Quotes of the day

“It’s just that. It’s filth. It’s, you know, this man has, has gone out there and tried to destroy my integrity. I mean, you’ve heard the whole issue of the Google issue. That’s Dan Savage. You know, it’s, it’s the lowest, you know, debasement of public discourse. It’s, it’s offensive beyond, you know, anything that any public figure or anybody in America should tolerate, and the mainstream media laughs about it. They, they, they kid about it. They write about it. They say, “Oh, Santorum’s got a Google problem.”



[S]ex advice columnist Dan Savage on HBO’s “Real Time” Friday said he wanted to perform violent hate sex on Rick Santorum.

On Monday, the former Pennsylvania Senator responded on WOR radio’s Steve Malzberg show.

***

“This week, Republicans will probably pass a balanced budget Constitutional amendment that has zero chance of becoming law. Then they may end up clinging to a no más Senate compromise. This proposal would pocket cuts that have already been agreed on, and it would eliminate leverage for future cuts and make them less likely.”

“It could be that this has been a glorious moment in Republican history. It could be that having persuaded independents that they are a prudent party, Republicans will sweep the next election. Controlling the White House and Congress, perhaps they will have the guts to cut Medicare unilaterally, reform the welfare state and herald in an era of conservative greatness.”

“But it’s much more likely that Republicans will come to regret this missed opportunity.”

***
“We’ve never focused on firing people, and we don’t intend to start now. We’re more focused on hiring the right people,”

Some federal workers more likely to die than lose jobs

“Federal employees’ job security is so great that workers in many agencies are more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off or fired, a USA TODAY analysis finds.”

***

“The plan has moved significantly, and it’s where we need to be — and it’s a start,” Coburn said. “This doesn’t solve our problems, but it creates the way forward where we can solve our problems.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who pulled out of the Gang of Six in May, also rejoined the group and praised the plan as something that could win the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate.

At the top of the White House press briefing, Obama described the plan as “good news,” adding that it was “broadly consistent” with the approach he had endorsed for reducing the deficit.

***

“This is the most humble day of my life.”

Rupert Murdoch

“Most humble day of my career” was the soundbite he gave us, but humility wasn’t really what anyone will remember. It will be the short, gruff answers, delivered as if he was not entirely clear what had been going on. Was it because he’s 80 and he can’t hear very well any more, or was it because he didn’t really want to engage? Probably a mixture of the two. But he did seem unflappable when the “foam hacker” struck. Tough bugger.”

***

“I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy,” Clinton said.

Former President Bill Clinton would invoke the 14th Amendment – “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me,” he says – to raise the debt ceiling if he were in President Barack Obama’s shoes, with the deadline to raise the limit just two weeks away.

***

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5:13 AM | 0 comments

Video: House GOP women: America needs jobs!

While Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) urges women to “get off the sidelines” and into public service, the GOP women of the House remind the nation, “America needs jobs!” The truth is, women might be “on the sidelines” in politics, at least in terms of sheer numbers, but they are already in the game when it comes to small business ownership. A party that understands and implements the conditions requisite for job creation should be a natural fit for those women.


Video: House GOP women: America needs jobs!
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posted at 9:55 pm on July 19, 2011 by Tina Korbe
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While Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) urges women to “get off the sidelines” and into public service, the GOP women of the House remind the nation, “America needs jobs!” The truth is, women might be “on the sidelines” in politics, at least in terms of sheer numbers, but they are already in the game when it comes to small business ownership. A party that understands and implements the conditions requisite for job creation should be a natural fit for those women.

“My agenda and the Republican agenda is indeed pro-woman,” says Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD) in the video. “It is pro-woman because it is pro-small business, pro-job creator, pro-family and pro-economy.”

Some 400 businesses are started by women every day, according to the video — and women-owned businesses represent the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. economy.

“It’s the mom who knows how much money it takes to put gas in the tank, how much it costs for healthcare, for the education bills, who’s worried about her older parents and making sure that they have access to healthcare — those are the women we’re standing up for,” Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.) says.

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4:48 AM | 0 comments

Bachmann “incapacitated” by migraines?

The Daily Caller’s Jonathan Strong drops a bombshell on the Michele Bachmann campaign today with a report that migraines incapacitate the presidential hopeful on a regular basis. The headline also alleges “heavy pill use,” a loaded phrase that insinuates some sort of addiction — an insinuation that the story fails to support. An unknown number of unnamed sources form the basis of this story:


The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.

“She has terrible migraine headaches. And they put her out of commission for a day or more at a time. They come out of nowhere, and they’re unpredictable,” says an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign. “They level her. They put her down. It’s actually sad. It’s very painful.”

Bachmann’s medical condition wouldn’t merit public attention, but for the fact she is running for president. Some close to Bachmann fear she won’t be equal to the stress of the campaign, much less the presidency itself.

“When she gets ‘em, frankly, she can’t function at all. It’s not like a little thing with a couple Advils. It’s bad,” the adviser says. “The migraines are so bad and so intense, she carries and takes all sorts of pills. Prevention pills. Pills during the migraine. Pills after the migraine, to keep them under control. She has to take these pills wherever she goes.”

What are the examples of Bachmann being “incapacitated” by her migraines? Strong only offers one — a missed campaign appearance for then-Rep. Roy Blunt in his ultimately successful Senate campaign. She was treated at a hospital and went home the same day. The only other incidents cited by Strong’s report came two months earlier, an episode that caused her to miss … er … no appearances, although she did visit an urgent-care center, and another event in October of last year, in which she laid down for a while and went to urgent care for treatment later.

The “heavy use of pills” would be familiar to anyone who deals with migraines, but Strong’s description sounds more like someone who actively manages their medical condition rather than being the second coming of Neely O’Hara from Valley of the Dolls:

Of particular concern to some around her is the significant amount of medication Bachmann takes to address her condition.

The former aide says Bachmann’s congressional staff is “constantly” in contact with her doctors to tweak the types and amounts of medicine she is taking. Marcus Bachmann helps her manage the episodes.

Her husband helps his wife manage her medical issues — and that’s a surprise? Migraines require the kind of review described in this passage, because the conditions shift and medications don’t always provide consistent relief. Shouldn’t someone who has migraines be in contact with her physicians to ensure that medication works as it should and that the condition doesn’t incapacitate the sufferer? And wouldn’t it be more strange if Marcus didn’t take a supporting role in that effort?

Bachmann doesn’t have a reputation for being a political wallflower. She has tirelessly traveled to Tea Party events, appears constantly on talking-head political news shows, and is perhaps the most prodigious fundraiser in the House. Bachmann didn’t do all of that by being incapacitated. I’ve known Bachmann for several years, and I’m only aware of her missing one event (the Blunt appearance) in all of that time. If her migraines were anywhere near as incapacitating as Strong’s piece suggests, we would have known about it a year ago or more.

The sourcing on this story doesn’t instill much confidence, either. Strong’s cites are:

a former aide says.
three people who have worked closely with Bachmann
an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign.
The former aide says …
the adviser says.

Strong writes that “TheDC agreed to provide the sources anonymity because they were providing information only a select group of people could know, at great professional risk.” I’m not an idealist that says that anonymous sources should never be used, but in this story, anonymity is extremely curious. It doesn’t protect whistleblowers calling attention to corruption or wrongdoing; it’s protecting people who didn’t like working for Bachmann. If the former Bachmann aides fear for the Republic, why aren’t they openly speaking out? The “great professional risk” appears to be that politicians won’t hire people who are disloyal and stab people in the back, anonymously or not.

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9:42 AM | 0 comments

Obamacare waivers approach 1,500 mark

Another month goes by and it’s time for yet another update on the Obamacare waiver situation. (You thought we forgot, what with all the other stories eating up the news cycle, didn’t you?) The rate may have slowed down a bit, but it hasn’t stopped. A new batch of waivers has been approved and the total is quickly approaching one of those big, shiny, round numbers.



The Health and Human Services Department granted 39 new waivers last month from part of the healthcare law, bringing the total to just shy of 1,500.

In September, HHS will stop the process of granting a new batch of one-year waivers at the end of each month. Companies have until Sept. 22 to file their initial application for a one-year reprieve and seek an extension to carry them through the next three years.

Department officials said they decided on the September cutoff because, by then, every company that thinks it needs a waiver would have had time to apply. The comparatively low number of approvals in June may back up that explanation. The 39 new waivers granted last month bring the total to 1,471.

The real story here may not be the raw number, but the reason being given for the September cutoff. The official line, as noted, is… “well, everyone should have had enough time to apply for a waiver by now if they need one.”

Far more likely, however, is the fact that Barack Obama keeps getting a big ole’ media punch on the nose every month when this story keeps coming up over and over again. The fact that the vast majority of waivers keep going to labor unions and other hot blooded supporters of the man who cooked up this plan in the first place doesn’t help much either. Cutting off the flow probably has more to do with stopping the political bleeding than any logistical argument.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, more waiver related news may be on the way. While many conservatives are outraged by the issuance of these free passes, one Republican is tackling the problem from the opposite angle. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is actually looking to increase the number of waivers… possibly by as many as 300 million.

Wyoming Republican John Barrasso said today that he plans to introduce a bill next week that “will deliver choice to Americans who want to get the care they need, from the doctor they want, at a price they can afford” by allowing all Americans to apply for a waiver from the president’s health care law.

“If the law worked well, companies and unions would not demand a way out of its expensive mandates. Each waiver demonstrates that the President’s health care law is a complete failure. The law continues to crush jobs, increase premiums and encourage government controlled health care,” Barrasso said in a written statement. “It’s not fair that a particular group of Americans, including union employees, don’t have to abide by the law. Millions of other Americans across the country deserve the same freedom,” he said.

Obviously this effort is aimed at making a point and drawing the inherent failure of this waiver policy out into the harsh light of day, given that the president would never sign it. But it does allow for an interesting though experiment. How long would it take the Department of Health and Human Services to process that many million applications? And how could any court impose a penalty on someone for not complying with the mandate if they could show that they had an application for a waiver pending? We might finally get it all straightened out in time for the American Tricentennial celebration.

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8:43 AM | 0 comments

Strib: Everyone unhappy with the shutdown-ending budget deal

The Star Tribune wants its readers to know that no one is happy with the budget deal that ended the Minnesota state shutdown. No, really:


After weeks of crippling political deadlock, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders emerged in the darkened Capitol on Thursday to announce they had brokered a budget deal to end the longest state government shutdown in U.S. history.

The deal raises the revenue Dayton sought — $1.4 billion — but without raising taxes, which Republicans opposed. Instead, it reaches back to an earlier GOP offer to rely primarily on more borrowing from schools and from the sale of tobacco bonds. The House and Senate could return in special session to vote on a final budget as early as Monday or Tuesday. …

“No one is going to be happy with this, which is the essence of a real compromise,” he said as the deal was announced.

The Strib then gives a familiar pattern of equal quotes of griping from each side. They quote a couple of DFLers and a couple of Republicans complaining about this cut or that spending, and try to position the two sides as getting more or less an equal amount of pain. Don’t believe it — Dayton lost this round, and he lost it big.

First, Dayton could have had this deal six to eight weeks ago. The amount of spending in the new agreement is almost exactly what the Republican-led legislature passed in May, although shifted around a little. Dayton forced the shutdown by refusing to negotiate on the individual budget bills and refusing to act on them for six weeks — and vetoing them only after the legislative session ended. The only two reasons for Dayton to pursue the shutdown was to get his new tax hikes on higher-income earners and to get billions in more spending, and he failed on both counts. Democrats in the state are livid at Dayton’s capitulation after raising the ante so high with voters.

So why did Dayton capitulate? Some have offered half-joking explanations that when the shutdown threatened Minnesotans’ supply of beer and access to fishing this summer, Dayton got worried about his standing. That may have been part of it, but that’s not the whole story. This week, Dayton had started a planned tour of Minnesota to take his case to the people — sound familiar? — but got a frosty reception in this hot summer. Planned events had unexpectedly poor turnout, according to campfire chatter, and even Dayton allies like union members made their unhappiness with the standoff clear.

Nor is the actual compromise helpful to Dayton and the Democrats. The DFL (Minnesota’s Democratic Party) had been hammering Tim Pawlenty for shifting funds on a short-term basis from K-12 education in order to bring the budget into balance. The national party has made those attacks on Pawlenty in his presidential bid. Now, Dayton has agreed to the same exact shift in this biennial budget, which completely undermines the blame-Pawlenty PR campaign that the DFL used to excuse the shutdown.

Republicans may not have gotten everything they wanted out of the budget fight, but believe me, they’re not walking around in sackcloth and ashes this morning.

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9:08 AM | 0 comments