A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep

I’ve been asked what I think is going to happen in the House now that Kevin McCarthy has pulled out of the running for speaker. The answer is... complicated. But first… If you haven’t been following the tumult in the U.S. House of Representatives with a bowl of popcorn and an ear-to-ear schadenfreude grin… well, let’s just say you don’t live in our home. Here’s the thirty-second recap:  In late September current House Speaker John Boehner was facing a likely coup attempt and an imminent government shutdown unless he caved to the demands of ~40 whackjobs to "defund" Planned Parenthood. As a devout Catholic, he had also just fulfilled his lifelong dream of bringing the pope to speak to a joint session of Congress. So, with little warning even to his closest allies, he announced that he would bring a “clean” short-tern funding bill (i.e. one free of partisan non-starters such as the defund language) up for a vote to prevent a government shutdown. Then he would step...

1- In May, the Senate passed TAA+TPA as one package and with only 3 votes to spare on cloture (5 Republicans voted no).  TAA is Trade Adjustment Assistance, aid for workers displaced by trade. TPA is Trade Promotion Authority, fast track authority that 1- allows the president to negotiate international trade agreements over the next 6 years with only symbolic input from Congress and 2- guarantees the president an up-or-down vote -- no amendments -- on any agreement presented by him/her to Congress (hence why it's called "fast track").  2- Most of the 14 Senate Democrats who supported the package made clear that their support was contingent on inclusion of TAA.  3- Further, some Senate Democrats (e.g. Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray) voted for the package because Mitch McConnell promised them an imminent vote to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank (a different trade issue), whose charter expires at the end of this month. Having gotten their votes on the trade bills, McCo...

Republicans like to say we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. We don't need to tax more, we need to spend less. Sure, sure, and how exactly are they going to cut spending? According to Mitt Romney on October 22 : "First of all, we're going to cut about 5 percent of the discretionary budget excluding military." To which I say: bwah ha ha ha ha ha. The budget he wants to cut by 5% is $623 billion. The deficit is $1.3 trillion. Don't stop at 5%, Mr. Romney. With no new revenue, you could cut 100% — the entire non-defense discretionary budget, every last dollar of it — and still end up with a deficit of $677 billion. On top of those cuts, you could also cut the entire budget for welfare and Medicaid and still end up with a deficit of $117 billion. Since Romney has promised not to cut defense, but rather to grow the defense budget, and since he has promised to restore every single dollar of wasteful spending in Medicare overpaymen...

When people complain about the national debt accumulated during Barack Obama's first term, it's worth remembering that nearly all of our current annual deficit (the gap between the amount of income we raise through taxes and fees and what we spend on goods, services, and interest payments), and therefore the growth of the debt, is the result of: 1- policies initiated by George W. Bush: 2001 and 2003 tax cuts 2003 prescription drug benefit for seniors wars in Iraq and Afghanistan very deserved health, education, and retirement benefits that troops will rightfully receive long after those wars have concluded Wall Street bailout and government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac none of which were "paid for" through tax increases or spending cuts;* and 2- the Great Recession: millions of people who don't need food stamps, unemployment benefits, or Medicaid when the economy is good, do need them when the economy goes south, making those progra...