Month: February 2013

Taxpayers Subsidize ‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks

Buck Banks

$83 billion

Amount U.S. taxpayers pay to subsidize the top five banks — JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — according to the Bloomberg View Editorial Board. The board said the banks “would just about break even in the absence of corporate welfare. In large part, the profits they report are essentially transfers from taxpayers to their shareholders.”

Sequester Seen as ‘Stupid and Cruel’ — and Therefore Republican

Buck Banks

The sequester has an advantage, and this is kind of cruel to Republicans, but it’s true. The sequester, not many people know what it is, but it sounds stupid and cruel. Therefore people think it’s a Republican thing.

— James Carville, on Morning Joe, noting that Democrats have a big advantage in the debate over the coming automatic budget cuts because of the word used to describe them.

Laxalt Defended Domenici’s Morals to Larry King in 2007

Buck Banks

I think when you’re — when you’re attacking the integrity of someone who has been in public service for his entire lifetime, at great sacrifice, supporting no fewer than eight children and with the many sacrifices and the many contributions Senator Domenici has made, not only to the country, but to New Mexico …

— Michelle Laxalt, in a 2007 interview on Larry King Live, defending the senator who recently admitted to being the father of her son.

Intellectually, Republicans Are Stuck in the 1980s

Buck Banks

Today’s Republicans are very good at tending the fire of Ronald Reagan’s memory but not nearly as good at learning from his successes. They slavishly adhere to the economic program that Reagan developed to meet the challenges of the late 1970s and early 1980s, ignoring the fact that he largely overcame those challenges, and now we have new ones. It’s because Republicans have not moved on from that time that Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, in their responses to the State of the Union address last week, offered so few new ideas.

— Ramesh Ponnuru, writing in the New York Times.

GOP’s Argument for Sequester a Self-Defeating Non Sequitur

Buck Banks

Could the GOP message on the sequester be any more self-defeating? Boehner could argue that the sequester cuts are necessary as a first — and somewhat modest — step toward controlling the deficits that threaten the economy. Instead, he describes them as a threat to national security and jobs that he nevertheless supports. It’s not an argument that is likely to persuade millions of Americans.

— Byron York, writing in the Washington Examiner.