A Ghost from a Ghastly Public Policy Past

By Sam Pizzigati

Created 04/09/2011 - 12:24pm

House budget-cutters are taking their inspiration from the greatest giveaway — to the rich — artist the nation's capital has ever known.

You won’t find many photos with smiles on the face of Andrew Mellon, the U.S. treasury secretary back in the 1920s. The exceedingly dour — and fabulously wealthy — Mellon may be smiling someplace now. His spirit lives.

Mellon, a Pittsburgh financier, began his dozen years atop Treasury in 1921. He rated, at the time, as one of the world’s richest men. One of the most determined, too.

Mellon came to Washington as a man on a mission. That mission: to slash federal income tax rates on his fellow rich — and himself, of course, too. He succeeded.

Our Lives Are Under Threat From Some of the Most Powerful and Richest Entities -- Here's How We Can Fight Back and Win

By Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben, AlterNet
Posted on April 8, 2011, Printed on April 9, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150552/our_lives_are_under_threat_from_some_of_the_most_powerful_and_richest_entities_--_here%27s_how_we_can_fight_back_and_win

Not for forty years has there been such a stretch of bad news for environmentalists in Washington.

Last month in the House, the newly empowered GOP majority voted down a resolution stating simply that global warming was real: they've apparently decided to go with their own versions of physics and chemistry.

The Democrats have a plan for controlling health-care costs. Paul Ryan doesn’t.

By Ezra Klein

There’s increasingly an understanding that the mixture of cuts and taxes in Paul Ryan’s budget aren’t quite fair, and the underlying assumptions it uses don’t quite work. But it’s left people hungry for a budget that does work, and annoyed that Democrats haven’t provided one. “If Democrats don’t like his budget ideas, they should propose their own,” writes Fareed Zakaria. “The Democrats and Obama now have to offer a response,” warned Andrew Sullivan. “As of this evening, the Democratic policy plan consists of yelling ‘You suck!’” complained Megan McArdle.

I’ve made similar comments. And I think those comments are mostly right. Democrats need to step up on taxes, on defense and non-defense discretionary, on Social Security, and on energy. But there’s one huge, glaring exception: controlling health-care costs. There, the reality is that Democrats have a plan and Ryan doesn’t. But the perception, at this point, is just the opposite.

Scandal in Fitzwalkerstan: Federal probe, full recount required in high court race

Cap Times editorial | Posted: Friday, April 8, 2011 11:45 am

Suppose the Democratic governor of Illinois had proposed radical changes in how the state operates, and suppose anger over those proposed changes inspired a popular uprising that filled the streets of every city, village and town in the state with protests. Then, suppose there was an election that would decide whether allies of the governor controlled the state’s highest court. Suppose the results of that election showed that an independent candidate who would not be in the governor’s pocket narrowly won that election.

Wisconsin election worker’s find of uncounted ballots certain to draw scrutiny

By Reuters
Friday, April 8th, 2011 -- 8:59 am

Update: Dems cry foul as massive cache of votes was reportedly stored on a former Prosser aide's personal computer

Unofficial returns on Wednesday gave the union-backed challenger, JoAnne Kloppenburg, a narrow 204 vote statewide lead over Republican David Prosser.

But late Thursday, the county clerk in Waukesha, a Republican stronghold, said that votes not included in earlier totals had resulted in a net gain of 7,582 votes for Prosser.

The Brave and Serious Mr. Ryan

By James Fallows

I mentioned earlier that if asked to choose an adjective to describe the budget plan presented by Rep. Paul Ryan, I would suggest "partisan" or "gimmicky," as opposed to "serious" or "brave." Most budget proposals are both partisan and gimmicky, so this is no particular knock against Rep. Ryan. But it's worth mentioning because so much of the pundit-sphere (excluding the Atlantic's Derek Thompson) has received the plan as a dramatic step forward in clear thinking about our fiscal future.

I think this view is wrong, and that we'll look back on this episode mainly to marvel at what it shows about pundit-world swoon (Paul Krugman's mot juste today), and about clever policy marketing by Ryan, rather than for what it clarifies about budgetary realities.

Brain structure differs in liberals, conservatives: study

By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, April 7th, 2011 -- 3:55 pm

WASHINGTON — Everyone knows that liberals and conservatives butt heads when it comes to world views, but scientists have now shown that their brains are actually built differently.

Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear, said the study on Thursday in Current Biology.

Paul Krugman: Ludicrous and Cruel

Many commentators swooned earlier this week after House Republicans, led by the Budget Committee chairman, Paul Ryan, unveiled their budget proposals. They lavished praise on Mr. Ryan, asserting that his plan set a new standard of fiscal seriousness.

Well, they should have waited until people who know how to read budget numbers had a chance to study the proposal. For the G.O.P. plan turns out not to be serious at all. Instead, it’s simultaneously ridiculous and heartless.

GOP Shock Doctrine: What Gov't Shutdown And Other GOP Assaults on Democracy Are Really All About

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on April 7, 2011, Printed on April 9, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150537/gop_shock_doctrine%3A_what_gov%27t_shutdown_and_other_gop_assaults_on_democracy_are_really_all_about

The Republicans' imminent threat to shut down the government, the right's assault on public workers, its spending- and tax-cap proposals, the successful campaign to shut down ACORN and attempts now underway to defund Planned Parenthood and NPR and, most prominently, Paul Ryan's plan to dismantle Medicare all have one thing in common: they're about entrenching conservative ideological preferences in the law in ways that future legislators will have a hard time undoing.

All of these efforts are ultimately about subverting democracy, which is, for the right, they're non-negotiable.

(UPDATE: He's gone) Wisconsin GOP Governor's inexperienced $81,500 new-hire is demoted

by Gaius Publius on 4/07/2011 01:48:00 PM

UPDATE: He quit, slacker-style, by not showing up to the old gig. The Wisconsin State Journal (h/t Shannyn Moore via Twitter):

A spokesman for Gov. Scott Walker confirmed Thursday that Brian Deschane resigned after the governor took away his $81,500-a-year job with the Department of Commerce.

Five myths about why the South seceded

By James W. Loewen, Saturday, February 26, 12:01 AM

One hundred fifty years after the Civil War began, we’re still fighting it — or at least fighting over its history. I’ve polled thousands of high school history teachers and spoken about the war to audiences across the country, and there is little agreement even about why the South seceded. Was it over slavery? States’ rights? Tariffs and taxes?

As the nation begins to commemorate the anniversaries of the war’s various battles — from Fort Sumter to Appomattox — let’s first dispense with some of the more prevalent myths about why it all began.

Pay Back the Money Borrowed From Social Security

By Sen. Don and Lori Reigle
April 6, 2011 - 2:06pm ET

Throughout its 75 year history, Social Security has provided critical economic security to millions of retirees, families, children and the disabled. Social Security is paid for by the dedicated contributions of workers and their employers, has administrative costs of less than one percent, and since it cannot borrow to fund its operations, Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. No wonder that Americans from all walks of life consistently and overwhelmingly support our nation's most successful social insurance program -- a level of support that is not achieved by other governmental programs.

Social Security currently has a $2.6 trillion surplus which has been building up since the 1983 amendments and is intended to help absorb the retirement of the baby boomers. This surplus is invested in US Treasury securities that are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. According to the Social Security Trustees 2010 report, Social Security can pay full benefits until 2037, at which time, if nothing were done to strengthen its financing, Social Security would still be able to pay about 78 percent of benefits. This quarter of a century means there is time to strengthen its financing without cutting benefits for future beneficiaries. The American people will insist that Congress do what is needed for the program to pay full benefits and protect these benefits they were promised and have earned.

Common nanoparticles found to be highly toxic to Arctic ecosystem

Queen’s researchers have discovered that nanoparticles, which are now present in everything from socks to salad dressing and suntan lotion, may have irreparably damaging effects on soil systems and the environment.

“Millions of tonnes of nanoparticles are now manufactured every year, including silver nanoparticles which are popular as antibacterial agents,” says Virginia Walker, a professor in the Department of Biology. “We started to wonder what the impact of all these nanoparticles might be on the environment, particularly on soil.”

Paul Krugman: Such Elegant Ideas, but Not Always Simple

Wednesday 6 April 2011

One question that comes up occasionally from readers is: What would make me change my mind about how the economy works? Associated with this is the question of whether I have ever changed my views drastically in the face of events.

Let me answer the latter question first. I had a major change of views in the late 1990s, driven by events in Asia.

Until then I had pretty much accepted the “elegant, and conceptually simple” framework described recently by Olivier Blanchard, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, on the organization’s Web site. Basically, I thought that conventional monetary policy could do the job of stabilizing the economy.

Superpowerless

Why the United States can't do as much as you think in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Thursday, April 7, 2011, at 10:50 AM ET

It's clear now to even the wildest-eyed optimist that the recent Middle Eastern uprisings might not augur a spree of democratic revolution. Where they will lead is uncharted territory, but one thing they seem to signify, for now, is a further breakdown of the world order, a fracturing of global power into still more jutting and jagged shards, another round of the unraveling that started when the Cold War ended.

There is room for hope here. Disorder can be a positive force. The newly toppled dictators deserved their toppling. The societies they helped keep stagnant were in need of upheaval. And the Cold War, whose demise unfroze the tides of history, was of course a time of dread.

Meltdown: not just a metaphor

Vested interests cause both our financial system and the nuclear industry to compulsively underestimate risk

Joseph Stiglitz
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 April 2011 18.00 BST

The consequences of the Japanese earthquake – especially the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant – resonate grimly for observers of the American financial crash that precipitated the Great Recession. Both events provide stark lessons about risks, and about how badly markets and societies can manage them.

Of course, in one sense, there is no comparison between the tragedy of the earthquake – which has left more than 25,000 people dead or missing – and the financial crisis, to which no such acute physical suffering can be attributed. But when it comes to the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, there is a common theme in the two events.

CBO: Seniors would pay much more for Medicare under Ryan plan

By Julie Appleby, Mary Agnes Carey and Laurie McGinley | Kaiser Health News

WASHINGTON — Seniors and people with disabilities would pay much more for Medicare under a new plan by Republicans in the House of Representatives that's aimed at curbing the nation's growing budget deficit, a Congressional Budget Office analysis shows.

For example, by 2030, typical 65-year-olds would be required to pay 68 percent of the cost of their coverage, which includes premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, according to the CBO. They'd pay 25 percent under current law, the CBO said.

Ozone layer faces record 40 pct loss over Arctic

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press – Tue Apr 5, 7:01 pm ET

GENEVA – The protective ozone layer in the Arctic that keeps out the sun's most damaging rays — ultraviolet radiation — has thinned about 40 percent this winter, a record drop, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday.

The Arctic's damaged stratospheric ozone layer isn't the best known "ozone hole" — that would be Antarctica's, which forms when sunlight returns in spring there each year. But the Arctic's situation is due to similar causes: ozone-munching compounds in air pollutants that are chemically triggered by a combination of extremely cold temperatures and sunlight.

You Thought the Koch Brothers Were Bad? Turns Out They're Even Worse Than You Thought

By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet
Posted on April 5, 2011, Printed on April 7, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150520/you_thought_the_koch_brothers_were_bad_turns_out_they%27re_even_worse_than_you_thought

You knew they were big. You knew they were evil. From the union-busting actions of their minions in Wisconsin and Ohio to their war on health-care reform, to their assault on the environment and their attacks on the science of climatology, Charles and David Koch have earned their place as the focus of progressives' scrutiny in the age of the Tea Party -- the destructive and regressive movement they bankroll. But a new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that, as bad as you thought the Kochs were, they're actually worse. And their reach into virtually every aspect of political, economic and physical life on the planet is probably greater than you thought possible.

In The Koch Brothers: What You Need to Know About the Financiers of the Radical Right, author Tony Carrk, policy director of the CAP Action War Room, lays out a case that is breathtaking in its scope, showing how the Koch brothers are using their billions with the aim of reshaping the global economic system in such a way as to enrich themselves and their heirs at the expense of most other inhabitants of the planet.

Bring on the Bamboozlement

Josh Marshall | April 4, 2011, 11:51AM

As House Republicans cue up their Medicare Phase-out legislation, we're about to be treated, once again, to an example of how political actors use press cowardice to deceive the public. Rep. Paul Ryan's plan, which is now the official Republican plan, phases out Medicare over 10 years. Yet you'll be treated to numerous articles that call this a 'reform' or 'overhaul' or even 'saving' Medicare. But each are no better than straight outright deceptions, whether by design or ignorance.

The Medicare system has been in place in the United States for a bit more than 40 years. The premise is simple: once you hit retirement age you move into a single payer health care insurance system in which Medicare takes responsibility for your care, regardless of the state of your health or income level. There are copays. No one's crazy about exactly how much is covered. Some doctors opt out. You've probably heard all of this at one point or another. But the key is that you're in the program. And for the rest of your life you're out of the private health insurance system. You're covered. Permanently and on the same terms as everyone else.

Cutting Through the Medicare Charade

In his Wall Street Journal op-ed today, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the Republican budget plan is focused on "saving Medicare."

Of course, in this context, this is intended to strip the word "save" of all meaning. Even the i>Wall Street Journal yesterday noted that the GOP proposal "would essentially end Medicare," which happens to be true.

The Real Story Behind Job Creation

March's job numbers were greeted rapturously by the business press. Scratch the surface of the data and things are not so rosy

by Dean Baker

When the labour department announced that the US economy had created 216,000 jobs in March, it set off a round of celebrations throughout Washington policy circles. The word in the New York Times, the Washington Post and other major news outlets was that the economy was back on course; we were on the right path.

Those who know arithmetic were a bit more sceptical. If the economy sustained March's rate of job growth, it will be more than seven years before we get back to normal rates of unemployment. Furthermore, some of this growth likely reflected a bounceback from weaker growth the prior two months. The average rate of job growth over the last three months has been just 160,000. At that pace, we won't get back to normal rates of unemployment until after 2022.

Huckabee Hearts Secrecy

The enduring mystery surrounding the former Arkansas governor's M.I.A. records.

— By Siddhartha Mahanta

Fri Apr. 1, 2011 11:35 AM PDT

There's a Mike Huckabee mystery that won't go away.

Send a public records request seeking documents from his 12-year stint as Arkansas governor, as Mother Jones did recently, and an eyebrow-raising reply will come back: The records are unavailable, and the computer hard drives that once contained them were erased and physically destroyed by the Huckabee administration as the governor prepared to leave office and launch a presidential bid.

Workers' rights are under threat across the world

In UK, US and Europe, the depletion of collective bargaining threatens workers' economic security and their human rights

Keith Ewing
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 April 2011 18.00 BST

Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis on this day in 1968. He was there to support striking sanitation workers, fighting for the right to have their union recognised by their employer; fighting for the right to collective bargaining.

Today is also a day of international solidarity with the public service workers of Wisconsin, whose right to bargain collectively has been stripped away by legislation sponsored by state governor Scott Walker, a man who has led the great state of Wisconsin to pariah status.

Environmentalists stand up to Obama, win big

Under intense pressure from green groups and their members, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) announced Friday that Republican proposals to gut the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were off the table in budget negotiations.

"Neither the White House nor Senate Leaders is going to accept any EPA riders," Reid said.

How the Medicare-Destroying GOP Budget Plan Could Kill Me (And You)

By Steven D, 1410
Posted on April 5, 2011, Printed on April 5, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/550371/how_the_medicare-destroying_gop_budget_plan_could_kill_me_%28and_you%29

Editor\'s note: Today, Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan introduced a budget proposal that would essentially eliminate Medicare and Medicaid as we know it. Under Ryan\'s plan, people who are 54 years old or younger would give up their guaranteed benefits in exchange for vouchers that would go towards buying insurance in an exchange. But the value of the vouchers would grow much more slowly than health-care costs,meaning that seniors would gradually bear more of the burden for their health-care. As Josh Marshall put it, "Now, what if you can\'t buy as much as insurance or as much care as you need? Well, start saving now or just too bad." Meanwhile, Medicaid, which services the poor and disabled, including many seniors, would be phased out in favor of block grants distributed to the states. Meanwhile, the proposal slashes taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans resulting in far less deficit reduction than promised.

The Republicans have a plan to destroy Medicare.

If enacted I will likely die an early death as will my wife.

A little background: I have a chronic autoimmune disorder that forced me to retire from my profession over ten years ago. The drugs I take each year (and I take mostly generic versions of those medications) cost roughly $5,000 last year. With insurance, the amount I paid for those drugs cost about $1,200.

How the Medicare-Destroying GOP Budget Plan Could Kill Me (And You)

By Steven D, 1410
Posted on April 5, 2011, Printed on April 5, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/550371/how_the_medicare-destroying_gop_budget_plan_could_kill_me_%28and_you%29

Editor\'s note: Today, Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan introduced a budget proposal that would essentially eliminate Medicare and Medicaid as we know it. Under Ryan\'s plan, people who are 54 years old or younger would give up their guaranteed benefits in exchange for vouchers that would go towards buying insurance in an exchange. But the value of the vouchers would grow much more slowly than health-care costs,meaning that seniors would gradually bear more of the burden for their health-care. As Josh Marshall put it, "Now, what if you can\'t buy as much as insurance or as much care as you need? Well, start saving now or just too bad." Meanwhile, Medicaid, which services the poor and disabled, including many seniors, would be phased out in favor of block grants distributed to the states. Meanwhile, the proposal slashes taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans resulting in far less deficit reduction than promised.

The Republicans have a plan to destroy Medicare.

If enacted I will likely die an early death as will my wife.

A little background: I have a chronic autoimmune disorder that forced me to retire from my profession over ten years ago. The drugs I take each year (and I take mostly generic versions of those medications) cost roughly $5,000 last year. With insurance, the amount I paid for those drugs cost about $1,200.

The Religious Right's Anti-Union Crusade

— By Josh Harkinson | Mon Apr. 4, 2011 3:17 AM PDT

Wisconsin's ongoing labor battle has officially become a holy war. The Family Research Council, the evangelical advocacy organization founded by James Dobson, has been dipping into its war chest to defend Republican Governor Scott Walker's efforts to curtail collective bargaining for public-sector unions. FRC president Tony Perkins interviewed backers of Walker's anti-union bill on his weekly radio program and has tweeted his support for the bill, directly linking social conservatism with an anti-union, pro-business agenda: "Pro-family voters should celebrate WI victory b/c public & private sector union bosses have marched lock-step w/liberal social agenda."