Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Extras in Bush’s Budget Not surprisingly, there’s some extra stuff in the Bush budget; Mark Schmitt has the details. AB P.S. This is about par for the course and very reminiscent of Bush’s 2001 letter to taxpayers announcing that, thanks to President Bush, they would be receiving a $300 rebate/advance against their next year’s taxes.

Jobs in Missouri My latest post at The American Street is up. This one is on the jobs picture in Missouri, where Bush/Buchanan combined to garner 50,000 more votes than Gore/Nader. Since Missouri has lost a lot more than 50,000 jobs (roughly twice as many, in fact), this swing state just might swing. AB

Joementum Apparently Joementum is exactly like momentum, but without any forward progress: South Carolina: Edwards 44, Kerry 30, Sharpton 10 Oklahoma: Edwards 31, Kerry 29, Clark 28 Missouri: Kerry 52, Edwards 23, Dean 10 Delaware: Kerry 47, Dean 14, Lieberman 11, Edwards 11 Arizona: Kerry 46, Clark 24, Dean 13 AB

John Kerry Getting the Kid Gloves Treatment? I’ve seen a few posts here and there claiming that John Kerry’s been treated with kid gloves the last few weeks, both by the press and by the rival democrats. One theory is that Dean and Gephardt were both badly damaged by their mutual fierce attacks in Iowa, […]

Costs and Benefits Sound policy decisions require analysis of both the costs and benefits of a given proposal. Most proposals have some positive benefit, which allows supporters to make arguments along the lines of “Don’t you agree that achieving X is a good thing?” Then opponents have to make a slightly more complex counter-argument along […]

Personal Income Growing, Barely This morning the BEA released its estimate of personal income and spending in December. Income was up by 0.2% in December, while spending grew by 0.4%, in nominal terms. In real (inflation-adjusted) terms, income showed virtually no growth, while spending grew a little. This has continued a trend over the past […]

Statement and Refutation In Dana Milbank’s latest Washington Post piece, Mr. Milbank actually presents White House statements about Iraqi WMD, and then follows them up with direct refutations. This is a very welcome departure from the more typical but less informative style in which a journalist first writes “Democrats allege X” and then adds “Republicans […]