digby
writes about the "grand bargain:
Alex Pareene at Salon has written a great piece about the revival of the Grand Bargain in his inimitable style that's well-worth reading. I just want to pull out on little piece that I don't think many people really understand:
Here’s a fun secret: Tax reform (in this case referring to eliminating or scaling back “tax expenditures”) is technically a conservative policy priority, even if elected Republicans refuse to ever support it for real. This is a compromise in which conservative policy is being offered in exchange for conservative support for a conservative policy. The sequester and Obama’s Bargain quest mean that Republicans can choose between allowing a Democrat to “take credit” for cutting the two most popular programs in the country or they can just live with the already-passed government spending cut that they are also able to blame on the president.
Also keep in mind that tax reform has been one of the pillars of the Grand Bargain since President Obama first proposed it in 2009. It's pretty much guaranteed to be, at best, some sort of symbolic loophole closing while at the same time "broadening the base and lowering the rates." It's a "reform" only a tax lawyer could love. |
Pareene also notes:
There are two important things to remember about “entitlements”: They are hugely popular programs for a very good reason, and actual sensible “reform” would mean improving them, not sacrificing them at the altar of “fiscal responsibility.” A “grand bargain” that was done with the intention of creating the best possible outcome for the most Americans, instead of with the intention of purposefully doing unpopular things because doing unpopular things denotes “seriousness,” would lower the Medicare eligibility age and expand Social Security. That the opposite approach is effectively the bipartisan consensus approach is the special sort of Beltway madness that makes sensible people wish for either a proper parliamentary system or at the very least for an EMP to take out Georgetown and much of Washington’s surrounding suburbs. |
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Sen. Sarbanes Not Running in '06:
Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, a son of Greek immigrants who became the longest-serving United States senator in Maryland history, said today that he would not run for a sixth term next year. "It was not my ambition to stay there until they carried me out," Mr. Sarbanes, a Democrat, said in a news conference at his Baltimore office, according to The Associated Press. "It was just the right time. We think we've served long and well and honorably, and we're very comfortable with this decision."Mr. Sarbanes, 72, said his health was not a factor in his decision.
The senator has had a generally liberal voting record in his three decades in the chamber. He won his most recent re-election, in 2000, by a margin of 63 to 37 percent.
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Tweet of the Day:
Hate when this happens to me. RT @elisefoley: RT @eliotnelson: Bloomberg asks reporter to identify himself. Reporter says he's w/ Bloomberg.
— @aseitzwald via TweetDeck
On today's
Kagro in the Morning show, the AP joins NBC (and Daily Kos) in cataloging the gun incidents of 1/19. But why no mention of Gun Appreciation Day?
Greg Dworkin updated us on the "Team 26" ride & made the case for guns as a public health issue. In DC news: the Senate begins on a budget, R presidential hopefuls view CPAC as a springboard to legitimacy (!), Jeb denies the existence of Bush family baggage, Coburn says leadership is the big hurdle to compromise, House R Whip quietly declares the Hastert Rule dead, and R crazies make compromise tough. Shocking! Lastly, Krugman on Dwindling Deficit Disorder & OurFuture.org's exposure of the CEOs behind "Fix the Debt."
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