-
Search
-
Savings Options for You
-
Categories
- Congress
- Contests
- Debates
- Domestic Policy
- Foreign Affairs
- Fundraising
- General
- Healthcare
- Humor
- Latest News
- Media Clips and Issues
- Michael Steele
- Military
- Open Thread
- Outside the Track
- PD Composite Poll
- PD Housekeeping
- PD in the News
- Photo of the Day
- Policy
- Polls
- POTUS
- Power Rankings Only 2008
- Power Rankings Only 2012
- Predictions
- Race for White House 2008
- Race for White House 2012
- Races 2008
- Races 2010
- Races 2012
- Races Off-Year
- Rate that Ad
- Scandals
- SCOTUS
- Shameless Marketing
- Tea Party
- TSA
-
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
In 1893 and 1907, JP Morgan, a financier, used his considerable power, influence and leadership skills to save our economy from major economic downturns after Americans lost confidence in the economy and there was a serious lack of liquidity in the market. 104 years later, we are in the same situation and, for the last 3 years, have been lacking the leadership of someone such as JP Morgan. About 2.5 years ago, I wrote a post asking who could fill the role of JP Morgan in our current fiscal crisis. I think we have finally found our answer in Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks.
A few weeks ago, Schultz called on fellow executives to sign a pledge to stop donating to political campaigns until Washington can pass a bi-partisan, fiscally-disciplined deal to reduce the deficit. In addition, he asked that the executives also agree to accelerate hiring within their businesses to assist in the economic recovery. Read more
In all the disputes and arguments over the economy, we never get a clear, unequivocal impression on where liberals stand–specifically–on Obama’s handling of the economy and the efficacy of his policies. It’s clear they feel that President Bush caused the problem that Obama “inherited,” but it’s not clear how they feel Obama has handled things.
What is their view of the Stimulus, and how do they explain the still-disappointing job and unemployment numbers?
What do they think of his pushing Obamacare first instead of concentrating on jobs?
Read more
The 2011 edition of the “Gang of Six” made their proposed debt reduction proposal today, take a look here.
Since I have only had a few moments to review the proposal, I have only formed an early opinion. My initial reaction is so far so good! The numbers are $3.7 trillion in total cuts and $500 billion in immediate cuts. This bipartisan measure seems to focus on spreading the tax base which allows us to increase revenue by $1 trillion yet lower marginal rates for everyone. The new highest income tax rate would be 29%. This bill sets up three tax brackets and abolishes the Alternative Minimum Tax (worth $1.7 trillion) The legislation also reforms enitlement spending and cuts from discretionary spending from every department.
I feel like this really is a fair and balanced compromise. (By this I do not mean a “Fox News compromise.”) Let me know what you guys think about this deficit plan. Judging from the comments on the last post I am sure we will have a number of varying views so go ahead and sound off on this!
Many of us have compared our politicians to stubborn children. That’s just it! Why don’t we look at these negotiations as a bunch of 3rd graders at the cafeteria table trading their lunches? The Republican 3rd graders want to trim down but Democrats want everyone in the class to bring more food from home to share. Here are two trade scenarios that I believe would appease both sides just before lunch time is over.
Read more
Wisconsin Senate succeeds in eliminating public union collective bargaining
By Scott A. Robinson, EditorWe talked a few days ago about how completely unnecessary public unions are. Now those elected in Wisconsin to fix that state’s fiscal problems have finally acted after allowing the grandstanding to continue for three weeks while the Democrats had run away.
Per the AP:
The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans outmaneuvered the chamber’s missing Democrats and approved an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide.
Per the Wisconsin Senate’s press release:
After nearly a month of debate on the budget repair bill, nearly three weeks of childish stunts and delay tactics from the Democrats, the longest public hearing in state history and the longest Assembly debate in state history, the Senate met tonight to pass the non-fiscal items in the Budget Repair Bill. . . .
Where does it end?
By Scott A. Robinson, EditorFiled Under Congress, Domestic Policy, Healthcare, Latest News, Policy, POTUS on Mar 9
This nation has become great because it was a nation founded on laws, not on men, a nation where all were considered equal. However, in today’s society we seem to think “all [people] are equal, but some [people] are more equal than others“.
Today in our country only 53% percent of all workers pay 100% of the federal income tax bill. Therefore 47% of workers pay no taxes. Additionally 40% of workers actually receive additional funds when filing their taxes redistributed from the group that pays all the taxes. I’ll even point you to that evil conservative news source NPR for this data (though it is widely available).
Further, in research released yesterday, “government social benefits . . . were equal to 35% of all private and public wages and salaries in the 12 months ended January, up from 10% in 1960 and 21% in 2000.”
Read the entire article here at the WSJ: The Special Assistant for Reality
Or read the highlight here. Enjoy this sample conversation between Obama and his Special Assistant for Reality on the topic of the TSA-groping debacle:
President: This thing is all ginned up, isn’t it? Right-wing websites fanned it. Then the mainstream media jumped in to display their phony populist street cred. Right?
Special Assistant for Reality: No, Mr. President, it was more spontaneous. Websites can’t fan fires that aren’t there. This is like the town hall uprisings of summer 2009. In the past month, citizens took videos at airports the same way town hall protesters made videos there, and put them on YouTube. The more pictures of pat-downs people saw, the more they opposed them.
“Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics noted that the still-fragile nature of the U.S. economy illustrates why the Federal Reserve felt it needed to announce Wednesday [11/3/10] a plan to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds.
Those purchases are intended to lower interest rates on mortgages and other loans and help boost the economy.”
Well worth a morning read:
So Much Worse Than Carter
By Peter Ferrara on 10.13.10 @ 6:08AMThe most important fact to take from the September unemployment report released last week is that almost three years after the recession began the economy was still losing jobs! Almost 100,000 (95,000) additional jobs were lost last month from the economy overall. That makes 400,000 jobs lost since May. Moreover, in a regular annual benchmark revision to calibrate unemployment rates for updated data, the BLS reported a further 366,000 jobs lost for March. The total number of Americans unemployed stands at almost 15 million (14.8).
A “Pledge to America”
By Stephen Fountain, EditorFiled Under Congress, Media Clips and Issues, Policy, Races 2010 on Sep 22
Tomorrow morning Republicans will unveil their NEW Contract With America. The idea is a great one. And this great idea will follow in the foot steps of other great second editions like Teen Wolf Too, Legally Blonde 2 and Troll 2 (Be sure to check out the clip after the jump for great scenes from this movie including a focus on a future editor of PoliticalDerby.com).
Don’t get me wrong. There are some great themes embedded into the GOP’s plan. Consider the following text:
So what would be better for 2011 & beyond?
By E.J. KeeneFiled Under Congress, Policy, Races 2010 on Sep 15
Ooh, such juicy intrigue! Boy, I haven’t seen this much traffic on PD since Scooter Brown was barnstorming the Massachusetts countryside in his ’87 Ford pickup. (Probably making Jason’s visitor ticker spin off the bottom of the page.) Let’s continue the chat we’ve started, and push the issue a little further.
Here’s The Question: So what do you think would be better – the Repubs gaining both chambers, or just winning the House this fall? What would be the pros/cons of either scenario?
Read more
New culture war is free enterprise versus statism
By Contributor ArchiveFiled Under Policy on May 23
Arthur Brooks, the still relatively new president of the American Enterprise Institute, has a remarkable piece in the Opinion section of the May 23 edition of The Washington Post, titled “America’s New Culture War: Free Enterprise vs. Government Control.”
He nails it. For starters:
“This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion. Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new struggle between two competing visions of the country’s future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise — limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. These visions are not reconcilable. We must choose.”
Yesterday, Quincy, Illinois served as the latest stop on The One’s perpetual campaign trail. He believes that if he talks often and long enough, the words which he reads from his TelePrompTer will somehow morph into reality and suddenly all of America will start to chant “Yes We Can”.
Meanwhile, the rest of us have to live in this strange world commonly referred to as “reality”.
During his canned stump speech, The One took a risk and unplugged himself from the TelePrompTer and spoke “off the cuff” for a few minutes about his effort to reform the way Wall Street does business. I’ll omit – for the sake of brevity – a discussion regarding The One’s non understanding of basic business principles.
Here’s a taste of The One’s off Prompter remarks:
Don’t touch the Twinkies!
By Contributor ArchiveFiled Under Domestic Policy, Healthcare, Policy on Apr 26
I suppose passage of the health care infringement reform gives the US govt license to regulate the American diet. ObamaCare is just a means to an end. As if incurring a fine for noncompliance or picking up the tab for everyone else weren’t bad enough; Big Brother needs to further dabble with menu items and eating habits. I guess they think we’re too stupid to do it ourselves.
Take for instance the salt issue. Earlier this week the FDA announced its plans to regulate the amount of salt in processed foods (a.k.a. a lot of the stuff you buy at the local grocery store). The government interfering in our lives again? I know. Hard to believe.
Arizona immigration law: Are you listening, Mr. President?
By Jason Wright, EditorFiled Under Policy on Apr 25
In case you missed it:
Fifty three percent of likely Arizona voters are concerned that the state’s tough new law targeting illegal immigrants will also be used to violate the civil rights of United States citizens.
The majority of them support it anyway.
Such is the state of the state of Arizona, where frustration is the official state emotion and our official nickname?
With one stroke of a pen it was changed Friday from Grand Canyon State to Police State.
The University of Virginia’s political prognosticator Larry Sabato is out with an interesting nugget this morning: State Attorney General positions are the grooming grounds for governorships. He writes, “There’s an old joke about the National Association of Attorneys General—their registered name is supposedly the National Association of Aspiring Governors.”
In Virginia three of the last seven governors have been AGs. In part, this is because Virginia has a very short ballot, electing only the lieutenant governor and attorney general in addition to governor, and the governor is limited to one consecutive four-year term. (Virginia is the only state remaining with such a prohibition.) The other statewide elected officials are naturally considered in line for the statehouse, and they often run flat out for four years to get the promotion.
This is transparency?
By Stephen Fountain, EditorFiled Under Media Clips and Issues, Military, Policy, Whitehouse News on Apr 21
Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration in history. In his Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, he commits to “creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” The full document on openness in government can be read at WhiteHouse.gov.
I guess that only applied back when Obama still believed everyone loved him. And it certainly doesn’t apply when one of Obama’s core base groups is protesting him! Didn’t they get the memo?
Americablog posted the below video of capital police closing Lafayette Park (next to the White House) to prevent reporters from covering a “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” protest.
So, when do we get to the transparent part?
So, President Obama has decided to open up areas of the eastern Continental Shelf and a small section of the Gulf of Mexico to oil/gas exploration.
This is very good news. The President says it is designed to “reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” and also to “produce jobs.” He further added that it would be unwise to “ignore reality”–one presumes he means the reality that we still need oil in the short term, even though we want to switch to some other energy later on.
This is good news and we can all applaud his decision.
The bad news is he’s doing it not because of the obvious need for oil-based energy, but to try to “bribe’ Republicans into supporting his cap-and-trade legislation.
Read more
Combating Healthcare
By Contributor ArchiveFiled Under Congress, Domestic Policy, Healthcare, Policy on Mar 16
As you all know (and possibly never want to hear again), this is THE week for the Congress to pass the healthcare bill. Yes, yes, I know we’ve heard that before, but I’m really hopeful that this is it.
Do you want to know how you can stop the insanity? I have the solution (somewhat borrowed from Dick Morris). Call members of the House and tell them to vote no. Morris has compiled a list of House members that voted for the healthcare bill in November and are in jeopardy of losing their seats come November. Use the phone numbers provided and call them. You don’t have to be one of their constituients to give them your opinion. You may not be able to vote against them, but you can always threaten to support their opponent through donations, media, etc.