Wall Street Journal — Small Business Faces Big Bite
While President Obama was in Michigan taking swipes at his economic detractors and rather ruefully saying he was ready to take ownership of the economy after Republican failures, his fellow Democrats in Congress were helping him in his goal by moving ahead a health care plan that fits his requirements, particularly a national health service and a path to near-universal coverage.
But as writers Janet Adamy and Laura Meckler point out the legislation, backed by all of the House grandees from Nancy Pelosi on down, the legislation is expensive, would undercut private insurance substantially, levies a massive tax on high earners and forces businesses with payrolls of more than $250,000 to pay insurance or a penalty equal to 8 percent of their total payroll.
That would cover firms with more than seven employees making the median national salary, a much lower threshold than had been discussed in the past. But in order to get high enrollment without pushing costs beyond the $1.04 trillion price tag, House leaders decided to soak small businesses. The CBO score for the bill doesn’t account for how many firms would lay off workers or cut pay to avoid the $250,000 threshold.
Pelosi is getting kudos from the president for moving a big bill so quickly, even though she now faces a bruising battle over a floor vote in her own lopsided House and slim prospects in the Senate, a la cap and trade. The plan is such a piece of liberal fantasy that the Washington Post opinion page dubbed it “the deep pockets mirage.”
While things are speeding up in the House, they are slowing down in the Senate, where the president’s August deadline has been dropped and the sherpa of a compromise plan, Sen. Max Baucus, is telling anxious moderates that he won’t sacrifice quality for speed.
“At a White House meeting with top Democratic leaders on Monday, Mr. Obama pushed Mr. Baucus to produce legislation by Thursday.
Senators are now talking openly of keeping the chamber in session an extra week, though some say that is simply a tactic to discourage delay by senators who have plans for vacations, congressional trips and hometown activities.
A further complication is that if it looks as if the Senate can’t or won’t act this summer, many House Democrats are likely to hesitate about voting on a contentious issue — including raising taxes — for something that might never become law.”
New York Times — Part-Time Workers Mask Unemployment Woes
Writer David Leonhardt keeps up his useful coverage of the true nature of the current downturn with a look at underemployment. While a 9.5 percent unemployment rate is shocking to Americans who are accustomed to rates half that size, the real number is more like 20 percent once one factors in those stuck in part-time positions looking for real jobs and those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits.
As companies face uncertainty over major changes looming in health care, energy costs and taxes, full-time positions are hard to come by.
“Various indicators suggest the nation’s economic output could start growing again this summer, which would mean the end of the recession. But the economy will still be weighed down by troubled credit markets and huge household debts. So it may be awhile before growth is fast enough to persuade companies to hire large numbers of workers.
This would make for an odd contrast, in which the economy was getting better but feeling worse. These broad measures of unemployment and underemployment could approach a hard-to-fathom 25 percent in California, up from 12 percent a year ago. In several other states, including Florida, North Carolina and Washington, the rate could yet reach 20 percent — and, unfortunately, the stimulus bill does not do a good enough job of targeting the hardest-hit states.
After a decade in which household income barely outpaced inflation, a slow recovery could leave many people hard-pressed and frustrated. In just the last week, the Labor Department reported that the number of people filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped — but so did consumer confidence and Mr. Obama’s approval rating. Welcome to the slog.”
Wall Street Journal — Supreme Strategy: Stick to the Script
Writer Naftali Bendavid explains why the Sonia Sotomayor hearings have been so dull: the repetitive answers from the nominee. To be fair, the questions have been different formulations of the same query: How can someone who celebrates bias in the name of retributive racial justice be an impartial arbiter of the law?
Sotomayor doesn’t address the first part and answers the second part with a solemn promise not to make law from the bench. Republicans may not believe her, and she may not believe what she’s saying, but who cares? As long as she keeps it boring, it’s cloture time, baby.
“At one point [Sen. Jeff] Sessions, the committee’s top Republican, read a statement from several years ago in which the judge said she ‘willingly accepts’ that prejudices, sympathies and experiences affect judges. ‘That’s the opposite of what you just said, is it not?’ Mr. Sessions demanded.
Mr. Graham appeared especially befuddled. ‘I listen to you today, I think I’m listening to Judge Roberts,’ he said, referring to conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. But he said her opinions as a judge and her statements Tuesday suggested something else.
‘What we’re trying to figure out,’ said Sen. Graham, ‘is who we’re getting here, who we’re getting as a nation.’”
New York Times – Waiting Game
The Times opinion page, which draws a lot of water in the Obama White House, makes an institutional push for another round of stimulus. The challenge that liberal outlets, especially the pragmatic kind, have had with calling for a new stimulus is fear of making the previous one look bad. After quavering on this matter, the Times plunges in and tells Obama that as long as he is raising taxes enough to pay for universal health care, another round of deficit spending will be ok.
The administration has been brought up short by deepening unemployment and a backlash against huge deficits worsened by the current stimulus. But the Times, still believing that the New Deal failed because FDR lost his nerve, wants Obama to plunge ahead with more spending, a pumped up mortgage bailout and buying up toxic assets.
With this reasoning on the continuum of ideas at the Obama White House, anything seems possible.
“If wait-and-see is anything other than a near-term tactic, it’s bound to be a miscalculation. The need for expanded relief and recovery efforts is compelling. Rather than avoid those fights, the Obama team must win them.”
Washington Post — Air Force Project Being Probed Is Linked to Murtha
Writer Carol Leoning is staying on Rep. John Murtha’s case and may soon be rewarded for her persistence. One of the Congressman’s brother’s clients is to plead guilty today to kickbacks and phony invoices for government projects funded through Murtha earmarks. It may be the bombshell that federal prosecutors have been waiting to drop.
“When an Air Force command in north Florida sought new battlefield technologies, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) steered millions in federal dollars its way to hire defense contractors.
The research effort at the Pensacola Air Force base fell apart, however, when investigators found evidence that it was used to improperly pay a series of companies linked to Murtha. A handful of defense firms were paid for work that was never done or not called for in the contracts. Some of the companies involved, based in Wyoming, Florida and Murtha’s district in Pennsylvania, had hidden owners, prosecutors allege; one was secretly owned by the Air Force official who helped approve the payments.
As prosecutors reveal new details of their criminal probe into the $8 million earmark that Murtha arranged for the Air Force project, one familiar player is never mentioned by authorities. Several of the companies had hired the lobbying firm of the lawmaker’s brother, Robert C. “Kit” Murtha.”
Capt. James Adair and Master Sgt. Paul Riley — A Soldier Comes Home
If you can handle having your heart broken in the morning, read the letter written by two Georgia Air National Guard members to the woman who wrote the Washington Post demanding to know why her son’s death in Afghanistan didn’t merit any attention while the miserable end to Michael Jackson’s miserable life went wall to wall on the same day. The authors brought her son’s body home and sought to reassure the woman that her son was mourned even as the media freak show rolled on.
“For one brief moment, the war stopped to honor Lt. Brian Bradshaw. This is the case for all of the fallen in Afghanistan. It is our way of recognizing the sacrifice and loss of our brothers and sisters in arms. Though there may not have been any media coverage, Brian’s death did not go unnoticed. You are not alone with your grief. We mourn Brian’s loss and celebrate his life with you. Brian is a true hero, and he will not be forgotten by those who served with him.”
