The Commentariat -- January 5

Click on the cartoon to link to this fairly amusing account by New Yorker cartoonist James Stevenson about his introduction to the idiocyncratic world of the magazine.Did We Say Budget Cuts? Howard Fineman: "Republicans campaigned coast to coast on, among other things, a promise to cut $100 billion out of the federal budget. But now they are talking about cuts as slim as $30 billion, blaming the change on the fine print that no one read -- or if they read, did not understand." ...

... I think [the Republicans] woke up to the reality that this will have a direct negative impact on people's lives.... You know, it's easy to talk about these things in the abstract. It's another thing when you start taking away people's college loans and Pell Grants or cutting early education programs. -- Rep. Chris Van Hollen, (D-Md.)

... Ezra Klein: "One of the [House Republicans'] new rules says that new legislation must be paid for. But the health-care bill reduces the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years. Luckily, they've figured out an answer to their problem: They've decided to simply exempt the repeal bill from the rules. That means they're beginning the 112th Congress by lifting their own rules in order to take a vote that will increase the deficit. Change we can believe in, and all that." So Minority Leader Eric Cantor lied about it. And he'll likely keep on lying abou it. ...

... Ha ha. Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic has some helpful information for Cantor:

Eric Cantor has become the first Republican to argue with basic arithmetic.  As Cantor's office finds reality frustratingly outside its grasp, it's worth pointing out some other common misconceptions that they might need help with:

Toilets swirl a different direction in the Southern hemisphere - NOT TRUE: http://bit.ly/toilet000

Elvis is really alive - NOT TRUE: http://bit.ly/elvis000

Shania Twain is Mark Twain's great-granddaughter - NOT TRUE: http://bit.ly/shania000 

French Fries originated in France - NOT TRUE: http://bit.ly/frenchfries000

If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down!
-- George W. Bush, September 2008

[Those are] the 10 most immortal words in the history of economics. -- Warren Buffett

Anne Kornblut & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama ... is weighing a major reshuffling of his staff that could see as many as eight people playing new key roles in the weeks ahead.... Among the biggest changes could be the departure of press secretary Robert Gibbs...." ...

     ... Brian Montopoli of CBS News Update: "Robert Gibbs has confirmed to CBS News that he is leaving his job as White House Press Secretary. 'It is true,' Gibbs said in response to an email Wednesday morning.... Gibbs plans to work as a political consultant and give speeches upon leaving his post." ...

... Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic: "Robert Gibbs' announcement today that he will be stepping down from the White House podium to take an advisory role offers an opportunity for the White House to repair relationships with the community Gibbs derided as 'the professional left....' The first opportunity is to bury the hatchet with a community of people that has felt itself repeatedly and needlessly insulted by Gibbs and also by former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel." ...

... Sam Youngman of The Hill: "Former DNC chairman and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said Wednesday that William Daley would be a 'huge plus' for the Obama administration if he is tapped to be the president's new chief of staff.... At the same time..., [Dean] excoriated Obama's senior staff.... Noting that many officials are 'either out of the White House or going,' Dean blasted Obama's current officials who he says have treated the left wing of the Democratic Party with 'contempt.'"

Fear of Death Panel Politics. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Obama administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new health care law.... The move is an abrupt shift, coming just days after the new policy took effect on Jan. 1. Many doctors and providers of hospice care had praised the regulation.... While administration officials cited procedural reasons for changing the rule, it was clear that political concerns were also a factor."

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Driven from his party’s leadership in 1998 and sidelined for nearly a decade, [John] Boehner  ... now faces the challenge of harnessing the Tea Party zeal that propelled him to power without disheartening those who might be expecting too much." ...

... How much did we pay for that little stunt of reading the Constitution aloud during the first session of the House? Juli Weiner of Vanity Fair reports that a conservative estimate is that it cost more than $1 million. ...

... Ezra Klein liked Boehner's speech: "Boehner promised almost nothing at all. He certainly didn't set himself up as a foil to President Obama, or anoint himself leader of a new conservative moment in American politics. Rather, his speech had two themes: Humility, and comity."

Kathleen Hennessey of the Los Angeles Times: "The new class of Republican lawmakers who charged into office promising to shun the ways of Washington officially arrives on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. ‪But even as they publicly bash the capital's culture, many have quietly begun to embrace it. Several freshmen have hired lobbyists — the ultimate Washington insiders — to lead their congressional staffs. In the weeks leading up to Wednesday's swearing-in, dozens of the newcomers joined other lawmakers in turning to lobbyists for campaign cash....‪ This picture of business-as-usual Washington clashes with the campaign rhetoric of many newcomers, some who were propelled by support from the anti-Washington "tea party" movement. It also muddles the image House Republicans hoped to project as they took the helm this week." ...

... Dana Milbank: "Even before the speaker's gavel is passed at noon from Nancy Pelosi to John Boehner, it would appear that the Republicans are determined to form just as arrogant and overreaching a majority as the one they defeated." Milbank offers a litany of House Republican offenses that of course predate their swearing-in. First on the list: voting "to increase the deficit by $143 billion as part of a repeal of health-care reform."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a Politico opinion piece: "In the new Congress, Democrats will find pragmatic ways to solve the problems facing our country and to revive the economic growth and innovation that have made America the global leader it is today. We will continue to reach out to Republicans as partners in problem solving — in the hope that they will make decisions based on common sense and not on the extremism that has recently gripped their party."

** A Nation in Decline. Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "The share of our civilian population employed has dropped to 58.2 percent -- the lowest level since the early '80s, when far fewer women had entered the workforce. The social pathologies long associated with the inner-city poor ... now stalk the white working class.... As wages and employment levels have fallen for the Americans who have graduated high school but not college, their level of out-of-wedlock births (44 percent) has approached that of Americans who haven't completed high school (54 percent). Americans with college diplomas or more, by contrast, have a rate of just 6 percent.... Our economic woes, then, are not simply cyclical or structural. They are also - chiefly - institutional, the consequence of U.S. corporate behavior that has plunged us into a downward cycle of underinvestment, underemployment and under-consumption."

Reuters: "Israel told U.S. officials in 2008 it would keep Gaza's economy 'on the brink of collapse' while avoiding a humanitarian crisis, according to U.S. diplomatic cables published by a Norwegian daily on Wednesday. Three cables cited by the Aftenposten newspaper, which has said it has all 250,000 U.S. cables leaked to WikiLeaks, showed that Israel kept the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv briefed on its internationally criticized blockade of the Gaza Strip." ...

... Now, here's an interesting conspiracy theory from William Engdahl on VoltaireNet: "The story on the surface makes for a script for a new Oliver Stone Hollywood thriller. However, a closer look at the details of what has so far been carefully leaked by the most ultra-establishment of international media such as the New York Times reveals a clear agenda. That agenda coincidentally serves to buttress the agenda of US geopolitics around the world from Iran to North Korea. The Wikileaks is a big and dangerous US intelligence Con Job which will likely be used to police the Internet." Read it all. I'm not saying I buy it, but Engdahl makes a good circumstantial case.

Sharon Terlep & John Kell of the Wall Street Journal: "U.S. auto sales rose 11% in December, capping a year that suggests the industry is on the verge of one of the most dramatic shifts in its history. For most of the past century, the U.S. car industry was dominated by General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC. Now, as a result of both long-term trends and the upheaval of the last two years, the Big Three are about to be replaced by a Gang of Seven as the industry's driving force."

Pay off Those Student Loans, Kids. Melissa Corn of the Wall Street Journal: "After paying the companies that actually collect [defaulted student] loans and other costs, the U.S. Department of Education expects to recover 85% of defaulted federal loan dollars.... It is nearly impossible to discharge student loan debt, even in bankruptcy. The government can garnish a borrower's wages, withhold tax returns and siphon off Social Security and disability payments in order to recover the funds. Collection costs stretch out the defaulted loan's term, with those payments taking precedence over principal reduction. That, in turn, allows the government to tack on extra interest."

Another Way B of A Will Fix You. Zach Carter & Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: it appears Bank of America is automatically lowering credit ratings of people who just ask questions about the status of their mortgages. CW: this doesn't surprise me. Home & auto insurance companies were reportedly cancelling policies of policyholders who merely asked if particular losses were covered, even if they never filed claims.

Laissez Faire Extraordinaire. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Last month ... Representative Darrell Issa ... dispatched letters to 150 companies, trade groups and research organizations asking them to identify federal regulations that are restraining economic recovery and job growth. Mr. Issa ... said the concerns of businesses had been ignored by the Obama administration as it pursued what he described as an unprecedented regulatory expansion.... Mr. Issa ... is underscoring the commitment of the new House majority to help business by curtailing government. 'This is even more evidence that House Republicans are in the business of protecting corporate special interests instead of creating middle-income jobs,' the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said...."

William D. Cohan of the New York Times: "With Goldman’s investment in Facebook, we have a front-row seat to the process by which Wall Street creates and inflates financial bubbles."

CW: I've refused to cover the big race for RNC Chair, but Jon Stewart tells you all you need to know:

New York Times Editors: "Justice Antonin Scalia has a knack for drawing unflattering light to himself and the Supreme Court." Too bad he doesn't even acknowledge that his antiquated, narrow views are in conflict with numerous Supreme Court rulings. ...

... What's most preposterous is that Scalia was part of the most shameful and flagrantly political use – it was abuse, really -- of the 14th Amendment in Supreme Court history, when he joined the majority in the Bush vs. Gore decision and stopped the Florida recount, brazenly using 'equal protection' as one of the cornerstones. The ... majority argued that the white, wealthy George W. Bush would have his rights violated if Florida counties used different procedures to recount votes.... Now, if Scalia really thought the 14th amendment only intended to make former slaves full citizens, he should have applied it to make sure black voters ... were treated fairly in Florida (and in fact, we know they were not.) -- Joan Walsh of Salon

Karin Brulliard of the Washington Post: "The tightening grip of Islamist extremism in Pakistan was violently highlighted Tuesday with the assassination of one of the country's most outwardly progressive politicians by one of his police guards, who told investigators he was incensed by his boss's stance against a controversial anti-blasphemy law. The killing of Salman Taseer, the razor-tongued governor of Punjab province, stunned the nation and further rocked Taseer's ruling Pakistan People's Party, which is struggling to keep its government afloat following its key ally's defection to the opposition Sunday."

Talent Where You Find It:

... Here's a related story from, appropriately enough, the Voice. AND some updates from Reddit.