Visual source: Newseum
NYT editorial:
The Republicans set the terms of the debate at every point, and learned that they can push the fumbling and fearful Democrats far to the right. Within hours, they began revving up to create the next crisis.
Although much of the final deal has not yet been made public, it is clear it could have been far worse. The White House refused to accept many of the most radical cuts in the original House bill, including deep reductions to Head Start, AmeriCorps, Pell grants, public broadcasting and competitive education programs. Financial and health care reform will continue but with reduced money. The worst right-wing demands were dropped, including a cutoff of funds to providers of abortion and family planning, and an end to regulation of greenhouse gases. And nearly half the cuts came from a side of the budget that will do less harm to the economy and the most vulnerable.
Paul Krugman:
What have they done with President Obama? What happened to the inspirational figure his supporters thought they elected? Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular? ...
Maybe that terrible deal, in which Republicans ended up getting more than their opening bid, was the best he could achieve — although it looks from here as if the president’s idea of how to bargain is to start by negotiating with himself, making pre-emptive concessions, then pursue a second round of negotiation with the G.O.P., leading to further concessions.
NY Times:
They are emblematic of Japan’s two-tiered work force, with an elite class of highly paid employees at top companies and a subclass of laborers who work for less pay, have less job security and receive fewer benefits. Such labor practices have both endangered the health of these workers and undermined safety at Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors, critics charge.
“This is the hidden world of nuclear power,” said Yuko Fujita, a former physics professor at Keio University in Tokyo and a longtime campaigner for improved labor conditions in the nuclear industry. “Wherever there are hazardous conditions, these laborers are told to go. It is dangerous for them, and it is dangerous for nuclear safety.”
Ezra Klein:
But from the perspective of health-care cost control, what matters is the sectoral contrast. The basic theory of Ryan’s plan is that you can control costs by focusing on the insurance system. Seniors become consumers and their decision-making holds down costs. The Affordable Care Act has a lot of the same insurance-system reforms that Ryan does, but the basic theory of that plan is you control costs through the care delivery system. It’s about knowing what treatments work and what treatments don’t, paying for value rather than quantity, cutting down on unnecessary readmissions and errors, doing more to manage chronic diseases, etc...
People in D.C. — and I include myself here — know a lot more about insurance than about care delivery, and are much more comfortable with arguments that pit consumers against bureaucrats than with arguments about various ways to cut down on hospital readmissions. So there’s a tendency to try to map health-care policy onto those debates. But it’s not the right way to think about it.
I know a great deal about care delivery and cutting down hospital readmissions, but it takes funding and keeping clinics open and medical care available on weekends and evenings to do it. But you'll save money on the hospital side, so the ACA makes far more sense than Ryan's "Granny's on her own" model.
John Sener:
Now, critics say that PISA, the SAT and other standardized tests are a lousy way to measure educational attainment or value. But I say enough criticism already. Once you truly understand the awesome power of test scores, you will embrace them, as I have done — especially after realizing how standardized testing proves that I am a better basketball player than Michael Jordan.
Mark Blumenthal:
Perhaps the most convincing evidence so far that human error explains the initial omission of Brookfield's results comes from our colleagues at the Brookfield Patch. On election night, they reported a vote total for Brookfield that exactly matches the vote total Kathy Nickolaus did not include in the County level count until Thursday.
Jonathan Capehart:
“The word compromise is a filthy, evil word” to the freshmen members of the House Republican majority, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) told me during a phone conversation on Friday. Pointing out that many of them have never held elective office and campaigned on cutting federal spending, he said they haven’t learned the language of Congress, the cornerstone of which is compromise. Rangel said the Tea Party members “must learn [that] when you promise [on the campaign trail] it means you’ll do the best you can.”
Because of the promises they made in the 2010 midterm elections, Rangel said the Republicans are in a serious bind. “The question is,” he said, “how do you explain that you gave the government the authority to borrow more money? How do you explain it?”
Good question. Boehner has between May 16 and July 8 to come up with an answer.