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By Mark Heisler
$6.00
By Gregory Wilpert
$17.79
$20
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Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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By Joe Conason — Before Paul Ryan delivers another lecture on the “fatal conceit of liberalism,” he ought to examine his own silly conceit: that he and others like him represent the hardworking majority, when he was merely born at the top.
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Flickr / San Diego Shooter
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Facing a shortfall of a few billion dollars, the U.S. Postal Service is planning to drop 220,000 full-time jobs and close 3,700 post offices and 300 processing centers by 2015, while scaling back services and cutting retirement benefits. And that’s after laying off 110,000 employees since 2007. (more)
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Gulfstream
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White House Budget Director Jack Lew revealed Monday that the administration plans to raise $467 billion in tax revenue from people making more than $200,000 a year, investment fund managers, the oil and gas industry and owners of corporate jets. (more)
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FEMA News Photos / G. Mathieson
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The No. 2 GOP leader in the House says additional funds for FEMA will have to be matched by budget cuts, and we know from past experience what that means: less funding for programs that assist the poor and elderly without a hope of raising taxes. Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown thinks it’s a good idea. (more)
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By Eugene Robinson — The debt-ceiling fight generated enough hyperventilation and heartburn to replace a coal-fired power plant. The resulting product? It’s starting to look kind of puny and irrelevant.
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On this week’s “Left, Right & Center”: Getting too close to the debt deadline, Greek insolvency and what’s with these credit rating companies throwing their weight around?
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By Joe Conason — At long last, President Obama seems to have run out of patience with the truculent Republicans who have rejected all of his overtures for a budget deal—just as Moody’s and other economic authorities again warned of the potentially catastrophic consequences of a debt default.
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AP / Susan Walsh
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By Bill Boyarsky — Rather than trying to conciliate the Republicans, Obama ought to speak out against them. The truth is that Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell don’t want to work with him.
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AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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By Robert Scheer — These threatened programs are not government handouts to a privileged class, like defense contractors and bailed-out bankers, who do feel eminently entitled to pig out at the federal trough.
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Pat Bagley, Cagle Cartoons, Salt Lake Tribune —
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This week the Labor Department reported that employers added a mere 18,000 jobs in June, and that the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent. The news is a blow to all who were hopeful that the nation’s economic recovery was gaining speed.
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Illustration from a photo by Bayasaa (CC-BY)
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Here’s a Catch-22 for the tea party movement: Cities across the country are going without Independence Day celebrations this year due to budget cuts. We know how our tax-hating friends love to wave flags and celebrate the late 1700s, but somebody has to pay for all those explosives, and, more often than not, it’s us.
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Truthdig political reporter Bill Boyarsky explains why Michele Bachmann could win Iowa, tells us about Mitt Romney’s advantage and says “The impact of [California’s] budget is going to be felt negatively for generations.”
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Freedom to Marry (CC-BY)
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Californians made it easier for their lawmakers to pass a budget, but you might not be able to tell from all the drama. Perhaps you heard that Gov. Jerry Brown (above) vetoed a budget passed by his own party, Republicans managed to block voters from approving new taxes and the state controller stopped paying legislators. (more)
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woodleywonderworks (CC-BY)
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By Eugene Robinson — With the nation struggling to recover from a devastating recession, unemployment stuck at crisis levels, financial markets spooked by the possibility of European defaults and consumers disinclined to consume, it makes no earthly sense to suck money out of the economy.
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So, now we know Obama’s big plan for pulling American troops out of Afghanistan, but it hasn’t exactly been well received. This week’s “Left, Right & Center” panel—featuring Tony Blankley, Matt Miller, Robert Scheer and Chrystia Freeland—offers no exception to the naysaying.
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Flickr / tvol
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Gov. Scott Walker’s budget includes yet another (previously overlooked) way in which he’s willing to serve big business at the expense of the little guy: He’s taking aim at craft breweries by making it more difficult for them to distribute their products. (more)
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Friday’s job news was far from good news, pointing to more bumps down the road to economic recovery. Thus, it falls on “Left, Right & Center” regulars Matt Miller and Tony Blankley, along with guest panelists Ed Kilgore and Chrystia Freeland, to brainstorm ... (more)
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Republicans who invented “death panels” out of whole cloth and insisted, falsely, that Obama’s health proposal was nothing but a “government takeover” have a lot of nerve complaining about the “demagoguery” against Rep. Paul Ryan.
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By David Sirota — In the name of curtailing deficits, politicians across the country are hacking away at programs that aim to make children healthier.
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U.S. Marine Corps / Staff Sgt. Jeff Kaus
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By William Pfaff — To the wayfaring American citizen, the view of Washington, D.C., from abroad is as bizarre as that of Oz. One cannot believe what is happening.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — While the United States remains utterly frozen in a debate about budget deficits and all the things that government shouldn’t do, other countries are marrying public and private resources to make themselves stronger and more competitive.
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Matthew Reichbach (CC-BY)
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — When will Republicans realize that the anti-government cries they think they hear from “the people” are the voices of no more than 20 percent to 25 percent of the electorate who constitute the die-hard conservative core?
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Rep. Perry's office
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Pennsylvania’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives will consider a bill that would change the way unemployment benefits are calculated, taking almost $500 million out of jobless residents’ pockets each year.
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Flickr / thebigo
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True to form, the man who was instrumental in passing a radical anti-tax amendment to Colorado’s constitution got picked up by police on charges of tax evasion and fraud. (more)
Posted on May 2, 2011
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AP Photo/Ryan J. Foley
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By Joe Conason — Indeed, in the guise of saving future generations from excessive federal debt, themes of national decay, egotistical greed and irresponsibility pervade the Ryan plan.
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AP / Jeffrey Phelps
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By Bill Boyarsky — Contrary to conventional wisdom, the media fascination with the potential presidential campaign of the great American phony, Donald Trump, has been helpful to the Republican Party.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The idea that “false choices” are distorting our politics is under attack. I want to defend the concept for both substantive and personal reasons.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Standard & Poor’s, one of those ratings agencies that made a living signing off on toxic assets, has once again thrust itself into the spotlight by downgrading Uncle Sam’s credit outlook from “stable” to “negative.” As a consolation prize, S&P let us keep our AAA rating.
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Luojie, Cagle Cartoons, China Daily, China —
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Eric Allie, Caglecartoons.com —
Posted on Apr 16, 2011
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By Joe Conason — Having hesitated to fully enter the fiscal fray, President Obama has at last delivered a plausible, principled response to the budgetary flimflams of the far right.
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By Eugene Robinson — It was refreshing to hear all those unambiguous declarations from President Obama on Wednesday. If ever there were a time when lines desperately needed to be drawn, it’s now.
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Flickr / House GOP Leader (CC-BY)
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Is this what bipartisan harmony looks like? Probably not, and considering the end product—a compromised budget bill—this kind of cooperation might not be desirable. That said, the House passed the bill Thursday that had brought the legislative process to a crisis last week.
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By Eugene Robinson — Far-right Republicans are winning the budget wars because they understand something that nobody else in Washington seems to grasp: The old truism about politics being the art of the possible is no longer true.
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By Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons —
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. House of Representatives
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After an exhibition of political recklessness conducted in the face of an ominous deadline, congressional leaders reached an accord late Friday night that averted a shutdown of the federal government. The agreement was announced by House Speaker John Boehner, above.
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By Joe Conason — What the meteoric career of Paul Ryan demonstrates is how easily impressed we are whenever a politician purports to restore solvency by punishing the poor and the elderly (while coddling the rich).
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Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz was Amy Goodman’s timely guest on “Democracy Now!” on Thursday, giving his much-needed perspective on the proposed 2012 budget and his must-read Vanity Fair article, “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.”
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Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — However the shutdown saga ends, the negotiating styles of the two sides ought to tell moderates that they can no longer pretend that the two ends of our politics are equally “extreme.”
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Quinn Dombrowski (CC-BY-SA)
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With the prospect of a government shutdown so real the White House has ordered government agencies to batten down the hatches, it’s hard to believe all this is over a few billion dollars. House Republicans are insisting on more cuts than President Obama has agreed to, and if both sides can’t get together by Friday ... (more)
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Wikimedia Commons
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Budget-strapped Arizona is looking for new ways to pinch pennies. Now the state’s Medicaid agency is proposing to smack smokers and diabetes patients who ignore doctors’ orders with special $50 annual fees.
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President Obama’s speech about Libya was perhaps striking for what he said as much as for what he didn’t say. Did he say enough to sway public opinion? Also in this week’s edition of “Left, Right & Center,” regulars Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley ...
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By Joe Conason — The Republican minority within a minority is getting its way because nobody else in Washington is reckless enough to promote a government shutdown.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Someone should introduce the Barack Obama who addressed the nation Monday on Libya to the Barack Obama who has been dancing around the edge of the budget fight.
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AP
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By Jim Mamer —
I’m a retired teacher and I’m pissed. No matter what form of media I look at, I’m confronted with constant references to the various budget crises. The crises are real, but the search for culprits has degenerated into a hypocritical attempt to score political points.
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Pat Arnow (CC-BY-SA)
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State personal income in New York in 2009 was $908 billion. Thus a flat tax of less than 1 percent would close the deficit entirely, without any spending cuts.
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By Ruth Marcus — It’s possible to simultaneously worry about the debt and believe in an active and compassionate role for government. In fact, it’s required.
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Terracide and the Terrarists: Destroying the Planet for Record Profits
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