Get this off my desk

There are a lot of reasons why elected office holders behave the way they do. But one fundamental razor for understanding them I find useful is assume their primary motivating question  with regard to any issue is, "How do we get this off of my desk?"  We're about to find out if Senate Democrats will extend this principle to... well... the entirety of their constitutional mandate. 

But most important, the bill grants an open invitation to Trump and Elon Musk to continue to ignore Congress and toss out disfavored spending. Vice President JD Vance, while selling the deal to House Republicans, stated outright that “Trump would continue cutting federal funding with his Department of Government Efficiency initiative and pursue impoundment—that is, holding back money appropriated by Congress.” This has been reiterated by others in the Trump administration.

In fact, the House Republican bill gives the president more leeway to move money around. It appropriates money for things that Musk has eliminated, meaning that money can operate as a floating slush fund for Trump’s priorities, as long as the courts don’t roll back the illegal impoundments.

Think about what this means. The Trump administration is saying that they will sign a bill appropriating specific funding, and then go about cutting funding anyway. If you’re a member of Congress, you’re being told that your work product doesn’t matter, that the constitutional power of the purse doesn’t matter, and that there’s no guarantee that anything you pass will actually reach the people you serve.

To most modern politicians, that is a tempting offer. With no expectation that your office has any relevance to the work of governing, you are now free to focus on the real work of  raising money and being on TV a lot. This is an especially attractive proposition if you happen to be a member of the "opposition party."  Why bother with performing the frustrations of exerting your limited power when you can scale that back to simply performing. 

So far, only Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has committed to voting yes. But as Josh Marshall has documented at Talking Points Memo, a number of Senate Democrats have stated no position on the bill, leaving their options open. In general, senators have been hedging their bets until forced to make a decision. That time has come.

Credible sources indicate that the most likely Democrats to offer up the remaining seven votes to avoid a shutdown are Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Michael Bennet (D-CO), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Mark Warner (D-VA).

Some Democrats seem to be consumed with Senate brain, worried that they would be blamed for a government shutdown. What they’re not understanding is that the Musk-Trump assault on government has created a kind of permanent government shutdown, where so-called nonessential personnel are fired and operations are deeply circumscribed. Why would any Democrat sign on to a bill making that state of affairs even more likely, out of fear of the same government shutdown that the Trump administration is locking into place anyway?

I'm a little harsher than David Dayen in that article.  I think Democrats understand what's happening perfectly well.  They're being offered a chance to avoid responsibility and are keen on taking it. That's just good political instincts. Your Social Security check didn't come? The bad people must have taken it from you. Meanwhile, now my job doesn't involve looking after Social Security anymore. One less thing I have to do.

Here comes the benefits cliff

Full speed ahead into the abyss, I guess.

Hundreds of thousands of Louisianans who’ve lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic have continued to receive sizable weekly checks, thanks to a federal $600-a-week boost to the state’s unemployment benefits.

But with the extra aid set to vanish in two and a half weeks — dropping the state’s maximum unemployment insurance benefit from $847 per week to just $247 — scores of workers are bracing for a huge blow to their income and stressing over how to pay bills.

Not sure about that "sizable" bit.  Maybe not the best way to describe the precarity to which these hundreds of thousands of workers in Louisiana have been subjected.  $600 a month with a hard expiration date doesn't sound like anyone's getting any special favors. They got mad at me for pointing this out yesterday but the way we talk about these policies in the media matters.  Working class people are being utterly abused by a saftety-net-in-name-only that is specifically designed to humiliate and intimidate them. It's important to avoid the pretense that they should be grateful for that.  Last month, the Advocate referred to the expanded benefits as "generous." We'll be sure and send Mitch McConnell a thank you card. 

Maybe we are picking at nits. But, as yesterday's story goes on to point out, Republicans in Washington, who are dragging their feet about extending benefits, are explicitly arguing that millions of laid off Americans have it too good right now. 

So far, there’s been little progress in Washington D.C. on a new aid package. Serious talks have yet to begin between the Democrat-controlled House and GOP Senate over possible proposals, and it’s unclear whether Republicans would support another round of expanded unemployment benefits.

Many Republicans have criticized the federal supplement, saying it is too generous and has incentivized many workers to stay home instead of returning to their jobs, since many lower-wage Americans have ended up making more each week than they earned while working full time.

We still don't even know if Congress will approve a new round of one-time relief checks like the ones sent out to many Americans a few months ago.  Back in May, when Sen. John Kennedy was asked about a second stimulus, he told us "People in Hell want ice water."  Well, John, we are in Hell. I mean, people in the Arctic want ice water right now.  And still, whatever relief Americans get looks right now like it will be less than the already insufficient previous round of checks.

Anyway if Republicans really thought the problem with this tenuous allowance is that it is too generous to compete with what people were making at work, then maybe it's time to talk about why more than 30 million Americans currently claiming benefits haven't been afforded a living wage. Of course they don't care about that. It's central to the right wing project that we maintain a large pool of unemployed or underemployed workers who are insecure enough to work for practically nothing when needed. If there's no one holding enough power to force the US Congress toward a different policy then this is fine for them. They are there to protect the bosses. Right now the bosses are winning. There's almost no incentive for anyone on their side to budge.

Up until this this week, I had all but convinced myself maybe there would be just enough fear of the fall elections to get a last minute extension of benefits through.  But I'm starting to see how a second stimulus check might provide just enough political cover to let the UI benefits expire anyway. Forcing people to "just get used to" worsening conditions is too high on the Republican list of priorities. They're not going to just let an opportunity like this pass without a fight. 

Down payment

Looks like we're only going to be able to squeeze $500 million out of congress for flood relief before they rush off to recess again.

The short-term funding bill, formally known as a continuing resolution, has been identified as the fastest way to get flood money for the state before Congress recesses this month. Lawmakers won't return to D.C. until December, after this fall's elections. Gov. John Bel Edwards had requested a $2.8 billion package.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said that the $500 million in the proposal is seen as a "down payment" on future flood relief that can be awarded in the December "lame duck" session.

"It's a great start," he said Thursday. "This obviously gets things going."

The flood relief package, which Senators will have for four days before votes are cast and then it heads to the House, would largely go toward meeting housing needs in the flood-ravaged areas. As it's currently written, the money would also go toward recovery for North Louisiana, which experienced mass floods in the spring.

They sound pretty proud of themselves as well as optimistic about getting the rest of the money after the fall break. Could they have done now, though? Probably. 

WASHINGTON The Senate may break two weeks ahead of schedule, with lawmakers on Monday suggesting that an early recess is underway.

Friday could be the last day the Senate is in session until after the election, meaning senators have just one week to make progress on Zika, an environmental bill, and relief for Flint, Michigan, and flood-damaged Louisiana – not to mention pass a continuing resolution, known as the CR, that would keep the government funded before the fiscal year ends on September 30.

“Republicans took the longest summer recess in 60 years and are rushing for the exits again after three short weeks back at work,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in a statement. “This Republican Senate has worked fewer days than any Senate in modern history.”

Oh well. Have a nice vacation, guys. See you after the re-greatening of America. 

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article102774302.html#storylink=cpy

Republicans don't care about governing

Episode 9,001

Asserted as a fact of political life, “Republicans must show they can govern” is a failure of imagination, and a sentimentalism. It refuses to grapple with other equally plausible possibilities. For example: that declining to govern will produce so much confusion about lines of responsibility and alienation from a broken political system that voters can’t, won’t, or in any case don’t “punish” the people who went for obstruction. Behind a statement like Peter Foster’s: “Republicans must use the next two years to show they are a party of government…” is a prediction about price-paying that does not necessarily apply in a hyper-partisan and super-polarized era. Political journalists are supposed to know that. They are supposed to know that better than anyone else.

Elitists

Congress Speaks At 10th Grade Level, Study Says

Members of Congress aren’t sounding any smarter. In fact, the 112th Congress speaks collectively at a 10th grade level, down from that of a high school junior in 2005, according to a Sunlight Foundation study released this week. 

Red Ink Superman

This morning I went ahead and mailed in my credit card payment. It is due tomorrow and I've obviously been putting it off for some time. But, you see, I was pissed off because the bill was so huge. Not exactly unmanageable, but infuriating nonetheless, especially considering why it is owed in the first place. Last month, I incurred an emergency expense when one of Serpas' finest nailed me on St. Charles Avenue at 43 in a 35. Plus the expired brake tag. (If you know anything about the Tercel, this should not surprise.) Plus a seatbelt violation. (For a rear passenger, BTW. Who even knew that was a thing?) Anyway so that ends up being $420 on the tab. I don't like having to pay this exorbitant amount but what are you gonna do? Everyone knows traffic violations in Orleans Parish are strictly non-negotiable.

When this month's bill arrived in the mail, I was understandably pissed off. The sum of the debt and the occasion for which it occurred both greatly offended my sense of moral rectitude. In addition I found myself in the grips of a great frustration with my own inability to do anything other than capitulate to the demands of my creditor. I may see the charge as unwelcome, wasteful, perhaps even unjust but, the bank, frankly, doesn't give a shit about any of that. I'm contracted to pay them. They just want their damn money.

So I did the mature thing. I hid the bill at the bottom of a pile of mail on my dresser and left it there for weeks while kvetching impotently about the awfulness of it all. The nearer I got to the due date, the angrier I became about the crisis implicit in my possibly deciding not to pay my bill, the more I wished for an alternate reality in which I could simply hold my breath long enough to force someone else into, if not paying my bill for me, at least agreeing to stop expending government resources on frivolous pursuits. But, alas, Chief Serpas shows no sign of deviating from his current program.

My bluff was called. Of course, when I finally came to grips with that fact this morning, the crisis was already out of hand due to my childish negligence. I woke early, wrote out a check, addressed the envelope and discovered only then that I was out of stamps. Already late for work and in full panic mode, I rushed to the post office. Once there, due to a recent decision to remove the stamp vending machine, I had to wait twenty minutes in line behind fifteen customers needing to have complicated service issues resolved at two out of six possible open windows. I wish someone would find a way to fund a full postal staff somehow. Maybe if we had let the Bush tax cuts expire....

Anyway I haven't actually done any of the work involved in putting together a Congressional campaign yet. That shouldn't surprise you, of course. As you can deduce from the above story, I'm a pretty lazy and childish little shit. Which is why, if I ever get to Washington, I'm clearly Speaker material.

Unpleasant commissions, please

Multiple horrors occurring at once

City Council is preparing to pass the budget. T-P's Michelle Krupa appears to be liveblogging the session. She may also be blurting out tweets here.

Simpson-Bowles deficit commission (informally known as the "catfood commission") is also meeting today. Follow along at FDL or on CSPAN3

The Agenda part 2

Can't wait to watch the awesome return to fiscal responsibility.

Not that you heard this from anyone during the campaign, especially not the fucking liberal media, but if you could cut out all of the discretionary spending for the year--including the entire fucking Department of Defense budget--that would balance the federal budget. Unless you raise taxes, that's the only way to do it. Now, of course, you can't touch the Pentagon's money. If you cut that even by a penny, you're not supporting the troops, and you might as well hand the launch codes right to Osama bin Laden. So let's leave in the $664 billion for the DoD. Oh, and the $43 billion for Homeland Security. Can't touch that, either. And the $24 billion for DoJ--can't be soft on crime! Let's just cut out those pussy things like education, the EPA, Interior, Commerce, Agriculture, and the VA (It's an all-volunteer military, amirite? Why keep coddling those non-producers after they're out of the service?). Okay. You're still half a trillion dollars in the red. That's right. Oh, but I'm sure a tax cut will make that up. But only a tax cut on the rich. That way, they'll create jobs for the underpants gnomes, or whatever that stupid supply-side religion says.

And hopefully there will be time left over for very serious hearings on every little thing.

Compromise on renewable energy standards is possible, but the posturing between Rep. Joe Barton, the chairman of the energy committee, and the administration, may make this terribly difficult. The GOP plans to hold high profile hearings examining the alleged "scientific fraud" behind global warming, a sleeper issue in this election that motivated the base quite a bit.

But most of all I can't wait to get the office pool started on which made-up scandal will ultimately lead to the next purely political impeachment. TPM has the early favorites here.

Knowing it gets worse as it goes

I think I've made it abundantly clear over the years that I'm fairly unhappy with and distrustful of the Democratic Party and President Obama. But as frustrating as it has been to watch Democrats (predictably) squander opportunities these past few years, watching what happens next can only be worse.

Tired

Very tired of watching this movie over and over and over

Feudal Society Part II

And, of course, the owners of the place "own the place"

So: Paese went from Chairman Frank's office to be the top lobbyist at Goldman, and shortly before that, Goldman dispatched Paese's predecessor, close Tom Daschle associate Mark Patterson, to be Chief of Staff to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, himself a protege of former Goldman CEO Robert Rubin and a virtually wholly owned subsidiary of the banking industry. That's all part of what Desmond Lachman -- American Enterprise Institute fellow, former chief emerging market strategist at Salomon Smith Barney and top IMF official (no socialist he) -- recently described as "Goldman Sachs's seeming lock on high-level U.S. Treasury jobs."

But Tom Benson told me this morning that we're about to win a bunch of Superbowls so I'm still very hopey.

Update: Inspired by the Greenwald post I just linked to above, and by Mary Landrieu's concern for her "community banks" expressed here, I thought I'd add that Landrieu's top contributor in cycle 2007-2008 was "community banker" JP Morgan Chase.

Specter

On the one hand, I'm tempted to say that this means he's pretty much toast politically.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. What has happened here is Arlen Specter has been forced out by a calcifying, radicalizing GOP. He was about to become a sacrifice to that radicalization and clearly didn't have anywhere else to go. Conventional wisdom at this point in time will claim this as a portent of Republican weakness in 2010. I have other ideas but it's still a bit too early to tell. Either way, I'll be very interested to see what a Toomey vs Specter general election looks like.

Update: Josh Marshall has some preliminary thoughts:

Democratic registrations swelled in Pennsylvania last year at the expense of Republicans. A lot of that was moderate Republicans who wanted to vote for Obama in the primary or the general. Or for that matter, moderate Republicans who wanted to vote for Hillary. Whatever your interpretation of why they were switching, that left the Republican primary electorate much more conservative than it was in the past, certainly much more than it was when he ran against Toomey the first time in 2004.

The question is just how "moderate" will those "moderate Republicans" who crossed over in 2008 remain?

Do over

Well this is where we find out whether or not Obama has learned anything in his first few weeks on the job. Here are three lessons he should be taking away from the Stimulus debate.

1) The Democrats in both houses of Congress are pathetic, selfish, sniveling idiots. I know it's an unpopular point of view to say this but the distorted GOP criticism of the stimulus as a "pork" package does have some basis in fact. It is loaded down with pet projects and dumb ideas that give too much power to the lie that the whole endeavor is worthless when all reasonable people agree that the opposite is true. This is mostly the fault of Congressional Democrats but also Obama's mistake for opening the process with an insufficiently narrow definition of "shovel-ready project" If the idea behind a stimulus bill is "let's throw a bunch of money around" it shouldn't be this difficult to get people in line behind throwing the money at building things and putting people to work. But letting the stupid and selfish Congressional Democrats fantasize their way to a bill isn't the best way to get there. Even so, Obama's major fault lies in his refusal to understand that...

2) No matter what you do, Republican dead-enders will not help you. See, for example, the following footage of Senator Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor yesterday.



There is no point in flattering these clowns. They're just waiting to turn on you with more bullshit. Also the last election cycle (3 months ago!) was a resounding negation of public support for their so-called ideas. They don't get to drive the bus right now. Stop giving them a spot in the front seat.

3) Also in the back of the bus we should find the hostile/ignorant/indifferent national punditry elite. The so called journalists in the entertainment industry continue to cling to their fantasy that wisdom in public affairs springs only from the mythical fount of "bi-partisanship" Few ideas could be stupider not only because "one of the parties is insane" but also because it... well... it just flies in the face of logic to sell out the people who put you in office in order to make the the TV people smile prettier. Obama, the candidate, was a master at handling the stupid media. Obama the President needs to follow that example.

One way for Obama to regain the initiative and bring everyone back in line is to call them all out. Obama should threaten to veto any stimulus package that either a) throws the money at too many dumb ideas or worse b) contains more of the same discredited Republican tax giveaways to the wealthy. A veto threat is credible because even the stupidest lawmakers have to acknowledge that we are in deep shit here. The consequences of doing nothing are too great to ignore. Make them all shut the fuck up and get back to work doing it right.

Update: Let the record show that, through this crisis, Louisiana continues to be represented in the Senate by a "high-hung nincompoop" We are all very proud.

Upperdate: And, of course, this should have been Obama's first move.

Uppestdate: Looks like the crappy Senators may have reached some sort of crappy deal. More on how possibly crappy tomorrow.

Look on the bright side

At least now we know Rahm Emanuel will never be Speaker of the House

Crappy Dems continue with accustomed crappiness

Harry Reid specifically tells us we don't even get to hope.

Awesome Dragonslaying

National Affairs Edition

Louisiana U.S. Congressional District 1: Runoff Analysis

Let's see that's roughly 16,813 votes vs. 33,290.

Yup, good luck with that.

"Whatever it takes"

Except.. you know.. the actual protection we desperately need.

WASHINGTON -- Despite optimism from local officials, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, the top Democratic vote-counter in the House, said Louisiana shouldn't assume Congress will override a threatened presidential veto of hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects.

A seemingly veto-proof majority voted 381-40 this month for the $21 billion Water Resources Development Act, which President Bush says is too expensive. But Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and House majority whip, said that mustering the two-thirds majority necessary to overturn a veto isn't a certainty.

It appears that not even David Vitter can save us.

Quote of the Day

Chris Dodd to Glen Greenwald in a discussion over why so many Democrats supported the awful FISA legislation that just passed.

But part of what this comes down to is that too many people in public life are not secure enough in their own beliefs -- feel vulnerable to attacks by people who will attack you -- and feel unwilling or unable to respond to them with clarity and conviction.

In other words.. they are douchebags.

Nagin to meet with Dean in D.C

To chat, I guess.

A city spokesman traveling with the mayor said he did not know what Nagin planned to discuss with Dean, the former Vermont governor who chairs the Democratic National Committee, the principle engine of party politics at the national level.

Nagin recently danced around questions about whether he will run for governor or for the 2nd District congressional seat if it were vacated by U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who is under federal indictment on 16 corruption-related charges.

But he continues to raise money for his war chest, now estimated to exceed $500,000. Last week, he attended a fund-raiser in Kansas City, Mo. Nagin's second terms as mayor ends in 2010.