The Case for Deficeit spending

Paul Krugman has a brief bit on why deficit spending right now is a good thing.

On another economics note, This American Life revisited some of the people they interviewed for their "Giant Pool of Money" segment 18 months ago, this time called "Return to the Giant Pool of Money."

Completely unrelated: Mike Blowers is the next Carmack the Magnificent!

Rush on Jay Leno

So Rush Limbaugh was on the Jay Leno show the other night.

It was an interesting discussion, but one thing that struck me was when Jay started to talk about how bankers make too much money. Rush interrupted him and said that it was nobodys business how much people make. At the time I didn't think much about that, but I thought about that comment earlier and a thought struck me: It IS our business what these bankers are making. As someone who has a 401(k), these firms are using my money to make their profits. As a taxpayer, they are using my money to make their profits. It is, and ALWAYS will be (as long as I have a 401(k)) my business what these people make, because it is my money they are using.

Healthcare

PBS ran a great special on healthcare last night. Watch the full program here.

Ezra Klein reports that a new CBO reports shows that a good public plan costs less than what was originally thought.

I'm trying to understand why people are against fixing health care. They say that big government is bad. They say that having the government take over healthcare will bankrupt the country. But the country is going to go bankrupt without any change, but it will be the constituents who are going bankrupt first, not the government. So what is the solution here, folks? Tell me alternatives, not just 'no, no, no.' If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem. And if you think I'm wrong with that last statement, read the latest from Ezra Klein on what is coming out of the Republican House leadership.

One other thing. The federal government says that if a person goes to the ER, they must be treated. So then why doesn't the government help hospitals pick up the tab on some of these patients that can't pay? That burden of paying is falling on the states and hospitals to pay, even though the rule to treat is federal. (by the way, that rule makes it illegal to not treat illegal immigrants, so right there you have to confront the illegal immigrant issue, which is something the federal government has yet to address).

Here is a list of least-liked folks (in order of least disliked to most disliked) who are considered to be right-of-center, according to 260 right-wing bloggers. I think if the republican party wants to turn things around with a majority of Amercians, they should listen to these folks, not reject them.

Thursday is the new Monday

Now that I'm back from vacation...

This is why I like David Frum. I don't agree with him completely, but his views on how conservatives current state of being are dead-on. Mr Frum stands by his principles and isn't afraid to speak out against his party when they betray his principles. How can you bash that?

We lost in 2008 in large part because we had not governed successfully over the previous eight years. More than political tactics, more even than media, what matters in politics is results. If national incomes had grown by 1% a year under George Bush instead of stagnating, Al Franken would have lost in a landslide. Populists like Sarah Palin may excite a TV audience, but they cannot govern. They don’t like it and are not good at it. (That’s why Sarah Palin did not even complete one term in office, let alone run for a second.) Limbaugh and Beck style politics can gain ratings. It will not win re-elections.

If BOTH parties were willing to do this kind of instrospection, I think we would all be better off. I think that Al Franken is just fine as a Senator. The guy put his money where his mouth is and ran for Senate and won. Yes, the election was very close and it could have gone either way. But what is done is done. At least he is a talk radio host who doesn't just bitch and moan about everything (like anti-establishment Glenn Beck), but actually is doing something to help change things. Let's see how he does.

On an aside here, I consider myself a centrist, but I cannot align myself with the current Republican party simply because they aren't conservatives. I think George Bush was a disaster. I don't agree with gay marriage, but they should have the same rights as married couples, because they AREN'T threatening my marriage. I don't like big government, but I detest big business even worse. I am pro market, not pro business (there is a a huge difference there, by they way). Some Republicans would consider what I say to mean I am a crazy liberal. My response is that they are so fart to the right that they consider centrists liberals. Anyways, that's where I stand.

Now onto other things.

Lots of talk about the new book from Matt Latimer. Here's the link to the GQ excerpt, and now Bruce Bartlett has his comments. This is extremely entertaining and interesting to read. Mr. Bartlett also has a great piece in Forbes.com about why we can't just cut Federal spending.

Over at the Vanguard Blog, Steve Utkus tells us not to worry too much about health care spending, as it's on an unsustainable arc and will self-correct (my interpretation, not his). This leaves me wanting a little bit, as you could argue that last year's market crash was self-correcting, and I don't want to go through something like that with healthcare, as lives do depend on that even more than financial markets. Maybe I'm interpreting what he is saying incorrectly, but I think a little more involvement is necessary here.

Ezra Klein has been very busy, with a look at how the CBO works, an awesome interview with my senator hero Ron Wyden of Oregon, and an interview with Jay Rockefeller.

Ron Wyden has a great op-ed piece in last week's NYT.

Paul Volker is going rogue against the Obama Administration is speaking out against preserving 'too big to fail' financial organizations. Maybe Obama will finally listen.

What Economics is

The Baucus Bill

So...Senator Baucus has put his health bill out into the wild, and the results are not looking good. James Kwak at Baseline Scenario calls the bills 'savings' a $140 billion tax on the middle class. Caitlin Kennedy of Planet Money has lots of links that look at the bill. Ezra Klein looks at 5 ways the bill needs to improve.

In other news, Arlen Specter says that a single-payer plan should be put on the table. Yeah!

Meanwhile, Matt Taibbi talks about how Obama has pulled what appears to be a bait-and-switch with people he had on his campaign that were progressive on topics like banking, defense, and health care, and who now have been marginalized and shelved.

What's for lunch?

David Frum muses on why Bush's economic record during the span of his tenure is so bad: healthcare.

GQ has an interesting piece on what it was like to be in the Oval Office last fall when the collapse was taking shape.

The managing editor of Fortune magazine goes after the government and the financial sector, calling what is going on as knowing what number and color to call at the roulette table.

SERWER: I mean, it's amazing to me that as we recover, you know, come out of this financial crisis, you know, you'd expect a company like Goldman Sachs maybe things are improving, make a little money. But they have a record quarter. In other words, they made more money in this three month period than they ever had in any other--

SCARBOROUGH: [archly] But they just made some good guesses, right?

SERWER: Well, I don't know if it's okay or not, but I think what happened is that the government has telegraphed to Wall Street, not only Goldman Sachs but the other firms what it was doing, what was going on, what the program was, and so, essentially, it's like telling a Goldman Sachs, "Hey, put your money on 32 Black" at the casino, at the roulette wheel. And the thing spins and lo and behold, where does it end up, Joe?

SCARBOROUGH: 32 Black?

SERWER: 32 Black.

Wendell Potter discusses how the health care industry uses non profit PACs to distort information for their own good.

We can break up 'too big to fail'