 2000, then in 2002 when it looked like The War On Terror had Changed Everything, and I doubly wrang my hands again in 2004 when the pundit class told me it was all about the Values Voters. In 2006 the pundit class and my own pessimism had me convinced there was no way the Dems could win Congress again. Then in 2008 I couldn’t believe Americans would elect a black dude with the middle name of Hussein and the last name of Obama.

I wouldn’t worry much about the long-term impact of tonight’s results. It’s a mid-term (see 1982 1994), the economy is really bad (see 1982). If it stays bad, we might have more to worry about.

Profiles in Courage: Kent Conrad, ND

Today's Post:

At a time when many lawmakers are running away from the hated 2008 bank bailout, Sen. Kent Conrad is holding it close - and waging a one-man campaign to rehabilitate the program in the eyes of angry voters.

Over the past week, Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, has crisscrossed the state, delivering speeches to college economics classes and lecturing skeptical editorial boards, in addition to making his pitch on national television.

On Thursday morning, thousands of North Dakota newspaper subscribers awoke to a full-page ad with colorful charts and graphs about the improving economy, alongside a vigorous defense of the bailout and the equally reviled 2009 economic stimulus package.

The ad describes the perilous economic conditions that prompted a terrified Congress to approve the $700 billion bailout - officially, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP - just before the 2008 presidential election. It argues that TARP not only helped save the nation from a full-blown depression but cost much less than expected, with parts of the program turning a small profit.

And it cleverly reminds readers, front and center, that TARP was conceived by a Republican president, who just last week defended it during a lecture at the University of Texas at Tyler.

"President George W. Bush Explains Why He Created TARP," the ad says by way of introducing Bush's remarks, which are highlighted in yellow: "Depression, no depression . . . It wasn't that hard for me . . . I made the decision to use your money to prevent the collapse from happening."

Conrad, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is not on the ballot this year. And he has not decided whether to seek re-election when his term ends in 2012. So he has little to lose personally from defending the bailout.

Meanwhile, Democrats in North Dakota and nationally are getting hammered over their TARP and stimulus votes. Conrad said his campaign is an effort to help alleviate what he called "the major drag" on Democrats this campaign season.

Voter anger over the programs stems from "a fundamental lack of understanding," Conrad said. "At the time, we absolutely failed to help educate the American people as to how serious the situation was and how essential these steps were."

In addition to a Republican president, his Treasury secretary, his Federal Reserve chairman and Republican congressional leaders, Conrad said, Republican business leaders "came to us in droves" demanding aid for the banks and more liquidity through stimulus.

"Now all of a sudden they've all got amnesia," Conrad said. "But had people not stepped up, we would be in extremely serious shape."