US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

the deficit is not necessarily unimportant (heya look at japan. we don't want to be that...) it just has to be put in the context of GDP/growth, cause hey, that's how we pay for shit.

the GOP doesn't care or not care about it. they want what they've always wanted (tax cuts for rich people, less government spending on poor people) and if they can use it as an vehicle to get that, hey, sounds good. it's a social issue for them more than an economic issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5kpXhq5nHM&feature=related

Something to lighten the mood

i dont really understand at allllllll why obama is getting involved in dumbshit fights over the deficit, not even on a political gamesmanship level

― ban drake (the rapper) (max), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 14:18 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

misread this as "dubstep fights"

i always wonder if the GOP's left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

as in, they have never had as much success as they'd like rolling back LBJ's work, let alone FDR's (Reagan's 'legacy' notwithstanding). but they've had really great success pushing down taxes over and over again. so it almost looks like a three step process: a) ruin the revenue base by demonizing taxes, b) watch the deficit balloon, c) eventually use deficit anger and default fears to cut what you'd never be able to dismantle outright. (i suppose in the interim d) people whose incomes are primarily interest can get reliable returns on the gov't issued debt)

but that credits them with a generational-length plan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yVLWTsNf_8

tbh if Obama's entire speech isn't a re-enactment of this ^^^ I will be sad

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/cnn-poll-trump-tied-for-first-in-gop-horserace/#more-154007
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/trump-now-considering-independent-run/

um

excellent!

yeah this can only be a good thing

sadly trump wont even mount a real run as an independent since it would require him to file a financial disclosure

trump/bachmann 2012

please

please

Hey, everyone knows that managing a budget is exactly like running a household budget. That's just common sense.

man, Trump

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Ocean_Resort_Baja_Mexico

Trump has no chance of becoming the nominee; it's his celebrity talking, and the attraction of Obama's citizenship to the extreme right

would love it if he ran a third-party campaign.

Alfred otm

agreed

GOP would never let Trump be nominated, just as Dems will never let a liberal be nominated.

Love this:

Bachmann wins conservative straw poll
By: CNN Political Producer Alexander Mooney

Washington (CNN) - Rep. Michele Bachmann is the winner of a recent straw poll among evangelical and Christian conservative voters, the latest sign the Minnesota Republican may enjoy significant support from that key voting bloc if she decides to run for president.

Bachmann took 23 percent of the vote in a Liberty University straw poll conducted after a two-day gathering of evangelicals at the Christian college that addressed a range of issues, including "abortion, the economy, religious liberty, marriage and homosexuality, and Sharia Law," according the school's website.

So right now she can't even attract the support of one quarter of religious fundies.

the latest sign the Minnesota Republican may enjoy significant support from that key voting bloc if she decides to run for president.

god political reporters really are bored aren't they?

a Liberty University straw poll proves how significant a key voting block is to her!

Rich Lowry, no fool (this time):

Another Sign She’s Running
April 12, 2011 11:42 A.M.

By Rich Lowry

Bachmann sounding cautious on Ryan plan.

but that credits them with a generational-length plan

You know that is their exact plan right? Grover Norquist's "drown it in the bathtub"? And they are winning. Combine this with the Gallup stat yesterday that the military is the best regarded part of government ... fuck.

i would be more concerned about 2012 if I thought any single one of these republicans had a shot in hell of winning the general election, but since the GOP seems hell-bent on running lunatics and retards, I think Obama probably doesn't have to worry. makes me wish he's stop being the Great Equivocator though.

nobody thought reagan could win, or bush junior

it was more nobody thought Gore could lose, really

yeah i think ppl need to start entertaining some worst-case scenarios here

i'm probably overestimating how batshit and entertaining the GOP primary is going to be. after a couple rounds the money people aren't going to take a whole lot of fucking around

Deficits don't matter until they do. Reinhart & Rogoff's This Time is Different has been widely feted as the most important finance book of the last year for documenting how predictable, and how sudden the phase shift becomes when lenders realize that a nation is bound for default or devaluation. The U.S. has chosen devaluation, which will suck for those Americans who buy food, energy, imported goods, or travel. On the other hand, once living standards erode U.S. labor may become globally competitive.

When the world's largest bond fund manager goes short U.S. Treasuries, the game is almost up. When Bush's Treasury Undersecretary Peter Fisher eliminated the 30-year and reduced the average maturity to 5 years (to reduce annual interest), he basically placed a ticking bomb under the national finances. Other indebted nations like Japan and Britain have average maturities out a dozen+ years, but the U.S. is forced to roll much of the debt very soon, into a market where the only consistent buyer of late is the Federal Reserve monetizing the debt (printing dollars).

I certainly don't agree with the particulars of the Ryan plan (it just shifts medical costs to states, and cuts top marginal income rates which should be higher), I give him credit for being about the only Washington politician with the cajones to present a plan that touches the third rails. I'd much prefer the Gang of Six plan, but even what we've seen of that probably doesn't go far enough reversing the "household budgeting" of putting Grandma's nursing home on the kid's credit card to avert serious, near-term consequences.

really guys, as much as I loathe Bam I don't want to forecast President Romney, but you're tempting fate here.

also, they all work for the same people.

yeah i think ppl need to start entertaining some worst-case scenarios here

i'm probably overestimating how batshit and entertaining the GOP primary is going to be. after a couple rounds the money people aren't going to take a whole lot of fucking around

― goole, Tuesday, April 12, 2011 1:21 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

both romney and huckabee are on top of obama in FL polls!

On the other hand, once living standards erode U.S. labor may become globally competitive.

hurrah

both romney and huckabee are on top of obama in FL polls!

neither Romney nor Huckabee can win CA so who cares

California doesn't matter

MAGIC!

On the other hand, once living standards erode U.S. labor may become globally competitive.

sure, with India and China. welcome, Slumdog Millionaire future.

Thanks for reminding me I have to read This Time Is Different, Sanpaku.

I think Romney will get the nom, but my guess is he'll be irreparably damaged, and the tea party will bolt to a third party candidate if one arises

xp

As a result of that sleight of hand, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber approved a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion. In doing so, the White House protected favorites like the Head Start early learning program, while maintaining the maximum Pell grant of $5,550 and funding for Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools. Food aid to the poor was preserved, as were housing subsidies.

Instead, the cuts that actually will make it into law are far tamer, including cuts to earmarks, unspent census money, leftover federal construction funding, and $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused bonus money for states that enroll more uninsured children in a program providing health care to children of lower-income families.

Still, Obama and his Democratic allies accepted $600 million in cuts to community health centers programs, $414 million in cuts to grants for state and local police departments, and a $1.6 billion reduction in the Environmental Protection Agency budget, almost $1 billion of which would come from grants for clean water and other projects by local governments and Indian tribes. Community development block grants, a favorite with mayors of both political parties, take a $950 million cut.

The National Institutes of Health, which fund critical medical research, would absorb a $260 million cut, less than 1 percent of the NIH budget, instead of the $1.6 billion cut sought by House Republicans. Family planning programs would bear a 5 percent cut rather than being completely eliminated.

Homeland security programs would have to take their first-ever cut, though much of the 2 percent decrease comes from a $786 million cut to first responder grants to state and local governments. The IRS would see its budget frozen but be spared the 5 percent cut sought by House Republicans.

also, there's absolutely nothing courageous about the Ryan Plan. it's the same old GOP horseshit (slash entitlement spending and cut taxes) as before, only this time with the rationale of allegedly cleaning up the aftermath of the Great Recession.

^^OTM

also its spelled "cojones"

^ honorary mexican

btw obama passed a p big bill last year that touched one of those scary third rails! you may have heard of it; it was called the "affordable care act."

a nation is bound for default or devaluation. The U.S. has chosen devaluation

Surely the more sensible of the two options.

BTW, the Fed's monetizing the debt by buying US Treasury bonds came as a result of the decision to refloat the banks, AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which crashed and burned when the mortgage/CDO bubble burst. So many assets were torched off balance sheets during that crash that Fed monetization is the only thing keeping the US as a whole remotely solvent. Without it, we'd be in Great Depression II, with unemployment around 30%, instead of just this Really Sucky Recession.

Since Great Depression II would have dragged the entire world economy down with us, we've been cut some slack on the devaluation by other central banks. It does, however, point out how divorced finance has become from anything you might call orderly markets.

I hate that "third rail" cliché, especially when a TV reporter hack intones it like she birthed it into existence.

no don't you see now those markets are FREE! free at last, free at last, thank god almighty...

xp

Homeland security programs would have to take their first-ever cut, though much of the 2 percent decrease comes from a $786 million cut to first responder grants to state and local governments.

Utterly laughable, considering the outlay to it over the last decade, and the actual expansion still going on through Border Patrol programs.

Slumdog Millionaire future

It was pretty obvious with the push to get unions onboard with NAFTA in 1994. Great, however, for those managing the capital outflow.

There's about 200 years of economic study since Ricardo espoused his Law of Comparative Advantage, which applies when capital in the form of productive land, running streams, populace - is immobile. Alas Ricardo is about as far as most politician's economics education goes re: international trade.

I hear some of those first responders were/are in public unions, btw. Aren't we being too easy on them?

j/k

Every once in awhile the Washington Post offers editorials from folks who are not conservative or neo-conservative. Here's the Nation's editor:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-the-economic-debate-not-the-us-thats-bankrupt/2011/04/12/AFVjUsQD_story.html?hpid=z3