Vote No on the Debt Ceiling Increase
February 15, 2011 by Mike · Leave a Comment
The President’s budget for FY 2012, which was released yesterday in summary form, indicates that if the current Administration’s preferences are granted, we will add about 9 trillion dollars to the national debt over the next 10 years. That assumes, of course, that we will at some point experience the economic recovery that Administration officials have been blathering about for about a year now. Please pay no attention to the fact that real estate values have now been falling for 54 months (the longest on record, which predates the Great Depression). Also, please pay no attention to the unemployment rate, stuck north of 10% (watch Gallup’s number, pay no attention to anything else). Finally, pay no attention to oil prices as they creep towards $100 a barrel.
Congressman Waxman makes a(nother) mistake
February 9, 2011 by Mike · Leave a Comment
In the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing this morning, Mr. Waxman demanded (asked?) for additional hearings on the scientific dimensions of global warming. That was probably a mistake.
The Democrats no doubt believe that such an approach is wise, in part because it places what they want to talk about — the real or imagined public health effects that might be avoided if EPA is allowed to write permits for a few large sources in the United States.
But the reality is that such a series of hearings would pose three significant problems for the Democrats.
First, they would make it clear that unilateral EPA action will achieve nothing. It will not reduce carbon in the atmosphere, which unlike traditional pollutants is uniformly distributed across the planet. It will not reduce global average temperatures. It will not stop or limit the rising of the seas.
Economics and science and global warming
February 8, 2011 by Mike · Leave a Comment
A friend recently suggested that perhaps I was a bit off-message in a recent press article in which I suggested that the Republicans would eventually need to address the scientific dimensions of the arguments surrounding global warming. He noted that Republicans tend to do better when they focus on the economic dimension of the conversation.
It is an argument that has been repeated in one form or another for about 20 years.
In general, I agree. Republicans do tend to do better when they focus on the economic dimensions of regulatory regimes designed to address global warming. But it is an exceedingly limited and limiting way to think about the issue. Talking about the economic dimensions of the issue is necessary but will not be sufficient to win the issue.
On the Destruction of the Republican Party
February 8, 2011 by Mike · Leave a Comment
It might be worthwhile to take a moment to reflect upon something that happened last week that could be one of those moments that in retrospect seems incredibly important.
Occasionally, in politics the preferences of leaders and the preferences of followers collide. One of those collisions occurred last week. After two years of complaining about deficits and spending gone crazy, and after campaign promises to cut $100 billion from the budget (a modest figure to begin with), the Republican leadership in Congress offered up $32 billion in cuts (here) for the remainder of the fiscal year (which has 8 months left). For purposes of comparison, the deficit in January alone was more than $105 billion, the deficit for the fiscal year will be more than $1.5 trillion, and total budget outlays will be closer to $4 trillion (here). My math is always shaky, but $32 billion is about 2% of the deficit.
Pat and Ron and Congress
February 8, 2011 by Mike · Leave a Comment
On the 100th anniversary of President Reagan’s birth (which seems a little strange to celebrate, given that previously only the Soviets and people like that celebrated such things), it might be worthwhile to take a moment to think about one particular staffer that worked for Reagan and one Congressman that publicly excoriated Reagan.
In 1991, a solitary staffer from the Reagan Administration, disaffected by what he saw as the liberal, internationalist, profligate drift of the Bush Administration, decided to challenge President Bush for the Republican nomination for President in 1992. That man, Patrick Buchanan, made clear what he was running against here, “If the country wants to go in a liberal direction, if the country wants to go in the direction of [Democrats] it doesn’t bother me as long as I’ve made the best case I can. What I can’t stand are the back-room deals. They’re all in on it, the insider game, the establishment game — this is what we’re running against.”
