Jesus never said a thing about gay people:
Category: Politics As Usual
Doonesbury
Truth or dare
Sen. Harry Reid seems to have put Mitt Romney into a bit of a box: His campaign will have to confirm or rebut the charges, because it’ll be pretty damned hard to ignore. It’s quite a surprise coming from Reid, who’s not known for this kind of openly aggressive behavior:
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has what he says is an informed explanation for why Mitt Romney refuses to release additional tax returns. According a Bain investor, Reid charged, Romney didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Huffington Post from his office on Capitol Hill, Reid saved some of his toughest words for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Romney couldn’t make it through a Senate confirmation process as a mere Cabinet nominee, the majority leader insisted, owing to the opaqueness of his personal finances.
“His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son,” Reid said, in reference to George Romney’s standard-setting decision to turn over 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in the late 1960s.
Saying he had “no problem with somebody being really, really wealthy,” Reid sat up in his chair a bit before stirring the pot further. A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.
“Harry, he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years,” Reid recounted the person as saying.
“He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain,” said Reid. “But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?
“You guys have said his wealth is $250 million,” Reid went on. “Not a chance in the world. It’s a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don’t pay taxes for 10 years when you’re making millions and millions of dollars.”
The highest ranked Democrat in Congress, Reid is known more as a back room brawler than a public flamethrower. So his willingness to throw this private conversation into the media frenzy over Romney’s taxes underscores the low opinion he has of the Republican candidate.
Speaking of moral hazard
This really is a kick in the gut to struggling homeowners. To turn this into a straight transaction analysis when underwater mortgages are such a huge drag on the economy is just plain crazy:
The federal regulator for government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Tuesday that he would not allow the firms to reduce loan balances of troubled borrowers, saying there would be no clear-cut financial benefit and that such a move could cause some homeowners to intentionally default in hopes of getting taxpayer aid.
“We concluded that the potential benefit was too small and uncertain, relative to the known and unknown costs and risks,” said Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The decision came after months of internal analysis at FHFA and sustained pressure from the Obama administration, Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill and housing advocates, who argued that so-called “principal reduction” was an essential tool needed in helping to soften the fallout of the housing crisis.
Reaction to DeMarco’s decision came swiftly Tuesday afternoon.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner struck an unusually personal tone in chastising DeMarco for his decision, even while acknowledging DeMarco’s role as an independent regulator of Fannie and Freddie.
“Five years into the housing crisis, millions of homeowners are still struggling to stay in their homes and the legacy of the crisis continues to weigh on the market,” Geithner wrote in a letter to DeMarco on Tuesday. “You have the power to help more struggling homeowners and help heal the remaining damage from the housing crisis.”
Paul Krugman responded by calling for DeMarco to be fired:
DeMarco’s basis for the rejection was that this forgiveness would represent a net loss to taxpayers, even if his agency came out ahead.
That’s a very arguable point even on its own terms, because the paper he cited (pdf) in support of his stance took no account of the positive effects on the economy of debt relief — even though those effects are the main reason for offering such relief. Since a reduction in debt burdens would strengthen the economy, this would mean greater revenue — and this might well offset any losses from the debt forgiveness itself.
Furthermore, even if there’s a small net cost to taxpayers, debt relief is still worth doing if it yields large economic benefits.
In any case, however, deciding whether debt relief is a good policy for the nation as a whole is not DeMarco’s job. His job — as long as he keeps it, which I hope is a very short period of time — is to run his agency. If the Secretary of the Treasury, acting on behalf of the president, believes that it is in the national interest to spend some taxpayer funds on debt relief, in a way that actually improves the FHFA’s budget position, the agency’s director has no business deciding on his own that he prefers not to act.
I don’t know what DeMarco’s specific legal mandate is. But there is simply no way that it makes sense for an agency director to use his position to block implementation of the president’s economic policy, not because it would hurt his agency’s operations, but simply because he disagrees with that policy.
This guy needs to go.
Krugman’s right. It’s not DeMarco’s job to impose his philosophical orientation on his agency.
Hat tip to V.E. Hicks, attorney!
Let’s make a deal
I can’t say I have a good feeling about this. Why are they cooperating on this?
WASHINGTON — The top Republican and Democrat on Capitol Hill have announced an agreement to keep the government running on autopilot for six months when the current budget year ends on Sept. 30.
The announcements by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and GOP House Speaker John Boehner are aimed at averting any chance of a government shutdown this fall. The legislation will pass in September.
The deal would also lighten the crush of business in a post-election congressional session agenda that’s already overloaded.
“The speaker and I and the president have agreed that we’re going to fund the government for the next six months,” Reid said. “It’ll provide stability for the coming months.”
The agreement would fund the government at levels called for by last summer’s budget and debt pact between Boehner and President Barack Obama.
While precise details will be ironed out over the August congressional recess, the deal embraces spending at a total annualized rate of $1.047 trillion for the day-to-day operations of Cabinet departments like the Pentagon and other federal agencies.
“We are encouraged that both sides have agreed to resolve this issue without delay,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. “The President has made clear that it is essential that the legislation to fund the government adheres to the funding levels agreed to by both parties last year.”
That’s a retreat for Republicans, who had sought to cut $19 billion below the budget agreement reached last summer with President Barack Obama and shift $8 billion more from domestic agencies to the Pentagon. The alternative of risking a government shutdown just weeks before Election Day was an unacceptable alternative to GOP leaders who want to keep the spotlight off of Congress and on the presidential race in the weeks running up to Nov. 6.
Via Roll Call, Debbie Stabenow says other measures could be attached to the continuing resolution:
One possibility, she said, was to add disaster assistance for farmers to deal with the drought in the Midwest. “It could be, if people agreed to it. A lot of things are expiring Sept. 30,” Stabenow said. She said the CR was unlikely to be completed until September.
However, sources today said House GOP leaders were thinking of moving a separate disaster aid measure this week, before adjourning for the August recess.
There’s been a growing consensus among lawmakers across the political spectrum that it would be best to delay the wrap-up of fiscal 2013 appropriations into the next session of Congress. Fiscal 2013 begins Oct. 1, making it critical that Congress clear a continuing resolution before Members of the House and about a third of the Senate head home to campaign in October.
Many members of the conservative House Republican Study Committee have said they would grudgingly support a CR set at the fiscal 2013 level agreed to in last year’s debt limit deal and also accept interim funding for implementing the 2010 health overhaul in exchange for delaying fiscal 2013 appropriations. Republicans are betting on gains in November that could enable them to push for deep spending cuts next year.
This also clears the deck for a Grand Bargain in the lame duck session. Stay tuned.
Same-sex marriage part of DNC platform
This ought to inspire the progressive base. It’ll also make the Republican fundie base extremely motivated, but so what? The Democratic party ought to do the right thing more often – preferably without checking to see which way the wind is blowing:
A plank supporting same-sex marriage will be included as part of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) platform, according to an exclusive report at the Washington Blade, which notes it was a unanimous decision.
Also included is language supporting ENDA and rejecting DOMA. Retiring Congressman Barney Frank “who sits on the committee, told the Washington Blade on Monday that the 15-member panel unanimously backed the inclusion of a marriage equality plank after a national hearing over the weekend in Minneapolis, in which several witnesses testified in favor of such language,” Chris Johnson, writing at the Blade, reported today:
“I was part of a unanimous decision to include it,” Frank said. “There was a unanimous decision in the drafting committee to include it in the platform, which I supported, but everybody was for it.”
Frank emphasized that support for marriage equality is a position that has been established for the Democratic Party, from the president, who endorsed marriage equality in May, to House Democratic lawmakers who voted to reject an amendment reaffirming the Defense of Marriage Act earlier this month.
A DNC staffer, who is familiar with the process and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the language in the platform approved on Sunday not only backs marriage equality, but also rejects DOMA and has positive language with regard to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The exact wording of the language wasn’t immediately available.
Mittens: If I paid more taxes, I wouldn’t be qualified for presidency
David Muir interviews Mitt Romney for ABC News in Jerusalem, and the weasel words Mittens used in response to questions about his past taxes is, I think, quite interesting:
Muir: You are here on what some have termed your world audition and democrats, not surprisingly, continue to hammer you back home on taxes, you remain firm two years and two years only. So from what you have released and from what we have seen we know that there was one year when you paid about 13.9% tax rate. Can we clear this up by asking a simple yes or no question? Was there ever any year when you paid lower than 13.9%?
Romney: I haven’t calculated that. I’m happy to go back and look but my view is I’ve paid all the taxes required by law. From time to time I’ve been audited as happens I think to other citizens as well and the accounting firm which prepares my taxes has done a very thorough and complete job – [I] pay taxes as legally due. I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I’d think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires.
Muir: You said you would go back and look, would you look for us?
Romney: I haven’t looked at the tax rate paid year by year. I know that I pay a very substantial amount of taxes and every year since the beginning of my career so far as I can recall.
‘Closing the door on democracy’
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Via Raw Story: Previous Florida governor Charlie Crist really puts the screws to Rick Scott. I’m beginning to wonder if Charlie is thinking about running again. He was a pretty good governor, except when he had to placate the right wing. He wouldn’t have that problem as a Democrat, and it’s long been rumored that he’s thinking of switching:
Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) on Wednesday criticized his successor, Gov. Rick Scott (R), and other Republicans for using “shameless” tactics that suppress voting rights, including requiring photo IDs, preventing felons from voting and purging voter rolls.
“The concern really is on sort of a closing the door on democracy,” Crist told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “For example, they’ve already changed the policy as it relates to former, non-violent felons. We had established a policy where they would have their rights automatically restored, give them the opportunity to vote once they had served their time and paid their debt to society. … That has now been changed under the new administration.”
“In addition, they’ve also said that early voting — which is a great tradition is Florida — has been reduced from a 14-day period before the elections to eight days before, making it again more difficult for legal citizens to have their right to vote be heard.”
Mitchell noted that Attorney General Eric Holder had recently compared voter photo ID requirements to Jim Crow laws, telling the NAACP that they were the equivalent of “poll taxes.”
“He’s on the right track,” the former governor agreed. “Anytime that you put more impediments into a citizen’s right — a legal citizen’s right to vote and make that more difficult, you impede the natural right of democracy and a citizen’s right to have their voice heard in important elections.”
Virtually Speaking Sunday
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From the VSS Media Panel: Joan McCarter & Dave Waldman (KagroX) exchange views, commenting on the corporate media’s Sunday morning talk shows and their own observations from the past week. Plus this weeks Ridiculous Moment from Culture of Truth. Listen live and later
Links: http://www.dailykos.com/blog/
http://www.congressmatters.
http://cultureoftruth.
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Politics camp for girls
This is a good idea. (Especially after Disney Princess Camp!) We could use more women in the process:
WASHINGTON — Where does a 17-year-old girl who wants to be president learn how to do it? At a politics boot camp for middle school and high school girls.
Running Start, a nonprofit group that encourages women to get involved in politics at an early age, hosted about 50 girls recently in Washington, introducing them to female role models and instructors and teaching them the basics of networking, fundraising, public speaking and other skills essential to political success.
“It’s really important for young women to be involved in politics,” said Sophie D’Anieri, a 17-year-old high school senior from Troy, N.Y. “I think there is some discrimination against women that makes it difficult to run.”
“I’m sort of weird for my age to be this interested in politics,” said 17-year-old Rachel Hansen, of Philadelphia, who aspires to run for president. “I think girls my age aren’t thinking about the future that much. They’re just thinking about what’s going on Friday night.”
The camp was about more than just the mechanics of politics. It was meant to inspire girls to get into public life. Recruiting girls for elected office when they’re in high school helps ensure that there will be more women making policy decisions, said Jessica Grounds, the executive director of the group.