Report: Republican Plan Would Cost 700,000 Jobs

From Bloomberg:

House Republicans’ $61 billion budget-cutting plan would cost 700,000 jobs, according to a report likely to inflame the debate over the U.S. government deficit.

The measure would reduce real economic growth this year by 0.5 percentage points and by 0.2 percentage points next year, resulting in 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012, said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics. He said budget- cutters should wait until the U.S. economy is stronger, saying Republicans “would be taking an unnecessary chance with the recovery.”

“Significant government spending restraint is vital, but given the economy’s halting recovery it would be counterproductive for that restraint to begin until the U.S. is creating enough jobs to lower the unemployment rate,” Zandi said.

Editorial comic roundup

(Click for larger image)

President Obama's weekly address

The President discusses his recent travels and the examples he's seen of how America can win the future. He urges Congress to heed these examples in the coming budget debate and to tighten our belts without eliminating investments in innovation, education and infrastructure.

Governor Beshear's weekly address

Tunnel vision

There's a very good editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

[Kentucky state Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown] is becoming an old hand at tying anti-abortion measures to every manner of legislation — including, this session, bills involving tanning beds, car decals for young drivers and domestic violence.

...Rep. Floyd's procedural shenanigans threaten to take down legislation designed to bring more scrutiny to bear on how well — or how badly — Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services does its job in protecting children who die or suffer serious injuries from child abuse and neglect. House Bill 441 would create a panel to oversee the Cabinet's efforts in that regard. It is not a perfect bill, but amendments were promised to address secrecy concerns and to restore language requiring public disclosure about child deaths and serious injuries.

...If legislators want to be anti-abortion activists, they can do that on their own time. But it is high time that they stopped using their time in Frankfort to disrupt the important business of the people of Kentucky with rope-a-dope tactics that prevent useful and beneficial legislation from advancing.

Editorial comic roundup

(Click for larger image)

President Obama's weekly address

The President speaks from the Intel campus in Oregon about educating our kids for the jobs of tomorrow so we can make sure America wins the future.

Governor Beshear's weekly address

Deficit hawks and the games they play

Today's column by EJ Dionne is a must-read:

When conservatives blow up our fiscal position with their tax cuts, the deficit hawks are silent - or, at best, mumble a few words of mild reproach to have something on the record - and let the budget wreckage happen. Quite a few in their ranks (yes, including some Democrats) actually supported the Bush tax cuts.

But when it's the progressives' turn in power, the deficit hawks become ferocious. They denounce liberals if they do not move immediately to address the shortfall left by conservatives. Thus, conservatives get to govern as they wish. Liberals are labeled as irresponsible unless they abandon their own agenda and devote their every moment in power to cutting the deficit.

It's a game for chumps. The conservatives play it brilliantly. By winning their tax cuts and slashing government revenue, they constrain what liberals can do whenever they get back into power.

Past Versus Future

Here's an excellent new ad from the DNC:

Rand gets fact-checked

From FactCheck.org:

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky wrongly claimed that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, during her confirmation hearings, agreed that "the government through the commerce clause could regulate that you eat three vegetables a day."

...In talking about the constitutionality of the health care law, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky distorted a comment by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. Paul recounted an exchange between Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and then-nominee Kagan during her confirmation hearings. Coburn was alluding to the debate over whether the commerce clause of the Constitution would allow the federal government to require individuals to purchase health insurance:

Paul, Feb. 10: Recently Sen. Coburn in one of the committee hearings asked Elena Kagan, he said, well do you think the government through the commerce clause could regulate that you eat three vegetables a day. Her response was yes.

Kagan’s response was not “yes.”

Editorial comic roundup

(Click for larger image)

President Obama's weekly address

The President previews his budget, explaining that it will help the government live within its means, while still investing to make sure America wins the future.

Governor Beshear's weekly address

Not heard the last about Williams' plasma TV

There's an interesting editorial in today's Herald-Leader:

As part of a $639,000 renovation of several state senators' Capitol Annex offices in 2006, Senate President David Williams' office was equipped with a $17,000 entertainment center featuring a 60-inch plasma TV screen.

The screen remained in Williams' office until this General Assembly session when it was moved to the Senate chambers in the Capitol to serve as one of two screens displaying bill status and senators' votes.

...Strangely enough, though, the need for the screen to serve such a purpose never occurred until after Williams decided to run for governor. But as much as Williams might want to defuse a potentially damaging issue with this TV screen switcheroo, the reality of modern political campaigns strongly suggests we're going to hear a lot about the first screen in coming months.

A Terrible Divide

Be sure to check out the latest column by Bob Herbert:

Look out the window. More and more Americans are being left behind in an economy that is being divided ever more starkly between the haves and the have-nots. Not only are millions of people jobless and millions more underemployed, but more and more of the so-called fringe benefits and public services that help make life livable, or even bearable, in a modern society are being put to the torch.

...American workers are in a world of hurt. Anyone who thinks that politicians can improve this sorry state of affairs by hacking away at Social Security, Medicare and the public schools are great candidates for involuntary commitment.

New ideas on a grand scale are needed. The United States can’t thrive with so many of its citizens condemned to shrunken standards of living because they can’t find adequate employment. Long-term joblessness is a recipe for societal destabilization. It should not be tolerated in a country with as much wealth as the United States. It’s destructive, and it’s wrong.

Federal judicial vacancies reaching crisis point

Today's Washington Post examines one of the worst consequences of Republican obstructionism:

Federal judges have been retiring at a rate of one per week this year, driving up vacancies that have nearly doubled since President Obama took office. The departures are increasing workloads dramatically and delaying trials in some of the nation's federal courts.

...Since Obama took office, federal judicial vacancies have risen steadily as dozens of judges have left without being replaced by the president's nominees. Experts blame Republican delaying tactics, slow White House nominations and a dysfunctional Senate confirmation system. Six judges have retired in the past six weeks alone.

...The 60 nominees confirmed in Obama's first two years in office made up the lowest number in 35 years, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

10 Reagan facts conservatives rarely mention

Via ThinkProgress:

Tomorrow will mark the 100th anniversary of President Reagan’s birth, and all week, conservatives have been trying to outdo each others’ remembrances of the great conservative icon. Senate Republicans spent much of Thursday singing Reagan’s praise from the Senate floor, while conservative publications have been running non-stop commemorations. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee and former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich are hoping to make a few bucks off the Gipper’s centennial.

But Reagan was not the man conservatives claim he was. This image of Reagan as a conservative superhero is myth, created to untie the various factions of the right behind a common leader. In reality, Reagan was no conservative ideologue or flawless commander-in-chief. Reagan regularly strayed from conservative dogma — he raised taxes eleven times as president while tripling the deficit — and he often ended up on the wrong side of history, like when he vetoed an Anti-Apartheid bill.

ThinkProgress has compiled a list of the top 10 things conservatives rarely mention when talking about President Reagan.

ThinkProgress did a great job compiling this list. Click the link to check it out.

President Obama's weekly address

In this week’s address, President Obama said America can prosper and win the future by supporting innovation, education, and infrastructure. This past week, the President highlighted how students and researchers at Penn State University are poised lead the way on innovation and job creation through their work on energy efficiency. In the coming week, he will visit Marquette, Michigan, where high-speed broadband infrastructure is connecting a small town to the larger world. And on Monday, he will talk to the Chamber of Commerce about how if we make America the best place to do business, then businesses should make their mark on America by setting up shop in America, hiring American workers, and paying good wages.

Governor Beshear's weekly address

Repealing health care would be a budget-buster

Senator Durbin exposes the illogicality of Mitch McConnell's attempt to repeal the Health Care act.

Rand Paul Email Touts False Gun Conspiracy

ThinkProgress has the story:

In an email to supporters, Paul warned that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the “global gun-grabbers” are out to “strip you and me of ALL our freedoms” by signing a treaty designed by the “petty dictators and one-world socialists who control the UN” to “CONFISCATE and DESTROY” all civilian firearms across the world. With his trusty sidekick the National Association For Gun Rights and a financial contribution from his base, Paul can “lead the fight to defeat this radical treaty.”

...Paul’s conspiratorial email is missing one tiny footnote: there is no U.N. Small Arms Treaty. While the U.N. has been considering the feasibility of such a treaty, Paul’s “piece of scarelore” is “erroneous in all its particulars.” Clinton has never signed such a treaty. Nor could she, Congress, or the President ever do so. The Supreme Court’s Reid v. Covert decision established that the Constitution — which still includes the Second Amendment — supersedes international treaties. In fact, the only treaty that Clinton said the U.S. would possibly consider is a treaty that combats the illegal, international trade of small arms by setting “international standards” to “close gaps” that “allow weapons to pass onto the illicit market.” The policy has “nothing to do with restricting the sale or ownership” of guns inside the U.S. A point so salient that even the NRA felt compelled to squash the nonsense.

Governor's State of the Commonwealth Address

Did you miss last night's State of the Commonwealth address by Governor Beshear? Here's a link to watch it at KET's website.

Gov Beshear: Job creation efforts paying off

Today Governor Beshear issued this press release:

FRANKFORT, Ky.—In his fourth State of the Commonwealth address, Governor Steve Beshear told lawmakers that responsible fiscal management, including holding the line against broad-based taxes and slashing more than $1 billion from the state budget, has enabled Kentucky to preserve core priorities and begin to recover from the global recession. At the same time, tireless and innovative job creation efforts have led to the creation and retention of thousands of jobs in every corner of the state.

“I have opposed broad-based tax increases in Kentucky, and I will continue to oppose them during this legislative session,” said Gov. Beshear. “I will not threaten the survival and growth of our businesses at this perilous moment. I will not burden our families as they struggle to survive. And I will not jeopardize our fragile recovery.”

Gov. Beshear told Kentuckians that he runs Frankfort like they run their family budgets – by working harder and spending less.

“My message to the people of the state is this: We are in this together – we will share your sacrifice because we work for you,” said Gov. Beshear.

Since taking office, Gov. Beshear has:

• Balanced Kentucky’s budget eight times in three years, slashing over a billion dollars in spending.
• Reduced the executive branch to its smallest size in decades.
• Cut the so-called non-merit work force by an additional $5 million.
• Ended take-home cars for his office.
• Furloughed most state workers for six days, to save $24 million, and is taking six unpaid days himself.
• Voluntarily cut his salary by 10 percent – as have top staff and cabinet secretaries.
• Created a website that allows Kentuckians to find out exactly how their money is being spent, which was named the best website of its kind in the nation.
• Put Kentucky’s public pension funds on sound footing, reducing benefits for new employees, eliminating pension double-dipping and mandating appropriate expertise for those making investment decisions.

“We have acted in a calm, strategic and measured way to rein in government with an eye not just on short-term survival, but also on long-term progress,” said Gov. Beshear. “And that strategy is working.” He offered the following evidence that the economy is beginning to improve:

• Nearly 250 companies have used Kentucky’s new incentives programs to announce planned investments of almost $2.2 billion.
• More than half of Kentucky’s manufacturers plan to hire in 2011.
• Unemployment rates are down in 84 counties from a year ago.
• State receipts are up 5.4 percent through the first half of the fiscal year.
• Kentucky’s highways are the safest they’ve been in 25 years.
• Kentucky’s prison population and recidivism rates are dropping.
• The state is attracting visitors from around the world to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and the upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, which alone is estimated to have a $150 million economic impact.

In addition to Kentucky’s revamped business incentives programs, Gov. Beshear noted other efforts to create and retain Kentucky jobs, including:

• Two new initiatives that help smaller businesses export goods overseas and recoup investments in staff and equipment.
• A unique program that matches federal high-tech grants to attract and groom smaller companies with innovative ideas in fields like biosciences and energy.
• The realignment of Fort Knox, which will create 7,000 to 8,000 jobs.
• Efforts to keep healthy a $4 billion equine industry that employs 100,000 Kentuckians.
• The construction of a national research laboratory that will develop and market advanced battery technologies.
• Fighting the federal government for the survival of Kentucky’s coal industry, which provides 90 percent of our electricity and has helped build a robust manufacturing industry.

“Our coal industry is in jeopardy because Washington bureaucrats continue to try to impose arbitrary and unreasonable regulations on the mining of coal,” said Gov. Beshear. “To them I say ‘Get off our backs!’ I will fight you for the right to cleanly and safely mine coal. I will fight you on behalf of 18,000 Kentucky coal miners who are working to feed their families. And I will fight you to keep this nation strong by supplying it with the energy it needs to remain the beacon of democracy in a troubled world.”

Gov. Beshear discussed the following important legislative items for the 2011 legislative session:

Increasing high school graduation by raising the drop-out age: House Bill 225, which would raise the mandatory school attendance age to 18 overwhelmingly passed the House last year. HB 225 gradually phases in the change, giving schools adequate time to implement it, and creates alternative programs to address concerns about unmotivated students.

Addressing short-term and long-term Medicaid issues: A plan to balance a shortfall in the Medicaid budget would move $166.5 million from the 2012 Fiscal Year Medicaid budget to the current 2011 Fiscal Year. It would also utilize the expertise of the private sector by incorporating more managed-care principles in the state’s Medicaid program to run it in a more cost-effective manner. The only alternatives to this plan are to cut $600 million in services or cut reimbursement rates to health care providers by 30 percent, jeopardizing jobs throughout the state.

Reducing barriers to Kentucky businesses: Gov. Beshear offered his support to an idea promoted by Republican Sen. David Givens and Senate President David Williams: a one-stop electronic business portal to speed up and simplify how businesses register and interact with the state. The Governor called the bill a good example of finding common ground.

Protecting seniors: Gov. Beshear pledged to work with legislators to find ways we can protect vulnerable seniors from physical and financial abuse and exploitation.

“Some of us have different ideas about how to fix Kentucky’s problems,” said Gov. Beshear. “But that doesn’t mean we cannot and should not make life better for our people by identifying areas of agreement and places to collaborate. I am confident we can do that because over the last three years we have done it.”

Finally, Gov. Beshear paid tribute to Kentucky’s men and women serving in active duty military and the Kentucky National Guard, both overseas and here at home, as well as their families. He noted that the Commonwealth has fielded the largest contingent among the states of soldiers, sailors and airmen in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, and that over 20 percent of all U.S. forces in the Central Command area came from Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, from the Kentucky Air and Army National Guard, Marine Corps units at Fort Knox and the state’s Army and Navy Reserve units. Since 9/11, the Kentucky National Guard has deployed more than 14,000 soldiers and airmen, and this summer, the Guard will deploy its largest contingent since World War II.

“I am awed by the courage, dedication and sacrifice of these soldiers and their families – just as every Kentuckian should be.”