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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week
of February 15, 2009
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Obama:
"Send Me A Bill That Creates or Saves 4 Million Jobs"
posted by
John
Nichols
"This is
not your ordinary run-of-the-mill recession. We are going through the
worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," President Obama
declared at his first prime-time press conference Monday night.
Recounting job-loss figures--which Obama repeatedly described as his top
concern--he warned, "the problems are accelerating, not getting better."
If that
did not communicate the sense of urgency that the new president sought to
foster with regard to a stimulus plan he says must create or save 4
million jobs, the president added a sobering coda: "If you delay acting on
an economy of this severity, then you potentially create a negative spiral
that becomes much more difficult to get out of."
For
Obama, who tried for the first three weeks of his presidency to gently
cajole congressional critics with White House get-togethers and casual
compromises, this was the take-it-to-the-people moment. And he did
not candy-coat the message during an almost hour-long press conference at
which he took 13 questions--most on the economy--and pulled few punches
regarding an economic mess that he recalled at several points he had
inherited from a Republican administration.
In
response to a question about whether he was painting too gloomy a picture,
Obama invoked the memory of the economic downturn that destabilized Japan
during the 1990s. Explaining that an insufficiently bold and
well-structured response sunk Japan into what has come to be referred to
as a "lost decade" of economic stagnation, the president said he was
rejecting the "failed theories" of the past.
Dismissing congressional conservatives who reject government intervention
in response to such as crisis as adherents of those theories, Obama said,
"They're fighting battles that I thought were resolved a long time ago."
Obama was
measured in his remarks with regard to Republican stonewalling in
Congress. But he displayed genuine frustration with Republican spin that
has attempted to portray portions of the stimulus legislation that seek to
update health care technologies or promote energy efficiency as
unnecessary--or even as pork-barrel spending. He went into detail
describing the importance of those initiatives to struggling families and
businesses and then declared, "Don't suggest that's somehow wasteful
spending."
The
president promised he would continue to pursue bipartisan agreements
--even going so far as to promise to "give a little bit" on tax cuts
favored by Republicans. "I'm going to keep on engaging," he said.
But,
Obama said, "I can't afford to see Congress play the usual political
games."
The
president's bottom-line message to members of the House and Senate, who
continue to wrangle over the stimulus plan and related economic issues,
was as blunt as it was personal: "Send me a bill that creates or saves 4
million jobs."
SOURCE
As the debate over President Obama’s
economic stimulus plan gets under way, one thing is certain: many of the
plan’s opponents aren’t arguing in good faith. Conservatives really,
really don’t want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don’t
want to see government activism vindicated. So they are reaching for any
stick they can find with which to beat proposals for increased
government spending.
Some of these arguments are obvious cheap
shots. John Boehner, the House minority leader, has already
made headlines with one such shot: looking at an $825 billion plan to
rebuild infrastructure, sustain essential services and more, he derided
a minor provision that would expand Medicaid family-planning services —
and called it a plan to “spend hundreds of millions of dollars on
contraceptives.”
But the obvious cheap shots don’t pose as
much danger to the Obama administration’s efforts to get a plan through
as arguments and assertions that are equally fraudulent but can=2 0seem
superficially plausible to those who don’t know their way around
economic concepts and numbers. So as a public service, let me try to
debunk some of the major antistimulus arguments that have already
surfaced. Any time you hear someone reciting one of these arguments,
write him or her off as a dishonest flack.
First, there’s the bogus talking point that
the Obama plan will cost $275,000 per job created. Why is it bogus?
Because it involves taking the cost of a plan that will extend over
several years, creating millions of jobs each year, and dividing it by
the jobs created in just one of those years.
It’s
as if an opponent of the school lunch program were to take an estimate
of the cost of that program over the next five years, then divide it by
the number of lunches provided in just one of those years, and assert
that the program was hugely wasteful, because it cost $13 per lunch.
(The actual cost of a free school lunch, by the way, is $2.57.)
The true cost per job of the Obama plan will
probably be closer to $100,000 than $275,000 — and the net cost will be
as little as $60,000 once you take into account the fact that a stronger
economy means higher tax receipts.
Next, write off anyone who asserts that it’s
always better to cut taxes than to increase government spending because
taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their
money.
Here’s how to think about this argument: it
implies that we should shut down the air traffic control system. After
all, that system is paid for with fees on air tickets — and surely it
would be better to let the flying public keep its money rather than hand
it over to government bureaucrats. If that would mean lots of midair
collisions, hey, stuff happens.
The point is that nobody really believes
that a dollar of tax cuts is always better than a dollar of public
spending. Meanwhile, it’s clear that when it comes to economic stimulus,
public spending provides much more bang for the buck than tax cuts — and
therefore costs less per job created (see the previous fraudulent
argument) — because a large fraction of any tax cut will simply be
saved.
This suggests that public spending rather
than tax cuts should be the core of any stimulus plan. But rather than
accept that implication, conservatives take refuge in a nonsensical
argument against public spending in general.
Finally, ignore anyone who tries to make
something of the fact that the new administration’s chief economic
adviser has in the past favored monetary policy over fiscal policy as a
response to recessions.
It’s true that the normal response to
recessions is interest-rate cuts from the Fed, not government spending.
And that might be the best option right now, if it were available. But
it isn’t, because we’re in a situation not seen sin ce the 1930s: the
interest rates the Fed controls are already effectively at zero.
That’s why we’re talking about large-scale
fiscal stimulus: it’s what’s left in the policy arsenal now that the Fed
has shot its bolt. Anyone who cites old arguments against fiscal
stimulus without mentioning that either doesn’t know much about the
subject — and therefore has no business weighing in on the debate — or
is being deliberately obtuse.
These are only some of the fundamentally
fraudulent antistimulus arguments out there. Basically, conservatives
are throwing any objection they can think of against the Obama plan,
hoping that something will stick.
But here’s the thing: Most Americans aren’t
listening. The most encouraging thing I’ve heard lately is Mr. Obama’s
reported response to Republican objections to a spending-oriented
economic plan: “I won.” Indeed he did — and he should disregard the
huffing and puffing of those who lost.
600,000 Jobs Lost: How
Bad Does It Have to Get for Republicans to Act? by
Tula Connell
With today’s
unemployment report showing nearly 600,000 jobs lost in January—worsening
the U.S. unemployment rate from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent—will
obstructionist Republicans in Congress finally move the economic recovery
bill?
From
Bloomberg:
“Last month’s losses mark the first time since records began
in 1939 that job cuts exceeded half a million in three consecutive months.”
While the
official unemployment rate of 7.6 percent is really bad, the unofficial
rate—which includes underemployed workers and those who have become too
discouraged to look for work—is
13.8
percent.
Some 21.5
million workers are either unemployed, working part time for economic
reasons or dropping out of the labor force because they can’t find work.
The Bureau of
Labor Statistics report shows that service industries, which include banks,
insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, lost 279,000 jobs. Retail
payrolls decreased by 45,100, after a decline of 82,700 in December.
Financial firms reduced payrolls by 42,000, after a 27,000 decrease the
prior month.
At bottom, the
problem is simple: There are far fewer jobs than workers. An analysis by the
Economic Policy Institute shows there is
one
job for
every
four
workers. That means jobs need to be created. And that means Congress has to
act immediately to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which
will create or save 3 million jobs.
The jobs report
shows the U.S. economy has shed 3.6 million jobs since the start of the
recession in December 2007, with almost half of them lost in the last three
months. EPI economist Heidi Shierholz puts that figure in perspective:
Since the start of the recession, the U.S. economy has shed
more jobs than the total population of Chicago.
How bad do the
job numbers have to get before many Republicans in Congress stop holding up
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act? They seem to have forgotten that
the America people voted them out of office—big time—because the public
wants what Republicans oppose: fundamentally sound programs like job
training.
No joke. The
Republican mouthpiece,
The
National Review,
is blasting the $4 billion in the recovery program for job training, calling
it an “outrage.” (Other items in the recovery package the magazine
highlights as “outrages” are Pell Grants for college—higher education should
only be for those wealthy enough to afford it, after all—and federal child
care block grants because, well, just because children don’t deserve care.
Or something like that. Can’t quite get into a mindset that cuts programs
for kids.)
President Obama
warned this week
that
a failure to act and to act now will turn crisis into
catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession.
He’s right. Republicans in Congress need to stop
playing games and pass the recovery act to get America back to work.
*********************
CONGRESS -- REP. CANTOR'S OFFICE SENDS OUT
PROFANITY-LACED ATTACK ON UNION: Yesterday, the public workers' uni
on
AFSCME
launched a national advertising campaign targeting lawmakers who are
trying to block President Obama's economic recovery package. The ad blasts
congressional Republicans for "just saying no" and "playing
politics instead
of doing what's right." A spokesman for Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA),
who had proudly declared that Republicans were "standing
up on principle and just saying no," responded by circulating a
profanity-laced video portraying AFSCME members as mob goons. The video
uses the F-word six times in one minute and ends with the tagline: "AFSCME:
We're the f*cking union that works for you." While Cantor's office has
apologized and called it a "joke," the video explicitly contradicts the
congressman's previous stance on obscenity. Indeed, in 2005, Cantor
voted for the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act that allowed fines of up
to $500,000 on broadcasters for airing "any obscene, indecent, or profane"
material. Speaking on the House floor in 2004, Cantor said the use of
obscenity "will damage our society" and "cannot
be tolerated." AFSCME chief Gerald McEntee
didn't find Cantor's "joke" funny. "Eric Cantor may think the greatest
economic crisis in seventy years is a joke, but we don't," said McEntee. "He
should talk to the people in Virginia who are losing their jobs, health
care, and homes."
YOUR COMMENTS
Have your comments printed here. Send them to
LJCDP@louisvilledem.com
DAILY GRILL
"If anyone receives mistreatment at Guantanamo, it is the guard force."
-- Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC),
2/2/09
VERSUS
"Fifty of [Guantanamo's] 260 detainees are on hunger strike and, say
witnesses, are being strapped to chairs and force-fed, with those who resist
being beaten." -- Guardian,
2/8/09
******************************
"[Centrist Republicans] are
really the heroes in this for making a stimulus possible. [They]
really
deserve the Congressional Medal of Honor on this one."
-- Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT),
02/09/09
VERSUS
"What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American
jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines
schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their
houses? A proud centrist."
-- Nobel Laureate Paul
Krugman on the stimulus
compromise,
02/08/09
************************
"One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information
Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what
the federal government deems appropriate." -- Hudson Institute's Betsy
McCaughey, 2/9/09
VERSUS
"Now, we asked Betsy McCaughey, because she's been through this bill
page by page, 'point us to the language that says that this bill will
dictate what your doctor does,' and she showed us language that didn’t
actually, specifically say that." -- CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, 2/11/09
Quotes
of the Day
Joe Wurzelbacher (Joe the Plumber), in town to help with the stimulus,
consults with some disinterested observers:
Today I had one briefing, and that was at the Club for Growth, I spoke
to Andy Roth. Now yesterday, I talked to the Heritage Foundation. I
actually had the chance to talk to the Cato Institute as well, I guess you
could call it a briefing, it was more of an interview. But all these
bipartisan, or if you will neutral, think tanks are pretty much saying the
same things. Say no to this bill, it will devastate America.
Sen.
Jim Bunning said today the eligibility for full Social Security benefits
should quickly be pushed from age 67 to 70. He said just doing this would
put Social Security on "a sound financial basis until 2075."
He also advocated lowering cost-of-living raises for Social Security
recipients.
TOP
Recent Senate Votes
Confirmation of Eric H. Holder, Jr. to be Attorney General - Vote
Confirmed (75-21, 3 Not Voting)
The Senate confirmed Eric Holder to be Attorney General.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted NO
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO
Recent House Votes
Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 -
Vote Passed (290-135, 8 Not Voting)
The House gave final approval to this bill that reauthorizes and expands the
State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Rep. Brett Guthrie voted NO
Rep. John Yarmuth
voted YES
DTV Delay Act - Vote Passed (264-158, 10 Not Voting)
The House passed this bill that will delay the transition to digital
television signals until June 12.
Rep. Brett Guthrie voted NO
Rep. John Yarmuth
voted YES
TOP
HUMOR
"How about this? It's a good example of how strange things
are and how time flies. On this date in 2006, then-Vice President
Dick Cheney shot his buddy in the face. Tell me again why he's not in
jail? How did that work?" --David Letterman
"How about this? A celebrity birthday. Today is Alaska Gov.
Sarah Palin's birthday. I'm not saying how old is, but from her house,
she can see 50." --David Letterman
"Sarah Palin is actually 45 years old today, and just to tell you a little
something about me -- Sarah Palin, I think, is the first vice presidential
candidate that I have
pictured naked. Well, since Lloyd Bentsen." --David Letterman
"But Sarah Palin had a big birthday celebration up there in Alaska. She
celebrated by shooting wolf cubs from a helicopter. Later, she shot the
cake." --David Letterman
"Prosecutors have asked a Federal judge to send Marion Barry, the former
mayor of Washington, D.C., to jail for failing to file tax returns for the
eighth time in nine years. Hasn't paid taxes for eight years straight. So
for Barry, it's either jail or a cabinet position in the Obama
administration. Either one." --Jay Leno
"Happy birthday, Governor Sarah Palin, who turned 45 years old today. Hey, I
thought this was nice. She got a lovely card in it with $5 from
John McCain. After Palin opened her card, she did some shots - two moose
and a caribou." --Jay Leno
"And as you know, pro baseball player Alex Rodriguez, or A-Rod, has admitted
to using steroids. He said he feels bad because he was stupid for three
years, to which former President
George W. Bush said, 'Hey, try it for eight years.'" --Jay Leno
"Well, today, the heads of the eight largest banks testified before
Congress. Bank C.E.O.'s in a room full of politicians -- they had to flip a
coin to see who's going to tell the first lie." --Jay Leno
TOP
CONGRESS -- KENNEDY, BAUCUS SAY THEY
ARE COMMITTED TO HEALTH CARE REFORM IN 2009: Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA),
chair of Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Sen. Max
Baucus (D-MT), chair of the Finance Committee,
sent a joint letter yesterday to President Obama reaffirming their
commitment to passing health care reform "this year." "We have a moral duty
to ensure that every American can get quality health care. ... Incremental
efforts will no longer suffice and we cannot afford to wait any longer," the
chairmen wrote. After Tom Daschle's withdrawal as nominee for Secretary of
Health and Human Services, "a senior Obama administration official reminded
skeptics, 'The
most passionate advocate for health reform in the administration is
staying put -- right in the Oval Office.'" The chairmen noted that
the momentum for reform is already in place. Calling the joint letter a "big
deal," The American Prospect's Ezra Klein notes that health care reform in
1994 was in part thwarted because then-Finance Committee chair Patrick
Moynihan was not on board. "Even Tom Daschle, then a member of the Senate,
couldn't overcome that bit of toxicity," Klein writes. In 2009, Democratic
leaders have
already begun to act by adding provisions for $100 billion in new
spending on health care reform and modernization into the economic recovery
package.
RADICAL RIGHT -- LIMBAUGH TO BE FEATURED AS
KEY SPEAKER AT CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE: Yesterday, the Conservative
Political Action Conference (CPAC)
sent out a "Special Announcement" to supporters stating, "I am pleased to
announce that RUSH LIMBAUGH will be the closing speaker at CPAC 2009!" The
Progress Report received an e-mail from CPAC's Joseph Logue, who said that
this year will be Limbaugh's first appearance at CPAC. He was invited
because "he is an
important voice in the conservative movement, and he is someone whom the
attendees have requested in the past." Limbaugh's prominent role at CPAC
underscores his
rising presence within the conservative movement, despite his often
hateful,
racist, and bigoted political commentary. His influence in getting the
House GOP to vote against the economic recovery legislation, for example,
was
undeniable. Other
invited speakers to CPAC who didn't get the coveted closing speaker slot
include Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Massachusetts governor Mitt
Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
MEDIA -- GOP EMBRACES RUSH LIMBAUGH AS ITS 'UNOFFICIAL LEADER':
The Los Angeles Times wrote yesterday that "Rush Limbaugh has his grip on
the GOP microphone," having become "the
politically wounded party's unofficial leader." Limbaugh -- who said he
hopes that Barack Obama will fail -- has seen his "prominence and
political import" increased. One example of Limbaugh's influence,
unmentioned in the article, is the fact that he coined the messaging
strategy for stimulus opponents, referring to the economic recovery package
as "porkulus." On his Jan. 23 radio show, Limbaugh said that "it's not a
stimulus,
it's a porkulus." On his Jan. 28 show, Limbaugh
introduced the term to Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), saying "You could call
this the 'porkulus.'" "Right. ... It is porkulus. That's a great
description," Cantor replied. Limbaugh
cynically wrote in the Wall Street Journal last month, "This 'porkulus'
bill is
designed to repair the Democratic Party's power losses from the 1990s
forward, and to cement the party's majority power for decades." Eventually,
Limbaugh's phrase trickled down to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has also
embraced the term. Bloomberg's Hans Nichols wrote recently, "Every
superhero
needs an archenemy. President Barack Obama has yet to find one." Rush
Limbaugh seems eager to acquire that role.
THE DIFFERENCE IS JOBS: The
unemployment rate is currently at
7.6 percent, after employers shed
598,000 jobs in a "brutal
January." This number jumps to
13.9 percent when the underemployed -- those working part-time who want
to be working full-time, or those who have simply given up on finding a job
-- are factored in. Over the last three months,
1.8 million jobs have disappeared. As the Center for American Progress'
Heather Boushey pointed out, "the United States has not seen job losses of
this magnitude over a
three month period since 1945." This highlights why job creation in the
stimulus package is critical, yet the Senate bill would create between
430,000 and 538,000 fewer jobs than its House counterpart. Of course, as
economist Brad Delong noted, "relative
to the alternative of no bill we do boost employment in America a year
from now by on the order of 3 million." But with potential job losses
expected to continue "for
another year nationwide" those jobs would mean a lot, and the stimulus
should be aimed at those areas in which it can do the most good.
ADMINISTRATION -- FEMA DENIES ASSISTANCE TO
650,000 HURRICANE IKE VICTIMS: Victims of Hurricane Ike, which hit
southeastern Texas in September 2008, have had a hard time receiving
assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Roughly
650,000 applicants have been denied any assistance so far. Lawyers for
many of the people found ineligible are saying that "unqualified or poorly
trained FEMA inspectors" are to be blamed for FEMA's failure to help the
region. According to Mark J. Grandich, who represents a homeowner whose
request for aid had been denied, FEMA merely "hired a bunch of people,
basically just anybody, and put them on the street after one day of
training." The
2,360 inspectors hired by FEMA appeared to have been "motivated to work
quickly because they are
paid a flat fee per inspection and must cover most of their own
expenses." One former FEMA inspector said that the agency's training program
is "a
scam" and that FEMA's "goal is to get as many inspections as they can
done every day to keep their heads above water." FEMA argues that many
people "do not understand the limits of the agency's help" and that the
agency attempts to make only the most uninhabitable homes "safe, secure and
functional."
ADMINISTRATION --
OBAMA'S UNSCREENED TOWN HALL AUDIENCE IS CLEAN BREAK FROM BUSH'S
SUPPORTERS-ONLY EVENTS:
Yesterday, President Obama hosted a town hall meeting in Elkhart, IN to
promote his recovery and reinvestment plan. As the Washington Post's Dan
Froomkin pointed out, Obama traveled to relatively unfriendly territory,
since Obama lost the county to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the presidential
election
44 percent to 56 percent.
Despite this fact, the
White House did not screen its
audience,
which had the chance to ask the president questions. "In a dramatic contrast
to former President Bush's town-hall meetings -- which were held almost
exclusively in party strongholds, with tickets distributed primarily to
supporters -- it was first come, first served in Elkhart" when tickets were
distributed," noted the Washington Post. Former President Bush aggressively
screened his audience members, even
requiring volunteer service or loyalty oaths before being allowed to attend
his events. For instance, in March 2005, people seeking tickets to a Social
Security event were
quizzed about their support of Bush and
his Social Security plan ahead of time. At the town hall yesterday, Obama
underscored the openness of his events, saying: "Here's the deal on
questions: First of all,
we didn't screen anybody,
so there's some people who like me in the audience, some people that don't,
some people agree with me, some people who don't. It doesn't matter. We want
to take questions from everybody."
MILITARY -- GATES OPEN TO ALLOWING MEDIA
PHOTOS OF MILITARY COFFINS AT DOVER: During his first press
conference on Monday night, President Obama said that his administration was
"in
the process of reviewing" the policy banning media photographs of
flag-draped coffins of U.S. servicemembers returning to Dover Air Force
base. Speaking to reporters yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert
Gates suggested that he was open to allowing such photos. "If the needs of
the families can be met and the privacy concerns can be addressed,
the more honor we can accord these fallen heroes, the better," he said.
Gates will be setting a "short deadline" for the Pentagon's review of the
policy, which was established in 1991 during the Gulf War and was renewed
under George W. Bush as recently as a year ago. "I think that looking at it
again makes all kinds of sense," Gates said, adding that he was "pretty open
to whatever the results of this review may be." The Bush Pentagon seemed
determined to keep the media away from the realities of war,
kicking out an embedded blogger for photographing the body of a dead
soldier last year. Weeks later, the Army demoted --
and then fired -- Arlington Cemetery's director of public affairs for
trying to investigate the cemetery's stiff restrictions on media
access. John Ellsworth, the president of Military Families United, said the
Obama administration has
reached out to some military families to seek their views on the Dover
issue.
ECONOMY -- BAILED-OUT WALL STREET EXECS
STILL LEASING PRIVATE JETS, HOPING TO KEEP LAVISH SALARIES: Last
November, Congress
ridiculed the Big Three automaker CEOs for taking private jets to
Washington to plea for a federal bailout. Subsequently, the CEOs quickly
curbed their jet travel. Iit seems, however, that bailed-out Wall Street
executives haven't learned the lesson. In a House Financial Services
Committee hearing yesterday, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) asked if their banks
still "own or lease" private planes. Only one (Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd
Blankenfein) out of eight
did not raise his hand. "I'd like you to raise your hand if your company
currently owns or leases a private plane. Let the record reflect that all
the hands went up except the gentleman from Goldman Sachs," Sherman said.
Though they emphasized that they gave up their bonuses, the CEOs said they
are still being generously compensated -- all except one earned between
$600,000 and $1.5 million in salary last year. When asked if they would
retain their 2008 salaries, all
indicated that they planned on it.
Think Fast
The Treasury Department's $700 billion financial sector bailout program
is shortchanging taxpayers by about $78 billion. Treasury
has "received bank assets worth about $176 billion in exchange for capital
purchases of $254 billion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program." Rep.
Alan Grayson (D-FL) said, "These are
massive handouts to favored institutions to try to make up with taxpayer
money the mistakes they made with investor money."
The country's largest labor and Hispanic groups are ratcheting up
the confirmation fight over Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis.
"Enough is enough,
the gloves are coming off on Friday," said one official with the
AFL-CIO. ThinkProgress has already been engaging in the battle -- check out
our posts
here,
here, and
here.
Congressional Republicans are "so far ahead of where we thought
we'd be at this time," according to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who is
thrilled his party is "standing on our core principles" against President
Obama's recovery plan. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) agreed, saying that what
"will give us a shot in the arm going forward is that
we are standing up on principle and just saying no."
Sixty-seven percent of
Americans approve of how President Obama "has handled the government's
efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill," according to a new
Gallup poll. Forty-eight percent approve of how congressional Democrats have
acted while only 31 percent approve the performance by congressional
Republicans.
Fifty-eight percent disapprove of the GOP's actions.
In his new book "The
Gamble," Thomas Ricks recounts an example of the "loathing"
Donald Rumsfeld generated. Shortly after he left the Pentagon,
Rumsfeld visited the upscale D.C. restaurant Buck's Fishing and Camping.
Chef-owner Carole Greenwood told her co-owner, James Alefantis, that she
wanted Rumsfeld kicked out: "I'm
not serving a war criminal in my restaurant." Greenwood eventually
relented, "but only on the condition that someone else cook Rumsfeld’s
meal."
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was the only Senator not to vote
yesterday on the economic recovery package. (Judd
Gregg had recused himself.) "He was at a New York
gathering of prominent media conservatives and Wall Street Republican donors
called the Monday Meeting, held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Midtown
Manhattan."
Just weeks before leaving office, former President Bush appointed a
number of top aides and GOP lawyers to "potentially lucrative" jobs at an "obscure
World Bank agency" that "attempts to broker international finance
disagreements." Bush "made more than 100 such end-of-term
appointments to a constellation of presidential boards and panel's
many of which will outlast President Obama's current term."
During a closed-door speech at
the House Republican retreat last month, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
said that "with George W. Bush, Karl Rove and Tom DeLay out of the picture,"
voters would embrace
Republicans again.
One lawmaker in the room later called Gingrich's singling out of other
Republicans "gratuitous."
Gingrich's office refused to "confirm or deny the comments attributed to the
ex-Speaker."
The
FBI raided the offices of a defense lobbying firm, PMA, founded by a
former aide to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and specializing "in winning
earmarked taxpayer funds for its clients." "PMA is the second
company with close ties to Murtha to be raided by federal agents
recently"; combined, the "companies reportedly have received over $100
million in earmarks, thanks to Murtha's efforts."
"The head of state was a little bruised" yesterday after
President Obama "misjudged either his height or that of the door to
a waiting helicopter." After waving goodbye to crowds, he attempted to board
Marine One but instead
hit his head in the doorway. Watch video of the incident
here.
Yesterday in a closed-door meeting with Democrats, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA) announced that lawmakers would be forgoing their
annual pay raises for the coming year. The decision is expected to
extend to senators as well.
TOP
INTERESTING
Misinformation On Health Information Technology
Late last month, the House
passed an economic recovery package containing
$20 billion for health information technology, which would require the
Department of Health and Human Services to develop standards by 2010 for a
nationwide system to exchange health data electronically. The version of the
recovery package
passed by the Senate yesterday contains
slightly less funding for health information technology ("health IT").
But as Congress
moves to reconcile the two stimulus packages,
conservatives have begun attacking the health IT provisions,
falsely claiming that they would lead to the government "telling the
doctors what they can't and cannot treat,
and on whom they can and cannot treat." The conservative misinformation
campaign began on Monday with a Bloomberg "commentary"
by Hudson Institute fellow Betsy McCaughey, which claimed that the
legislation will have the government "monitor treatments" in order to
"'guide' your doctor's decisions." McCaughey's imaginative misreading was
quickly trumpeted by
Rush Limbaugh and
the Drudge Report, eventually
ending up on Fox News, where McCaughey's opinion column was described
as "a report." In one of the many Fox segments focused on the column, hosts
Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer
blindsided Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Jon Tester (D-MT) with
McCaughey's false interpretation, causing them to promise that they would "get
this provision clarified." On his radio show yesterday, Limbaugh
credited himself for injecting the false story into the stimulus debate,
saying that he "detailed it and
now it's all over mainstream media."
McCAUGHEY GETS THE FACTS WRONG: In
her commentary, McCaughey writes, "One
new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information
Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what
the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective." But the fact
is, this
isn't a new bureaucracy. The National Coordinator of Health Information
Technology
already exists. Established by
President Bush in 2004, the office "provides counsel to the Secretary of
HHS and Departmental leadership for the development and nationwide
implementation" of "health information technology." Far from empowering the
Office to "monitor doctors" or requiring private physicians to abide by
treatment protocols, the new language tasks the National Coordinator with "providing
appropriate information" so that doctors can make better informed
decisions. As Media Matters
noted, the language in
the House bill, on which McCaughey based her column, does not establish
authority to "monitor
treatments" or restrict what "your doctor is doing" with regard to
patient care. Instead, it
addresses establishing an electronic records system so that doctors can
have complete, accurate information about their patients. The Wonk Room's
Igor Volsky pointed out that "this provision is intended to move the country
towards
adopting money-saving health technology (like electronic medical
records), reduce costly duplicate services and medical errors, and create
jobs."
HEALTH I.T. BELONGS IN RECOVERY PACKAGE:
Projected to create
over 200,000 jobs, the funding for health information technology in the
recovery package is both an important stimulus and a
down-payment on broader health care reform. Speaking in Ft. Myers, FL,
yesterday, President Obama said that investment in health IT was "an
example of using a crisis and converting it into an opportunity." "We are
going to computerize our health care system, institute health IT," said
Obama. "That
creates jobs right now for people to convert from a paper system to a
computer system, but it also pays a long-term dividend by making the health
care system more efficient." Currently, fewer than
25 percent of hospitals, and
fewer than 20 percent of doctor's offices, employ health information
technology systems. Researchers have found that implementing health IT would
result in a mean annual savings of
$40 billion over a 15-year period by improving health outcomes through
care management,
increasing efficiency, and reducing medical errors. Investing in health
would also
help primary care physicians -- who often bear the burnt of tech
implementation without seeing immediate benefits -- afford the
infrastructure for expansion. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated
that
one-third of $2 trillion spent annually on health care in America may be
unnecessary due to inefficiencies in the system such as excessive paperwork.
Investments in infrastructure like health IT will help improve the quality
of America's health care.
MCCAUGHEY'S POISONING HEALTH REFORM AGAIN:
Responding to her Bloomberg commentary, the New Republic's health care
writer Jonathan Cohn noted that "Elizabeth
McCaughey is up to her old tricks again." "Not content to have poisoned
one major health care debate, she seems determined to poison this one, too,"
wrote Cohn. In 1994, McCaughey published a "viciously
inaccurate" article on the Clinton health care plan in the New Republic,
which is credited with having "completely
distorted the debate on the biggest public policy issue of 1994."
McCaughey's article claimed that there would be "no exit" from the Clinton
plan, and individuals would be prevented from "going outside the system to
buy basic health coverage" that they preferred. But, as the Atlantic's James
Fallows pointed out after the Clinton plan was defeated, McCaughey ignored
"the
first provision of the bill," which clearly said: "Nothing in this Act
shall be construed as prohibiting the following: (1)
An individual from purchasing any health care services."
Just like in 1994, McCaughey's latest Bloomberg commentary
provides page numbers from the legislation to give her claims the aura
of credibility. But
just as in 1994, McCaughey's assertions are
not supported by the language of the bill she cites.
Buy American Mention of
the Week,
By Roger Simmermaker
Buying American,
recovery, and reinvestment
If you listen
to most the media’s misguided free market cheerleaders, the “Buy American”
provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will prevent
our economy from experiencing any kind of recovery or reinvestment.
Senator John
McCain says “shortsighted protectionist measures like Buy American risk
greatly exacerbating our current economic woes.” Really?
Exactly how do we remain true to the spirit of the stimulus bill’s target of
“recovery and reinvestment” of the U.S. economy by buying steel, iron, and
other manufactured products from foreign countries? Isn’t the goal here to
reinvest in and recover the American
economy? Please tell me if I stop making common sense.
Then there’s the tired
old refrain that says “if we don’t buy stuff from other countries then they
won’t buy our stuff!” Isn’t the 2008 U.S. trade deficit of $720 billion
evidence enough that foreign countries already
aren’t buying our stuff?
At best, the
“Buy American” provision of the stimulus bill would balance world trade, but
even that is terribly unlikely. And who could argue with striving to achieve
a balance in trade? Don’t we normally seek a balance in virtually every
other aspect of our lives? We strive to balance our work life and our family
life. We strive to balance our commitments to our community and our
commitments at home. So what’s so wrong with at least a balance of trade if
restricting imports makes it possible? As Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio put
it, “how can you have an $800 billion trade deficit and call us
protectionist? How can you have a $200-billion-a-day net outflow and say we
are closing our borders?”
Apparently less than a
third of U.S. Senators disagreed with Senator Brown as an amendment to strip
the “Buy American” provision from the senate version of the bill, proposed
by none other than John McCain, went down in defeat 31-65.
Here’s what the proposed
House Resolution 1 as amended in the Senate (TITLE XVI General Provisions)
said as of February 6:
None
of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be
used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair
of a public building or public work unless all of the iron, steel, and
manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the United States.
Buying
exclusively U.S. steel with the money made available (mainly from China)
will not only help our economy recover through reinvestment, but it will
also help America become more competitive. If we refuse to mandate using
American steel and iron for the maintenance, repair and construction of
America’s roads and bridges, the United States will be little more than a
currency transshipment hub. To buy the steel we need, we’ll simply borrow
money from China, route it through the U.S., distribute it to Canada, Japan,
the European Union, and of course some of it will go back to China. The
problem is that for every $100 we borrow from China, if we use, say, $25 of
it to buy Chinese steel, we’ll still owe China $100 even though we sent $25
of it back. A sweetheart deal for the Chinese for sure. On a consumer level,
it’s kind of like making payments on your credit card and the balance never
goes down.
The average
operating capacity for U.S. manufacturing was 78.6 percent for 2008. The
closer we can boost that figure to 100 percent, the more we can take
advantage of economies of scale and lower our cost per unit of output. The
more we can bring the cost down for each ton of steel we produce, the more
attractively-priced it will be to potential foreign purchasers, and the more
competitive we will be. Then there would be less pressure for protectionism
and fewer accusations that American industry isn’t competitive enough. If we
want to promote trade abroad, we must first promote growth at home. And that
won’t happen if we have all our needs supplied by foreign countries.
The 31
senators that are clearly more interested in legislating for a “more perfect
global economy” or a “more perfect European Union” instead of the
constitutionally mandated “more perfect Union,” can take comfort that the
Buy American provision won’t override any existing trade agreements.
The anti-buy
American senators would have you believe that if we purchase the products of
our own manufacture, other countries will likely retaliate.
Really? That sure hasn’t been the American record
of late. We have been virtually locked out of the Japanese market for
decades to the point where if Chevrolet sells 500 cars in one month to
Japan, it’s a good month. Have we retaliated against Japan? No. So why would
we think other nations would do what we have avoided doing ourselves?
According to
the U.S. Census Bureau, our trade deficit with China for 2008 was over $246
billion. This is not only because of China’s cheaper labor rates and lack of
standard-of-living-raising regulations, but it’s also because Chinese
tariffs on U.S. exports are substantially more than U.S. tariffs on Chinese
exports.
In fact, the
2008 trade deficit with China was actually lower than the 2007 trade deficit
by about by about $10 billion. The reason is likely because of the recent
economic crisis, world trade is declining and that has pushed the U.S. trade
deficit down to its lowest level in 12 years, according to the
Wall Street Journal. PNC
Financial senior economist Robert Dye says the shrinking trade deficit
resulted in more support for fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
than expected. So less trade means a more favorable GDP and a lower trade
deficit. Maybe that’s why Abraham Lincoln said we should only “trade where
it is necessary and avoid it where it is not.”
Anti-buy
American republicans should revisit the wisdom of one of their party’s
former presidents. President William McKinley once said “We deny to those
foreign nations free trade with us upon equal terms with our own producers.
The foreign producer has no right or claim to equality with our own. He is
not amenable to our laws. There are resting upon him none of the obligations
of citizenship. He pays no taxes. He performs no civil duties; he is subject
to no demands for military service. He is exempt from State, county and
municipal obligations. He contributes nothing to the support, the progress
and glory of the Nation. Why should he enjoy unrestrained equal privileges
and profits in our markets with our producers, our labor and our taxpayers?”
A Buy America
provisions would create jobs and swell the American tax coffers so we can
actually start paying our debts and stop living beyond our means as a
country. A December 2008 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report
highlighted the benefits of Buy American provisions. Citing literature from
the Department of Transportation, the GAO report said that “the types of
potential benefits related to this program…include protecting domestic
employment through national infrastructure improvements that can stimulate
economic activity and create jobs; protecting against unfair competition
from foreign firms as a result of foreign government subsidies; and
maintaining national security interests through the continued use and
development of certain industries within the U.S. economy, like the iron and
steel industries.”
Buying
American is a no brainer. That’s a good thing, because we have a lot of
influential policy makers in America who are talking as if they have no
brains.
***************************************************************************
Roger Simmermaker is the
author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism
and writes "Buy American Mention of the Week" articles for WorldNetDaily.com
and his website www.howtobuyamerican.com. Roger is a member of the
Machinists Union and National Writers Union, has been a frequent guest on
Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street
Journal and Business Week among many other publications.
GOOD
NEWS
NONE THIS WEEK
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