Harvey woes aren’t over, Irma is a beast and Jose is not far behind. It’s hurricane season. Beware.
NY Times:
There are few doubts that a Republican-dominated Congress will end up delivering aid to a battered state and key base of Republican power. But along with an outpouring of support, the process is raising eyebrows and drawing charges of hypocrisy.
What this means for Texas politics is difficult to say, at a time when rescue crews and volunteers are still plucking flood victims from their homes. But the new reality is already making itself felt.
Most notably, Senator Ted Cruz, one of Washington’s most ardent proponents of fiscal restraint, has suddenly taken on a new role, promising to lead the effort to secure a generous federal aid package.
Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:
And Trump didn’t have the nerve to make the announcement himself
Trump would like to blame everyone and anyone for his catastrophic decision — President Barack Obama, Democrats, Congress as a whole, state attorneys general. Congress might — if it suddenly is possessed with a sense of urgency and discovers newfound competence — save Trump from himself. But if Congress does not intervene, Trump will be responsible for a gratuitously cruel action.
Dave Leonhardt/NY Times:
For more than 30 years now, the United States has lived with a top tax rate less than half as high as in George Romney’s day. And during those same three-plus decades, the pay of affluent Americans has soared. That’s not a coincidence. Corporate executives and others now have much more reason to fight for every last dollar...
Across society, the most powerful members of organizations have fought to keep more money for themselves. They have usually won that fight, which has left less money for everyone else.
What would be the right top tax rate today? I don’t know the precise answer. A top rate of 90 percent clearly has the potential to drive away entrepreneurs. But I am convinced that the current top tax rate, 39.6 percent, is too low.
It has contributed to soaring inequality, with the affluent having received both the biggest pretax raises and the biggest tax cuts. Plus, there is no evidence that a modestly higher rate would hurt the economy. The recent president with the strongest economic record, Bill Clinton, increased the rate, while the one with the weakest economic record, George W. Bush, cut it.
Benjamin Wittes/Lawfare:
How to Read a News Story About an Investigation: Eight Tips on Who Is Saying What
I worked as a journalist for more than a decade. Those years included covering the period of intensive reporting concerning the last major investigation of a sitting president—and the alleged leaks that arose from that investigation.
So as a public service, I lay out in this post the sourcing conventions that are in play every day within stories about Trump-Russia matters: what they mean, what they don’t mean, and what is reasonable to infer from how a reputable news organization describes its sources in an investigative news article on these issues.
Click the tweet to read more.
Politico:
The Rise of the Twitter Thread
The compelling, incendiary literary form of the Trump era.
Some of you hate twitter. You are, of course, wrong. So, there’s that.
Aaron E. Carroll/NY Times:
The Real Reason the U.S. Has Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance
In 1942, with so many eligible workers diverted to military service, the nation was facing a severe labor shortage. Economists feared that businesses would keep raising salaries to compete for workers, and that inflation would spiral out of control as the country came out of the Depression. To prevent this, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9250, establishing the Office of Economic Stabilization.
This froze wages. Businesses were not allowed to raise pay to attract workers.
Businesses were smart, though, and instead they began to use benefits to compete. Specifically, to offer more, and more generous, health care insurance.
BuzzFeed:
Republican Party Autopsy Author Goes Off On GOP As Trump’s DACA Decision Nears
“Those in Republican leadership who have enabled his behavior by standing silent or making excuses for him deserve the reckoning that will eventually come for the GOP,” Sally Bradshaw, a longtime adviser to Jeb Bush, told BuzzFeed News.
Joshua Pollack/Atlantic:
The Clear Logic of the Latest North Korean Test
Kim Jong Un has a predictable purpose and a plan.
I have doubts about the efficacy of Kim Jong Un’s plan. There should no longer be any question about his ability to build and deploy missiles and nuclear bombs. But it doesn’t look like any number of tests will convince Washington to rethink its approach, any more than new sanctions will sway Pyongyang. We are stuck, driving each other steadily deeper into our respective corners.
America is in the habit of debating the rationality of its enemies, perhaps assuming that no sane leader could sincerely hate or fear the United States. Less often questioned is whether its own strategies are rational. Do they serve the country’s interests? A policy of ever-expanding sanctions has failed to moderate North Korean behavior in the least, and now threatens to break the relationship between the United States and China, the two most important and powerful countries in the world.
What does the United States gain from any of that? The time has come for a new approach. If it’s not too much to ask, the Trump administration could try trading in the pressure created by sanctions on North Korea for the insecurity created by its continued development of nuclear weapons and missiles. It’s never too late to rethink, but sooner is always better—maybe sometime before Veterans Day weekend?
Andrew Cline/USA Today:
Republicans in Washington have thus far failed to deliver on a signature campaign promise — to repeal Obamacare — despite controlling the House, Senate and White House. After their last flop, the party’s various factions pointed fingers faster than an all-mime production of “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.”
The most common accusations — inept management, poor leadership, rogue senators — identify only symptoms of a larger problem. The “root cause,” so to speak, is that the Republican Party does not enjoy the same clarity of purpose on health care that the Democratic Party enjoys.