GOP Isn’t Serious on the Debt Ceiling
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on January 13th, 2013 12:08 am by HL
GOP Isn’t Serious on the Debt Ceiling
Jamelle Bouie, American Prospect
If you're looking for evidence that Republicans will”"despite their rhetoric”"eventually cave on the debt ceiling, it's worth noting a recent statement from Rand Paul, to Business Insider, on how he thinks the GOP should approach the ceiling. Rather than force a shutdown, Paul thinks Republicans should pass a bill that would prioritize payments to bondholders if the limit is reached. This would, he says, “force us immediately to have a balanced budget.”
Defeating Christie a Tall Order for N.J. Democrats
Scott Conroy, RCP
NEWARK, N.J. — By several measures, Republican Gov. Chris Christie should be a vulnerable incumbent in this dark-blue state where President Obama defeated Mitt Romney by 18 points.New Jersey, after all, is suffering from a stubborn unemployment rate of 9.6 percent, anemic economic growth, and the nation's highest property tax rate.But the consensus among pollsters and political observers here is that Christie's prospects for winning a second term come November are brighter than ever."The Democrats never really figured out a way to knock him out before, and then when…
Report: Climate Change Is Really Scary
Tim McDonnell, Mother Jones
Say what you want about the Obama administration's relative ignoring of climate issues: Many of his top scientists are paying rapt attention, and they think we're about to get our butts kicked—although dumping the news at 4pm on a Friday gives some indication of where it sits in federal priorities.The National Climate Assessment is produced by the US Global Change Research Program, which is tasked with collating climate research from a wide variety of federal agencies and, every few years, distilling it into one major report. The latest, a first draft, is the third such…
Yes, Your Paycheck Just Shrank
Neil Irwin, Washington Post
Many Americans received their first paycheck of 2013 today. That sound you hear is the collective “What the . .. “ they have emitted upon looking at their pay stub.For all the self-congratulatory back-patting from the White House and Congress on the deal that averted the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases—the deal locked in the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for households making under $450,000—they tended not to mention what the deal did, or rather didn’t do, on the payroll tax. A 2 percentage point reduction in the Social…