Wall Street Journal — Progressive Vision Likely in Next Jurist
Writer Jess Bravin spoke to former Obama law professor and current Obama legal advisor Lawrence Tribe about what kind of justice the president will pick to replace David Souter. The answer was that Obama would want a transformational figure who would start to turn the court beyond the liberal-conservative debate and toward a new vision of the law.
The key, Tribe said, is how the nominee makes the sale of the new approach to the law. The goal is to make a big shift sound like a small one.
“Thus, said Mr. Tribe, the president would want not merely a nominee of academic and professional excellence, but one who — like Mr. Obama himself — can ‘articulate the vision in a way that speaks to ordinary people.’”
New York Times – Worries Rise on the Size of U.S. Debt
Writers Graham Bowley and Jack Healy give a useful explanation with what’s happening as the Obama administration pumps up the national debt far beyond anything we’ve seen since America was fighting WWII.
Last week, the price the Treasury department had to pay in interest on the trillions of dollars in bonds being pumped out reached an all–time high of 3.17 percent. With the price of debt service going up, tax revenues falling and foreign creditors getting leery of American debt, the possibility for massive inflation is becoming quite real.
Inflation and high interest rates are the sure-fire ways to deepen and prolong a recession.
“The trouble is that government borrowing risks crowding out private investment, driving up interest rates and potentially slowing a recovery still trying to take hold. That is why the Federal Reserve announced an extraordinary policy this year to buy back existing long-term debt — $300 billion over six months — to drive down yields. The strategy worked for a while, but now the impact of that decision appears to be wearing off as long-term interest rates tick up again.
Then there is the concern that the interest the government must pay on its debt obligations may become unsustainable or weigh on future generations. The Congressional Budget Office expects interest payments to more than quadruple in the next decade as Washington borrows and spends, to $806 billion by 2019 from $172 billion next year.”
New York Times — Tests of Banks May Bring Hope More Than Fear
The administration went to the Times and writer David Leonhardt to float the preliminaries on how the stress tests conducted on the nations 19 largest banks went. The grades will be out this week but somebody in Tim Geithner’s office wants you to know early that the lose are manageable and that “none of these banks are insolvent.”
But insolvency isn’t the real issue. What everybody wants to know is what Geithner and President Obama will do with the results – ownership stakes, more bailouts or what. This is the opening bid in a huge regulatory overhaul more than it is a solvency test.
And it’s clear there will be ample grounds provided in the report for the feds to keep and expand the large, new role the administration has carved out in the banking world.
But some who favor more control of banks and Wall Street are worried that the administration is afraid of being turned down for more bailout billions or power over banks and may not make the results look as dire as they really are.
“[Pro-bailout critics of the administration] say that Mr. Obama and his advisers either have too rosy a view, or are stalling — and pretending to be somewhat optimistic, even as the banks’ problems fester — until they think Congress is willing to approve more bailout money.
One of the critics’ concerns is that the stress tests — originally meant to show investors whether banks could survive an unexpectedly bad next two years — no longer seem to have an extremely dark forecast.
Wall Street Journal – Industries Push for Free Pollution Credits
The only way that the president’s global warming fees are going to get through Congress is by House and Senate leaders giving away free passes to favored companies – especially those with key congressmen in their employ.
Writer Stephen Power observes that the intensity of lobbying for the freebies is so great that if the measure is passed, there may not be enough money left over to fund the “middle class tax cut” the president so often promised as a candidate.
Environmentalists don’t mind too terribly because they know that once in place, the system can be tightened year by year. But consumers could get burned twice.
“Economists say generally that consumer prices will rise regardless of whether permits are given away for free, and that giving them away for free will divert money from other purposes in the public interest, such as tax cuts for consumers.”
Washington Post — Proposals Would Transform College Aid
President Obama’s first-term domestic agenda had three main goals. We’ve heard much about the first two – global warming fees and a new national health plan – but the third, “cradle to career” education, hasn’t seen much daylight.
Writer Shailagh Murray explains that the president’s goal of having every high school graduate receive some form of higher education would cost untold billions and remake the way students borrow money and colleges operate. And because it’s overlooked, the plan may get through with less controversy.
But resistance is arising – at least on parochial grounds.
“The most vocal naysayer is Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who voted against the budget in part because of the student loan proposal. Nelson’s state is home to Nelnet, a Lincoln-based corporate loan provider that employs 1,000 people and that has contributed generously to his political campaigns.
‘It’s not just thinking about your state,’ he said. ‘I have a fundamental difference in opinion thinking that all student aid ought to come from the government.’
