The Commentariat -- November 12

Paul Krugman couldn't be more disgusted with the draft proposal presented by the chairmen of the catfood commission. After lambasting it's major provisions, he concludes, "The deficit commission should be told to fold its tents and go away." ...

... CW: in The New Republic, economist Dean Baker teaches Econ 101 to Simpson & Bowles (and, frankly, to me, too). Baker excoriates the Catfood Boys on a number of basic, basic points, but this one stands out: Social Security is none of their goddamned business.

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "By putting deep spending cuts and substantial tax increases on the table, President Obama’s bipartisan debt-reduction commission has exposed fissures in both parties.... Among Democrats, liberals are in near revolt against the White House over the issue, even as substantive and political forces push Mr. Obama to attack chronic deficits in a serious way. At the same time, Republicans face intense pressure from their conservative base and the Tea Party movement to reject any deal that includes tax increases, leaving their leaders with little room to maneuver in any negotiation and at risk of being blamed by voters for not doing their part." ...

... ** Steve Kornacki of Salon: the public doesn't really care about the deficit; never has. It's a Repubican talking point that Republicans, including Republicans who call themselves independents, parrot.

Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Washington Post: "Frustrated by the banks' response to the foreclosure mess, a growing number of public officials - including chief judges, attorneys general and sheriffs from jurisdictions big and small - are pushing the boundaries of their powers to slow down foreclosures in their areas." CW: it is just shocking that local sheriffs & judges must do this job because the federal government won't do it. The result, of course, is a completely slapdash, iniquitous method of handling foreclosures. Fire HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Please.

     ... Patrick O'Connor of the Wall Street Journal reports on the highlights of the Pelosi interview.

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post finds another reason to despise Joe Lieberman: Lieberman's "incoherent intransigence" in killing what would have been a popular and cost-effective plan to allow 55+-year-olds to buy into Medicare probably cost Democrats seats in the midterm elections.

Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "Democratic activists Thursday sharply criticized White House officials after a published report indicated that President Obama is likely to back a temporary extension of tax cuts for households with income over $250,000 a year."

Rachel Maddow interviews Jon Stewart (the full interview, runs 50 min.):

     ... James Poniewozik of Time: "I was disappointed that so much of Maddow's questioning — like the earlier complaints from Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher — boiled down to: 'But the other guys are worse, right? Say that they're worse than we are.'"

In GQ, Wil Hylton tries to write a positive piece on Attorney General Eric Holder. Hylton presents Holder as conflicted over the concessions he has made to political expediency. CW: but it's impossible not to see Holder as a sell-out.

Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, participates in a campaign against bullying gay teens:

     ... as Ben Smith notes, "This is pretty sharp language. [Cindy] McCain isn't just opposing the [DADT] law -- she's attacking the politicians who support it." CW: one of those "politicians who support it"; in fact, the leading opponent to repeal is John McCain. ...

     ... Update: even the Gray Lady takes note.

Katy Steinmetz of Time: Niccolò Machiavelli assesses the midterms.

Mitch McConnell -- Even Worse than You Thought. The editors of the Louisville Courier-Journal read Dubya's book & find that in September 2006, even as he was excoriating Senate Democrats for asking the President to reduce troop levels in Iraq, McConnell privately urged Bush to bring home some troops to reduce the risk of Repubicans losing seats. "This incident," the editors write, "This incident, which Sen. McConnell's office has not denied, shines brightly on the contemptible hypocrisy and obsessive partisanship that have come to mark the senator's time in office."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times finds another Bush "misremembery" in Decision Points. Bush claims he "... resolved that I would not pardon anyone who went outside the formal channels." But Savage notes that Bush pardoned at least five people "who had gained special access to the White House," one of which he rescinded when it became a huge embarrassment.

Robert Mackey of the New York Times: "An English politician was arrested on Thursday for joking on Twitter that a columnist he disagreed with should be stoned to death. Gareth Compton, a 38-year-old member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party who serves in local government in Birmingham, was suspended by the party following his arrest...." CW: a certain former governor & current reality TV star had better not move to England where her incendiary language could earn her a place in gaol. 

How to Save the Economy -- Be More Patriotic!

Our Miss Brooks is even more asinine than usual -- and Brooks is consistently asinine -- today. Here, in his own words, is his plan for saving the economy: "We now need a movement transcendent of partisan cliques and organized around a broad revitalization agenda and love of country."

The Constant Weader comments:

I don't think I have seen such nonsense in a New York Times column since way back on Wednesday when Maureen Dowd turned her column over to her (perhaps fictional) brother Kevin. (You can read my comment on Dowd's column here [#6].) But Kevin, if he's a real-life person, does not get paid to know what he's talking about. You do, Brooks, and like the deficit commission you trumpet, you are not earning your paycheck.

Case in point. It's nothing short of stunning that you could make your fingers type, "The report from the chairmen lists some of the best ways to raise revenue and cut spending." This isn’t a wrong-headed opinion. It’s a flat-out misstatement of fact. The catfood commission chairmen's proposal is a disgusting, duplicitous plan to redistribute the wealth upward. Nothing could be worse for our economy. Nothing could do more to bring on the doomsday scenario that you have envisioned than to turn all but a few Americans into serfs who will die when they get sick or old for want of a safety net. The chairmen's draft proposal is so Dickensian that I am at a loss for words adequate to condemn it.

Your solution, on the other hand, is something I would expect to hear from a dimwitted beauty pageant contestant. And here I mean one of the losers, not the winner, who would have to come up with something better than "patriotism" as her idea of solving the nation's economic problems.

"Revived patriotism"? That's your plan? What will get us out of this economic mess is millions of serfs waving tiny American flags made in China and purchased at the Walton family store? Maybe there's still time to go back to your computer & write another column, Mr. Brooks. This one is, as Nancy Pelosi said of the Alan & Erskine show, "simply unacceptable."

The Brooks Plan:

The Commentariat -- November 11

Micah Cohen of the New York Times has an update on the still-unresolved midterm races. Unbelievably, the pig in the ducky jammies won by about 800 votes; his Democratic opponent, an incumbent, is applying for a recount:

Stephen Gandel of Time: how Sarah Palin & the tea party could cause hyperinflation: "The real threat of inflation comes from tax policy, namely lower taxes. Lower taxes and the government will have a harder time paying back its debt. Investors run from our bonds and currency. Inflation ensues." Moreover, no matter what the actual policy, if investors & the public think the government is unwilling to pay for itself, inflation will follow.

The White House gives a whole new meaning to passive aggression - it has institutionalized a personality disorder into a governing style.... Obama promises he will veto any tax cuts for the rich.  He loses the midterms and leaves the country.  Droopy Dog Axelrod 'leaks' the caving-in to some inside- the- Beltway establishment reporter.  It is officially denied. But since we now have a heads-up, the official pill won't be so bitterly hard to swallow once it becomes 'official.'
-- Karen Garcia ...

... Chicken-Shit, White House-Style. Howard Feinman & Sam Stein: "President Barack Obama's top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration is ready to accept an across-the-board, temporary continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest taxpayers. That appears to be the only way, said David Axelrod, that middle-class taxpayers can keep their tax cuts, given the legislative and political realities facing Obama in the aftermath of last week's electoral defeat." ...

... NEW. You can sign Bold Progressives' (PCCC) petition against the tax cut for the rich. ...

... BUT Carrie Budoff Brown: "In an e-mail to POLITICO, Axelrod said: 'There is not one bit of news here. I didn't go beyond what we said before.'" CW: the inference here is that the White House has not committed to accepting tax cuts for the rich. Then why this? -- ", David Axelrod, said Wednesday that the White House has to deal with “the world of what it takes to get this done” – a signal to Democrats that they don’t have the votes to kill the high-end tax cuts in the face of a new Republican House majority and resistance from Democratic moderates in the Senate." This makes no sense. The tax cuts expire at the end of 2010. The Democrats still hold healthy majorities in both houses. There is not "a new Republican House majority" until early January 2011. ...

... AND Katy O'Donnell of the National Journal: "Senior White House adviser David Axelrod said this morning that President Obama has not caved to GOP demands on the extension of the Bush tax cuts, despite a report to the contrary."

... Marcy Wheeler: "Let yesterday be marked as the day when a nominally Democratic President began to dismantle Democrats’ signature policy achievement, social security, so he could shovel $700 billion to the very rich." ...

Catfood Commission Draft Proposal

Artwork via PoliticsPlus.org.New York Times: "A draft proposal released Wednesday by the chairmen of President Obama’s bipartisan commission on reducing the federal debt calls for deep cuts in domestic and military spending starting in 2012, and an overhaul of the tax code to raise revenue. Those changes and others would erase nearly $4 trillion from projected deficits through 2020, the proposal says." Here's the report.

CW: the chairmen put out the draft report, but there is no chance the full commission will ratify it. Ezra Klein explains more.

Megan Carpentier of TPM lists the chairmen's main proposals.

President Obama won't discuss it:

Dow-Jones: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) ... call[ed] the plan 'simply unacceptable.' The outgoing speaker said that any proposal must do 'what is right for our children and grandchildren's economic security as well as for our nation's fiscal security, and it must do what is right for our seniors, who are counting on the bedrock promises of Social Security and Medicare.'" Update: here's Speaker Pelosi's official statement.

More reactions via Alexander Bolton of The Hill -- but none from the White House (CW: which reportedly was blindsided by the early release).

The chairmen of the Deficit Commission just told working Americans to ‘Drop Dead.’ Especially in these tough economic times, it is unconscionable to be proposing cuts to the critical economic lifelines. -- Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President

Kevin Drum: "Bottom line: this document isn't really aimed at deficit reduction. It's aimed at keeping government small. There's nothing wrong with that if you're a conservative think tank and that's what you're dedicated to selling. But it should be called by its right name. This document is a paean to cutting the federal government, not cutting the federal deficit."

Barbara Morrill in Daily Kos: ConservaDem Kent Conrad uses Veterans Day to tout the Catfood Commission proposals like this one:

Establish co-pays in the VA medical system and change the co-pays and deductibles for military retirees that remain in that system.

       Morrill writes, "... nothing says remember the sacrifices made by our military men and women more than telling them they'll have to start paying for their VA care! But I'm sure Conrad had a flag pin on his lapel when he said it."

Digby: the "villagers are thrilled."

Karoli at Crooks & Liars: "Simply put, it makes the Reagan administration initial proposals for Social Security reform look progressive, ignores the truth about Social Security's funding status, pays lip service only to cutting the defense budget while simultaneously taking shots at unions, the poor, the underprivileged and the elderly."

** Skin in the Game. Dan Eggen of the Washington Post: the catfood commission has taken an "... unusual approach to staffing: ... about one in four commission staffers is paid by outside entities, many of which have strong ideological points of view about how to tackle the deficit." The commission's director says he employed these nonpaid ideologues to be "fiscally responsible." CW: you just want to slap these assholes:

Taxpayers fund the commission and they should work independently of Washington lobbyists and power brokers, This is the type of shenanigans that average Americans are so upset about right now - that money talks and everyone else is left out. -- former Rep. Barbara Kennelly, an advociate for preserving Social Security & Medicare

David Lindley & Wally Ingram, "Cat Food Sandwiches," via Firedoglake:

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The Economist: "It was chance that [President Obama's] tour took him to Asia’s biggest and richest democracies — South Korea and Japan were on the itinerary as hosts, respectively, of the G20 and Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summits. But that lent the tour its tacit theme: that, crudely put, the American model still trumps the Chinese one."

Paul Kiel of ProPublica: "When the Obama administration launched its flagship foreclosure prevention program in early 2009, it pledged to spend up to $50 billion helping struggling homeowners. But the government has so far only spent a tiny fraction of that."

President Obama speaks at a Veterans Day rally in Seoul, South Korea. The President appears about 5 min. in:

Ed O'Keefe & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "A Pentagon study group has concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, according to two people familiar with a draft of the report, which is due to President Obama on Dec. 1."

Tim Egan of the New York Times posits that the Republican Congressional leadership will have to rein in the lying lunatics in their caucus if they expect to actually govern. CW: Not. Going. To. Happen. ...

... BUT Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a favorite of conservative activists around the country, ended her campaign to join the GOP leadership late Wednesday, electing to bow out rather than face near-certain defeat in next week's leadership elections."

Austan Goolsbee explains that the President is in Asia to help boost American exports:

... Paul Wiseman of the AP explains why other countries oppose Fed Chair Ben Bernanke's move to buy bonds. CW: Wiseman does not try to explain economist Sarah Palin's opposition to the Fed's program.  

Cenk Uygur rants on why gays should not vote for GOP candidates. CW: I agree with Cenk, but he doesn't go far enough. On this issue alone, no one, straight or gay, who supports basic human rights can vote Republican:

Joe Wilson reacts to Dubya's memoir Decision Points.

CBS News: The American Civil Liberties Union today urged the Justice Department to investigate whether President George W. Bush violated anti-torture laws by authorizing the use of waterboarding against detainees in the war on terror -- an admission Mr. Bush makes in his new memoir 'Decision Points.'" More in the Huffington Post here. ...

... CBS News: "Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder said Tuesday that former President George W. Bush 'is not telling the truth' in his new memoir 'Decision Points.'" He  says Bush's description of an exchange between Bush & him about the Iraq War is false. "In his memoir 'Decisions: My Life in Politics,' Schroder wrote that Mr. Bush spoke in 'almost Biblical semantics' and gave off the impression 'that political decisions are a result of this conversation with God.'"