Time-lapse of the eclipse, from Redding, California.
Back to the news...
The CBO sent a warning to Congress yesterday; fix this, or watch the country fall back into a recession. "Tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect in January would suck $607 billion out of the economy next year, plunging the nation at least briefly back into recession, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. Unless lawmakers act, the economy is likely to contract in the first half of 2013 at an annualized rate of 1.3 percent, the CBO said, before returning to 2.3 percent growth later in the year." The Republicans will insist we take the next step...
... and this is it, folks. They aren't kidding. The GOP, if they win, will take this country right back to the Gilded Age. Goodbye New Deal, goodbye modern life, hello Ayn Rand's fantasy land. More tax cuts for the wealthy, more military spending, exploding budget deficits - and more service cuts for you. Paul Ryan expects to have a mandate. 'We will not only win the next election — we have a unique opportunity to sweep and remake the political landscape,' the Wisconsin congressman said in a speech occasionally punctuated with applause and laughter." Can't say we weren't warned - they are going for the whole GOP end game right now.
Another Republican lie debunked. Talking Points Memo has a handy new chart that shows Obama isn't such a big spender after all. "Obama’s policies, including the much-criticized stimulus package, have caused the slowest increase in federal spending of any president in almost 60 nears, according to data compiled by the financial news service MarketWatch."
Did you hear the one about the $1.45 trillion dollar jet? Florida Governor Rick Scott sure loves him some government spending when it's for military contractors. Helping people and infrastructure though? Not so much. "While Scott famously refused $2 billion in federal funds for high-speed rail in Florida, deriding it as an expensive boondoggle, his team shows no such hesitations about the $1.45 trillion F-35 project. The most expensive weapons system in Pentagon history, it has suffered technical setbacks, nearly a decade of production delays, and substantial cost overruns; the Pentagon currently estimates each plane will cost $135 million to build and maintain." Mother Jones has a report that shows our military budget will cost us a cool trillion dollars a year by 2013.
Americans overwhelmingly support military spending cuts, so sayeth the folks from "the Center for Public integrity, the Program for Public Consultation and the Stimson Center. Not only does the public want deep cuts, it wants those cuts to encompass spending in virtually every military domain — air power, sea power, ground forces, nuclear weapons, and missile defenses." Check out the results of the poll here.
Steve Rattner calls Bain like it is. Certainly can't pin him with being partisan; he knows money, and he knows the business. In today's NYT, he explains that private equity is not necessarily about creating jobs, it's about making a buck. His truth is the bottom line. "In fact, Bain Capital — like other private equity firms — was founded and managed for profit: ideally, huge amounts of gain earned legally and legitimately. Any job creation was a welcome but secondary byproduct."
The number of Americans who support gay marriage is at a record high, the number of Americans who call themselves pro-choice is at a record low. Which issue has received the spotlight of acceptance lately? The WaPo poll finds "initial signs that President Obama’s support for the idea (of gay marriage) may have changed a few minds." Imagine if Democrats showed that kind of leadership on other issues...
Auto sales are roaring, so much so that the workers are putting in 60 hour weeks every week, and still the auto companies need to add shifts and hire thousands of new people. Thank the nice President and the Democrats in Congress once again, would you?
Autos help the economy, the economy helps Obama. Bloomberg reports that the swing states are seeing the benefits, and that should boost the President in those critical areas. "The unemployment rates in a majority of the 2012 battleground states are lower than the national average as those economies improve. Coupled with the growth of adult minority populations in those states, the trends create a higher bar for presumed Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney in his quest to unseat Obama."
Existing home sales are rising and prices are moving up, a sign that the housing market could finally see recovery. "But perhaps more encouraging than the numbers was the fact that the improvements 'were broad based across all regions,' the report stated." Good to know.
Still a fight though, and no better example than the state of Wisconsin. Looks like Governor Walker may survive the recall attempt - and that has the potential to boost Republican fortunes (and it certainly would boost Republican rhetoric, See: "mandate, Ryan, above) The difference? Fundraising from outside influences, ("by the time Barrett won the nomination, Walker enjoyed a 25 to 1 fundraising advantage over the Milwaukee mayor"), Democratic infighting over the primary, you know, the usual suspects...
Off to the sunshine...