This is a blog about Pennsylvania!
Chris Hayes has the right idea:
Go to work tomorrow, if you’re in session, which you never are, but on the off chance you ever go to Congress, just pass a one-sentence bill that repeals sequestration.
June 18, 2013 By Jon Geeting Leave a Comment
TPM: In an interview with The New Republic, Politico editor-in-chief John Harris admitted that Silver wasn’t one of his lifelines in the 2012 campaign [...] “I admire how he has built a franchise,” Harris said. “I roll my eyes at how he gets up on his high horse quite a lot on different topics.” Jim [...]
June 9, 2013 By Jon Geeting 2 Comments
Alex Trujillo sounds like a real mensch, and on that level it’s sad to see that his 55-year old business Supermercado Mi Tierra closing up shop. This is ultimately a good thing for the neighborhood though, because C-Town is going to be a decent step up in terms of product selection, and they’re going to [...]
June 17, 2013 By Jon Geeting Leave a Comment
Tom Hartley continues to impress at the Bethlehem Parking Authority. I’m not a big fan of the multi-space meters either because there’s nothing worse than having to stand in line to pay for parking. But BPA’s data does show usage of the Main Street Commons parking deck increased last year, so the multi-space meters haven’t [...]
May 13, 2013 By Jon Geeting Leave a Comment
The point of political blogging is not that you’ll directly reach so many voters that you’ll shape opinions about elections. The point is that for every couple dozen low-information voters, there’s a *political friend* who people ask who to vote for the week before an election. The point of blogging is to shape the opinions [...]
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This sequester is a dodge that Obama is using to raise taxes. The actual amount is $85 billion, which is about 8 days spending for the federal government. Can they go 8 days with no spending? I say let’s see……
“According to the CBO, outlays this federal fiscal year, ending in September 2013, will be reduced under current law by $44 billion, not the widely cited $85 billion. In addition, the majority of the negative effects on outlays, and thus GDP growth, will occur beginning in 2014 and become more severe in 2015 and beyond.”
“The budget cuts will have some slight negative consequences on economic growth in the near term, but likely will support higher levels of growth longer term.”
Wells Fargo Economics Group Special Commentary on Sequestration
https://www.wellsfargo.com/com/insights/economics/special-reports
Hardly the horror story Democrats are touting.
CBO says it’s going to lop .6% off GDP this year. You can quibble with it all you want, but we still shouldn’t be doing anything contractionary right now. That’s the issue. We don’t need to be doing any of this. No cuts, no tax increases. No near term deficit reduction at all.
“The budget cuts will have some slight negative consequences on economic growth in the near term, but likely will support higher levels of growth longer term.”
I”m ok with this and you’re wrong. Your approach, summarized as “We’ll make the difficult choices tomorrow” is faulty because in Washington tomorrow never comes.
Enough of this bullshit.
We don’t need to make any difficult choices now. Kicking the can is a completely appropriate response to the budget crisis we are not having.
You’re incapable of making difficult decisions Jon.
I’d make the politically difficult decision to soak doctors and hospitals in a second. I’d get kicked out of office after one term, but I’d make the tough decision to do what’s right and bring down health care prices. There’s nothing “difficult” about kicking the olds and the poors. It’s taking on the powerful that makes for tough politics.
Who is kicking olds and poors? I want to increase the safety net for those who need it and pay for that increase by kicking off those who don’t and criminals who claim benefits illegally. Near as I can tell you’re incapable of analysis and just want to lob piles of money at it in the hopes that something wonderful would happen.
Taking someone else’s money is not a politically difficult decision at all, in fact it’s the easy thing to do. “Someone Else’s Money” should be tattooed on your forehead.
You support Simpson-Bowles which achieves much of its deficit reduction through Social Security cuts.
Challenging the doctors and hospitals who are responsible for health care price inflation is extremely politically difficult, so much so that no one is doing it directly. The Democrats made the entire health care fight about insurance companies, which was a good tactic in the short run maybe, but represented a serious missed opportunity to educate voters about why health care prices are so ridiculously high in the first place.
What about the tort lawyers that will cost (by the Democratic party’s estimate) $500 billion over 10 years?
I guarantee since it’s your party’s estimate it’s way low. And your number pays for your estimate of 1/2 of Obamacare. 50% of the plan. And you get to screw hospitals and doctors too.
So why again were you afraid of the tort lobby? Oh yeah, because you whore yourself out to them for campaign contributions.
Stop being righteously indignant. Your party prostitutes themselves just as much as Republicans.
I’m for trying out all the tort reform pilot programs in Obamacare and scaling up what works. But that’s 2% of health care spending. The real issue is the ridiculous price inflation. Why would we nibble around the edges when we know that the real problem is that we’re getting bilked by doctors, hospitals and pharma?
and bullshit it is. the accountants for the government consider $44 BN a rounding error.
Government spending is sacred. It should never be reduced. It should never be scrutinized. It is the engine of our economy. What about the Children?
The private sector is the engine of our mixed economy. But when the private sector can’t or won’t spend, then the government needs to make up the difference so NGDP doesn’t fall off a cliff.