Politics or Poppycock

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Archive for January 24th, 2010

GOP hopeful: People on public assistance like ‘stray animals’

Posted by James O'Rourke on January 24, 2010

By Leroy Chapman Jr. | The State

South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said Saturday he could have chosen his words more carefully when he compared people who take public assistance to stray animals Friday.

But Bauer, in an interview with The State Saturday, said a furor over his comments doesn’t change this fact: South Carolina needs to have an honest conversation about the cycle of government dependency among its poorest residents.

Bauer, a two-term Republican who is running for governor, said there are parents who are dependent upon the government for food and shelter, but who are unwilling to engage in their children’s education. This, he said, robs children of a chance to break out of poverty.

And as a candidate for governor, Bauer said, now is the time to start talking about something that others are unwilling to tackle. Bauer said he wants to lead that conversation.

“Why shouldn’t you have to do something?” Bauer asked of people receiving food stamps, free school lunches and public housing. “In government, we are too often giving a handout instead of a hand up.”

Friday, Bauer said giving food to needy people means encouraging dependence. It also gives the recipients a license to have children who will also be dependent on public aid, he said.

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals,” Bauer told a Greenville-area crowd. “You know why? Because they breed.

“You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”

Those comments caused Democratic candidates running for governor and some lawmakers to question Bauer’s faith, compassion and timing.

The state is enduring the nation’s worst-ever recession. Bauer’s comments came on the same day South Carolina reported its jobless rate is now 12.6 percent. State agencies are reporting more South Carolinians are tapping public assistance, as job creation is scant and job loss has remained robust.

“It amazes me how some Republican politicians claim a monopoly on Christianity and then go out and say and do some of the most un-Christian things imaginable,” said Charleston attorney Mullins McLeod, who participated in a candidates forum in Columbia along with Bauer Saturday. “… Bauer’s comments are despicable and the total opposite of the Christian values Bauer espouses.”

Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, said if there is anyone not taking responsibility, it’s Bauer and his fellow Republicans. Sheheen, who is running for governor, noted the GOP has been in control while economic conditions in South Carolina have deteriorated and left more than 600,000 citizens jobless. Read the rest of this entry »

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No Obama Obituaries, Please

Posted by James O'Rourke on January 24, 2010

Joe Conason |

Saturday 23 January 2010

by: Joe Conason, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Having taken the oath of office just one year ago, Barack Obama is a flashing meteor that sputtered out too soon — or so the national media narrative tells us. According to this story line, the young president is a presumptuous liberal who disappointed his own idealistic followers while irritating everyone else. Media tipsters spoke of a “final judgment” in Massachusetts before the stunning returns came in — so we may soon hear declarations of a “failed presidency” from Washington’s pundit herd.

Yes, after a run of extraordinary luck that helped get him into the White House, Obama today is confronting his share of electoral trouble. He may well encounter more and worse as November’s midterm approaches. But he and his critics should remember the last time a Democratic president had to listen to the drafting of his own political obituary.

The premature farewells came early in Bill Clinton’s first term.

During those exceptionally difficult years — including a historic midterm landslide that cost Democrats control of both houses of Congress — that young president heard members of his own party urging him to step aside rather than run again. Instead, he formulated the strategy and tactics that led to his decisive re-election; a smashing midterm victory in the midst of personal scandal; and a presidency that has come to be regarded by the American people as one of the most successful in the postwar era.

For the moment, Obama enjoys no such reputation. His own starry-eyed supporters, who believed his rhetoric of change, are disillusioned to discover that he is a politician, not a messiah. His opponents, who once pretended to share his bipartisan instincts, are delighted to obstruct his agenda, even though they have no solutions of their own. He seems to be locked in partisan stasis despite the great mandate he won in November 2008 and the overwhelming Democratic majority.

The result is that too many Americans today believe that he has accomplished little and forfeited their trust. They happen to be wrong — just as they were wrong when they dismissed the Clinton presidency less than halfway into his first term.

If scored strictly by his legislative attainments, Obama is a highly effective president. In fact, the scrupulously nonpartisan Congressional Quarterly rated him the most effective president of the past five decades, as measured by congressional votes on which he took a position, either yea or nay. When he enunciated a clear position in the House and Senate, his success rate was 96.7 percent — a number that surpassed the previous records held by Lyndon Baines Johnson and Dwight Eisenhower.

If scored by his campaign promises, Obama also wins high marks. That judgment also comes from a respected nonpartisan source, the Pulitzer Prize-winning political website known as Politifact.com. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in *Obama Administration, Politics, Politics As Usual | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Posted by James O'Rourke on January 24, 2010

The Caucus

The Politics and Government Blog of The Times

January 24, 2010, 9:56 AM

Sunday Word: Economy Week

By JANIE LORBER

Congress and the White House are gearing up for an economy-focused week.

The Senate has two major votes scheduled — one on whether to create a new commission to plan a way to curb the deficit and another on whether to confirm Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term. Also, on Wednesday, President Obama will give his first State of the Union address.

The outlook for Mr. Bernanke is a bit rosier today after two top senators–Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Democrat from Connecticut who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Republican on the same panel–announced Saturday they expect their chamber to confirm him. That vote is expected by the end of the week.

In related news, Mr. Obama also endorsed the creation of an 18-member bipartisan task force to come up with a blueprint to curb the spiraling budget deficit. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are expected to oppose it in a vote Tuesday. Still, Mr. Obama is prepared to push the idea forward using an executive order if Congress cannot make it law, The Times’s Jackie Calmes reports.

Speech Anticipation: Some are making guesses on what Mr. Obama will put on the agenda for his second year in office. Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, said Mr. Obama could propose a freeze on most discretionary spending.

Plouffe on the Move: Hoping to stave off big losses in November that could hamstring his legislative agenda, Mr. Obama has asked Mr. David Plouffe to manage all House, Senate and gubernatorial elections.

Mr. Obama made the decision to assign the task to Mr. Plouffe, who hsa stayed outside the administration while working on a book, in the hours before Senator-elect Scott Brown’s shocking victory in Massachusetts. The election revealed vulnerability — and, in this case, some complacency–on the part of Democrats in supposedly safe territory, setting off panic within the party, The Times’s Jeff Zeleny and Peter Baker write. What to look out for strategy-wise:

Mr. Obama will try to reframe his agenda and how he connects it with public concerns. In particular, he will focus on how his ideas for health care, energy and financial regulation all fit into the broader economic mission of creating what he calls a “new foundation” for the country, the key words being “rescue, restore and rebuild.”

The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder notes that this is not the shake-up that some suggest. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Human Face of Haitian Tragedy

Posted by James O'Rourke on January 24, 2010

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Katie Coerce

Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News

Posted: January 17, 2010 07:45 PM

CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric reflects on the three days she spent in Port-au-Prince, Haiti immediately following the earthquake there.

A few drops of water on acres and acres of parched land – that’s how I woke up thinking of the massive relief effort that’s been orchestrated to help the Haitian people.

I will never forget the three days I spent there following Tuesday’s earthquake.

“The horror, the horror,”

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as Kurtz said in “Heart of Darkness.” The despair, the desperation, the lack of dignity for the dead.

We drove through the back roads one night, house after house destroyed in a neighborhood that had so little to begin with.

A heavy set woman, maybe in her twenties, in black underwear lying face down, was covered with a light coating of ash – surrounded by a half dozen other dead bodies – one arm reaching upwards to the heavens because rigor mortis had set in.

Some bodies I saw on the sidewalk were smaller, covered with sheets. I imagined who they might be: a toddler who was playing inside a house, a school boy who was doing his homework.

Then there were the tent cities: families just sitting, waiting under sheets, under a flatbed truck, and in an abandoned school bus.

Beautiful, beautiful babies staring blankly, perhaps because they had no strength to cry. And the people knocking on the window of our rented SUV asking for water that we didn’t have.

I thought about what I would do if I thought I was literally dying of thirst. The lengths I might go to to get water and food for my family. The primal need to beg, the despair when your pleas are rebuffed or ignored. Meanwhile, having an injured child is terrifying enough – the feeling of helplessness so overwhelming. Read the rest of this entry »

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Pass the Senate Bill, Please

Posted by James O'Rourke on January 24, 2010

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Paul Begala

CNN political commentator

Posted: January 24, 2010 02:44 PM

In an op-ed several months ago, I advised my fellow progressive Democrats to support health care reform even if it fails to include some of their cherished goals.

Now I’m begging.

I understand and share the frustrations of progressives. They compromised before the debate even began, giving up on  for all and settling for its weak cousin, a public option. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party has been everything that the reactionary wing of the Republican Party has not: open-minded, pragmatic and respectful of the views of others. The Republicans’ obstinacy has been rewarded by the voters, who sent Scott Brown to the Senate as the candidate of change who promised to defend the status quo on health care. So why do I urge further flexibility? Because failure is not an option and surrender is not a strategy.

I am convinced that Democrats lost the Congress in 1994 because we failed to pass health care. And yet today many Democrats are worried that they will lose the Congress if they pass health care. They are wrong. Here’s why:

You’re going to get the attack anyway, you may as well get the accomplishment. I don’t mean to be rude, but if health care is the kiss of death, you’ve already been kissed. Now, I don’t think it is — not in the slightest. If passing health care would ensure Republican takeover of Congress, wouldn’t those Rovian Republicans cut loose one or two senators to help it pass?

The Senate bill is progressive. No, it’s not as progressive as the House bill — but that’s the wrong question. The right question is whether the Senate health care bill is better than the status quo. And that ain’t even close.

The Senate bill prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, stops insurers from dropping health insurance coverage when someone gets sick, eliminates gender discrimination, requires coverage of preventive care, and levels the playing field for the little guy and gal through new health insurance exchanges. It includes the largest expansion of Medicaid since it was created under LBJ, fully funds the Children’s Health Insurance Program through 2016, protects seniors who have fallen through the so-called “Donut Hole”, and finally — finally — covers 31 million Americans who today lack health insurance. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in *Healthcare Issues | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

November doesn’t need to be a nightmare for Democrats

Posted by James O'Rourke on January 24, 2010

By David Plouffe

Sunday, January 24, 2010 – Washington Post

The Democratic Party got a resounding wake-up call from the voters of Massachusetts on Tuesday. But it’s long been clear that 2010 would be a challenging election year for our party.

With few exceptions, the first off-year election in a new president’s term has led to big gains for the minority party — this was true for Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. After two election cycles in which Democrats won most of the close races and almost all of the big ones, Democrats have much more fragile turf to defend this year than usual. Add to that a historic economic crisis, stubborn unemployment and the pain that both have inflicted on millions of Americans, and you have a recipe for a white-knuckled ride for many of our candidates.

But not if Democrats do what the American people sent them to Washington to do.

In 2006 and 2008, voters sent an unmistakable message: We want decisive change. This was not just a change of political parties. Instead of a government that works for the entitled and special interests, a government that looks out for Wall Street, they wanted a government that works better for them, a government that plays the role it should to help foster the security of the middle class.

Many of last year’s accomplishments are down payments on those principles.

We still have much to do before November, and time is running short. Every race has unique characteristics, but there are a few general things that Democrats can do to strengthen our hand.

Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay. Americans’ health and our nation’s long-term fiscal health depend on it. I know that the short-term politics are bad. It’s a good plan that’s become a demonized caricature. But politically speaking, if we do not pass it, the GOP will continue attacking the plan as if we did anyway, and voters will have no ability to measure its upside. If we do pass it, dozens of protections and benefits take effect this year. Parents won’t have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition. Workers won’t have to worry that their coverage will be dropped because they get sick. Seniors will feel relief from prescription costs. Only if the plan becomes law will the American people see that all the scary things Sarah Palin and others have predicted — such as the so-called death panels — were baseless. We own the bill and the health-care votes. We need to get some of the upside. (P.S.: Health care is a jobs creator.)

We need to show that we not just are focused on jobs but also create them. Even without a difficult fiscal situation, the government can have only so much direct impact on job creation, on top of the millions of jobs created by the president’s early efforts to restart the economy. There are some terrific ideas that we can implement, from tax credits for small businesses to more incentives for green jobs, but full recovery will happen only when the private sector begins hiring in earnest. That’s why Democrats must create a strong foundation for long-term growth by addressing health care, energy and education reform. We must also show real leadership by passing some politically difficult measures to help stabilize the economy in the short term. Voters are always smarter than they are given credit for. We need to make our case on the economy and jobs — and yes, we can remind voters where Republican policies led us — and if we do, without apology and with force, it will have impact. Read the rest of this entry »

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Health-care experts say Obama can get some reform himself

Posted by James O'Rourke on January 24, 2010

By David Ignatius
Sunday, January 24, 2010

It’s the truism of the week: To surmount his political troubles, President Obama needs to show leadership — especially on his signature issue of health-care reform. But how can he do that with a Congress that will be even more gridlocked after last Tuesday’s election shocker in Massachusetts than it was before?

A simple suggestion: Obama should use his authority as president to start reforming the health care system right now — without waiting for congressional passage of a behemoth health-financing bill. He should use the existing “public options” — especially Medicare and Medicaid — as laboratories for change. This approach would have the benefit of beginning to reduce the costs of delivering care before comprehensive legislation makes the system universal.

This approach, which some medical leaders have been urging for months, would respond to one of the messages that Massachusetts voters were sending. Bay State reporting suggests that voters liked Obama well enough but they rejected the health-care monstrosity that has emerged in Washington after a year of congressional logrolling and special pleading. Judging by anecdotal evidence, people seem worried that the legislation will disrupt their existing care and balloon the deficit — without really reforming the system.

As is usually the case when the public speaks this loudly, the people are right: The process that has produced the House and Senate bills has been an abomination. The voters sent Obama to Washington to lead, not to engage in endless horse-trading. When Sen. Ben Nelson demanded a tax exemption for his state of Nebraska as the price of his vote, that should have been a sign to the White House that the process had gone haywire. Instead, the administration agreed to similar buy-offs for the insurance industry and labor unions. Read the rest of this entry »

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