With the House Republican caucus still squabbling over what ransom they should demand for an increase in the debt limit, Speaker John Boehner issued his own threat yesterday. According to Roll Call, Boehner wants “another round of spending cuts beyond the sequester.” Cuts how big? In Boehner’s word, “greater than the increase in the debt [...]
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On a press call yesterday in advance of this week’s “summit” between President Obama and Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping, Alliance for American Manufacturing’s (AAM) Scott Paul called for consequences for China’s trade violations, computer hacking and theft of intellectual property. Meanwhile, trade deficit figures were released today, and [...]
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Today President Obama is joining college students at a White House event launching a new push to keep student loan rates from doubling in July. Among the various plans offered, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan is the most affordable for students, while the Republican plan tries to “make money” off of students using fluctuating “market rates.” [...]
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Last August and September, I did a series of eight posts about how, contrary to Tea Party and John Boehner assertions, federal spending was actually very popular. As I said at the time, Americans don’t want less government; they just want government that costs less. The latest installment — episode 9 — happened last week [...]
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Politico reports that Congressional leaders from both parties are trying to find a way to exempt themselves and their staff members from using the “Obamacare” health exchanges, as mandated in the health reform law. The Politico story says that Hill leaders are afraid that their lower-paid staffers would leave their Congressional jobs in large numbers [...]
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Mark this day. For the first time in history, a Democratic president has officially proposed to cut the Democratic Party's signature New Deal program, Social Security. God help us if the Republicans wise up and take this deal. After all, it's a more conservative budget than even their hero Ronald Reagan ever submitted.
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Two recent news reports indicate that the president is “strongly considering” cuts to Medicare and Social Security in his upcoming budget, which is to be released in less than ten days. The question’s been asked for four years: Why would Obama want to cut these popular and successful programs, especially when there are better solutions [...]
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Everyone’s talking about marriage this week. So it’s hard to blame speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives T. W. Shannon for wanting to get in on the action with a bill to divert federal funds for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to fund a series of public service announcements touting the benefits [...]
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The International Federation of Health Plans has depicted our ridiculous health care system in 21 graphs. We don’t get more health care; we just pay more — much more. And this entirely accounts for the scary long-term deficit projections. If we paid what every other advanced industrial country pays, we would project surpluses as far [...]
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I was chatting with my neighbor this weekend, as we watched our children playing together, she brought up the subject of the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments for and against marriage equality today. We discussed the odds that the court will ultimately overturn the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 in the bargain. [...]
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