Here is a quote from Tim Pawlenty’s Esquire interview: ESQUIRE: Was spending going too far and government growing too big before Obama became president? Tim Pawlenty: It certainly was, but he has pushed the gas pedal to the metal and exploded it in ways that were previously unheard-of. I mean, he’s taken the national deficit …
Republican Stupidity
This Is What Obstructionism + Nihilism + the Wurlitzer Looks Like
James Joyner reacts to the news that 1 in 8 Americans is on food stamps with surprise (a surprise I share) and has the following to say: I’m of mixed minds on all this. We should help the working poor — and their children — get enough to eat. Ditto those too disabled to work …
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Looking at the Budget and GOP ideas in HCR
Looking through the internets this morning two items caught my eye. First, the NYT has a nice interactive look at the proposed 2011 Federal Budget. It is a good tool to get an idea of where and how the Federal Government spends money–and how the Obama Administration sets its priorities for that spending. Clicking the …
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Sen. Shelby Shakedown: America Held Hostage
I don’t think New York Magazine’s epithet for Alabama’s Latest Shame is quite specific enough, because who north of the Mason-Dixon line knows which is the “Cotton State”? But they absolutely have found the best Getty photo of Shelby Steal, so you should give them the click and go admire it for yourselves. Ezra Klein’s …
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Watching A Hanging Curve Go By
Ezra Klein. Shelby has likely overplayed his hand. The reason holds work is that they’re small enough, and rare enough, that they never rise to the level of something the majority can’t live with. Shelby, in putting a hold on all pending nominations, just made holds very big indeed. And he did it for the …
Morning Pick Up Your Phone Thread
Live in a Republican district? Ask your Rep whether he or she agrees with Paul Ryan that government should sell your Social Security portfolio to AIG and give away medicare to the same insurers who ration people to death. Party leaders have tapped Ryan to write the Republican shadow budget plan, due out in March …
The Not-So Magnificent Seven
Anyone know who the seven Republicans are: And when Obama backed a bipartisan commission to find ways to cut the long-term deficit – including reexamining popular entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security – a handful of Republican sponsors switched their positions and joined in filibustering it, the president said. “This failed by …