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Morning Must Reads -- Doing a little costs a lot
By: Chris Stirewalt
Political Editor
10/16/09 8:05 AM EDT
New York Times -- Job Program Found to Miss Many States That Need It Most
The stimulus program’s inability to deal with unemployment remains the biggest political liability for the Obama administration. It merges economic fears with concerns about the exploding national debt.
President Obama’s new preference for a straight cash dump for older Americans shows the growing realization that the Keynesian impulses of strategic big spending have given way to a more desperate approach of borrowing money to give away to placate political opponents.
But even so, the stimulus must be turned into a positive, or at least less of a negative, to prevent an electoral disaster.
A nod to CNN reporter Tami Lubhy for her simple equation that said so much – in the stimulus jobs report released Thursday it was revealed that companies that received $2.2 billion in stimulus had “created or saved” 30,383 new jobs – that’s $71,500 per position.
But writers Michael Cooper and Ron Nixon get at the heart of the matter, which is that the places that need help the most are least able to take advantage of the lucrative new bureaucracy.
A green, tech firm in Denver can gobble up stimulus contracts but a tire shop in Providence can’t. The states with the strongest economies and the best companies won the contest for taking advantage of the government’s fiscal malpractice while struggling states with high unemployment couldn’t compete.
The administration once blithely talked about the transition between an old economy and a new economy en route to the “great leveling” it sought. But the wrenching pain of that movement is, predictably, worse than it seemed to politicians and economists.
“Businesses in Michigan, whose 15.2 percent unemployment rate in August was the highest in the nation, reported creating or saving about 400 jobs. Businesses in Nevada, which had the next highest unemployment rate, reported 159. And businesses in Rhode Island, which had the third-highest unemployment rate, 12.8 percent, reported the fewest jobs: just six.
More jobs, by contrast, were reported in some of the states with lowest unemployment rates. Businesses in North Dakota, whose 4.3 percent unemployment rate was the lowest in the nation, reported creating or saving 219. The most jobs were reported in Colorado, whose 7.3 percent unemployment rate was below the national average that reached 9.8 percent last month, and where businesses reported creating or saving 4,695 jobs.”
Washington Post -- Pelosi Joins Fellow Democrats in Tough Talk for Health Insurers
One of the only groups with lower approval ratings than Congress is the insurance industry, but that doesn’t mean people are more likely to trust Nancy Pelosi to run health care than they are the insurance folks.
After two devastating reports on the cost and availability of health insurance and heath care, Pelosi is trying to escalate the fight with the insurance industry. Following the White House lead, Pelosi wants to inject some populist juice into the Democratic effort as overall approval remains flabby.
The problem: When insurance companies say that your premiums will go up, you believe them. When Nancy Pelosi says she will control costs and improve care, you don’t.
Writer Shailagh Murray thinks the insurance industry reports have “backfired” because the House is taking a much harder line and Democrats are all looking to savage the industry. But the plan will hardly have backfired if the result is to push liberals off a cliff into a program that cannot pass, like one that shifts costs to states and employers.
Plus, Pelosi knows that this will be a Senate bill, not a House one.
“Pelosi said the House may adopt a Senate provision that would assess a flat fee on insurance companies that is expected to generate about $40 billion over 10 years, as a way to pay for its reform bill. She advocated House language that would require health-insurance companies to to spend 85 cents of every dollar they collect in premiums on benefits.
And she singled out the antitrust exemption that has protected the industry since 1945, the McCarran-Ferguson Act that allows states to regulate insurance without interference from the federal government.”
Washington Post -- CBO Estimates House Health Bill at $905B or Less
Having seen how the pros on the Senate Finance committee did it, House Democrats are getting into the swing of controlling federal costs on health care: just raise taxes and shift the costs elsewhere.
Writer Lori Montgomery looks at a new Congressional Budget Office Report on the main House Health plan. And lawmakers, it seems, have responded to the national outcry over deficit spending, but have chosen to do so by imposing more federal control over individual choices and creating a huge unfunded mandate for states.
“The cheaper version would rely heavily on a more dramatic expansion of Medicaid, the government health plan for the poor that is funded partly by the states -- meaning already-strapped governors would have to pick up more of the cost of reform.
Compared with the original package, the two new proposals would offer less generous subsidies for people who need help buying insurance and do not have access to affordable employer coverage. Additional savings would come from reducing employer tax credits.”
New York Times -- Pakistan Attacks Show Tightening of Militant Links
Writer Jane Perlez looks at the dire and deteriorating situation for our allies in Pakistan as Al Queda-trained local militants team up and demonstrate that they can strike with impunity against the troubled country’s security apparatus.
The more than $7 billion in fresh aid just dispatched from the U.S. on Thursday may help keep the Zardari government propped up in advance of a new Pakistani military offensive into the tribal regions near Afghanistan.
But the fight seems unlikely to be decisive against an enemy that recedes into the local population and has proven its ability to strike across the country, not just up in the mountains.
Plus, the American aid and assistance tends to strengthen one of the central arguments from the Talibani about the kleptocratic Zardari: that he is a puppet ruler.
“But the style of the attacks also revealed the closer ties between the Taliban and Al Qaeda and what are known as jihadi groups, which operate out of southern Punjab, the country’s largest province, analysts said. The cooperation has made the militant threat to Pakistan more potent and insidious than ever, they said.
The government has tolerated the Punjabi groups, including Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, for years, and many Pakistanis consider them allies in just causes, including fighting India, the United States and Shiite Muslims. But they have become entwined with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and have increasingly turned on the state.”
New York Times -- Acorn’s Woes Strain Its Ties to Democrats
If you’ve every seen the bums paid to protest outside a construction site while union members are nowhere to be seen you get a pretty good idea of the role ACORN has played for the Democratic Party and organized labor over the years. It is an temp agency for political action: protesting, registering Mickey Mouse, get-out-the-vote efforts, and canvassing.
But the outrage over the 2008 election fraud compounded by the video of ACORN workers offering guidance to a faux pimp on how to prostitute underage illegal immigrants, etc., has left Democrats without a crucial electioneering tool at a most inopportune moment.
Writer Jim Rutenberg has the details on the depth of the connections:
“Patrick Gaspard, the White House political director, worked with Acorn in New York to set up the Working Families political party and sat on the party’s board with Ms. Lewis when he was the top strategist for its ally, 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her campaigns for the Senate, and the White House urban policy czar, Adolfo Carrión Jr., formerly the Bronx borough president, ran on the party’s ballot lines.
Perhaps no administration official has had more interaction with Acorn than Mr. Donovan, Mr. Obama’s secretary of housing and urban development.
‘We grew to respect him, and he grew to respect us,’ [Acorn CEO Bertha] Lewis said in an interview.”
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