Month: November 2012
More GOPers Reneging on Grover Norquist’s No-Tax Pledge
I’m not obligated on the pledge. I made Tennesseans aware, I was just elected, the only thing I’m honoring is the oath I take when I serve, when I’m sworn in this January.
— Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), quoted by the Washington Post, becoming the latest GOP lawmaker to buck the anti-tax pledge.
The Idea that Obama Caved on Bush Tax Cuts Is a Myth
Obama didn’t wave the white flag in 2010. He turned a face-off over the Bush tax cuts into an opportunity to enact a second stimulus that he otherwise could not get past Senate Republicans. His failure at that time was not that he mustered insufficient mettle; he failed to convey to the world that he had ju-jitsued the GOPers.
— David Corn, in Mother Jones, asserting the idea that President Obama “caved in” on the Bush tax cuts in 2010 is a myth.
The Problem is Bigger Than Black Friday Protests, Even if You Don’t Shop at Walmart or Eat Twinkies
Numbers sometimes paint a more vivid picture than words. For instance, these numbers:
Largest private sector employer in 1950: General Motors
Largest private sector employer in 2012: Walmart
Average worker wage by largest private sector employer in 1950: $50 per hour
Average worker wage by largest private sector employer in 2012: $8.81 per hour
Percentage of the labor force that belonged to a union in 1950: 34
Percentage of the labor force that belonged to a union in 2012: 7
Those figures come from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, and the $50 per hour includes benefits and is adjusted for 2012 dollars. Reich adds that one-third of Walmart workers are allowed only 28 hours per week, so they are not eligible for benefits. They are also barred from unionizing.
Which brings us to Twinkies.
Michael Saylor: ‘Mobile technology is a stunning gift to economies in places like India and Africa’
When the company told its employees recently that they would have to surrender their benefits or the company would liquidate, management tried to blame the situation on the union. But there have been six management teams over only eight years, a dizzying revolving door in the executive suite, with one Bain Capital-esque restructurer after another asking for more concessions from workers while sending the resulting profits to investors. As union president Frank Hurt told it:
The Truth About the Deficit: It’s Shrinking Faster Than Anytime Since the End of WWII
The problem isn’t the deficit, which has fallen faster over the past three years than it has since the end of World War II, but employment, says economic analyst Jed Graham. So let’s not go down the path of Europe and apply unneeded austerity measures that plunge us back into recession.
Believe it or not, the federal deficit has fallen faster over the past three years than it has in any such stretch since demobilization from World War II.
In fact, outside of that post-WWII era, the only time the deficit has fallen faster was when the economy relapsed in 1937, turning the Great Depression into a decade-long affair.
…From fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012, the deficit shrank 3.1 percentage points, from 10.1% to 7.0% of GDP.
Feminism is So Last Century
$.82
The amount Millennial women are paid in their first year out of college, compared to each full dollar for their male peers, according to the American Association of University Women. Millennials are more likely than Baby Boomers or Gen-Xers to say there is no need for women to be feminists, with 22-year-old Taylor Swift recently explaining, “I don’t really think about things as guys versus girls.”
Rick Perry: Worst Candidate of the 2012 Elections
Remember back to the late summer of 2011. Perry entered the race with what looked like a straight path to frontrunner status. He was a conservative’s conservative with a proven record of doing what he said in Texas. He was a fundraising powerhouse. He had a charisma that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney lacked. It was all there for the taking. Until, it became clear that the idea of Rick Perry running for president was very different than the reality of Rick Perry running for president.
— The Fix, giving the Worst Candidate of 2012 Award to Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) “for his remarkably poor presidential campaign.”
Marco Rubio Is Just a Younger Anti-Science Bible-Banging Republican
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), whose 2016 campaign for president is well under way, showed that he’s just another one of those fossilized Republicans who thinks he can deny science (losing the vote of a majority of high school and college graduates) in order to pander to the tea-vangelical base (thus gaining a remarkably tiny yet vocal portion of the actual electorate). Here’s what he said and what was said about what he said.
Rubio declined to tell GQ magazine how old he thought the earth was, saying it’s “one of those great mysteries.” Said Rubio:
The real mystery is not that anyone would think the earth was made in six days, but that anyone thinks that Marco Rubio is presidential material
I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.
To which Marc Ambinder, writing in The Week said it’s not a mystery, “It’s about 4.5 billion years old, give or take a few million.”
