All Blog Posts from Coop's Corner
CBO Finds That Cap And Trade Will Work - In The Long Term
(Extreme Ice Survey)
The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, also known as H.R. 2454, was passed on a near party-line vote by the House of Representatives and now awaits a vote in the Senate. As with nearly everything else in Washington, the bill has become a source of rancor and dispute between right and left - and everyone in between. But in its latest examination of the bill's likely impact, the Congressional Budget Office says the domestic cost of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions paints a more nuanced picture.
Projecting likely trend lines through the year 2050, the CBO concludes that the passage of the legislation will slightly dampen long-term GDP growth. But with a much larger economy by the middle of the century - the CBO expectation is that it will be approximately two-and-a-half times as large as it is today, the impact on peoples' everyday lives will be muted. (One caveat: CBO data tend to rely on some very precise assumptions; if they're false the analysis turns out to be meaningless.)
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Dems Already Done In By Buyers' Remorse?
5696255Whenever the Republicans fear that the political gods are aligned against them, they can always find cheer in knowing that at least they are not the Democrats.
Over the weekend, the Democrats got the 60 votes they needed in order to move their health care proposal onto the floor of the United States Senate for debate. A lot of good it did them. The moment faded almost immediately after key blue dog Democrats ran to the microphones to oppose any bill carrying a public option provision. The only celebration going on within Democratic circles was limited to the ranks of Panglossian optimists and congenital spinmeisters (often, one and the same.)
But this is shaping up to be a lot less than advertised. No less a party personage than the Democratic National Convention chairman Howard Dean spent Monday giving voice to the growing concern shared by Democratic activists about the way this story is unfolding. Speaking with the Huffington Post, Dean said that health care reform was in "deep trouble" and that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likely would need a miracle to win the day.
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Over the weekend, the Democrats got the 60 votes they needed in order to move their health care proposal onto the floor of the United States Senate for debate. A lot of good it did them. The moment faded almost immediately after key blue dog Democrats ran to the microphones to oppose any bill carrying a public option provision. The only celebration going on within Democratic circles was limited to the ranks of Panglossian optimists and congenital spinmeisters (often, one and the same.)
But this is shaping up to be a lot less than advertised. No less a party personage than the Democratic National Convention chairman Howard Dean spent Monday giving voice to the growing concern shared by Democratic activists about the way this story is unfolding. Speaking with the Huffington Post, Dean said that health care reform was in "deep trouble" and that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likely would need a miracle to win the day.
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Geithner To Retire His Role As Pinata?
5709925Meet Tim Geithner, the Obama administration's human pi?ata. Though maybe for not much longer.
Given how regularly he gets smacked around by critics of the president's economic policies, Geithner can be forgiven for feeling like a pi?ata sometimes. With the nation's unemployment rate hovering over 10%, he's the guy everyone gets to hate. Check out the latest Rasmussen survey which reports that 42% of the public now believes that he's doing a poor job dealing both with the credit crisis as well as with the sundry federal bailout programs. (I'll have more to say about that in a moment.)
The good news for Geithner - if you can term it that - is that the figures remain unchanged from the last time Rasmussen asked that question in a March survey. I don't think he's losing much sleep over any of this. Besides, there's no reason to shed tears for the guy. Geithner knew what he was suiting up for when he accepted the president's invitation to serve as his Treasury Secretary. Also, he was given a chance to play the role of hero. With the economy rapidly contracting and the financial credit system frozen, history would remember Geithner fondly - as would the private sector after leaving government service to find a better paying job - if he could oversee a turnaround.
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Given how regularly he gets smacked around by critics of the president's economic policies, Geithner can be forgiven for feeling like a pi?ata sometimes. With the nation's unemployment rate hovering over 10%, he's the guy everyone gets to hate. Check out the latest Rasmussen survey which reports that 42% of the public now believes that he's doing a poor job dealing both with the credit crisis as well as with the sundry federal bailout programs. (I'll have more to say about that in a moment.)
The good news for Geithner - if you can term it that - is that the figures remain unchanged from the last time Rasmussen asked that question in a March survey. I don't think he's losing much sleep over any of this. Besides, there's no reason to shed tears for the guy. Geithner knew what he was suiting up for when he accepted the president's invitation to serve as his Treasury Secretary. Also, he was given a chance to play the role of hero. With the economy rapidly contracting and the financial credit system frozen, history would remember Geithner fondly - as would the private sector after leaving government service to find a better paying job - if he could oversee a turnaround.
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Pot-Kettle-Black?
(CBS/ AP)
The ACORN conspiracy has also featured in the list of reasons that losing conservative candidate Doug Hoffman's unconcession offered to explain his defeat in the New York Congressional 23rd race. In a new letter to his backers, Hoffman wrote: "I'm sure you are as dismayed as I am to learn of the mischief that took place in Oswego and neighboring counties. We know this would not be the first time for the ACORN faithful to tamper with democracy."
Here's Robert Stacy McCain in the American Spectator picking up the complaint:
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The Southern Health Conundrum
Watch CBS News Videos Online
With the nation's Republican governors gathered in Austin this week for their annual meeting, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour offered his take on current events during an appearance on CBSnews.com's Washington Unplugged. He covered the usual talking points, the basic pitch being that Republican ideas are more in tune with the needs of the nation than the policies offered by Obama & Co. But I had to do a double take after he told Bob Schieffer that "the American people want us focused on jobs, not on health care reform..."
A lot of people obviously agree - and there are good arguments on both sides of the health care reform debate - but Barbour's timing was way off. Only one day earlier, a study funded by UnitedHealth found that Barbour's great state of Mississippi ranked dead last in its ranking of the nation's healthiest states. In fact, the state has finished in last place for the last nine years. When I called up his office seeking a comment, the staffer who answered the phone wasn't familiar with the study. He should be - it's a doozy.
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Disclosure Row Over White House Coverage
Believe me, there's nothing like a journalistic cat fight to get the blood flowing. Well, spats between intellectuals - especially fought out on the back pages of the New York Review Of Books - rate a close second. But you get the real deal when reporters square off over who sits on the side of the angels (and by process of elimination, who is not.)
We've got one brewing right now. Yuval Levin, who worked in the White House domestic policy staff as an aide to George W. Bush, now has got a gig writing news stories for Newsweek. The Nation's Ari Melber, who got wind of this, notes that when Levin's first piece ran in the magazine last March, the editors slugged it as an analysis from "a Bush veteran." No such notation was attached to Levin's new piece chronicling why "right-of-center candidates are succeeding in the age of Obama." A few months earlier, Levin even co-authored aTom Bevan in RealClearPolitics tries. Sort of.
"If Melber is worried about a reporter's ideological bias affecting their reporting, maybe he should direct some of his indignation at Richard Wolffe, the "Senior White House correspondent" who covered Obama for the 2008 campaign for Newsweek. Wolffe was so chummy with the Obama inner circle he wrote a book about it, and hopes to write another - when he's not busy appearing on Keith Olbermann's show, that is."
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We've got one brewing right now. Yuval Levin, who worked in the White House domestic policy staff as an aide to George W. Bush, now has got a gig writing news stories for Newsweek. The Nation's Ari Melber, who got wind of this, notes that when Levin's first piece ran in the magazine last March, the editors slugged it as an analysis from "a Bush veteran." No such notation was attached to Levin's new piece chronicling why "right-of-center candidates are succeeding in the age of Obama." A few months earlier, Levin even co-authored a
"If Melber is worried about a reporter's ideological bias affecting their reporting, maybe he should direct some of his indignation at Richard Wolffe, the "Senior White House correspondent" who covered Obama for the 2008 campaign for Newsweek. Wolffe was so chummy with the Obama inner circle he wrote a book about it, and hopes to write another - when he's not busy appearing on Keith Olbermann's show, that is."
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Byline Blowup Roils 4th Estate
(AP)
We've got one brewing right now. Yuval Levin, who worked in the White House domestic policy staff as an aide to George W. Bush, now has got a gig writing news stories for Newsweek. The Nation's Ari Melber, who got wind of this, notes that when Levin's first piece ran in the magazine last March, the editors slugged it as an analysis from "a Bush veteran." No such notation was attached to Levin's new piece chronicling why "right-of-center candidates are succeeding in the age of Obama."
Should readers have known, for instance, that Levin was not an entirely disinterested observer. Earlier, he had co-authored a
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Rage Nation 2.0
(AP)
Talk about political prescience.
The American lexicon is suddenly chockablock with a collection of colorful descriptions forged in the cauldron of an increasingly heated political debate - terms like tea parties, three percenters, birthers, town hall disrupters, and oath keepers. As language reflects the times we live in, this is the new nomenclature used to define an eruption of anti-government rage that increasingly has marked the Obama administration's first ten months in office.
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The Palin Conundrum For Miffed Romney
(AP)
But that fit of pique can't compare with the frustration Romney must feel watching the "All Sarah, all the time" frenzy in advance of the official launch date of Going Rogue, Sarah Palin's tell-all account of the 2008 presidential campaign. On paper, it should be a no-brainer. Here's Romney, with that ponderously impressive resume - CEO of the management consultancy Bain & Company, co-founder of private equity investment firm Bain Capital, CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and governor of the Bay State from 2003 to 2007 - and yet he can't get the time of day. Maybe that will change by next year, but for the moment, north to south, east to west, the Republican faithful only have eyes for the Thriller from Wasilla.
Which is all the more fascinating because a bevy of new polls suggest that Palin's guaranteed to lose if she becomes the Republican Party's nominee in 2012. A CBS poll found that just 23% of Americans now hold a favorable view of the former Alaska Governor and two in three Americans would not like to see Palin run for president against Barack Obama. According to a CNN survey, fewer than three in 10 Americans believe that she's qualified to serve as president. And an ABC/Washington Post poll found that six in 10 Americans say she's unqualified for the post.
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The Palin Conundrum For Miffed Romney
As a former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney had every right to be ticked off after the New England Patriots disasterous decision Sunday night not to punt on fourth down with the ball on the Colts' 28-yard line. Especially considering that the Pats had the lead and little more than 2 minutes left. Is it possible that the team's supposedly brilliant coach, Bill Belichick, got confused and thought the Manning brother waiting patiently on Indianapolis' sidelines was Eli and not Peyton? Whatever the case, the Colts went on to win the game with 13 seconds left in the game.
But that fit of pique can't compare with the frustration Romney must feel watching the "All Sarah, all the time" frenzy in advance of the official launch date of Going Rogue, Sarah Palin's tell-all account of the 2008 presidential campaign. Here's Romney, with that ponderously impressive resume - CEO of the management consultancy Bain & Company, co-founder of private equity investment firm Bain Capital, CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and governor of the Bay State from 2003 to 2007 - and he can't get the time of day. Maybe down the road, but for the moment, north to south, east to west, the Republican faithful only have eyes for the Thriller from Wasilla.
Which is all the more fascinating because a bevy of new polls suggest that Palin's guaranteed to lose if she becomes the Republican Party's nominee in 2012. A CBS poll found that just 23% of Americans now hold a favorable view of the former Alaska Governor and two in three Americans would not like to see Palin run for president against Barack Obama. According to a CNN survey, fewer than three in 10 Americans believe that she's qualified to serve as president. An ABC/Washington Post poll found that six in 10 Americans say she's unqualified for the post.
Polls, schmolls. Who can deny Palin's electric effect on the conservative wing of the GOP? Forty percent (40%) of Republican voters say they have a very favorable opinion of Palin, according to a Rasmussen survey and 59% believe that she shares their values. My (entirely unscientific) suspicion is that a good number of these folks also adore Palin because she drives liberals batty.
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But that fit of pique can't compare with the frustration Romney must feel watching the "All Sarah, all the time" frenzy in advance of the official launch date of Going Rogue, Sarah Palin's tell-all account of the 2008 presidential campaign. Here's Romney, with that ponderously impressive resume - CEO of the management consultancy Bain & Company, co-founder of private equity investment firm Bain Capital, CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and governor of the Bay State from 2003 to 2007 - and he can't get the time of day. Maybe down the road, but for the moment, north to south, east to west, the Republican faithful only have eyes for the Thriller from Wasilla.
Which is all the more fascinating because a bevy of new polls suggest that Palin's guaranteed to lose if she becomes the Republican Party's nominee in 2012. A CBS poll found that just 23% of Americans now hold a favorable view of the former Alaska Governor and two in three Americans would not like to see Palin run for president against Barack Obama. According to a CNN survey, fewer than three in 10 Americans believe that she's qualified to serve as president. An ABC/Washington Post poll found that six in 10 Americans say she's unqualified for the post.
Polls, schmolls. Who can deny Palin's electric effect on the conservative wing of the GOP? Forty percent (40%) of Republican voters say they have a very favorable opinion of Palin, according to a Rasmussen survey and 59% believe that she shares their values. My (entirely unscientific) suspicion is that a good number of these folks also adore Palin because she drives liberals batty.
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