"Words that make actions speak louder."
The following was my contribution to The Hill’s weekly “blogger face-off,” as the conservative Ace of Spades and myself answered the question “Like Sen. Graham said, will the Tea Party movement die out?” Tea Party: Nothing New. Nothing Big. Was GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham correct when he told the New York Times Magazine that the […]
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who is emerging as the point person for any energy bill this year, ended a C-Span interview yesterday with a strikingly candid statement: There is a big gap between what the scientists say we should do to deal with climate change, and what the politics of the Congress today, and particularly the […]
Yesterday House leaders formally proposed spending $10 billion to help recession-bruised, fiscally distressed states prevent layoffs of hundreds of thousands of teachers The proposal saves teaching jobs without increasing the budget deficit by cutting other stimulus spending. This is not good enough for conservative deficit hysterics. The conservative Republican response appears to be: just lie […]
10 years ago, Sen. Robert Byrd blocked a move to end the use of coal at the Capitol Hill Power Plant. Just this month, he voted in support of the EPA”s authority to regulate greenhouse gases. The evolution in his environmental views is another example of Sen. Byrd’s “courage to change over time.” It was […]
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed the conservative filibuster of the latest jobs and jobless aid bill was because they oppose any increase of the national debt: “The principle Democrats are defending is that they will not pass a bill unless it adds to the debt.” What McConnell and his fellow conservative obstructionists choose not […]
Congressional conservatives have mainly blocked additional stimulus spending on the (economically illiterate) grounds that it would add the deficit. But apparently when it comes to preventing teacher layoffs, conservative opposition is not about the deficit at all. It’s just that conservatives want teachers to get fired. Rep. David Obey, the chair of the House Appropriations […]
Stateline just published a horrifying report on how the recession has depleted government coffers and forced states to execute mass layoffs and deep cuts in services. And the Wall Street Journal today reports that the recession continues to put the hurt on states: a collective budget gap of $127 billion is expected during the next […]
In today’s W. Post column from Robert Samuelson, at one point he writes, “This is intellectually shallow.” If he was referring to his own work, he’d be right. But he was trying to attack the President as dishonest about his energy policy, claiming that Obama is peddling a clean energy “pipe dream” when the bravely […]
Before Rep. Joe Barton literally apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the “tragedy” of the “$20 billion shakedown” — otherwise known to the sane as an escrow fund to pay claims to victims of the Gulf gusher — he stressed he was not speaking for the Republican Party. Fair enough. But he was certainly […]
As you can see in today’s Progressive Breakfast, interpretations of the President’s speech ranged widely. Carbon cap is dead. Or alive. Serious push for other clean energy standards and investments. Or desire to take anything they can get. Pragmatic. Or cop-out. The fact that the speech can be interpreted so many different ways is part […]