Blog For Arizona

CBO scores GOP health care alternative to 'Obamacare'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Tea-Publicans are not serious about public policy. Everything they propose turns out to be a disaster.

A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report (.pdf) scoring the GOP health care alternative to 'Obamacare' finds that it would reduce the number of people receiving employer-based coverage, increase dependence on government-sponsored health care, and raise the national deficit.

Think Progress reports, GOP’s Own Health Care Bill Will Lead 1 Million To Lose Employer-Sponsored Insurance:

The proposal, which Republicans voted for in the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this month, would alter the definition of full time employment under the Affordable Care Act from 30 hours a week to 40 hours a week and exempt more businesses from penalties for not offering employer-based insurance or lower the overall penalty burden. Under existing law, employers with more than 50 workers pay a penalty if their full-time employees (defined as working an average of 30 hours a week) receive subsidized coverage in the law’s health care exchanges.

The Way Forward: Tax and Spend

Posted by Bob Lord

[Distributed via OtherWords.org]

The Way Forward: Tax and Spend

This strategy would reduce joblessness and inequality while stimulating the economy.

By Bob Lord and Emily Schwartz Greco

Have you heard? Our economic policy debate is getting some spring cleaning.

President Barack Obama has signaled that he’s had it with all that talk about America being broke and the belt-tightening austerity measures that went along with it. His proposed budget for the 2015 fiscal year will reflect this reality.

You know what he should try? A tax-and–spend strategy.

Yes, conservatives have tried for years to turn that simple solution into an epithet. But it’s the best way forward.

Taxing more and spending more would stimulate a $17 trillion U.S. economy that’s not producing at full capacity and dogged by high unemployment. It wouldn’t expand the budget deficit. And it would reverse the concentration of income and wealth that’s hollowing out our middle class and denying most Americans a fair shot.

Changing tax rates and spending levels are two of the three standard tools policymakers have at their disposal to goose the economy. The other is monetary policy.

The Federal Reserve’s expansionary monetary policy that began in 2008 is unprecedented. It may have helped get our financial system back on its feet and unleashed a multi-year bull market. But our economy is still staggering.

Unemployment still stands at 6.6 percent and typical American workers are earning less than they did before the Great Recession.

That means it’s time to give targeted tax increases and higher government spending a shot.

The Arizona Republic advocates for wage theft from retirees

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Didn't I tell you the editorial board of the Arizona Republic will have a sad over this ruling? Arizona Supreme Court smacks down Arizona's lawless legislature, again: "State lawmakers cannot balance the budget by limiting pension benefit increases for retired judges, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday."

Sure 'nuf, here is the "editorial board" of the Arizona Republic arguing in favor of wage theft from retirees -- keep in mind this is deferred compensation that these employees bargained for in good faith and have earned by performing their end of the bargain. They are entitled to receive payment in exchange for their performance. Reform pensions or lose them:

The Arizona Supreme Court just handed an enormous past-due bill to taxpayers.

The state Legislature’s attempt in 2011 to rein in the costs of poorly performing pension plans is unconstitutional, according to the justices. The Arizona constitution forbids reducing public-pension benefits, which effectively means that no matter how high the costs go, taxpayers simply will have to find a way to pay them.

As a result, the pension board will have to pay out $7.9 million to bring the tab current for beneficiaries of the Elected Officials’ Retirement Plan, a part of the state’s worst performing pension trust, the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System.

The ruling also applies to other beneficiaries of the PSPRS whose benefits were temporarily curtailed. That adds another $32.1 million for retroactive raises. The system will set aside $335.6 million to fund cost-of-living adjustments going forward.

* * *

The 5-0 Supreme Court decision may be perfectly rational and predictable — a constitutionally guaranteed promise made must be kept, after all. But it leaves Arizona taxpayers in a position of disturbing vulnerability, one that begs for a constitutional amendment that will allow lawmakers to make the sorts of changes the justices now say they cannot.

Feb 19 City Council Meetings: Bus Fare Hike, Ronstadt Transit Center Redevelopment

by Pamela Powers Hannley

At the Feb. 19 study session and evening meeting, the Tucson City Council will consider two issues that could greatly affect bus service in our town.

During the study session, they will consider a proposal to increase bus fares. At the regular evening meeting, they will hear public comments about the proposed redevelopment of the Ronstadt Transit Center. (Proposals and background here.) In between these two meetings, the Tucson Bus Riders Union will have a rally outside of the City Council Chambers, beginning at 4 p.m. (Details and related articles below.)

ALEC's stealth constitutional convention

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Craig McDermott has posted about this previously, The AZLege's Black Helicopter Caucus wants a Constitutional Convention. Just the wrong kind., as have I. The Teabaggers want a Constitutional Convention.

Today the East Valley Tribune published its wingnut editorial contributor Tom Patterson extolling the virtues of a "compact" among states calling for a Constitutional Convention for the purpose of a balanced budget amendment. Patterson: Compact for America could be answer to our nation’s despair. Oy.

First of all, this latest right-wing gimmick is a product of the "Kochtopus" organization ALEC. the Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch reports, Wisconsin Moving to Advance ALEC Constitutional Convention Scheme:

ALEC's Stealth Convention

"AJR 81 comes right out of the 'Convention of States' workshop and materials presented at ALEC where state legislators were promised bundled campaign contributions and grassroots support if they joined this effort to amend the federal constitution," said Rep. Chris Taylor, a Madison Democrat who attended ALEC's Annual Meeting in Chicago last summer, in a statement. "I am alarmed that this effort is now making its way through the Wisconsin legislature and is tentatively scheduled to be considered by the full Assembly next Tuesday."

GOP Crazyland: Tea-Publicans stalked by 'unrepresentative one'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

For movie buffs, this sounds like the plot to When a Stranger Calls (1979 film).

The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House! Literally.

A group of House Republicans has received a mysterious threat in recent weeks: an anonymous email that promises political retribution for those who for vote yes to a debt-limit increase — sent to their closely guarded personal email addresses. Someone’s Been Sending GOP Lawmakers A Bizarre Threat Over The Debt Ceiling:

Because of the near-secret nature of lawmakers’ internal email addresses, the emails have raised more than a few eyebrows — and the possibility that one of their own was behind, or at least assisting in the attacks.

* * *

“It’s got to be another member. Probably one of the crazy ones,” said a Republican who had seen the email, which was sent from an anonymous email address, [email protected].

Wait, "one of the crazy ones"? That doesn't narrow things down at all!

Ted 'Calgary' Cruz filibuster fizzles - Senate approves clean debt ceiling increase

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Remember last fall when Sen. Joe McCarthy Ted "Calgary" Cruz (R-TX) had the Tea-Publicans in Congress all riled up with his demagoguery for a government shutdown over the federal debt ceiling?

That was then, this is now. After being led into a blind alley once by this reckless demagogue, nobody was going to march to his tune again.

After the House passed a "clean" debt ceiling increase on Tuesday, Teddy Calgary promised he would filibuster it in the Senate. "I will demand a 60 vote threshhold!"

Today, the Senate GOP leadership demonstrated they no longer fear this has-been teabagger idol. McConnell, Cornyn Vote To Advance Clean Debt Limit Hike:

The Senate on Wednesday voted 67-31 to break a filibuster and advance a "clean" debt limit hike, which the House passed a day earlier.

Shockingly, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) [provided the final] votes for cloture. Both are up for re-election and were widely expected to vote against the procedural motion. [Soon after, a half dozen other Republicans joined the two leaders.]

Boehner raises the white flag - President Obama and Democrats get 'clean' debt ceiling increase

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last week, Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio) was quoted as saying, “Right now, Jesus himself couldn’t be the speaker and get 218 Republicans behind something, so I think Speaker Boehner is trying his best to come up with a plan that can get close to that.”

As I predicted last week, the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, raised the white flag on the latest GOP debt ceiling hostage taking. The Tea-Publican economic terrorists could not agree on what they wanted to take hostage this time, so the TanMan this monring said "Fuck it! We're going with a clean debt ceiling bill." (Yes he does speak this way off the record). GOP leaders will bring up ‘clean’ debt-ceiling bill.

For debt-limit deniers, the answer is always ‘No.’ Sen. Joe McCarthy Ted "Calgary" Cruz (R-TX), who apparently believes he is Speaker of the House, wanted another debt ceiling showdown. Cruz: ‘Clean’ debt ceiling hike ‘irresponsible’. Boehner blew off the blowhard demagogue this time.

Today the House approved a debt limit increase with most Republicans voting for default:

The House of Representatives has raised the debt limit on a vote of 221-201, avoiding the economic catastrophe that would have resulted if the United States had been forced to default on its debt. All but two Democrats voted for the measure. They were joined by 199 Republicans who favored default. [Only 28 Republicans voted yes.]

UPDATE: Reps. John Barrow (D-Ga.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), who is retiring, voted no. Initially Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.), who is also retiring, also voted no, but switched his vote.

House Ways and Means Committee advances unconstitutional 'empowerment scholarship accounts'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Snap quiz class. Tell me what is wrong with this headline from the Arizona Daily Star's creative headline writer: Expanding state aid to private and parochial schools on track. Congratulations class! You are all way smarter than the Star's creative headline writer.

This is a clear violation of the Arizona Constitution which prohibits state funding to private and parochial schools:

Article 2, Section 12: "No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise, or instruction, or to the support of any religious establishment."

Article 11, Section 7: "No sectarian instruction shall be imparted in any school or state educational institution that may be established under this Constitution, and no religious or political test or qualification shall ever be required as a condition of admission into any public educational institution of the state, as teacher, student, or pupil;"

Several years ago, the Goldwater institute convinced the Arizona Supreme Court to accept a sort of "straw man exchange" argument common in real estate transactions to uphold tax credits that supported private and parochial schools. The argument was that the money went to the parents, not directly from the state to the schools, and thus did not violate the constitutional provisions above. The legal fiction created by the Court was in error, but established a legal precedent that the Goldwater Institute has been trying to exploit ever since.

And this is exactly what our Tea-Publican controlled legislature is hoping to accomplish with these so-called "empowerment scholarship accounts." Howard Fischer reports:

A House panel agreed Monday to allow hundreds of thousands of children to attend private and parochial schools at public expense — a vote one legislator said is part of a radical agenda to destroy public schools.

Espresso Pundit's concern is duly noted

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Commenter “Robert” alerted me to an “in-depth analysis” of Friday’s court decision dismissing the anti-Medicaid expansion lawsuit by Arizona’s Own Espresso Pundit. EP warns liberals like myself not to be too sanguine about the judge’s ruling that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing.

E.J. Dionne on the failure of conservative economics

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Conservative economics is taking the ass-whooping it so richly deserves today. First Paul Krugman, now E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post weighs in. An economic school has led to gridlock in Washington:

One of my favorite moments during the 2012 Republican presidential contest came when Ron Paul, fresh from his strong showing in Iowa, triumphantly told his supporters: “We’re all Austrians now!”

* * *

Of course those in the know, particularly Ron Paul’s enthusiasts, understood the libertarian presidential candidate’s reference: that Americans were rejecting the economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes that encouraged government intervention and provided intellectual ballast for the New Deal. Instead, they were coming around to the principles of the anti-government economics of Austrians Friedrich A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises.

Krugman on the GOP's ideological indifference to evidence

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Paul Krugman of the New York Times gets right to the heart of the matter today, Writing Off the Unemployed:

[I]t’s difficult to find a better example of the hardhearted, softheaded nature of today’s G.O.P. than what happened last week, as Senate Republicans once again used the filibuster to block aid to the long-term unemployed.

What do we know about long-term unemployment in America?

First, it’s still at near-record levels. Historically, the long-term unemployed — those out of work for 27 weeks or more — have usually been between 10 and 20 percent of total unemployment. Today the number is 35.8 percent. Yet extended unemployment benefits, which went into effect in 2008, have now been allowed to lapse. As a result, few of the long-term unemployed are receiving any kind of support.

The Teabaggers want a Constitutional Convention

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Your presence is requested. For those of you who have signed up for a legislative account to submit testimony online, now's your chance.

There's more GOP batshit crazy on Tuesday when the Teabaggers meet in the ironically named House Federalism, and Fiscal Responsibility Committee, Agenda (.pdf), in Room HHR 1 at 2:00 p.m.

Yowsa! The Teabaggers want a Constitutional Convention so they can discard the U.S. Constitution and start all over, because that is what happened the last time we did this in 1787 to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. I always find it amusing that the very people who like to call themselves "constitutional conservatives" are so hellbent on wanting to rewrite the U.S. Constitution (many of them much prefer the Articles of Confederation -- states rights!)

HCR 2017 (.pdf) is an "application for an Article V Convention to propose amendments to the United States (U.S.) Constitution." And what is it that the Teabaggers want?

• Impose fiscal restraints on the federal government;
• Limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and
• Limit the terms of office for officials of the federal government.

HCR 2017 (.pdf) calls for a balanced budget amendment, one of the most ignorant proposals of all time. It would mean (a) eliminating almost all government programs, even curtailing national defense and (b) everyone paying higher taxes. God forbid we have a national emergency like a major natural disaster or a war.

January job numbers reflect GOP austerity measures

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Steve Benen has his monthly break down of the job numbers for January. Jobs report underwhelms again:

The good news is, U.S. job growth picked up in January following December’s awful totals. The bad news is, that’s not saying much.

The new report from Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the U.S. economy added 113,000 jobs in January, well below economists’ expectations. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.6% – its lowest point since October 2008 – but that’s cold comfort given the overall data, and is likely affected by congressional Republicans’ decision to cut off jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

As is often the case, there was also a sizable gap between the public and private sectors – in January, businesses added 142,000 jobs, while spending cuts forced 29,000 government job losses.

This report, like the one before it, offer yet another reminder to policymakers that the economic recovery is far from robust. For GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to forfeit 200,000 jobs this year by failing to extend jobless aid – or worse, threaten deliberate harm through another debt-ceiling crisis – only makes it harder for the economy to get to where it needs to be.

A party built upon a foundation of lies

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Remember the $700 billion lie that will not die (up fro $500 billion in 2010) about "cuts" to Medicare, even after every media fact check organization in America rated the GOP claim a "pants on fire" lie repeatedly since 2010? NRCC's 'pants on fire' - the $700 billion lie that will not die returns. Expect to see this lie return in 2014.

This week it was the epic media fail on the CBO report that GOPropagandists tweeted and retweeted: Obamacare to mean 2 million fewer workers. Corporate 'lamestream' media fail on CBO reports. Even the GOP-friendly AP (All Propaganda) has fact-checked this lie, Anti-Obamacare chorus on job losses is off key, as has the GOP-friendly FactCheck.org. The ACA: Losing Jobs vs. Choosing Not to Work - FactCheck.org.

One would think the GOP would simply admit to making an error, as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) did on Wednesday, Paul Ryan has momentary lapse into truthfulness, and say "my bad, it won't happen again."

Oh, you would be so wrong.

Senate GOP to punish the unemployed, will filibuster unemployment insurance extension

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a test vote on Thursday to extend long-term unemployment insurance benefits after having rejected Republican requests that they be allowed to propose a number of "poison pill" amendments to the Democratic bill. Reid sets up test vote on jobless aid:

Democrats controlling the Senate have set up a test vote on Thursday for the party’s new plan to extend unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for more than six months.

The latest plan would extend long-term jobless benefits for three months at a cost of almost $7 billion, paid for by a tweak to pension law that Republicans call a gimmick.

Democrats don’t expect the measure to get enough GOP support to overcome a filibuster threshold of 60 votes. Democrats control the Senate with 55 votes and so far expect just three Republicans to join with them. They are Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nevada and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

I would encourage you to call our senators, but we all know how these two losers will vote. By the way, in a real democracy without the tyranny of the minority engaging in obstruction and filibuster, this bill would have already passed the Senate.

Corporate 'lamestream' media fail on CBO reports

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Tea-Publicans in Congress were tripping all over themselves to get to a microphone on Tuesday to trumpet a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that the conservative media entertainment complex, and its enablers in the corporate "lamestream" media either did not read or purposefully misrepresented with headlines like this in the Washington Post: CBO: Health law to mean 2 million fewer workers.

After initially blowing the story, the Washington Post at least did an admirable job of walking it back. It's media critic Eric Wemple wrote, The media’s massive revisions on CBO-Obamacare story:

The [Washington Post’s "Fact Checker"] Glenn Kessler today published a fact-checking post breaking some news: No, he wrote, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) never, ever reported that Obamacare would somehow or other kill more than 2 million U.S. jobs.

Okay, to say that Kessler broke this news is a rhetorical exaggeration to highlight the point that many-o-many media outlets misconstrued the CBO findings. For a while this morning, the Internet was hopping with job-killing hype, when in fact the truth was vastly different. Obamacare’s impact, the CBO concluded, would lessen the supply of labor by encouraging certain folks not to work: “The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses’ demand for labor, so it will appear almost entirely as a reduction in labor force participation and in hours worked. . . .”

For someone approaching retirement, notes Kessler, Obamacare could well mean that they needn’t hold onto a bad job just to keep health insurance. That’s a far different dynamic from job-killing.

Boehner raises the white flag on the latest GOP debt ceiling hostage taking

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Have Tea-Publicans finally learned their lesson about taking America hostage and threatening to default on the national debt and destroying the economy every few months? Or is it just because this is an election year and "once burned, twice shy?" (A new CNN poll finds that 54 percent would blame Republicans if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, versus 29 percent who would blame Obama. Independents would blame the GOP by 49-30.)

Following a meeting with his GOP caucus today, the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, raised the white flag on the latest GOP debt ceiling hostage taking. Steve Benen writes, A half-hearted hostage strategy unravels:

Just last year, the Speaker was eager to push the so-called "Boehner Rule" on spending cuts, all while proclaiming that there was simply no way his caucus would approve a clean increase the way he and other GOP colleagues used to.

All of that posturing has been replaced with a more circumspect approach.

Just days away from the administration's deadline to extend the nation's borrowing authority, Speaker John A. Boehner told House Republicans he sees no reason to pick a fight they cannot win on the issue.

"There's no sense picking a fight we can't win," the Ohio Republican told members in a private conference meeting, according to sources in the room.

He added, "No one wants to default on our debt." Since the Speaker is very likely sincere about this point, the crisis is already effectively over -- Boehner won't want to crash the economy on purpose, especially in an election year, so Democrats, who already remember Republicans caving twice on the debt ceiling last year, will have no incentive to pay a ransom now.

Community Forum on Keeping Children Safe and Healthy

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Press release from the Children's Action Alliance:

GOP's war on the poor: cut food stamps, keep farm subsidies

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The compromise "farm bill," which provides the appropriations for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aka food stamps, survived a vote in the Tea-Publican House today. Last year a similar bill was defeated by Tea-Publicans in the House who felt the bill was not draconian and punitive enough towards the takers poor.

The New York Times reports, House Approves Farm Bill, Ending 2-Year Impasse:

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill authorizing nearly $1 trillion in spending on farm subsidies and nutrition programs, setting the stage for final passage of a new five-year farm bill that has been stalled for over two years.

Negotiators from the House and Senate spent several weeks working out their differences on issues in the legislation, including cuts to food stamps, income caps on farm subsidies and a price support program for dairy farmers. The bill is expected to save about $16.6 billion over the next 10 years.

The bill passed the House by a vote of 251 to 166. The Senate is expected to take up the bill later this week.

Compared with earlier, more contentious votes on the farm bill, Wednesday’s vote was largely bipartisan. Many Democrats who had opposed it because of cuts to the food stamp program supported it on Wednesday. A number of Republicans, including many who wanted deeper cuts to the food stamps, also voted for the bill’s passage.

New Tea-Publican challenger To Martha McSally in CD 2

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

After one Teabagger stumbles out of the gate, out of the race, another Tea-Publican "dark horse" has entered the starting gate.

The Tucson Weekly reports that, New GOP Dark Horse at the Starting Gate in CD2:

A new Republican candidate wants to see if he can outmaneuver GOP favorite Martha McSally for the chance to take on U.S. Rep. Ron Barber in Congressional District 2 this year. Meet Chuck Wooten:

Chief Master Sergeant, U.S. Air Force (Retired) Chuck Wooten is announcing his candidacy for the Arizona Congressional District 2 (CD2) on the Republican ticket.

Chuck Wooten is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Congressman Ron Barber.

Wooten has achieved certain notoriety with his Open Letter to Congressman Paul Ryan regarding the reduction of military retirement payments in the Ryan-Murray Budget that was passed into law in late December 2013. [More about that Open Letter below.]

Wooten is running on a platform that includes steadfast, conservative positions on issues regarding border security, jobs for southeastern Arizonans, healthcare reform and reducing the federal deficit. Wooten offers a clear, common-sense alternative in his approach as compared to the other Republican candidates.

“I deliberately chose a campaign slogan that echoes loud and clear the message that southern Arizona conservatives have identified as the top qualities they demand in their representatives, “Trust. Leadership. Guts.” These qualities are my hallmark and my commitment to deliver to them when I earn their votes,” said Wooten.

Wooten will be making a formal announcement for his candidacy for Arizona Congressional District 2 on Monday, February 3, 2014, at 12:00 Noon on the steps of El Presidio Park, 160 W. Alameda Street in down town Tucson.

PDA Meeting, Jan 23: Should Arizona Move Its Money? (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Following the Wall Street crash and the housing market collapse a few years ago, the Move Your Money campaign encouraged millions of Americans to take their money out of big commercial banks and hold the funds locally in credit unions and community banks.

Is it time for state governments to move their money?

Across the US, millions of dollars of taxpayer funds are held in big commercial banks and invested on Wall Street. If Arizona had a public bank, the state’s rainy day funds would be held and invested in Arizona.

Local investment of state funds translates into jobs and a stronger economy. An Arizona public bank could create jobs by investing in public works projects, can boost entrepreneurship by backing small business loans through community banks, can build our state’s future by helping finance college loans—and much more. Isn’t it time that Arizona invested in Arizona—instead of Wall Street?

Why does Arizona need a public bank?

• Maybe it's because Arizona has a crumbling infrastructure and "no money" to fix roads, bridges, and public buildings?
• Maybe it's because Arizona's entrepreneurs can't get the capital they need to grow and innovate?
• Maybe it's because cities and towns are strapped for cash and have have to sell bonds and pay high fees in order to get credit?
• Maybe it's because Arizona has the 3rd lowest credit rating in the US, making borrowing extremely expensive?
• Maybe it's because Arizona is among the 10 worst states in the country for home foreclosures?
• Maybe it's because 10 Arizona banks have failed in the last few years?
• Maybe it's because university tuition continues to increase, pricing young Arizonans out of the market for higher education?

The answer is, of course, all of the above and more. 

Come to the January 23, 2014 meeting of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) Tucson Chapter to learn how public banking can build Arizona’s economy and benefit Arizona’s citizens. [Event details and video after the jump.]

Oxfam Report: The world's richest 85 people have the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the population

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Growing income inequality is not just prevalent in the world's richest country, the United States. but is a global phenomenon.

The humanitarian organization Oxfam International has released a new research report, Working for the Few: Political capture and economic inequality, which finds that:

Almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population, and seven out of ten people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in the last 30 years. The World Economic Forum has identified economic inequality as a major risk to human progress, impacting social stability within countries and threatening security on a global scale.

This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a real threat to inclusive political and economic systems, and compounds other inequalities – such as those between women and men. Left unchecked, political institutions are undermined and governments overwhelmingly serve the interests of economic elites – to the detriment of ordinary people.

GOP rejects its own 'No Budget, No Pay' Act

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

What a difference a year makes. A year ago, the Tea-Publican Congress was posturing against Senate Democrats with a "no budget, no pay" gimmick from the GOP's Gimmicks-R-Us shoppe. House GOP Debt Ceiling Plan: 'No Budget, No Pay' - CNBC.com.

You will recall that Senate Democats actually did pass a budget early last year which was ignored by the Tea-Publican House so that they could set up their government shutdown in October, also from the GOP's Gimmicks-R-Us shoppe. But I digress.

Today's headline: Republicans Quietly Talk About Skipping Next Budget:

House Republicans are quietly discussing the option of not writing a budget in 2014, a maneuver that would free up time on the legislative calendar and protect GOP lawmakers from a potentially damaging vote in an election year.

The idea of Republicans skipping this year's budgetary process seems odd when considering the House GOP made history last year by attaching a policy rider called "No Budget, No Pay" to a debt-limit extension. That measure tied lawmakers' salaries to budgets being written in both chambers and paved the way for a budget agreement between House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray.

But unbeknownst to some lawmakers at the time—and still some today—is that "No Budget, No Pay" was a one-year provision. It is now expired. [How convenient!] This, combined with the fact that Ryan-Murray set spending figures for the next fiscal year anyhow, has some House Republicans wondering if a budgeting process this year is really necessary.

Dueling dipshits in the House battle for CD 1

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There's nothing like a self-involved legislator who wants to abuse the legislative body in which he serves for his own personal gain, especially when he is squaring off against another member of that legislative body for the same contested seat. The Arizona Capitol Times (subcription required) reports that Rep. Adam Kwasman (R-Oro Valley), has filed a bill to repeal Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion plan as a ploy to posture himself against House Speaker Andy Tobin in the Republican primary for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. Republican lawmaker proposes repealing Medicaid expansion.

These dueling dipshits should take their fight outside. There is no chance the coalition of votes that passed Governor Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion are going to change their minds. This is all about appealing to the GOP crazy base in the GOP congressional primary. Only a court ruling -- which is still pending -- could upset this balance.

And you know who neither Kwasman nor Tobin give a damn about? The more than 300,000 desperate working poor in Arizona who are now eligible for medical care under AHCCCS, many for the first time in their lives. They are just collateral damage to these dueling dipshits.

The GOP wrecking crew is sabotaging the economy out of partisanship

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

You likely have heard by now that the Senate GOP filibustered extended unemployment insurance benefits for the long-term unemployment on a straight party-line vote, 55-45. You should note than in an actual democracy, this bill passed with 55 votes. Negotiations to extend jobless benefits deadlock in Senate. Brad Plumer explains 7 reasons why Congress’s failure to extend unemployment insurance matters.

This is part of a broader partisan strategy by the GOP wrecking crew to sabotage the economy out of partisanship. They believe that if the economy is still struggling in November -- due largely to GOP austerity economic measures and their failure to pass a single jobs bill since taking over in 2011 -- low information voters will blame the president and his party rather than the Tea-Publican economic terrorists who have been sabotaging the economy at every turn.

That's right, the same assholes who blew up our financial system and economy in 2008 with their faith based supply-side "trickle down" economics and then engaged in unprecedented obstruction, and held the country hostage time and again to their extortionary economic terrorist demands ever since, expect to be rewarded by low information voters for their insurrection against the federal government and economic terrorism against the American people. A classic Stockholm syndrome.

Kavanagh for the kleptocracy of the 'Kochtopus'!

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last year I posted that the Goldwater Institute declares war on public employees:

Now the Goldwater Institute "Kochtopus" Death Star wants to extend this fiscally reckless amd irresponsible idea [Tucson public employee pension initiative] to state and local governments in Arizona through a statewide initiative. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Initiative would tie government spending to pension funding:

A proposed ballot measure would effectively bar state and local governments from increasing spending across the board until its employee pension systems are adequately funded.

[The purposefully deceptively named] Responsible Budgets Act, which was filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office on Friday, would bar political entities with underfunded pension systems from increasing spending, except for inflation and population growth. A provision in the initiative defines “adequately funded” as 80 percent funded.

[I-02-2014 Responsible Budgets in Support of Proposition __ and Petition Serial # ____, full text of initiative: PDF]

I am guessing that the Goldwater Institute "Kochtopus" Death Star is also behind this latest bill attacking the state employee pension system as well, sponsored by its waterboy, Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills). Lawmaker seeks to allow cuts in public pensions:

An Arizona lawmaker wants the state constitution amended to allow cuts to public employee pensions and increases in employee contributions if the systems are badly underfunded.

Republican Rep. John Kavanagh introduced a bill [HCR 2001 (.pdf)] that would refer the proposal to the voters. He said in an interview he is targeting automatic cost-of-living increases but acknowledged nothing in his proposal would prevent cuts to existing pensions.

Governor Brewer's bogus 'Arizona Comeback'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Linda Valdez at The Arizona Republic is appropriately skeptical of Governor Jan Brewer's State of the State Address, where the Guv injured her arm patting herself on the back. Brewer's speech: state of the state 2014 :

This time it was her announcement that she abolished CPS. Jaw dropping. But it will accomplish little if chronic underfunding is not corrected. Unless the new agency gets adequate staffing and equipment, Brewer’s bold move may be little more than a distraction. Let’s hope not.

She offered a litany of smiley-face ideas. Who is going to oppose helping abused kids or victims of human trafficking? Who isn’t glad Arnold vs. Sarn is settled? But these goals will be impossible unless the state has more revenue. But the governor is pushing more revenue-robbing corporate tax cuts.

That does not compute.

* * *

More tax breaks for business means less revenue for education.

Brewer approach to schools? Gotta get better.

Following recession-era cuts to K-12 that were among the worst in the nation, she talks an “ambitious” proposal to reward successful students. A nice idea. Interesting pilot. But this is no way to rebuild a fund that was attacked with a meat cleaver.

Calling on the Board of Regents to hold the line on tuition makes sense. But how can the universities pay for this?

Why "reinventing" CPS might not change anything

Today was the first day of Arizona's legislative session and also the day that Governor Brewer delivered her State of the State remarks. One of the highlights of her speech was her announcement that she was "abolishing" Child Protective Services via executive order. The agency will be spun off into a standalone, cabinet-level department. It will no longer be part of the Department of Economic Security (DES). I'm relieved that the Governor didn't put the agency under the aegis of law enforcement, as some conservatives have suggested, due to the chilling prospect of Arpaio's deputies demanding "papers" before investigating reports. 

But I don't see it changing much, if anything. At best, there could be some minor improvement initially due to hypervigilance but I predict things will return to exactly the way they were so long as CPS remains chronically underfunded. Defenders of Brewer's administration and Republican rule of the state will claim that cuts to CPS were inevitable due to the recession and that government agencies are bloated anyway. Isn't it funny, though, how child abuse prevention and enforcement had to be cut (along with education, health care, and social services) while prisons were spared? Obviously shrewd private prison lobbyists and their profit motive play a role in that but Corrections eats up 10% of the state's budget (which is about as much as we spend on higher education, by the way) and private prisons are only a fraction of that. The majority of state prisoners are in state-run prisons. Seems like it would be a ripe target for spending reductions and there are numerous effective alternatives to imprisonment at our disposal but they weren't considered. No, we had to hold prison spending harmless even though the actual number of prisoners in the state has decreased slightly. 

It's really easy to dismiss this as "that's Republicans for you" but this interview by Joshua Holland on Bill Moyers' site sheds some light on why certain things in government are prioritized over others. 

A growing body of academic research suggests that the wealthy see the world differently than the rest of us.

These studies are more than a matter of passing interest. Last week, the Center for Responsive Politics released a report that for the first time ever, a majority of those representing us in Congress are millionaires. And studies by political scientists Larry Bartels at Princeton and Trinity University’s Thomas Hayes have demonstrated that lawmakers vote to advance the interests of the wealthiest Americans. So in an effective plutocracy, the worldviews of ‘high-status’ individuals translate directly into public policies that affect us all.

Building on earlier research that found that those at the top tend to see themselves as being inherently more deserving than average working people, UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner and Michael Kraus, a colleague at the University of Illinois, looked at how those views might influence the way they view our criminal justice system in astudy published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The researchers found that the wealthier the subjects were, and the wealthier they perceived themselves to be in relation to others, the more likely they were to attribute their good fortune to their innate superior qualities. Keitner and Kraus also found that wealth correlates with what they called a retributive versus restorative model of criminal justice.  

What we’ve learned in this study is that if you think that there are just bad people out there, because of their genes, because of their temperament, because of their biological makeup, you won’t have much hope in restorative justice or restorative punishment. You won’t think there’s really any opportunity for them to change.

And what we’ve found is that because they have this belief that the people who aren’t doing well aren’t doing well because of their genes, upper-class individuals — or people put into this upper-class mindset — are more likely to endorse harsher, more retributive forms of punishment. That’s true when thinking about crimes and also kids cheating in schools — all manner of transgressions. I think that’s really worrisome.

Our state government is not full of elected officials or bureaucrats of considerable wealth but that does describe many of the people with the most influence over it - the lobbyists, advisers, board members, etc. 

Keltner:

And I’m not only worried about our punitive tendencies. I’d also extend this analysis to other policy areas. For example, the idea of devoting resources to those in need, people who are struggling, is a foundational element of a strong state. And our data would suggest that the well-to-do, who are more likely to be in office, won’t have that intuition about directing resources to those in need. I think there are many applications of this work.

Most CPS reports are for neglect, not abuse. While abusive parents are found at all socioeconomic levels, neglect is probably more often a function of lack of resources rather than malice. But if wealthy people are likelier to believe that poor parents are simply constitutionally inferior than to see them as worthwhile people who need help, you can see how this could put abused and neglected children from poor families in a double bind. Prisons might be taking precedence over assistance to poor households for reasons people designing those policies haven't even given much thought to. 

Sen. John McCain makes a complete ass of himself (again)

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"If it's Sunday, It's John McCain." The Sunday morning bobbleheads are his base. No one else gives a damn.

The man who could not remember if he owns 8, no wait is it 9, no 10 homes, was on TeaNN (formerly CNN) on Sunday to explain why someone who made his fortune the old-fashioned way -- he married it -- voted against extending long-term unemployment benefits to the unemployed and is opposed to raising the minimum wage: Obama derangement syndrome.

Arizona's angry old man does not feel empathy and compassion for the less fortunate. Screw "Christian values" -- Fuck em! It's all about the sanctity of Senate procedures that only the Beltway media clutches their pearls over.

Heather at Crooksandliars.com nails it. McCain: Jobless Benefits, Minimum Wage 'Clever Strategy' of 'Anything But Obamacare':

If Sen. John McCain really wants to help the Republicans with their "messaging" on unemployment benefits and minimum wage, he might want to start by staying off the air.

Here's Grandpa McGrumpy telling CNN's Candy Crowley that the real problem is not their cruel stance on unemployment benefits or raising the minimum wage, it's that they haven't done enough carping about that mean old Harry Reid stopping them from being able to grind the Senate to a halt with poison pills and adding an unlimited number of amendments to bills so they never see the light of day.

Stock Markets set record closing highs

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

If President Barack Obama is a socialist/communist/marxist (pick one) he is really terrible at it. While long-term unemployment in the wake of the Great Recession has not been substantially reduced -- the Bureau of Labor Statistic's U-6 long-term unemployment measure declined from 13.9% in November 2012 to 13.2% in November 2013, thanks largely to the GOP budget sequester and austerity economics -- the investor class, i.e., The Predator Class, has not only recovered from the Great Recession but it was a Champagne year's end for Wall St as stocks set record closing highs:

Stocks closed 2013 at record highs on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 posting its largest annual jump in 16 years and the Dow its biggest gain in 18, after positive reports on consumer confidence and housing boosted sentiment on the final trading day of the year.

"It's been a great year, if you look at it from what the prevailing sentiment was at the beginning of the year, it has surpassed even the most bullish of predictions. It's the type of year you want to savor, there's been a nice wealth effect that has warmed people's portfolios," said Matthew Kaufler, portfolio manager at Federated Investors.

"Between the rise in the markets as well as the rebound in housing prices, this year went a long way in repairing consumer balance sheets," he added.

'ObamaCare' arrives this New Year's Day

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Unless there was a late order entered by Judge Kathleen Cooper in Biggs, et al. vs. Brewer, et al. (CV2013-011699) that did not get recorded on the docket, Arizona's expanded Medicaid (AHCCCS) program under "ObamaCare" is effective today.

If you have been approved for Medicaid (AHCCCS) health care coverage, you are among the millions of Americans who now have health care coverage that you did not have before thanks to "ObamaCare." With new year, Medicaid takes on broader role:

Medicaid embarks on a massive transformation Wednesday — from a safety-net program for the most vulnerable to a broad-based one that finds itself at the front lines of the continuing political and ideological battle over the Affordable Care Act.

Already the nation’s largest health-care program, Medicaid is being expanded and reshaped by the law to cover a wider array of people.

* * *

On Wednesday, people who have signed up for coverage under the new law will become eligible to receive it, in what supporters have hailed as a historic moment for health care in the United States.

So far, more than 2 million Americans, many previously uninsured, have enrolled in private health plans, thanks in large part to new federal subsidies for low- and middle-income people to buy coverage.

* * *

A far greater number — about 3.9 million — took steps in October and November to sign up for Medicaid, according to federal figures. That includes people who became eligible for the state-federal program under the expansion as well as those who could have enrolled previously, but for one reason or another did not sign up until now.

Court cases to watch in the coming weeks

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Our lawless legislature has several cases in court to keep an eye out for a decision in the coming weeks.

The first case of importance is Biggs, et al. vs. Brewer, et al. (CV2013-011699), the Tea-Publican legislature's challenge to Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion plan heard in Maricopa County Superior Court by Judge Kathleen Cooper on December 13, 2013. A Minute Entry dated December 18 says the matter is "under advisement." Judge Cooper did not indicate at the December 13 hearing when she would rule on pending motions, but there is a deadline of sorts -- the "ObamaCare" Medicaid expansion provisions become effective on January 1, 2014.

Harris, et al. v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (CV-12-0894-PHX-ROS-NVW-RRC), the Tea-Publican legislature's challenge to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission's (AIRC) state legislative districts map, was heard by a three judge panel of federal judges on March 22 and concluded on March 30, 2013. Supplemental briefs addressing the effect, if any, of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder on this case wrapped up by August 9. A decision has been pending for more than 120 days.

We are already well into the 2014 election cycle with the primary filing deadline in May. I would argue that time has already expired on the game clock -- there needs to be certainty in legislative district lines, and the 2012 legislative district lines should remain in place for 2014. I anticipate a decision in this case shortly.

Fruity or Oaky? Rambling Thoughts on White People Problems

by Pamela Powers Hannley

My coffee table book is too large for my coffee table.

My Internet connection is too slow.

My dishwasher doesn’t really get the dishes clean.

iPads should have a USB connection.

I can’t remember all of my passwords.

Will Wall Street gambling hurt by 401K’s performance?

My car is annoying. The on-board computer tells me when to add air to the tires, when someone’s seatbelt is undone, and when it needs to go to the shop for service.

I hate it when I find a good recipe on the Internet and then can’t find it again.

Cable TV is too expensive for what your get. NetFlix is the way to go– or just plug the laptop into the flat screen TV.

I give my dog a daily dab of Greek yogurt with her dog food because she farts too much.

A late Christmas gift from Congress to the unemployed

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Congress allowed the stimulus funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aka food stamps to expire on November 1, resulting in a reduction of benefits, while Congress continued to argue over whether to cut food stamps by $4 billion (Senate) or $40 billion (House). The congressional "hunger games" will resume when Congress returns in January.

A late Christmas gift from Congress to the long-term unemployed is the expiration of their extended unemployment insurance benefits. A lump of coal for the unemployed:

Since the start of the recession, Congress has extended federal unemployment benefits 11 times. There will not be a 12th before the deadline – emergency aid will expire on Saturday.

The emergency unemployment benefits were instituted by President George W. Bush in 2008 as the financial crisis ramped up and the jobless rate started up toward the 10 percent peak it would hit the following year. Typically, states provide insurance payments to unemployed workers for up to six months.

But as the nation spiraled into recession, and then the recovery struggled to gain traction, the federal government offered repeated extensions, each lasting a period of several months, allowing some people to stay on for 99 weeks. The program has paid out $225 billion in benefits.

Arizona needs a 'Moral Mondays' movement

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The most fascinating political development of 2013 to observe was the rise of the progressive "Moral Mondays" movement in North Carolina in response to the radicalized extremist Tea-Publican controlled state legislature.

"Moral Mondays" engages in civil disobedience protests, organized in part by local religious leaders including William Barber, head of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP. Members of the protest movement meet every Monday to protest an action by the North Carolina legislature and then enter the legislature building. Once they enter, a number are peacefully arrested each Monday.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution recently reported that a Moral Mondays organization was being established in Georgia. Your daily jolt: Moral Monday protests coming to state Capitol:

The Moral Monday protests that rocked North Carolina (and led to hundreds of arrests each Monday) last year may be coming to Georgia.

A group called Moral Monday Georgia (moralmondayga.org) has quietly begun gathering supporters and planning organizing meetings this month. They plan one of the first actions on the Jan. 13, the first Monday of the session, and the platform focuses on a call to expand Medicaid, restore funding to public schools and raising the minimum wage.

On Christmas Day, the AP reported that the "Moral Mondays" movement will spread to other Southern States (i.e., Red States). Moral Mondays to continue, spread to other states:

The Moral Monday movement to protest changes in North Carolina public policy that organizers believe are extreme and hurt the state won’t abate in 2014 and will spread to other states, its leader said.

Activists from a dozen states attended a meeting in Raleigh earlier this month to learn how to hold similar protests in their states.

Jesus Rebranded: Capitalism is the reason for the season

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Mark Fiore has a new video mocking the FAUX News "War on Christmas" and conservatives' mental breakdown over Pope Francis attacking their "sacred" belief in faith based supply-side "trickle down" economics. Mark Fiore's videos - Vimeo (link to video, no embed due to privacy settings). Mark Fiore writes:

Between the "War on Christmas" and the accusations that Pope Francis is a Marxist, some people can't seem to make up their mind.  Who better to wage a war on Christmas than the people who want the Pope to be more of a capitalist!  Seems like the most holy Christmas ever was one without rampant consumerism.  (Remember, Joseph and Mary had the nerve to stay in a place for free on Christmas Eve-- sounds like a couple of moochers to me!)

Amidst the imagined attacks on Christmas, Rush Limbaugh and some Fox News characters accused Pope Francis of being Marxist after he said some critical words about our economic system.  Never mind that Pope Benedict had similar complaints.  Everything has been coming up Pope Francis lately, who was picked as Time's "Person of the Year" and was featured on the cover of the New Yorker.  Having been raised Catholic and having done plenty of cartoons about the scandals in the Catholic Church, I'm happy that we're talking again about things like helping the poor, imagine that.

* * *

As usual, you can also find more links to news stories behind this cartoon on my website.

Yes, the GOP is responsible for denying millions of Americans access to health care under the 'Medicaid Gap'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Rush Limbaugh of the Republic, GOPropagandist hack Doug MacEachern, has his panties all in a bunch about an AP (All Propaganda) report in which the reporter, David Lieb, dared to stray from the GOP narrative that the AP usually provides by actually reporting the truth: ObamaCare is fairing considerably worse in Red States run by Republicans. Newsy report finds Republicans cause of Obamacare woes.

I don't know what alternate reality this hack lives in, but perhaps he hasn't noticed that damn near the entire GOP caucus of the Arizona legislature is in court right now trying to prevent thousands of Arizonans from gaining access to expanded Medicaid (AHCCCS). He could have read about it in the pages of the Republic. Medicaid battle heads to court.

Since this hack only trolls the conservative media entertainment complex for his material, he likely ignored this New York Times report from October about Red State sabotage of the expanded Medicaid provisions of ObamaCare, which has resulted in a GOP-created "Medicaid gap," denying millions of Americans access to health care under "ObamaCare." Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law:

A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times.

Because they live in states largely controlled by Republicans that have declined to participate in a vast expansion of Medicaid, the medical insurance program for the poor, they are among the eight million Americans who are impoverished, uninsured and ineligible for help. The federal government will pay for the expansion through 2016 and no less than 90 percent of costs in later years.

The Tea-Publican economic terrorist are already plotting the next debt ceiling hostage taking

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Beltway media villagers were tripping all over themselves on Sunday to lavish praise on the GOP's alleged boy genius, Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan (R-WI), for his "pragmatic" budget compromise with Democrats. You would think it was the dawn of a new bipartisan era of cooperation where long-delayed legislation like a jobs bill and a comprehensive immigration reform bill were suddenly possible.

I can't believe how stone-cold stupid the Beltway media villagers are. First of all, the Senate still has to pass the House budget this week, which is not at all a certaintly. And then comes the appropriations committee process where Democrats and Tea-Publicans will square off over farm bill subsidies, food stamps and an extension of long-term unemployment insurance benefits, just to name a few.

Secondly, there is no "dawn of a new bipartisian era" -- this is the GOP 2014 election strategy to become the "Anti-ObamaCare" single issue party. Ryan on Sunday defended his budget deal to avert a government shutdown, saying that it would allow the Republican Party to "focus" on destroying President Barack Obama's health care reform law. Paul Ryan: Averting shutdown with budget deal allows GOP to 'focus' on killing Obamacare . That sounds like the same old bunch of dead-enders to me.

Budget Deal: The long-term unemployed are abandoned by Congress

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The GOP's alleged boy genius, Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan (R-WI), or as Charles Pierce at Esquire calls him, "the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin," is being hailed by his Beltway media villager fan base for his "pragmatic" mini-budget deal with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), in which the GOP's Flimflam Man pretty much got his way because, after all, Tea-Publicans do control the Congress. As the Washington Post editorialized, A flawed deal, but a done deal:

THERE’S A lot not to like in the budget deal that Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have struck on behalf of their respective parties and legislative houses. It does basically nothing to resolve the country’s long-term fiscal predicament. It does very little to correct the growing imbalance between discretionary spending and entitlements as a share of the federal budget. And even these modest policy achievements required the use of a budgetary gimmick or two. Yet the deal has one overriding virtue: It exists . . . In short, the agreement’s importance is not fiscal but political: It amounts to a truce in the destructive budgetary wars that have plagued Washington since the advent of a Republican-majority House in 2011.

Well that's setting the bar low. We are supposed to give the "Worst. Congress. Ever." props for doing the one job that they are required to do by the Constitution, pass a budget and appropriate the funds? (This deal is just the budget, Congress is leaving for the rest of the year at the end of this week and will not be back to tackle apropriations until after the new year). Only Beltway media villagers in their insular bubble could could find something to cheer in this deal.

Balancing the Budget on the Backs of Soldiers

Posted by Bob Lord

Will the effort to trim the military budget devolve into another screwing of the many to benefit the few?

Sunday's NY Times lead editorial, Putting Military Pay on the Table, opened with this: 

Big-ticket weapons like aircraft carriers and the F-35 fighter jet have to be part of any conversation about cutting Pentagon spending to satisfy the mandatory budget reductions known as the sequester. But compensation for military personnel has to be on the table, too — even though no other defense issue is more politically volatile or emotionally fraught.

Somehow, I doubt the brass will see their pay cut. We're talking soldiers and sailors here. The ones who make the real sacrifice. The ones who lose limbs and lives. The ones whose PTSD precludes them from leading productive lives when they return. 

Those overpaid grunts whose compensation starts in the high teens upon enlistment. 

How convenient that the"liberal" New York Times is beating the drum for these cuts:

... many Washington-based think tanks, spanning all ideologies, are also pushing reform. In June, a group of them — including the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Center for American Progress — called for a comprehensive review and modernization of the military compensation system, which has been largely unchanged for 40 years.

Get that? The "liberal" Center for American Progress? Actually, CAP is the least progressive of the left of center DC think tanks. Heck, it's arguably not even left of center. It's the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. But CAP was the best the Times could find on the left.

How will our Reps, who are always "thinking of the troops," handle this if forced to choose between the troops they purport to love and bacon for their districts in the form of contracts for local military contractors to build armaments we'll never need? 

I'm bettin' on the bacon.

The TanMan's PR stunt does not go as planned

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The TanMan, Weeper of The House John Boehner, decided to engage in a PR stunt on Thursday attacking problems with the federal "ObamaCare" Marketplace web site, because media messaging PR is all he can do -- he can't pass any substantive legislation or even routine budgets. The TanMan's PR stunt didn't quite go as planned.

Steve Benen reports, Boehner proves the wrong point:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote a blog post Thursday, highlighting his own personal experience when he “sat down to try and enroll in the DC exchange.”

Like many Americans, my experience was pretty frustrating. After putting in my personal information, I received an error message. I was able to work past that, but when I went to actually sign up for coverage, I got this “internal server error” screen. […]

Despite multiple attempts, I was unable to get past that point and sign up for a health plan. We’ve got a call into the help desk. Guess I’ll just have to keep trying…

As it turns out, his willingness to “keep trying” was a good idea. Boehner, who is not yet eligible for Medicare, “called the DC Health Link help line,” and a “few hours later,” the process was complete. He’d signed up for health insurance.

Doh!

The one group denied health care in Arizona: poor children

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona's Tea-Publican controlled legislature is unique: it is the only legislature heartless enough to deny health care coverage to poor children eligible for the S-CHIP ("Kidscare") program. This is a notch group of children whose parent(s) do not qualify for Medicaid (AHCCCS) health insurance, but otherwise would qualify for Kidscare. Enrollment in the KidsCare program has been frozen since January 1, 2010 due to lack of funding for the program. Our Tea-Publican controlled legislature has shown no interst in restoring funding to the Kidscare program.

Arizona is one of the poorest states in the country, and among the worst states for uninsured children:

Nationally the number of children without health insurance dropped between 2009 and 2011, but not in Arizona, a new study says.

Arizona has one of the worst rates of uninsured children in the country, says the report, released Tuesday by Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families.

Nearly 210,000 children in Arizona do not have health insurance, which amounts to 13 percent of the state's children - only Texas and Nevada had worse rates, the researchers found.  And unlike most of the country, the rate here got worse between 2009 and 2011, the study shows.

(Update) Hey, hysterical media villagers! 'ObamaCare' is working where the GOP is not sabotaging it

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In all the media hysteria over the rollout of "ObamaCare," the feckless media villagers always leave out three predicate facts: Chief Justice John Roberts created the Medicaid opt-out with his poorly considered legal opinion upholding the constitutionality of "ObamaCare," opening the door to partisan mischief; second, said partisan mischief did occur with Red State Tea-Publicans refusing to expand Medicaid and denying more than 5 million desperate Americans access to health care; and third, Red State Tea-Publicans refused to set up their own state-run Marketplace insurance exchanges, creating the need for a complex federal system not contemplated. GOP sabotage should be included in every report.

As for all the unhinged media hysteria, Paul Begala at CNN writes Chill: Obamacare snafus are fixable:

[D]espite the bed-wetting from Beltway Chicken Littles, the President's problems are eminently fixable. The Affordable Care Act isn't collapsing. The Obama presidency isn't imploding.

Similarly, Ed Kilgore at the Democratic Strategist looks at the polling that media villagers are so enamored with, and writes in Polling Panic:

What does it all mean? Probably that most people aren't breathlessly following events in Washington other than to register their heat and noise.

Democrats didn't win the 2014 elections in October and they aren't losing them in November. It's time to chill a bit.

So chill out, media villagers. The sky is not falling despite your best efforts to recklessly and irresponsibly panic the public.

Hey, hysterical media villagers! These governors say 'ObamaCare' is working

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Remember when the gatekeepers of the corporate media admitted their complicity in the Whitewater conservative scandal mongering of the 1990s, and promised that it wouldn't happen again? Yeah . . .

This was followed by their complicity in selling an illegal and unnecessary war in Iraq and fabricating justifications for war crimes: illegal torture, indefinite detention, and rendition of prisoners to black site prisons; and the wholesale undermining of American's constitutional right to privacy with pervasive electronic eavesdropping, "sneak peak" national security letters without a warrant, etc. War crimes are a "big f#%king deal," as Joe Biden would say. But IOKIYAR.

With the election of President Barack Obama, It's Whitewater all over again:

The “scandals” confronting President Obama are derived almost entirely from the political and media mindset that gave us Whitewater.

That is to say, they are minor instances of bureaucratic incompetence and/or executive overreach that are seized upon by hysterical right-wing media and politicians and eventually aggrandized by their craven mainstream brethren into red-alert-Chryon, full-scale Media Narratives.

The engine of belief that drives these stories is that, with enough rooting around by reporters and congressional panels and special prosecutors, the president eventually will be implicated in some kind of Major Impropriety.

This is what allows otherwise self-respecting journalists to flog stories that are, by all rational standards, partisan boondoggles.

This is the beauty of the scandal mentality: It’s inherently speculative. And it is thus nourished not by an accretion of increasingly damning facts, as in Watergate, but by a daisy chain of lurid conjecture and tangential inquisitions. To quote [bob Woodward], “You’ve got to investigate all these things.”

To put it plainly, Watergate was a foxhunt; Whitewater was a fishing trip.

The latest scandal mongering fishing trip by the corporate media has been the "ObamaCare" rollout. Echoing GOPropaganda talking points, the media villagers have been hysterically reporting any minor instances of bureaucratic incompetence as if it is the biggest disaster of all time! Just last week, the New York Times (of Judy Miller fame -- Iraq war, Plamegate) made the ridiculous comparison that the "ObamaCare" rollout is just like the failure of the Bush administration to respond to people suffering and dying as New Orleans drowned after Katrina (with helpful quotes from Bushies making this unjustified comparison). "One of these things is not like the other."

The 39 Squishes

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

My apologies to Alfred Hitchcock for the wordplay on his brilliant adaption of "The 39 Steps."

No apologies are owed, however, to the 39 Democratic "squishes" in the House who voted for Rep. Fred Upton’s “Keep Your Health Plan Act.” Their defections were pointless. This Tea-Publican messaging bill will not get a hearing in the Senate, and even if it did somehow get a vote, President Obama has promised to veto it.

As Steve Benen observed, "[W]hat was the point of all of this effort? It boils down to Republican 'messaging' goals, which some party leaders consider more important than anything else."

So 39 Democratic squishes simply aided and abetted GOP messaging goals. With friends like these . . .

Andrew Rosenthal at the New York Times was unsparing in his criticism of the 39 squishes. Cutting the Heart Out of Health Reform:

It’s easy to be mad at President Obama over health care reform – the broken website, the confusing choices, his false promise that everyone could keep their current plans.

But it’s still hard to fathom why 39 Democrats voted for a bill in the House that would allow people to retain current, substandard individual policies, and renew them next year even if they don’t provide the basic coverage required by the Affordable Care Act. (You have to wonder, to start, whether they actually read the act before they voted for it, the same question I’d like to ask of Mr. Obama and his team. The changed requirements were in that law.)

Perhaps it was just a protest vote, a freebie based on the lawmakers’ certainty that the Senate will never take up or pass this ridiculous bill. But did those Democrats know what they were voting for this time around?

Questions for Martha McSally: Do you support the automatic GOP Sequester budget cuts?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In this new series, "Questions for Martha McSally," we pose questions to the McSally campaign about her positions on current hot topics -- I am not going to give her a free pass until after the GOP primary like our local media did in 2012.

Patrick McNamara of the Arizona Daily Star reported this week on Congressman Ron Barber signing "a letter along with 32 other members of Congress imploring Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to preserve the A-10 program, which has a large presence at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base." Barber backs A-10 retention at D-M. "The letter was written in an effort to head off any threat from impending federal budget cuts in the coming fiscal year, which almost certainly will include defense-spending reductions."

This would be the automatic GOP Sequester budget cuts in the event a budget agreement is not reached before January.

McNamara got himself a quote from Martha McSally, who is running for Barber's seat, presumably because she used to fly the A-10 (hopefully not because he is treating McSally as the GOP "presumptive nominee;" she has two primary opponents, Ed Martin and Shelley Kais).

Naturally, McSally went for snark over substance, suggesting that it seems the congressman has only now realized the threat of impending elimination of the A-10 program. This is in reference to her own reckless and irresponsible fear mongering over Davis-Monthan AFB possibly being closed if the A-10 is phased out. Questions for Martha McSally: On what basis do you assert that Davis-Monthan AFB will close?

Let's be clear: The only immediate threat to the A-10 at Davis-Monthan AFB is the automatic GOP Sequester budget cuts. While McNamara's report in regards to Congressman Ron Barber was about the federal budget and defense cuts, oddly enough he does not report whether he asked Martha McSally about her support for the automatic GOP Sequester budget cuts to the defense department budget (if he did, he failed to report any response). Instead, he framed McSally's responses based upon her previous reckless and irresponsbile fear mongering over the A-10.

Once again, Barber and Sinema fail a gut check vote

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The recent media hysteria over "if you like your insurance plan, you can keep it" is all about ignoring sound public policy for "gotcha" political gamesmanship. That's all the Beltway media villagers and pundits care about. It's always a political game of meaningless polls and election speculation for these effin' idiots, they are too damned ignorant to comprehend complex public policy. The corporate media is complicit in the failure of effective government, and aids and abets those who seek to undermine government.

Let's be clear: the elimination of substandard health insurance policies that provide no real coverage and leave the insured vulnerable to medical costs in the event of a serious injury or illness that can leave them bankrupt is not a bug but a feature of the ACA. The policy was designed to eliminate these fraudulent insurance policies from predator insurers. The "grandfather" clause for these substandard policies gave these predator insurers until 2015 to sell their fraudulent product, but many of them used the ACA as a ready excuse to cancel these fraudulent policies now, blame it on "ObamaCare," and upsell their policy holders into more expensive policies without advising them that a less expensive policy may be available from that insurer, or available on the Marketplace insurance exchange. Predators do not inform their marks, or send them to their competitors.

All the media hysteria in favor of predatory insurers and the broken health care system status quo that existed prior to the ACA has created so much background noise that it encouraged Tea-Publicans to engage in further sabotage of the ACA, and made Democratic squishes go soft on sound public policy.

Can Public Banking Spur Economic Growth in Southern Arizona?

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Tucson is one of the most impoverished cities in the country—for many reasons. The Arizona Legislature—driven by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and short-sighted, “small government” ideology—has routinely swept funds earmarked for counties and cities to "balance" the state’s budget or fund pet projects like lower corporate taxes.

Beyond the Legislature’s negative impact on Baja Arizona, the Tucson economy is not diversified enough. Manufacturing is nearly non-existent in Southern Arizona. There is an over-reliance on defense spending, University of Arizona spin-offs, tourism, low-wage service jobs, and growth/development. During the Great Recession, multiple income streams for our local economy were dramatically reduced or eliminated—resulting in the loss of hundreds, if not thousands of good-paying jobs due to budget cuts, business closures, and the housing market crash. People and jobs left the area.

In August, the Arizona Daily Star ran a week-long series on multiple aspects of poverty in Southern Arizona and just this week, the Star ran a story that stated Tucson was second only to Detroit in the proliferation of crappy, low-wage jobs. In a survey of 52 metro areas with over 1 million residents, Tucson was in the top 10 for job creation; the problem is that more than half of the projected 28,000 new jobs will pay less than $13.84/hour. (If you really want to be depressed, check out the list of Tucson's fastest growing occupations here. None of these jobs requires a college education. Thanks to TREO's efforts, telemarketer is #1. Thanks to Tucson's ample supply of old folks, the next four most popular jobs are low-wage health/caregiver positions. We won't break the cycle of poverty in this city with a jobs picture like this.)

So, we know that our city has big economic challenges. Now what? As I wrote back in August, it's time for some creative economic solutions. It's time to STOP our addiction to military spending. It's time to STOP relying on temporary construction jobs and low-wage hospitality industry jobs. It's time to defund TREO and STOP chasing rainbows by competing with other metro areas for "the next IBM" or the next spring training team. It's time to STOP sending our money to Wall Street for investment. It's time to START investing in Tucson. It's time for public banking. [Read why after the jump.]

David Cay Johnston on seriously flawed reporting on 'ObamaCare'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

[T]he headline atop the front page of The New York Times Monday morning: “Talk of Penalty is Missing in Ads for Health Care.” I damn near spit out my coffee when I saw that mosleading headline -- from a Times reporter no less.

Tax expert David Cay Johnston at the National Memo had the same reaction. Obamacare Penalized By Flawed Reporting In The New York Times:

News flash – there is no penalty for failing to get health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

Reporter Anemona Hartocollis built an entire piece around a faulty premise, stated clearly in her third sentence.  Times editors embraced her flawed reporting with the gusto of prominent placement, giving unwarranted credibility to what is, to be polite, a pile of misinformation.

Had Hartocollis read the law – or had any of the dozen or so Times editors who review every Page One story done so – they would not have published such nonsense anywhere in the paper.

* * *

Had anyone at the Times read the law, they would know that is bunk. Here is what the law says, with statutory numbering removed:

WAIVER OF CRIMINAL PENALTIES. – In the case of any failure by a taxpayer to timely pay any penalty imposed by the section, such taxpayer shall not be subject to any criminal prosecution or penalties with respect to such failure.

LIMITATIONS ON LIENS AND LEVIES. – The Secretary [read IRS] shall not – file notice of lien with respect to any property of a taxpayer by reason of any failure to pay the penalty imposed by this section, or levy on any such property with respect to such failure.

There is a simple way for the world’s most authoritative newspaper to stop embarrassing itself this way – require reporters to actually read the laws they write about, a policy I suggested when I was a reporter there, obviously to no avail.