Tom Bozzo John “Don’t Say” Boehner makes (or should make) Greg Mankiw cry: Mr. Boehner likewise criticized Mr. Obama’s cap-and-trade emissions permits proposal, saying, “Cap-and-trade is code for increasing taxes and killing American jobs, and that’s the last thing we need to do during these troubled economic times.” As the NYT reports, the Obama budget […]

Tom Bozzo Reader Roger Senserrich listened to the Obama reply that also caught CR’s eye and sends a relatively favorable (to the administration) interpretation: Let´s see if it makes sense. 1. Obama says that America doesn´t nationalize; it is not something we do. That´s actually false; ask IndyMac or WaMu shareholders on what hit them. […]

by divorced one like BushUpdated comment at end So, now that the Democratic Party has the majority and the White House, why am I not hearing about the use of the Nuclear Option? I mean, it occurred to me that if there was a way to end the partisan old ways, the Nuclear Option is […]

by Tom Bozzo whose Facebook status currently reads, “Tom is feeling an unaccustomed sense of not-shame, at least pending some action on the economics, energy/environment, and transportation fronts.” Meanwhile, over at FDL, they find Rep. Peter DeFazio saying: I think [Obama]’s ill-advised by Larry Summers.[*] Larry Summers hates infrastructure. And some of these other economists […]

Tom Bozzo Via TrafficWorld: According to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, 50 percent of funds provided to states will be required to be obligated within 90 days. Within 180 days of enactment, states must submit a program of projects outlining how the remaining 50 percent of the projects will be obligated within one year […]

Tom Bozzo Around election time, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee had identified $45 billion in ready-to-go infrastructure projects a stimulus package. Now TrafficWorld reports that the Committee now is looking at $85 billion: The recommendations, outlined in a Dec. 12 memo, include $30 billion for highways and bridges, $12 billion for transit, $4.9 billion […]

Tom Bozzo is amazed at the reaction of leading figures in the left blogiverse to the W$J’s “news” that there will be tax cuts as part of the stimulus. See Aravosis, Digby, Krugman, Marshall. Can we cancel the circular firing squad? As far as I can tell from the Journal’s reporting, the main tax elements […]

Ken Houghton CR beat me to commenting on this Mankiw whine post, partially because I couldn’t think of anything reasonable to say about it. (CR could. That’s why he gets the big bucks.) But now that CR has done the heavy lifting, let’s look at the other aspect: Mankiw’s standard: Based a standard ranking of […]

By Bruce Webb PGL raises and answers this question over at Econospeak Health Care Debate: So This is Why Conservatives Hate Social Security. Or rather he allows Conservatives in the person of Michael Cannon at Cato admit the fundamental truth: successful government social programs fatally undercut future political success for the Right. Cannon: Blocking Obama’s […]

Geithner it is. I guess we can pretend he’s not a Clinton administration alum. And he has the right experience: Though not an economist, Mr. Geithner has a deep understanding of monetary and fiscal policy and broad experience in international trade issues. Before the current crisis, he was involved in the bailouts of Mexico, Indonesia, […]