Here is Paul Ryan’s path to a balanced budget in three sentences: He cuts deep into spending on health care for the poor and some combination of education, infrastructure, research, public-safety, and low-income programs. The Affordable Care Act’s Medicare cuts remain, but the military is spared, as is Social Security. There’s a vague individual…
Category: News & Opinion
If Corporations Don’t Pay Taxes, Why Should You?
Go offshore young man and avoid paying taxes. Plunder at will in those foreign lands, and if you get in trouble, Uncle Sam will come rushing to your assistance, diplomatically, financially and militarily, even if you have managed to avoid paying for those government services. Just pretend you’re a multinational corporation. That’s the honest instruction…
Ryan in Fantasyland
Voters might not have focused on the fact that Ryan’s original plan wouldn’t have produced a balanced budget until today’s high-school students reached middle age, but the true deficit hawks in the House Republican caucus certainly noticed. They demanded a budget that reached balance much sooner. Hence Ryan’s revised plan, which claims to accomplish this…
With new group, Obama team seeks answer to Karl Rove
On Wednesday, some of President Barack Obama’s most dedicated donors will fly to Washington and pony up $50,000 to attend a fundraiser for Organizing for Action, a progressive new kid on the block trying to counter the likes of Karl Rove and the Koch brothers. Obama will give a speech to the group, an independent…
Congress Approval Stagnant at Low Level
The current 13% reading, based on interviewing conducted March 7-10, is just a few percentage points above the all-time low of 10% reached twice last year. At this low level, negative views of what Congress does, or does not do, are probably already “built into” the ratings. These low ratings could improve if Congress…
In U.S., 71% Back Raising Minimum Wage
Seven in 10 Americans say they would vote “for” raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour if given the opportunity, while 27% would vote against such a bill. The proposal, made by President Barack Obama in his 2013 State of the Union speech, is backed by over 90% of Democrats and self-described liberals, and…
The Group Behind CPAC Has a White-Nationalist Problem
Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Sarah Palin will be headlining, but 20 percent of the panelists this year will be African American, according to CPAC bean counters. And the CPACers proudly point to the prominent role of Latinos and women on various panels. Yet the CPAC organizers have neglected one important task as they attempt to…
Dueling Budgets Will Show Partisan Differences On Medicare And Medicaid
At the same time, President Barack Obama appears to be harboring hopes of reaching a big deficit-reduction deal that could include some of the money-saving changes that Republicans favor. The idea worries some congressional Democrats. The Wall Street Journal: Opening Budget Bids Set Parties’ Battle Lines Congress opens a new chapter in the budget…
With Budget, GOP Lawmakers Renew Push To Undo Health Law
The budget plan for 2014 being advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., includes a proposal to give states more authority over Medicaid. Meanwhile, the bill being considered by the Senate to fund the federal government through the end of this year does not include the funds for the exchanges that the administration wanted. The Washington Post:…
ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 198,000 Jobs In February
Private sector employment increased by 198,000 jobs from January to February, according to the February ADP National Employment Report®, which is produced by ADP®, a leading provider of human capital management solutions, in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment…
Anti-government extremist groups reach record levels, say experts
The number of American “patriot” extremist groups has reached a record level, according to a new study, and experts are warning of a wave of anti-government violence. A report released Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center counted 1,360 “patriot” extremist groups in 2012 — up by 7% from 2011. The study defines patriot groups…
Sequestration And How The ‘Liberal Media’ Keep Blaming Obama For Republican Behavior
As key observers have noted in recent days, the facts on sequestration are not in dispute: Obama has made repeated offers to meet Republicans in the middle with a proposed deficit reduction plan built around a mix of spending cuts, reform to entitlement programs, and revenue increases. Republicans have countered by saying they will not…
Obama Reaches Out to GOP on Spending
President Barack Obama is following through on his search for a “caucus of common sense” with that rarest of presidential commodities — his own time. The president’s poor relationships with most rank-and-file congressional Republicans are well-known. He rarely calls lawmakers personally — something that was especially true in the past year and a half as…
Obama Job Approval Takes Brief Hit From Budget Sequester
Obama averaged 51% job approval in Gallup Daily tracking from Feb. 26-28 — Gallups three-day average immediately prior to the sequester. The budget sequester went into effect as scheduled on March 1 after Obama and Republican leaders met but did not reach an agreement to delay it. Then, in the first two days of the…
Activists, Lawmakers Wrestle With Medicaid Expansion
This aspect of the health law is a hot topic in Texas, Florida, California and Missouri — among other places. Meanwhile, a Medicare trustee questions the viability of the federal funding commitment. The Hill: Medicare Trustee Doubts Future Funding For Medicaid Expansion A Medicare trustee is questioning whether the federal government will maintain its commitment…
Explaining The Factors Behind Health Care Spending’s Modest Increases
USA Today analyzes this trend and details some of the reasons that could be driving it. USA Today: Health Care Spending Is Transferred Out Of ICU Health care spending last year rose at one of the lowest rates in a half-century, partly the result of cost-saving measures put in place by the 2009 health care…
Four Things To Know About The Next Big Budget Battle
Now that the sequester has taken effect, there’s a new phrase that keeps popping up in Washington: the “continuing resolution.” If Congress doesn’t pass a continuing resolution by March 27, the government will run out of money and will likely shut down. Here’s a list of four things you might want to know about how…
No, Obamacare Wont Cause Younger Americans Premium Costs To Skyrocket
With Obamacare on the pathway towards full implementation, critics have attempted to point out every perceived flaw in the health reform law to marshal public opinion against it. Recently, reform opponents have focused their sights on the rule that prevents insurers from charging seniors more than three times the premiums they charge younger Americans,…
Marijuana Legalization May Be Unstoppable
On Tuesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder told America to expect a decision “soon” on how he’ll respond to the recent legalization of pot by Colorado and Washington state. To which the rest of the country has basically said, “Whatever, dude.” The same day, legislative committees in New Mexico and Hawaii approved bills to decriminalize…
This is why Obama can’t make a deal with Republicans
My column this weekend is about the almost comically poor lines of communication between the White House and the Hill. The opening anecdote was drawn from a background briefing I attended with a respected Republican legislator who thought it would be a gamechanger for President Obama to say he’d be open to chained CPI — a…