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

CBO Estimate for HR 1: Jan 26th, 2009

(UPDATE: For some reason the detailed outlay tables vanished from the PDF linked to here. Leading some to put on their tin foil hats. Fear not, I have uploaded them and they appear under the fold). (UPDATE 2: Larger images at CBO Tables)Via Prof. K. It turns out the ‘suppressed’ CBO ‘Report’ turned out to […]

The TARP and the Welfare Queens

by cactus The TARP and the Welfare Queens Yves Smith had a post up yesterday entitled Quelle Surprise! Big Banks Who Got TARP Funds Reduced Lending. It’s worth a read, but essentially the post is true to its title. Which brings me to a post I wrote back in October, right after TARP came to […]

Boehner is still wrong (even though the CBO ‘Report’ maybe kind of exists)

by Bruce Webb(IMPORTANT UPDATE: REAL CBO REPORT RELEASED h/t Prof. KCONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE January 26, 2009 H.R. 1 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (oops link fixed) Reader m.jed points us to this PDF ESTIMATED COST OF AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 AS PROVIDED ON THE APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE WEBSITE ON […]

Set it and forget it policy initiatives…Guantanamo

rdan WAPO reports on Guantanamo: President Obama’s plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials — barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees — […]

BOEHNER…God help us and our honest memories

rdan Steve Bennen notes in the Washington Monthly: BOEHNER…. In the first weekly Republican radio address under the new administration, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) touted the GOP’s vision for an economic recovery. “Our plan is rooted in the philosophy that we cannot borrow and spend our way back to prosperity,” Boehner stated. The […]

Senate Stimulus Package: Tax Cuts, Social Security & SSI

A reader in comments asked why the Bears had not posted on Obama’s stimulus plan. Well, speaking for myself, that was mostly because we didn’t have a plan and still don’t. What we have is the shifting outline of a plan subject to negotiation between the Admin and the Congress, leaving no solid starting point […]

Let’s KISS the income inequality.

by Divorced one like Bush(Updated to correct my decimal point. I’m bad.) When I talk to others about why we’re in the mess we’re in from a position of income inequality using numbers like $1,025,000,000,000 per year from the 99% to the 1% does impress them, but as I posted a while ago it is […]

Tom Daschle’s health care book – Part I

cross posted from STR Health Care Think Tank Tom Daschle’s health care book – Part I Senator (retired) Tom Daschle, new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (and health care czar!?) wrote a book in 2008 about the health care system (before he knew about this position I believe). Given Daschle’s major […]