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Fumesucker
Fumesucker's Journal
Fumesucker's Journal
October 7, 2013
Read the entire piece at the link.
Krugman: The upper hand is on the other foot
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/shorting-out-the-wiring/?_r=0For the moment, at least, the shutdown and the general scene of insanity in Congress is clearly hurting the Republican brand. And theres a whole small industry of crunching numbers on the 1995-6 shutdown, etc., to estimate the likely impact on next years elections. For now the conventional wisdom is that the impact will be small, not nearly enough to restore Democratic control.
I have no idea whether thats right. But as I was reading the various news reports, it occurred to me that theres a subtler but possibly profound form of damage the GOP is doing to itself, one that will cast its shadow for a long time.
It goes back to something Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo used to say that Washington is, in effect, wired for Republicans. Ever since Reagan, the Beltway has treated Republicans as the natural party of government. Sunday talk shows would feature a preponderance of Republicans even if Democrats held the White House and one or both houses of Congress. John McCain was featured on those shows so often you would think he won in 2008.
And there was a general presumption of Republican competence. Its hard to believe now, but Bush was treated as a highly effective leader who knew what he was doing right up to Katrina, while Clinton now viewed with such respect was treated as a bungling interloper for much of his presidency. Even in the last few years there was a rush to canonize Paul Ryan as a superwonk, when it was quite obvious if you looked that politics aside, he was just incompetent at number-crunching.
(...)
I have no idea whether thats right. But as I was reading the various news reports, it occurred to me that theres a subtler but possibly profound form of damage the GOP is doing to itself, one that will cast its shadow for a long time.
It goes back to something Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo used to say that Washington is, in effect, wired for Republicans. Ever since Reagan, the Beltway has treated Republicans as the natural party of government. Sunday talk shows would feature a preponderance of Republicans even if Democrats held the White House and one or both houses of Congress. John McCain was featured on those shows so often you would think he won in 2008.
And there was a general presumption of Republican competence. Its hard to believe now, but Bush was treated as a highly effective leader who knew what he was doing right up to Katrina, while Clinton now viewed with such respect was treated as a bungling interloper for much of his presidency. Even in the last few years there was a rush to canonize Paul Ryan as a superwonk, when it was quite obvious if you looked that politics aside, he was just incompetent at number-crunching.
(...)
Read the entire piece at the link.
October 4, 2013
Faking Bad
October 3, 2013
Massive Welfare Fraud Exposed
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/10/02/welfare-fraud/Remember the Obamaphone program that gives undeserving poors the luxury of having their own prepaid cell phone so they can talk to each other while they drive to the store in their welfare Cadillacs to buy t-bones and flat screen TVs? Well, you wont be surprised to learn that its full of cheaters:
This wasnt chump change, either: over three years, the FCC thinks it can reduce overcharging by $2 billion once the 1.1 million duplicates are removed from the program.
The Federal Communications Commission yesterday accused five wireless service providers of obtaining duplicate payments from a federal fund for low-income consumers. The FCC wants the companies to repay the extra money and, in addition, to pay $14.4 million in fines.
The wireless providers allegedly violated rules of the Lifeline program, which has helped people afford basic telephone service since 1985. It was expanded to cover pre-paid cell phone service in 2005 under former President George W. Bush.
This wasnt chump change, either: over three years, the FCC thinks it can reduce overcharging by $2 billion once the 1.1 million duplicates are removed from the program.
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