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How Stimulating

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Monthly - By Steve Benen - Nov. 21 (Comment) - Republican critics of the economic recovery efforts, when they're not taking credit for the money that's benefiting their state/district, take it as a given that the stimulus "failed." For the right, it's a foregone conclusion, hardly worth discussing anymore. The New York Times reminds us today that "dispassionate analysts" agree that a fair look at the stimulus package shows that it may be "messy" but it's also "working."

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Deficit hawks attacking the wrong prey

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By David Sirota - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - When the House considered a health care expansion proposal that the CBO says will reduce the deficit by $11 billion a year, tea-party protesters and Congress' self-described "fiscal conservatives" opposed it on cost grounds. At the same time, almost none of them objected when Congress passed a White House-backed bill to spend $636 billion on defense in 2010. The hypocrisy is stunning

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Stimulus for Cotton Candy, Tango and a Fish Orchestra? Wacky, or Actually Worthy?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell - Nov. 07 (Investigative Report) - Breakfast at Fuddruckers: $19.24. Snow cone and cotton candy machine: $146.89. Six extra preview performances of “Little House on the Prairie – the Musical”: $50,000. Benefit to the economy? According to the recipients of this stimulus money: Priceless.

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Too Big to Fail - Too Big to Exist -

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

senate.gov - By Senator Bernie Sanders - Nov. 06 (Statement) - Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation that would break up financial institutions that are too big to fail. "If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist," Sanders said. "We should break them up so they are no longer in a position to bring down the entire economy. We should end the concentration of ownership that has resulted in just four huge financial institutions holding half the mortgages in America, controlling two-thirds of the credit cards, and amassing 40 percent of all deposits."

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Why Keep Geithner?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

MSNBC - By Dylan Ratigan - Nov. 02 (News Analysis) - A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system was a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs paid themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they didn't have

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Ezra Klein on the House health care reform bill

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ezra Klein - Oct. 29 (Interview) - So what exactly did the House put out this morning? Is it the Robust opt-out Public Option that Sen. Reid talked about? Ezra Klein: No. So to do a bit on defining terms here: Robust refers to a public option that can use Medicare's payment rates. That would let the public option save 20-30 percent against private insurance. Neither the House nor the Senate includes such an option. The House bill has a national public option that will set rates in the same way private insurers do (negotiating with providers). The Senate bill has a national public option that works the same way as the House's, save that it has an opt-out feature starting in 2014.

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Health Care Budgeting 101: Congress’ Fiscal Scolds Earn an “F-”

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Firedoglake - Oct. 29 (Opinion) - the market carve-out for Medicaid saves money, which means that if Blue Dogs really wanted to save money, they would enlarge the Medicaid carve out — say, up to 250 or 350 percent of FPL. In other words, if the fiscal-deficit scolds were genuinely serious about reducing the cost of the reform bill, they would expand eligibility to public health care to a lot more people and forget about shielding private insurers from competition.

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Stimulus Contracts Go to Companies Under Criminal Investigation

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell - Oct. 26 (Investigative Report) - The Department of Defense awarded nearly $30 million in stimulus contracts to six companies while they were under federal criminal investigation on suspicion of defrauding the government. According to Air Force documents, the companies claimed to be small, minority-owned businesses, which allowed them to gain special preference in bidding for government contracts. But investigators found that they were all part of a larger minority-owned enterprise in Southern California, making them ineligible for the contracts.

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Healthcare Fundamentals: Why isn't anyone talking about what's dricing costs?

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

prosperitynow4u.org - By Gordon Townsend - Oct. 09 (News Analysis) - Healthcare reform – the most talked about subject in the media lately - replete with stories of catastrophic illness, death panels, public options, etc. It tough to find any concrete information that will let you make a good decision by wading through the rhetoric. Respond to the current public debate by asking the fundamental questions and not taking throw away statistics and people’s assumptions as genuine – whether they are your representative or your doctor.

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Tom Coburn picks on political science

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Daniel W. Drezner - Oct. 08 (Comment) - OK, dear readers, I want you to close your eyes and imagine a world in which your entire knowledge of political behavior emanated only from CNN, pollsters, pundits, historians, candidates, and political parties.

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Analysis Sees Baucus Bill Meeting Obama’s Cost and Deficit Targets

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David M. Herszenhorn, Robert Pear - Oct. 07 (News Report) - The cost analysis is in: the Senate Finance Committee’s health care legislation, as amended during seven days of debate, would cost a projected $829 billion over 10 years, up from $774 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And it would reduce the future federal deficit by $81 billion, up from an earlier projected deficit reduction of $49 billion. That would seem to be good news for Democrats and the White House. President Obama has insisted that the health care bill not add to the deficit and that the total price tag be held to about $900 billion. The Finance Committee chairman, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, was on the Senate floor almost immediately, hailing the results. In its analysis, the budget office found that by 2019 the bill would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 29 million, leaving about 25 million people uninsured — of whom one-third would be illegal immigrants. This means that the amended bill would cover roughly the same number of people over 10 years as was initially projected despite numerous changes, including some softening of penalties for people who fail to obtain health insurance as required under the legislation. In all, the proportion of Americans with health insurance is expected to rise to 94 percent from 83 percent, the budget office said in its report.

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The CBO Just Released Its New Health Care Score. Reason for Relief?

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Oct. 07 (News Analysis) - The good news, substantively and politically, is that CBO expects the measure would reduce budget deficits by $81 billion over the next decade and by even larger sums in the following decade, although it won't quantify that amount specifically because estimates are so imperfect that far out.

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Pox Americana

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Tomdispatch.com - By Matt Bivens - Oct. 04 (Opinion) - There are many possible responses to the news that we have committed more than four trillion public dollars to Wall Street. Mine is a roar of admiration. Four trillion dollars! Holy hell! I didn't even know that was possible! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

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Why the Dow is Hitting 10,000 While Everyone Else is Cutting Back

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Robert Reich - Sep. 22 (Opinion) - So how can the Dow be flirting with 10,000 when consumers, who make up 70 percent of the economy, have had to cut way back on buying because they have no money? Jobs continue to disappear. One out of six Americans is either unemployed or underemployed.

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Populist Vein Resurfaces in Protests

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Gerald F. Seib - Sep. 15 (News Analysis) - ea Party Patriots and like-minded brethren represent the latest resurfacing of a vein that has always been there and that simply goes below ground from time to time. This vein is populist and antiestablishment; it alternates between suspicion of government in general, and anger at the idea that government seems to be doing more to help fat cats or the other guy. In some fashion or another, it has been around since the time George Washington quelled the Whiskey Rebellion.

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Good Billions After Bad

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - As the Bush administration waned, the Treasury shoveled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in tarp funds into the financial system—without restrictions, accountability, or even common sense. The authors reveal how much of it ended up in the wrong hands, doing the opposite of what was needed.

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US Increasing Personnel in Iraq

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Walter Pincus - Sep. 08 (News) - As the United States withdraws its combat forces from Iraq, the government is hiring more private guards to protect U.S. installations at a cost that could near $1 billion, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

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Healthcare vs. Warfare: The Future Costs of the Afghanistan War

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Jeff Leys - Sep. 08 (Opinion) - On Wednesday, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress on health care. Later this year he will decide whether to deploy additional troops to the war in Afghanistan, in addition to the 69,000 troops already deployed. The struggle for health care and the struggle to end warfare are inextricably linked. The cost for substantive (though imperfect) health care reform as envisioned in the House of Representatives approach (with the public option) is projected to average $100 billion per year for the next 10 years. The cost to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are projected to cost anywhere from $55 to $100 billion a year. Make a few modest reductions to the baseline military budget and the difference is paid.

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Biden ignores problems with stimulus

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Brett J. Blackledge - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - ... his glowing assessment overlooks many of the program's problems, including delays in releasing money, questionable spending priorities and project picks that are under investigation.

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Federal Government Needs Massive Hiring Binge, Study Finds

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Steve Vogel - Sep. 03 (News Report) - The numbers also reflect the Obama administration's intent to take on several enormous challenges, including the repair of the financial sector, fighting two wars, and addressing climate change. "It has to win the war for talent in order to win theThe federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for "mission-critical" jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age, according to the results of a government-wide survey being released Thursday.

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Privatized welfare plan price swells ::

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Aug. 22 (News Report) - Indiana will spend nearly $180 million more than it initially planned to privatize and automate many of its welfare functions just two years into a closely watched 10-year deal that is one of the most lucrative contracts in state history. The cost of the $1.16 billion contract Gov. Mitch Daniels signed in late 2006 has risen 15 percent, to $1.34 billion, under changes made to the agreement with a group led by Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp.

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No Exit

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Aug. 13 (Opinion) - The Fed is keeping the money pumping even though it also conceded that "economic activity is leveling out," which is an acknowledgment that the recession is all but over.

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U.S. launches assault on Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Worldfocus - By Martin Savidge, Anthony Cordesman - Aug. 12 (Interview) - United States Marines went on the offensive on Wednesday, launching a major new attack on a Taliban stronghold in the south of Afghanistan. Hundreds of Marines, along with Afghan troops, went into battle under the cover of darkness to take back control of the town of Dahaneh in Helmand Province, a key base for Taliban fighters. Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who worked on an advisory board to General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the offensive and the next phase of the war in Afghanistan.

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House Leaders Drop Plan To Purchase New Jets

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Anne Flaherty - Aug. 10 (News Report) - It's not unusual for Congress to ignore the Pentagon's budget proposal and add money for certain programs, particularly if the purchase might benefit their constituents. The $636 billion defense spending bill passed last month by a 400-30 vote included money for cargo jets that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said weren't needed and an alternative engine for the next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that the Pentagon said was a waste of money.

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Off Balance Sheet, Out of Mind

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Gold Speculator - By Chris Wood - Aug. 04 (Opinion) - The U.S Treasury's Financial Management Service recently released its monthly Statement of Receipts and Outlays for the United States Government. For the first time ever, the Treasury reported a deficit above $1 trillion -- $1.086 trillion, and that’s with three big-spending months left to go in the current fiscal year. To put things in perspective, the reported federal deficit for all of 2008 was $455 billion. At the time, that was a record. But it is less than 42% of the borrow-and-spend total at this year's nine-month mark. As shocking as that seems, it’s not even the real deficit story. Most of the real deficit is hidden by the Treasury's accounting methods.

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