Visual source: Newseum
Eugene Robinson urges President Obama to aim high with his jobs plan:
President Obama’s promised jobs plan needs to be unrealistic and unreasonable, at the very least. If he can crank it all the way up to unimaginable, that would be even better.
This is a moment for the president to suppress his reflex for preemptive compromise. The unemployment crisis is so deep and self-perpetuating that only a big, surprising, over-the-top jobs initiative could have real impact. Boldness will serve the nation well — and, coincidentally, boost Obama’s reelection prospects.
Stephen Stromberg looks at the GOP "jobs" plan:
Now, Republicans have outlined a jobs agenda that mainly consists of eviscerating federal regulations they don’t like, with a particular focus on rules designed to protect the environment. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) released a memorandum to GOP lawmakers on Monday that targets the ten most “job-destroying” regulations in the federal register. Seven of them are rules the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is on track to impose.
But what’s the GOP alternative to EPA restrictions on mercury, acid gases, ozone and greenhouse emissions? Cantor’s memo only talks about delaying and weakening proposed rules, not some different approach to environmental protection. Maybe we just don’t need any more of that?
Dana Milbank looks at how government worked during Hurricane Irene and runs through Republican attempts to demolish funding for relief agencies:
Tea Partyers who denounce Big Government seem to have an abstract notion that government spending means welfare programs and bloated bureaucracies. Almost certainly they aren’t thinking about hurricane tracking and pre-positioning of FEMA supplies. But if they succeed in paring the government, some of these Tea Partyers (particularly those on the coasts or on the tornadic planes) may be surprised to discover that they have turned a Hurricane Irene government back into a Katrina government.
And Jonathan Bernstein explains why the GOP is going after those relief programs:
it’s pretty clear that what we’re dealing with here is a form of negative logrolling, not fiscal discipline. In other words, what’s happening is that Republicans are using the opportunity of emergency funds to attack programs they would be happy to eliminate anyway. Indeed, the odds are good that whatever cuts they will propose for the offsets are cuts that they’ve previously opposed in other contexts.
Kathleen Parker examines the role of religion in the GOP primary:
Forget charisma, charm, intelligence, knowledge and that nuisance, "foreign-policy experience." The race of the moment concerns which candidate is the truest believer. [...]
Perry knows he has to make clear that God is his wingman. He understands that his base cares more that the president is clear on his ranking in the planetary order than whether he can schmooze with European leaders or, heaven forbid, the news media. And this is why Perry could easily steal the nomination from Romney.
And also why he probably can't win a national election, in which large swaths of the electorate would prefer that their president keep his religion close and be respectful of knowledge that has evolved from thousands of years of human struggle against superstition and the kind of literal-mindedness that leads straight to the dark ages.
Speaking of Perry, Amy Bingham runs down a fascinating list of laws in Rick Perry's Texas:
What would America be like under a Rick Perry presidency? Well, if Rick Perry's Texas is any indication, the country could look forward to 85 mph speed limits, hog hunting from helicopters and a security check "fast-lane" for concealed handgun carriers.
The New York Times examines the distribution of effort among NATO members during the Libya campaign:
For decades, European nations have counted on a free-spending Pentagon to provide the needed capabilities they failed to provide themselves. The Pentagon is now under intense and legitimate pressure to meet America’s security needs more economically. It can no longer afford to provide affluent allies with a free ride.
In June, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pointedly told European NATO allies that they risked becoming militarily irrelevant unless they stepped up investment in their forces and equipment. His successor, Leon Panetta, needs to drive that message home.
European leaders need to ask themselves a fundamental question: If it was this hard taking on a ragtag army like Qaddafi’s, what would it be like to have to fight a real enemy?
Finally, National Journal has a slideshow on the odd jobs of members of Congress filled with fun facts. For example:
An avid runner who has competed in marathons, Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, was a fitness instructor for Elaine Powers Figure Salons in the mid-1980s.