Tag Archives: congress

Bugs in the system.

So the government’s Affordable Care Act web site doesn’t work. Does that surprise anyone? It’s a big, honking, outsourced engineering project that has had the budget axe swinging over it for the past three years. It’s been under constant threat of being defunded or declared unconstitutional, subjected to incessant political attack in Washington and around the country by a party dedicated to disabling it anyway that they can.

The fact is, the most dysfunctional part of the Affordable Care Act is Medicaid expansion, not because it doesn’t work but because half of the states in the union have refused to participate, even with 100% funding from the federal government. We hear so much about the Web site being a piece of shit (and rightfully so), and yet I don’t see anyone on the right wringing their hands over the fact that something like 7 million people, the vast Four star general in war on healthmajority of whom are working poor, will have no access to health coverage simply because the governors and legislatures in their state capitals are intent on making a political point. Throw needy (working!) families under the bus, and that’s fine. But build a buggy Web site? Unforgiveable!

It’s pretty clear, in fact, why Republicans are pulling the rug out from under their needy constituents. Chris Hayes interviewed an Ohio state representative on Wednesday night, and while the fellow tried his best to conceal his objection to Medicaid behind some blather about legislative process, he eventually got around to saying that Medicaid was a program people would get “locked into” because they would enjoy the benefit so much, it would be a disincentive for them to raise their standard of living to the point where they wouldn’t receive it anymore. Health coverage makes you lazy. The same old G.O.P. and conservative Democrat trope about welfare, still with us after all these years. They don’t like owning up to it, but it’s still there.

I have to say that this nationwide refusal by Republicans to sign on to Medicaid expansion is certainly one of the most craven domestic policy decisions I have witnessed in my adult life. Hearing them complain about a Web site would be laughable … if this were a laughting matter.

Once again – they’re the reason our kids are ugly.

luv u,

jp

Ill winds.

In the midst of chaos in Washington, it took more than a week of government shutdown for me to find something to be grateful to the Republicans for. It’s a short list, but not an insignificant one.

1) Keeping Obama from attending the TPP negotiations. Because of the continuing resolution and debt ceiling disputes, the president opted not to go to the APAC summit in Bali to join in advancing negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership, a “trade agreement” he has been promoting as a great opportunity for the U.S. economy. I put “trade agreement” in quotes because, as always, these pacts are not so much about trade as about investor’s rights. Like the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI), Is this ill wind blowing us some good ... or just blowing us?NAFTA, and other similar instruments, the TPP would establish rules and requirements that would supersede those of national governments. That means environmental, food safety, labor, and a host of other regulations could be overridden in what would amount to a race to the bottom in pursuit of unfettered corporate-driven capitalism.

Candidate Obama promised to depart from this approach to trade and investment during his 2008 campaign, but he has since pulled a 180, very much like he has adopted the foreign policy portfolio of the 2006-08 Bush Administration. I think this is just a reflection of the permanent state of imperial governance that persists through administrations of both parties. This level of consistency is no accident. So, hey … thank you John Boehner for throwing a monkey-wrench into their efforts towards negotiating the TPP in secret and ramming it through Congress (on a fast track, with no amendments allowed). This sucker needs to be stopped. (Learn about it on the Public Citizen trade watch site.)

2) Historic lows in G.O.P. popularity. A recent Wall Street Journal / NBC poll showed the Republicans have driven their party to a new low in favorability ratings, boding ill for their fortunes in the coming election cycle. This is the sort of thing only self-inflicted wounds can achieve, so again, John Boehner, I thank you.

That’s all I’ve got, aside from some hilarious public statements that have come out of this. Given the amount of suffering they are causing amongst the poor, the unwell, the unemployed, etc., it’s useful to have something to smile about, however briefly.

luv u,

jp

One way out.

Let me preface this tirade with the admission that I am no fan of bipartisanship. I agree with Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) on the notion that nothing of any great value has come out of it in recent decades; in fact, quite the opposite. The Iraq War, the USA Patriot Act, etc. If that’s how sausage is made, we should consider eating something other than sausage.

That said, we are faced with some fundamental problems with respect to our rapidly eroding ability to govern ourselves at the national level. A handful of tea party House members, maybe 40, from heavily gerrymandered districts have become the tail that wags the Congressional dog, in essence. They have every incentive Discharge petition?to continue and even enhance their extremism, as that is the only way they can please their hard-right constituencies back home. Around that core is another probably 40-50 House republicans terrified of being challenged by tea party types in the next round of primaries. Boehner needs these folks to maintain his speakership, so he goes along as do most of what remains of the GOP caucus. Hence, a list of demands is attached to a 60-day continuing resolution – not even a budget – with the same treatment threatened for the debt ceiling vote in a couple of weeks.

What’s to be done to keep us from toppling over a more dramatic precipice than the one we encountered in 2008? I think it’s time for a coalition government in the House. Get a majority of Republicans and Democrats to support a centrist or even a center-right candidate for Speaker, one who will agree to advance the following objectives: (1) keep the government open and funded at whatever level; (2) raise the debt ceiling well in advance of each deadline; (3) negotiate on a budget deal to cover more than six months to a year (i.e. plan ahead).

This would not be a progressive coalition by any means. But given the current make-up of the House, it’s hard to see how else we can keep the lights on and prevent the collapse of our financial system. We need to put the tea party minority in a box; to wall them off from the levers of power. If we don’t, the current crisis will continue and will be repeated again and again. And given the fact that the best we can hope for in the CR debate is the continuation of sequestration-level funding of federal programs, a centrist coalition hardly seems like a worse outcome.

Though I’m not happy about it, I think this is the way out of this mess. Let me know what you think.

luv u,

jp

Over the edge.

The fiscal cliff is just ahead. Be afraid, be afraid! Are you afraid yet? Well, you’re supposed to be. Going over the “fiscal cliff” is the worst thing that can possibly happen – worse even than … I don’t know … losing your Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.

Friends, this is the oldest trick in the book. Our leaders have done their best to bankrupt the government over the last decade and a half, coupling undeclared wars with massive tax cuts, crashing the economy through their vaunted hands-off approach to the financial sector, etc. Now when it comes time to pay the tab, guess who’s picking it up? Not a big surprise that they’re running out on the check. They only do it every freaking time.

Listening to the series of Republican interviews that is NPR the other day, I heard some talk of raising the Medicare eligibility age as one means of covering their failed fiscal policy decisions. That has to take the prize as the stupidest idea ever proposed. Sure, take the youngest people out of the Medicare system – the people who need the least care! That’s a surefire way to bankrupt the program, which I’m sure is their ultimate aim. The G.O.P. has always hated Medicare, almost as much as they hate Social Security, despite their claims to the contrary. If they were truly serious about saving money, they would be expanding Medicare to include younger, healthier people, not the other way around.

The thing we have to watch like the proverbial hawk is our election year friends, the Democratic Party. We need to remind them who gave them victory a few weeks ago. We need to encourage them to challenge the Republicans on their fealty to the same failed policies Milton Friedman advocated decades ago, on their determination to protect the private tyranny that is the health insurance industry. We need to encourage them to do the right thing, no less.

That is what we should be focusing on, not irrational fear.

luv u,

jp

Six of one, half-dozen of the other.

Consider this an open letter to the Congressional “Super Committee,” or gang of twelve – whatever you may wish to call them. (Keep it clean out there!) While you are considering how best to shaft poor, elderly, and working people (employed and unemployed) to bring greater benefits to our nation’s rich, I ask – nay, demand – that you consider these items:

How we got here. I’ve heard a lot of people in Congress, as well as various talking heads, putting their spin on the orgy of ignorance that led us to the creation of your Committee, as well as the series of missteps that led us to Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade the nation’s debt rating. The factual answer to those questions is simple – the Republican party, a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America, was driven by its most radical faction (the so-called “tea party”) to manipulate the once mundane process of raising the debt ceiling for political gain. S&P’s judgment that our government can no longer make rational decisions about its debt is based on their recognition that, from now on, raising the debt ceiling will involve a similar political standoff.

The decision to politicize the debt ceiling legislation – really just an authorization to accommodate borrowing already mandated by Congress through the budget process –  has done perhaps irreparable damage to the faith and credit of the U.S. But even more importantly, it has backed us into a political process that is practically guaranteed to deliver to the G.O.P. precisely what they want: the gutting of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Who owes what. I’m not happy with president Obama, but the notion that he and the Democrats are responsible for exploding deficit spending is ludicrous. As the New York Times reported recently, based on figures from the CBO and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, $1.44 trillion of the national debt can be laid at Obama’s door; more than $5 trillion is attributable to his predecessor, including the FY 2009 deficit of $1.44 trillion, set before Obama took office.  The Bush tax cuts have contributed $1.8 trillion; unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have pitched in more than $1.4 trillion. How is this an issue of “entitlements” … unless that term can be used to describe tax cuts for wealthy people?

Seriously… (and apologies to Barney Frank) … are we going to ask 90-year-old ladies living on less than $20k to do without cost of living raises while allowing those who clear more than $250,000 a year to keep an extra $30 per thousand? I think not.

luv u,

jp

Cash poor.

Americans are hurting. Well… not all of us. Some of us – those who can claim the mantle of corporate “personhood” by virtue of a bizarrely generous judicial interpretation of the 14th Amendment –  are doing quite well, thank you very much. Profits are up, executive pay is up, personal wealth among the top 1% is up – in fact, virtually all of the gains realized through economic growth over the past ten years have been enjoyed by the very wealthy. This while the economic position of people in the lower strata of society – particularly communities of color – have seen what wealth they may have held (principally in their homes) wiped out. Blacks and Latinos have seen the gains of the past 30 years wiped away in less than 3.

With millions of people out of work, you would think Congress’s top priority would be job creation. That was what they ran on in 2010, not so much on debt reduction. The best the G.O.P. can manage is to twist the issue around to becoming a tortured argument for doing what the party always does – cut taxes on rich people. They want to allow rich folk to keep more of their money so that they will, in turn, hire some of the legions of unemployed. They cling to this belief, rhetorically at least, even when it’s clear that a) businesses already have multiple trillions in savings they are sitting on right now, and b) they have no intention of spending any of it on new hires so long as they can press their current employees to do the work of three, four, perhaps more. Ask anybody who’s got a job, and they’ll tell you – increased productivity is just the modern term of art for speeding up the assembly line.

Meanwhile, our national infrastructure is falling apart. Bridges in my upstate community are aged and crumbling, the water system is falling apart, roads are pitted and broken. With all this, the word that we get from Albany and Washington is austerity. It’s as if we have as a society decided that roads and bridges no longer need maintenance and repair, and that our highest calling is to keep taxes on companies and well-off people at historic lows. The vaunted debt ceiling compromise takes this tack – we don’t need to invest in ourselves, we’re told; we need to divest ourselves of all the trappings of modern society, from freedom of choice and to the freedom of driving downtown without having the highway crumble beneath you. That’s the essential philosophy of the tea party loomers in Congress.

This is what happens when 16% of American voters bother to go to the polls, as happened last Fall. Next time, folks, don’t sit on your hands.

luv u,

jp

Short takes, redux.

I’m going to take a few brief swats at some knotty issues that won’t yield much to such brief consideration, but nevertheless …. here goes.

Norway rampage. It’s hard to comment on last week’s massacre in Norway except to say that this was a nauseating crime by an evident Nazi-like lunatic with delusions of racist glory. Lock him up, folks.

Phony debt crisis. Here we are, caught between a Republican caucus dominated by fanatical newbies who know nothing about actually legislating and a Democratic leadership so willing to give away the store that the other side should freaking love them. I just want to mention again – it’s been said plenty of times, but it bears repeating – that raising the debt ceiling is a measure that would accommodate spending decisions already agreed to by Congress and the President – I repeat, it does not entail new spending. So we’ve reached a pass where budget items need to (a) win approval from both houses of Congress and be signed into law, (b) run the same gauntlet a second time in the form of appropriations bills, and (c) get past the blackmail play around raising the debt ceiling to cover funds already duly appropriated. This is why the G.O.P. wants to make the debt ceiling extension a two-step process – so that down the line, they can shake us down for more concessions. This is bogus as hell and should be denounced as such, every minute of every day.

Libya disaster. There is substantial evidence that our “humanitarian” intervention in Libya is costing a significant number of civilian lives in and around Tripoli. It is also obvious, at this point, that the opposition does not have sufficient strength, popular support, or weaponry to prevail, just as it is obvious that we really, really, really want them to prevail. So what exactly are we looking to accomplish in Libya, after all? “Days, not weeks”? Really, Barry? That Rumfeldian pronouncement has crumbled before our very eyes. This was a fool’s errand – one the French took the lead on, but which we were a bit too willing to sign onto. And now we have yet another war that won’t go away.

On leaving Iraq. As I write these words, our government is working hard on convincing Premier Al-Maliki to allow us to leave a residual force in Iraq. This is a ludicrous idea. Our prolonged presence (i.e. troops on the ground beyond the date agreed to by the Bush administration) will fuel the very forces of unrest we complain about in Iraq – the same forces Saddam Hussein complained about, not coincidentally. (Like him, we are obsessed with the suppression of dissent there.) I strongly advise the Obama administration to get out before the lid blows off of the place, as Seymour Hersh has predicted will happen sometime next year. (Best not discount his predictions too much.)

That’s all I’ve got. See you on the other side of Debt-a-geddon.

luv u,

jp

Lemmington D.C.

My dad never said it to me, but growing up I heard it said by adults to impressionable young people many times. The conversation would go something like, “But, dad… all my friends are going. Why can’t I?” And dad (or whoever) would say, “Well, if they all jumped off a cliff, would you do that, too?” It’s such a staple of parentage as to be cliche, but I’m not certain the G.O.P. class of 2010 was ever confronted with that type of challenge when they were in short pants. (Perhaps they are still in short pants – I’ve only ever seen most of them from the waist up.)

There’s nothing particularly unique about this attitude. It is, however, being applied in a very, very destructive way right about now. I will be charitable and suggest that perhaps many of these freshman House members (and some of their more senior colleagues) simply do not understand the gravity of the situation. Having said that, I’m going to do what people who say “having said that” inevitably do and say the complete opposite. I think it’s very possible that they know their failure to raise the debt ceiling is going to result in disaster, and that they hope that will gain them political points and cost the president more than a few. The Norquist-endorsed promise never to contemplate higher taxes under any circumstances is a very attractive position for conservatives and watery republicans like Boehner. It’s very, very shiny. Also, the consequences of breaking that promise are painful for them to contemplate. So …. over the cliff we go!

I’ve gotten agitated about this impasse over the last couple of weeks, as some of you readers know, and last night I took it upon myself to write my representative, Richard Hanna (R-NY) and ask him to be the adult in the room, show some leadership, and get his caucus to stop using the debt ceiling as a cheap bargaining chip. It was a respectful, serious letter – very unlike me. This is the response, in essence:

I voted no on H.R. 1954 which would implement the President’s request to increase the debt limit by $2.4 trillion. The bill did not include any spending cuts or budgetary reforms. I do not support raising the debt limit without any spending cuts or budgetary reforms. I do, however, understand that raising the debt limit will eventually be necessary and I hope that when the time comes it is accompanied by reforms that put our nation on a path to long-term fiscal responsibility. This will ensure that the dollar remains the world’s reserve currency and that the United States maintains a solid credit rating, boosting our fragile economic recovery and job creation.

Okay, so he’s another lemming, basically. He supported the efforts of his caucus to politicize the debt ceiling vote, and though he admits that raising it “will eventually be necessary,” he hopes it will be accompanied by “spending cuts or budgetary reforms”. He then expresses the hope that the austerity measures he advocates will bring about the credit security that his conference’s game of chicken – which he apparently supports – is threatening to blow to smithereens.

This isn’t the first time otherwise sensible legislators have followed wingnuts off a cliff. But it just may prove to be among the most disastrous.

luv u,

jp

Barry’s hand.

The ongoing debate over raising the debt ceiling has dominated another week’s worth of news coverage. Now Moody’s has put the U.S. government “on notice” – something I thought only Stephen Colbert could do – that our debt rating may be downgraded if the current impasse continues. As I mentioned in my last rant, this is a manufactured crisis. It’s a standoff not over debt yet to be incurred, but debt already booked by Congress by virtue of budget items already agreed to. There is no reason for this threatened default other than to make political points… and yet it continues, even though the downside risks are substantial.

How substantial? Default – or even near-default – could cause a global financial disruption on a scale that would dwarf that of late 2008. At the very least, a downgrade of the investment rating of U.S. Treasury bonds would be not only unprecedented but extremely costly, making service on our existing debt far more costly, blowing an even bigger hole in the federal budget. If that alone were to happen it would be bad enough. But these facts just don’t seem to register on Capitol Hill.

It’s often been said that, in a Democracy, we get the government we truly deserve. Last fall, the American people – by voting or by abstaining to do so – sent to the House of Representatives a class of Republicans that amount to the American version of the Taliban. The core of this class are fanatical believers in their own delusions; they see reality as a nefarious socialist plot. Fueled by tea party faux-populism, the new G.O.P. goes beyond their party’s traditional obsession about cutting taxes. Anything – anything – that brings more revenue to the Federal government is to them an unacceptable burden on the American taxpayer. (i.e. rich people. They apparently don’t consider burdensome the enormous costs displaced to workers, pensioners, etc. as a result of the massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs they demand.) That much is a given. The only wild card is in the president’s hand – what will he sacrifice to appease them?

This is what we voted for, whether we realize it or not. More likely not, since the Republicans did not advertise this part of their program. (It was going to be jobs, jobs, jobs, remember?) While it’s far from the only thing we need to do as citizens, it’s obvious that voting is essential… just as it’s clear that we need to hold our leaders – namely Obama – accountable when they give away the store.

luv u,

jp

Sex, lies, and the internets.

Okay, I’ll admit to being a bit disappointed in the guy. He went on a lying tour, and that was dead wrong as well as impossibly stupid. Didn’t think Weiner had that kind of stupidity in him, but I guess a certain amount resides within us all, eh? Though I’m not particularly given to admiring politicians, it’s always encouraging to see one that’s combative and unapologetically in favor of things like single-payer health insurance. Still, the basis of that is a willingness to speak often unpopular truths, so if you undermine your credibility, you lose your voice.  That is the worst of what a guy like Weiner is facing. One wishes he had thought of that before taking chances like a drunken fourteen-year-old.

I think, personally, that he missed an opportunity to make a point here: namely, that we all have private lives – that we all do things that are not illegal but that we prefer not to make known to the entire world. What Weiner was confessing in front of the ubiquitous blue curtain of shame is probably slightly less compromising than the secret online activities of most of the people in that room. He’s a sexting addict. There is a growing population of middle-aged people who are fans of sexting. It’s not an obsession I share (not at my data rates – every time I get a freaking text weather alert it costs me 30 cents… and I get a lot of alerts) but I may be in the minority. What Breitbart and his minions have done is just “out” the guy, not because they have some overriding conviction about fidelity and niceness, but because they disagree with him politically on a range of other issues, and Weiner has always been outspoken.

The basic question is this: Does a public figure have a right to a private life? Is it anyone else’s business if Anthony Weiner or Chris Lee or whoever engages in dalliances on the side, unbeknownst to their wives, if those persons they exchange x-rays with are 1) adults and 2) willing participants in the exchange? Sure, it’s embarrassing to have a picture of your privates circulated to all and sundry. It would be so if that image was taken from an airport scanner, too. The real question here is what are the limits to legitimate human sexuality, and do these limits apply to members of congress? I’ll be honest – I don’t give a shit what people do over the internets, so long as they are not exploiting, harassing, or otherwise abusing people, children, animals, etc. Relationships between consenting, fully informed adults are between those adults. All Breitbart did was thrust it into the public space (so to speak).

Gotta love the guy, though. When Breitbart hijacked that press conference, he had the gall to complain about how Weiner’s dishonesty spoiled his weekend, then he proceeded to explain how he was blackmailing him with yet another photo, framing it as an act of human decency. As far as I’m concerned, any passing discomfort caused to Breitbart – rightly or wrongly in this case – is richly deserved.

luv u,

j