Monday Reads
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: Economy, Foreign Affairs, morning reads, Yemen | Tags: jobs, John Edwards, the economy, Yemen 32 Comments
Good Morning!
The top stories on every one’s mind these days are the lousy jobs report last week and the tumbling stock markets. Democrats in the House are calling for new infrastructure spending as a way to create more jobs in the hopes that a few federal projects could provide some stimulus to the stalling recovery.
“The American people, while concerned about the deficit, place much more emphasis on job creation, and they see a role for the government,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told The Hill. “A fast injection of job stimulus on the public side would help tremendously. … It [the job report] helps our argument about investment.”
Other Democrats delivered a similar message on Friday. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said “the answer” to the lingering jobs crisis is “investment” in the “communities and businesses who need confidence and resources to hire [people].”
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said “investing in our communities goes hand in hand with full economic recovery.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said that only in Washington is targeted new spending being demonized.
“Once you get outside the Beltway, almost everyone agrees that we should be rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and investing in clean American energy that reduces our dependence on oil,” Blumenauer said.
Meanwhile, the major reason for home foreclosures these days isn’t the subprime loan scandal. It’s unemployment.
The Obama administration’s main program to keep distressed homeowners from falling into foreclosure has been aimed at those who took out subprime loans or other risky mortgages during the heady days of the housing boom. But these days, the primary cause of foreclosures is unemployment.
As a result, there is a mismatch between the homeowner program’s design and the country’s economic realities — and a new round of finger-pointing about how best to fix it.
The administration’s housing effort does include programs to help unemployed homeowners, but they have been plagued by delays, dubious benefits and abysmal participation. For example, a Treasury Department effort started in early 2010 allows the jobless to postpone mortgage payments for three months, but the average length of unemployment is now nine months. As of March 31, there were only 7,397 participants.
“So far, I think the public record will show that programs to help unemployed homeowners have not been very successful,” said Jeffrey C. Fuhrer, an executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
One additional question is popping up now that it appears more than certain that some entitlements will be subject to cuts, That is why aren’t Democrats defending Medicaid? Democrats have spoken out against cuts to Social Security and have defended Medicare. What about Medicaid?
…for all the Democrats’ posturing and campaigning against Republican plans for Medicare, the GOP budget actually makes more immediate and deeper cuts to Medicaid. But Democrats haven’t been blasting the GOP Medicaid plan with nearly the same fervor, even though Republicans would cut about $750 billion from the program during the next decade and end the guaranteed federal match for states.
With intense budget negotiations on the debt limit under way, health care insiders think Democrats won’t budge much on Medicare now that they have a significant campaign chip in their pockets: Kathy Hochul’s upset win in New York’s 26th Congressional District is Exhibit A of the power of Medicare.
And that makes advocates worry that Medicaid cuts are more likely to come out of budget negotiations led by Vice President Biden.
Medicaid covers more than 50 million people, including low-income children and seniors in long-term care, but it doesn’t pack the same political punch as Medicare. Some observers say that’s due to the lingering perception that Medicaid is just a program for poor people that holds a much less broad-based appeal.
That perception is definitely part of the challenge in communicating Democratic opposition to the GOP’s Medicaid plans, Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) told POLITICO.
Medicaid “doesn’t quite have the same political dynamic” as Medicare, Andrews said.
Protestors in Wisconsin have opened a ‘Walkerville’ Tent city in Madison as a reminder of the Great Depression and to protest the governor’s budget. Wisconsin is leading the way in protesting the way state budgets are being balanced on the backs of the poor and the working and middle classes.
In a move meant to evoke the infamous “Hooverville” tent cities of the Great Depression, protesters in Madison, Wisconsin opened “Walkerville” on Saturday evening, a tent city in the heart of Madison intended as a protest of Governor Scott Walker’s budget plan.
The Wisconsin Sentinel Journal calls the protest “the latest act in the 2011 political drama featuring the governor’s push to eliminate most collective bargaining rights for most public employees”.
By 9:00pm, an estimated 250 campers in up to 100 tents were arrayed throughout the designated protest area, with many campers pitching their tents on concrete sidewalks. City police, state troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were on hand, but on the whole a carnival air prevailed as families set up for the night, some intending to stay just for a night or two and others through June 20.
Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh is in Saudia Arabia recovering from injuries suffered in an attack on his palace last week. Many people are encouraging him to stay there.
The United States and Britain are pressing Saudi Arabia to persuade the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to formally stand down after flying to Riyadh for treatment for injuries that were sustained in shelling in Sana’a on Friday.
Diplomats said that Washington and London were insisting that Saleh now be urged to implement a deal under which he would relinquish power in exchange for immunity from prosecution and financial guarantees about his future.
Pro-democracy protestors in Yemen were celebrating his departure after 33 years in power, but the Arab world’s poorest country still faces turmoil as well as immediate concerns over whether a truce will hold if Saleh tries to return and his relatives and supporters fight back.
The risks ahead were underlined by clashes in the southern city of Taiz, which left at least two dead and four injured. Shelling was also reported in Sana’a.
Saleh was described as recovering following emergency medical treatment in a Riyadh military; he was injured by shrapnel when his palace compound was attacked by tribal rivals.
Yemen’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress, insisted he would be back, but diplomats and analysts expressed doubt, suggesting that Saudi patience with an always fractious and often manipulative neighbour was exhausted.
It would be impossible for Saleh to return, argued Abdul Ghani Iryani, a respected Yemeni political commentator. “He is out. That is the only rational course. The exit of the president has defused some of the tensions and war is less likely today than it was yesterday.”
Evidently John Edwards is going to trial because the Feds offered him a plea deal that included prison time.
Just before John Edwards was indicted Friday, prosecutors made a final offer: They would accept his guilty plea to three misdemeanor campaign finance law violations in the $925,000 cover-up of his affair.
With the deal, the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee would avoid a felony conviction – and almost certainly keep the law license that had made him wealthy.
But there was a catch.
The government wanted to dictate a sentence that would result in up to six months of prison for Edwards, even with the plea to lesser charges.
Edwards and his lawyers were concerned. They wanted the ability to at least argue to a judge for alternatives, such as a halfway house, weekend releases, home arrest or some arrangement that would allow Edwards to be with his school-age children. He is a single parent after the death of his wife, Elizabeth, in December.
Yeah, right. My guess is he doesn’t want to be some one’s mistress.
So, that’s what I’ve dug up today. What’s on your reading and blogging list?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
John Edwards is a sleazeball but why do we not see the Justice Dept acting with as much force against the thieves and liars on Wall Street?
If he is guilty of this offense let him walk the plank but those on Wall Street who gambled with other people’s money have escaped any form of punishment and this for me is the bigger sin.
John Edwards watched his hopes for the presidency evaporate along with his marriage and his public image yet these crooks who finagled the markets are walking around untouched. Amazing.
Hi Pat! I’ve been asking myself that question too.
Totally agree Pat…
I’ve read that they’ve so concentrated the financial markets into the hands of so few that they are now “too big to sue”.
Ah, “pragmatism.” I think it’s my new four-letter word. You can use it to cover any lack of necessary action these days!
Why didn’t we bring bin Laden to trial? Too hard.
Why don’t we drag the banksters into court? Too hard.
Why don’t we invest in infrastructure and jobs? Too hard.
Yeesh!
Surely if there was some “too big to sue” wiener picture being floated around by these financial execs, then perhaps the press would draw enough attention to the crooks and some sort of justice will prevail.
It was already used by Walmart in its discrimination case.
I hear ya Pat.
Ditto, Pat. I thought the same thing as the Edwards’ fiasco rolls along. There’s no love loss for the man by the public but frankly, he’s a small fish in a very large pond of sharks. The message is: small fish must be destroyed, sharks must tolerated and obeyed.
Oy!
Hey, the assman is running…it is official!
Santorum to run for president — USATODAY.com
That ought to bring the Republican debates to a new low.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/06/06/237112/rick-santorums-top-12-most-offensive-statements/
Here’s a selection:
Michele Bachmann calls Planned Parenthood a ‘criminal enterprise’
Sorry, but I am sick to death of the idiocy of people like Bachmann who is “allowed”, if that is the word, to just say and do anything without a challenge.
And the press “owns” this elevation to people like her and others who stretch, reshape, and model the “truth” to suit their purposes without recrimination.
The fact that she has pumped up her campaign coffers from like minded donors who believe this crap is astounding in itself.
I feel my own “sabbatical” coming on once again when I just have to refrain from following this nonsense which than only increases my already full fledged sense of outrage that does me no good in the end.
It’s like Quitterella who reinvented the Paul Revere story and is sticking to it. Whenever they are presented with facts they blame “gotcha” questions by the media. Doesn’t make any difference that a fifth grader should know the correct answer.
More Bachmannisms Michele Bachmann, Sustainable Development, and “Tenements” | Mother Jones
I love the new “Quitterella” nametag, Dak. And I guess you heard the tap dance to explain those Paul Revere comments. Remarkable! And GOP types repeat the ‘explanation’ as if it made an iota of sense.
Bachmann is another joke that people insist on making excuses for. This election cycle is going to give us all major migraines. Get the aspirin ready [or maybe something stronger].
Call:
Thanks for posting that WV.
wdsu wdsu
Missing Loyola Student Found In Mississippi http://bit.ly/micHof
she was afraid to tell her mother about her bad grades
This is good news…
DSK pleads not guilty.
No surprise
Chronic unemployment worse than Great Depression
I really think that both the GOP and the Dems want to bring this country completely down…
That has to be the only reasonable answer to both parties unwillingness to do anything to help the situation.
It is very disheartening to read something like this article, when there is a way to create jobs and repair the dilapidated infrastructure and actually help the failed economy.
I think they’re deliberately trying to suppress wages and turn people into a servant class. We’re turning into an upstairs downstairs society and the upstairs needs their staff.
(The latest Case-Shiller data show that home prices have fallen further than they did during the Great Depression.)
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2075364,00.html#ixzz1OVj9mY38
When you have people dropping statements that ‘unemployment is a sign of America’s strength and competiveness’ like Steve Rattner did, I think we can conclude that the powers-that-be don’t have any plan or inclination to address the escalating and demoralizing numbers. They obviously want worker wages flattened across the board because the only thing on their minds in maximized profits [for themselves].
What better way to do that then make a good portion of the population desperate and afraid, willing to take anything, even a Mickey D job and be glad for it.
The nightmare has only just begun.
I mentioned this a few days ago but I recall a story my grandmother told me: that during the Great Depression college grads were pumping gas and happy to do it.
Our brave, new leaders are celebrating the misery of the Depression and calling it good, a sign of strength.
How Orwellian can you get???
Court Says Victim Doesn’t Have to Pay Lawyer Fees – NYTimes.com
(Am I reading this NYT link correct?)
So this guy doesn’t have to pay the lawyer fees…but the cheerleader rape victim in Texas does?
Thanks for bringing the issue of Medicaid which covers some 50 million plus people, the majority being children and the elderly.
Lest we forget, a huge number of women will be affected too.
Here is the pushback in Indiana……..very interesting.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2011/06/05/national/a111057D32.DTL
7 Jun 2011
Abortion showdown could cost Indiana $4.3 billion
by Tom LoBianco, AP
But how many women will defunding Planned Parenthood kill?
That’s the number these woman-hating freaks are really looking at.
Sadly, we on the left are often not cynical enough. We think that killing lots of women is somehow a bug, when it’s really a feature, of the Christian Taliban’s economic and social policies.
Robert Samuelson strikes again: Why we must end Medicare ‘as we know it’