For some masochistic reason that I need to take up with my therapist I like listening to news while I work. Even on good days this can expose me to dangerous levels of conventional wisdom, and this is not a good day. Who can forget the awful ‘so where is your plan to destroy the country?’ argument from that Social Security crapola in 2005.
Here is Gail Chaddock of the Christian Science Monitor just now on the NPR show Tell Me More Here and Now. I typed a transcript from the audio stream here.
I think the disconnect between the president and the Republicans, for sure, [is that] they don’t like it when he says, ‘I’m waiting for them to show me a serious plan’. They’ve been waiting all year, ‘we want to see your plan. We want to see you commit in writing to trillions in spending cuts. We don’t want to be the only ones out there with a plan’. Same thing with the Senate Democrats. They have yet to produce a plan either. So there is still a real disconnect about how Washington talks about this issue that makes it much harder to solve it.
Kill me now.
Trurl
I await ABL’s explanation of how she’s not obliged to eat the crow she promised because means testing Medicare doesn’t count as “selling out”.
Start choking down this shit sandwich, ‘bots. There are more servings to come.
soonergrunt
And his answer needs to be “when am I going to present a plan to slash medicare and medicaid?
How does ‘never’ sound? Is ‘never’ soon enough?”
DonkeyKong
Joe Serno: So, you the brains of this outfit, or is he?
Longbaugh: Tell ya the truth, I don’t think this is a brains kind of operation.
-Way of the Gun
wes
I think it was “Here and Now”, not “Tell Me More”. Also, am I the only one who can’t stand Chaddock’s voice?
Culture of Truth
There’s a real disconnect in Washington ; Republicans are willing to do what Republicans want, but the Democrats won’t do the same and do Republicans want. So there’s a real disconnect out there.
Culture of Truth
Wait Wait Don’t Kill Me
slag
Sounds like they’ve found a new name for their show. And this one’s got the dual benefit of having both accuracy and drama.
13th Generation
@Trurl
While I agree with you 100%, don’t hold your breath on the ABL thing.
steve
They just have not prayed hard enough on it yet.
mr. whipple
“Why we are all doomed.”
Emo, is that you?
Martin
Indeed, if only the White House had a website where they could publish such a plan.
Davis X. Machina
Why the ‘means-testing Medicare’ business? Medicare is means-tested. Granted, simple eligibility for the program is age-based, from there on in, means-testing of provision exists already. Has since 2007. And the degree to which it is means-tested was adjusted again in 2010.
History of the means-testing of Medicare here.
4tehlulz
@Martin: Everyone knows you shouldn’t believe anything on the Internet.
chopper
@Davis X. Machina:
forget it, davis. it’s firebagtown.
DonkeyKong
Boring Prophet: There shall in that time be rumors of things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia-work base, that has an attachment. At that time, a friend shall lose his friend’s hammer, and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before, about eight o’clock
Felanius Kootea
If this was happening in anther country, there would be protests on the streets now to get the debt ceiling issue resolved. People would understand that the current debate about lifting the debt ceiling is less like raising the spending limit on your credit card and more like refusing to pay your existing credit card debt. They’d know that congress has raised the debt ceiling 10 years in a row without tying it to massive spending cuts. They’d understand that the result of a default would be a tripling or quadrupling of the very deficit that people profess to be concerned about in the first place. But given the edutainers the US has masquerading as journalists, and the malevolent force that is Fox news, most people will never understand what’s actually going on. I mean it’s not like anyone can *force* the media to do its job.
Edited for clarity and typos
stuckinred
I’m means tested by the VA and I should be, so the fuck what?
WereBear
Hey, I hear the Germans are making fun of us. This is a watershed of some sort.
fasteddie9318
TimF, I have four words for you: Al. Jazeera. Online. Streaming. Technically that’s three words with the Arabic article and all, but whatever. The point is, you don’t have to keep wasting your beautiful mind on American media.
jaleh
What is wrong with means testing? Doesn’t that mean if I make more (or have more) then I should pay more than you do? I am at the top 2%, I don’t mind paying more, what is wrong with that? Maybe there is something I don’t understand?
Martin
Uh, most of Medicare is already means-tested.
Here
mr. whipple
Finding Emo.
Fripp and Emo.
jl
probably WH website was hacked.
As for the media, interesting how they like to say things that are, how should I say this, not true.
Obama gave means testing as an example. I don’t see that he ‘pushed it’. Obama also gave expenditure savings that did not make benefit cuts the center of savings for social insurance: he hinted at Medicare negotiating prices. I guess he was ‘pushing’ that too. Though I do see it as an opening for Nancy Smash and Reid to propose that in answer to things such as COLA adjustments for SS and raising eligibility age for Medicare, which would be a nice move.
Tapper will not have noticed at the next press conf, so won’t do not good though.
Cat
I’m confused, doesn’t the GOP control the House of Representatives. The same house which claims it’s the sole legislative body that is able to originate bills for revenue and spending?
But its Obama’s job to come up with a plan on how the federal government is supposed to spend its money or come up with more revenue???
I guess we just past the whole ‘original intent’ phase of American history.
Villago Delenda Est
Tim, killing you doesn’t get us anywhere. Oh, it puts you out of your misery, but the rest of us are still suffering.
Now, tumbrels for Village twits like Gail Chaddock? There’s an actual effort that might help matters.
Brachiator
There was a great, informative discussion on the potential impact of a default on the public radio program Air Talk on KPCC 89.3. It should be available for a listen on the station’s web site or as an iTunes download later today.
If you listen now, you can get an update on Rupert Murdoch, and the latest news on the resignation of editor Brooks.
There’s still good journalism out there.
Felanius Kootea
@fasteddie9318: Problem is most of the people who should be paying attention are listening to the kind of crap Gail is spewing or Fox News and unlikely to ever seek out Al Jazeera.
Trollenschlongen
God, NPR sucks.
Gave up on them when they joined the Iraq War cheerleading in 2003. The idea that it is a liberal bastion is ridiculous.
Corporate-sponsor bastion, maybe.
And all those fake-earnest, cloying newsreaders: Gag me.
Davis X. Machina
@chopper: I’m a teacher. It’s a reflex….
jl
@12: premiums are on sliding scale. I assumed Obama meant sliding scale for cost sharing for benefits, or maybe cap on benefits. Much less (or any at all?) means testing there.
I found the hints at things like negotiated drug prices more intriguing.
Bulworth
Well, Tim F, where is your plan to cut trillions of bucks in spending in order to increase the debt ceiling? It’s always been a requirement you know. All other debt ceiling increases in the past have included trillions in spending cuts.
//
cat48
@Trurl:
Medicare is already means tested.
Redshirt
Speaking of news, anyone know how to exclude a news source from Google News? All too often I visit and Fox news is the leading link for any number of storied, all of them biased as hell. I want to remove them.
Felanius Kootea
@Brachiator: Thank God – I’m starting to despair.
DonkeyKong
The Plan?
US corporations are sitting on 2 trillion dollars, 10 year bonds are at 1.62! Jeez, where are we gonna find the money to reduce the deficit?………….Grandma and Grandpa, get yer asses over here and eat yer creamed peas.
General Stuck- Hey, Obama got the peas creamed rather than having to chew them so shut up you pathetic firebagging manic progressive parakeets on speed.
JGabriel
Huh. I remember when CSM was doing pretty good coverage of the Bosnian crisis back in the 90’s. Haven’t read it much since then, but it seems like they may have gone downhill in the interim.
.
Turgidson
That’s pretty much it, right there. If Democrats would just hurry up and show the world their plan to do 100% of what Republicans want, everything would be wonderful. (until they make that offer, in which case, “what Republicans want” will suddenly be an expontentially larger shit sandwich than it is already).
merrinc
Felanius Kootea @ 16 wins the internets today.
Since the Sun phone hacking scandal broke, I’ve been reading the Guardian and several other online British newspapers every day. Ah, to live in a country where people actually *READ* newspapers (because journalists actually know how to report) , where one isn’t left to die if one can’t afford healthcare, and where (at least for now), politicians of all stripe are lined up against the evil that is Rupert Murdoch.
JPL
Why can’t these folks be tried for treason..
link washingtonmonthly
jl
cap on benefits is stupid and defeats the whole idea of insurance, even for rich people. So forget I said that.
That leaves more cost sharing for benefits as function of income.
Or Obama was just talking about a steeper sliding scale for premiums.
stuckinred
DonkeyKong
General Stuck isn’t here.
eemom
what does “means tested” mean?
DonkeyKong
stuckinred, just having some fun with his usual posts. It’s friday, relax.
Martin
I wouldn’t put it past Obama to sell through the media something that already exists. They seem to believe that we aren’t means-testing and that’s some grand sin, so sure, what the fuck, let’s go ahead and finally do it.
Dennis SGMM
Some of the deals being bruited about by Republicans have a War Powers Act stink about them – particularly the doozy where the president gets to raise the debt ceiling three times with caveat that he presents off-setting cost cuts each time. WTF? This looks like a way for Congress to duck another of its constitutional responsibilities in order to be able to bitch about whatever the president does in their place.
Chris
Yeah, “what Republicans want” is an ever-changing quantity, because “what Republicans want” is to be at war with Democrats. Which explains why the more Democrats give in to them, the angrier and more intransigent they get. Their mode of politics depends entirely on having an Enemy to use as a punching bag.
stuckinred
DonkeyKong
I’m cool, just making sure you were hurling the insults where you wanted them to go!
stuckinred
eemom
Because I am employed and insured and don’t have service related disability I’m not eligible for VA medical bennies. I gots the means to pay.
Martin
There is a proposed cap on specific equipment expenditures. It’s pretty narrow and appears to be to cut off the HoverRound grifting and some of the other more blatant (and legal) Medicare scamming.
Villago Delenda Est
There’s more than enough money out there to resolve this situation. We know that from 2000-2001.
The problem is getting the money into the treasury, and not paying it out so that Dick Cheney’s cronies can fill Olympic sized pools with benjamins.
JPL
If Obama had only quoted that famous statesbaby..I want what I want and I want it now.
It’s not a bad motto and personally I want a few hundred thousand dollars. Although euros would be fine.
jl
@49: You make it sound politically motivated. Might harm the tone.
I will leave now. Too depressing to think about anymore.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@chopper #14:
And it’s 1,2,3, what are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me I can’t get a break
The next stop is Firedoglake
5,6,7 open up the Pearly Gates
Ain’t no time to see how they roll
We’re all gonna troll…
Martin
‘Chickenshit’ is the word you’re looking for.
eemom
@ stuckinred
oh. So what’s wrong with that, unless it is abused?
JPL
jl, This is where I’m at, who can harm the United States more, Al Qaeda or radical Republicans. It’s not a good place to be..btw.
edit: The RedState article seems to indicate the extremists are.
stuckinred
eemom
I think the lefty argument is that if the program is universal it is less open to attack than if it is seen as “welfare”.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Redshirt #33:
I noticed this too, that Fox is dominating Google News and has been for some time. Is that because they’ve figured out how to game the heuristics, or are we really that fucked, that a solid majority of folks using the net to get their news are Foxbaggers? Or is it just that the saner news channels are hopelessly balkanized and Fox has the advantage of being the one big giant go-to source for one’s daily dose of right wing unreality, so they win by sheer size even though the saner competition may be as large or larger in aggregate (fucking Authoritarians; the bastards win out over the disorganized collective every single time)?
MarkJ
@ JPL – there’s no question about that any more: Radical Republicans, hands down.
JC
Martin,
That’s one long document. I don’t expect you to do my work for me, but, do you know where I go to look?
“Means testing” – what’s that about anyway? As is said above, selling on what is already there?
An observation:
It still seems to me, that we accept Beltway and Rethug framing. NOTHING will stop the Rethugs from offering tax cuts on top of tax cuts, when they are in charge again, deficit be damned. They don’t give a crap about the deficit.
wrb
You can’t separate the two. Al Quaeda created our current version of radical republicanism and are using the republicans as their instrument
John Puma
I have long since given up on NPR/PBS as a source of real journalism.
Thanks for allowing me now to able to also drop CSM.
PeakVT
@Redshirt: If you do a specific search you can exclude Faux, eg “Obama -source:Fox” (w/o quotes). You can add specific searches to your RSS reader if you use one. It’s clumsy workaround, though.
RalfW
Related but technically OT rant:
Yesterday Dem Gov Dayton more-or-less caved to GOP demands to end the budget stalemate/shutdown in Minnesota. All tax increases on the wealthy (the last proposal was for 0.3% of taxpayers to pay marginally 2% more in state income taxes. Literally 7,700 very high income people would pay like $20,000 each) are abandoned in favor of grabbing $1.4 billion from public schools and – maybe – paying them back later. Oh and issuing bonds to lock up $700 million in tobacco settlement money.
Whatev. Outrage du jour.
What has me so freakin’ angry I can hardly see is that today, 18 hours after a framework is announced, not even a firm, done deal, the Vikings are back in the news, hand out, seeking $650 million in public dollars for a new shining palace to 8 episodes a year of vanity and ego.
Don’t get me wrong, I think sports are fine pursuits. I loved going to college football games. But private, for profit NFL teams have become like a MRSA infection on the ass of major American cities.
We need to cut them out before they kill the patient.
Jebus-frekin’-Xmas I’m mad that multi-millionaires are so stoopid and tone deaf. Seeking a stadium deal while people loose health insurance, jobs and homes. Cripes, we’re a moral cesspool of a nation these days.
Paul in KY
stuckinred, I do have service connected disability, so I get priority care at VA.
Sorry you don’t, although I would gladly give up the disability (and payments) if I could get my knee back.
agrippa
“Start choking down this shit sandwich, ‘bots. There are more servings to come.”
get a grip.
Omnes Omnibus
@ agrippa: It’s Trurl; there is no grip to be had.
PeakVT
@RalfW: Yes, football-only stadiums are horribly bad public investments. But sports loyalties are not exactly logical, so rational analysis tends to be discarded during a discussion about one.
Arenas and baseball stadiums are usually better deals, but still can bet net losers unless they draw new development to a run-down area. The Verizon Center (né MCI Center) in DC is one example that has helped revitalize the surrounding neighborhood. (It helps that the late Abe Pollin paid for most of it, but I think it would have been a winner even if DC paid 100%.)
stuckinred
Paul in KY
I’m not complaining at all, I want those who need it to get it. That was the point of my first comment. I DO think I should get some hearing help. We had no ear protection in basic using M-14’s and then a stint in the arty in Korea and driving a gun jeep in the Nam. . .
NamelessGenXer
Don’t need no christians monitoring my Science. THX.
Martin
Hard to tell but could be. Obama didn’t ‘push’ anything there. He said as an example of the kind of thing to do, people like him should pay more for Medicare. Well, yeah, that’s already the drill. So he may have only been giving the current policy as an example of what to do. Or maybe he’s thinking of ramping that means test up, or means testing other parts of Medicare.
At least one tactic that he employs is to bait his opposition into showing their hand. He’ll put out a big, broad, fluffy ‘we could consider this kind of thing’ notion out there and then the GOP comes back with something specific that he could choose to go with (some of the GOP ideas are actually fine ideas) or he can call it out as the kind of idea that he feels is a bad idea for seniors and pins that on the GOP. His opposition is really taking all the risk here.
And it allows him to pivot off of a vague openness into a concrete attack: “What we’re not willing to do is restructure the program that we’ve seen coming out of the House over the last several months where we’d voucherize the program and have senior citizens paying $6,000 more,” He wins by making the seemingly generous offer, and then again by using that as an opportunity to remind everyone about the oppositions incredibly unpopular plan.
But he’s also being quite tricky with what he’s trading: “noting that his proposal would not affect current beneficiaries” means that nothing he’s wiling to consider along that angle would help the deficit. On the one hand, it makes him look like a reasonable, non-partisan negotiator, looking out for the interests of current entitlement recipients, but on the other hand, he’s not willing to give anything here that will actually address the deficit problem, and since that’s really all the tea party is asking for, he’s actually willing to consider to nothing at all.
This sort of thing is driving guys like Bruce up a wall who can’t understand why Obama is seeking entitlement reform now, but that’s how politics works – look reasonable and generous by offering all of these things that are either largely valueless or are actually the opposite of what the opposition wants (‘cutting entitlement spending’ means prescription drug negotiation for Medicare, ‘discretionary budget cuts’ means defense, DHS, agriculture subsidies, etc.) or have no particular relevance to the issue at hand, but appear to (entitlement reform for future beneficiaries in a deficit package).
SectarianSofa
I need that, too. My googley news page seems to be slowly devolving. I’m not sure what the heuristic is, but I really don’t want to delete the entire U.S. section just to get rid of Fox News and Murdered-Child-of-the-Week from twelve sources.
SectarianSofa
I also can’t believe how much NPR (or do I mean public radio?) fucking sucks when it sucks. There are still some good shows, but I generally only listen to the news/commentary programs on sleepy mornings when I can stand to be incited into fury.
SectarianSofa
I also can’t believe how much NPR (or do I mean public radio?) fucking sucks when it sucks. There are still some good shows, but I generally only listen to the news/commentary programs on sleepy mornings when I can stand to be incited into fury.
Suffern ACE
O.K. So they’ve offered tup $2.0 trillion in cuts without revenue increases for 2.4 trillion in a hike. Anyone found out where those cuts are coming from? Press says its a non-starter with Dems because there are cuts. I don’t think that’s been the case wtih Dems through this whole process. Cuts are fine. Cuts to certain programs are not fine. Cuts front loaded are not fine. Cuts later are best. So what is being cut.
Paul in KY
stuckinred, didn’t think you were complaining. Sorry if my post made it appear that way.
Please get with your VA rep & see if you can’t get some relief. Surely it can be documented that you had no hearing protection & fired many, many rounds from your M-14 (I have one & they are loud).
Best wishes to you.
Linda Featheringill
stuckinred #69
I have transcribed cases where the vet went through disability application process on service-connected hearing loss alone. It’s possible to be granted the disability, with no monthly stipend but with access to free[ish] VA medical care for the specific disability. I think. In the case of hearing loss, that would probably include hearing aids as well as examinations.
El Cid
__
There are pretty much two options for me. I almost never listen to NPR-type public radio any more. (NPR, PRI, IHOP, whatever.)
It’s either tune in and say, OK, this is pretty good, I can listen.
Or instantly or within a moment or two, it’s, awefercrissakes, and go back to AM.
On the interwebz, of course, I never have to make such a choice.
Dennis SGMM
As long as the GOP continues to label any revenue enhancement, no matter how sane, how fair, or how logical, as “raising taxes” this is not a negotiation – it’s this nation’s longest running hostage crisis.
OzoneR
boy that bully pulpiting sure is working wonders, ain’t it?
Joel
She’s just showing her Chaddock reflex.
Bob Natas
An interesting link from early this morning. Probably most people on this site know something about this.
Even after the Kudlow discounting process, this seems plausible to me. Obama strikes me as an “entitlement reform,” “fiscal house in order” sort of guy. Obviously, the GOP caucus would be happy. I don’t know if the House Dem Caucus will agree to this, though, unless Obama “gives them a ride” on AF1, like he did with the leprechaun Kucinich a couple of years.
Get the foam fingers ready, guys!
Omnes Omnibus
@ Bob Natas: It would help if you included the link. Otherwise, it is hard to judge the plausibility of the story.
BDeevDad
Tell her http://twitter.com/#!/russellchaddock
Cain
@RalfW:
Who is going to show up if they can’t afford the tickets.. so in this climate we’re not only supposed to not care about the shit that happens to us, but we need to continue to spend money on sports and other things.
OzoneR
He shoulda called their bluff, shut down the state government and let popular pressure force the GOP to bend.
oh wait
OzoneR
are you new in America? People will forgo food and shelter for football tickets.
Believe me, I’ve seen it.
Bob Natas
Hahaha, yes; I think I’m too stupid to figure this out, so here is the text:
Now its Kudlow, so your thinking “No way!” But wait, here is the end of the article:
It is a Greg Sargent article from this morning Washington Post. (The Plum Line)
Suffern ACE
@Bob Natas: I think this might be the one that works.
Antonio Lozano
Some are looking to the right others to the left ,every body have questions and few if any have answers ,at the end the good the bad and the ugly are in the same boat that soon will reach a storm .will we able to make it ? or are we ready to hear Winston Churchill …..that was their more glorious hour……
What ever is the obstacle ,can not be bigger that the well being of the people ,can not be bigger that ourselves