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NORMAN SOLOMON
A Media Parable For "The Center" |
| It's been 16 years since a Democrat moved into the White House. Now, the fog of memory and the spin of media are teaming up to explain that Barack Obama must hew to "the center" if he knows what's good for his presidency.
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| Jobless Claims at 16-Year High |
| usatoday.com — The government says new claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening labor market. The Labor Department says new applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 from a downwardly revised figure of 515,000 the previous week. That's much higher than economists' expectations of 505,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. That's also the highest level of claims since July 1992, the department says, when the economy was coming out of a recession. In addition, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment insurance rose sharply for a third week to more than 4 million, highest since December 1982, when the economy was in a painful recession. |
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| Bush Would Extend Jobless Benefits |
| hosted.ap.org — With weekly jobless claims benefits at a 16-year high, the White House said that President George W. Bush would quickly sign legislation pending in Congress to provide further unemployment benefits. The Senate is expected to take up a bill, already passed by the House, that would extend unemployment insurance checks for up to 13 additional weeks for jobless people whose benefits have run out. The Senate vote would require support from 60 senators to pass. More than 1.2 million jobs have been lost so far this year and the civilian jobless rate is at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent of the labor force. |
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| Senate Nixes Auto Vote |
| hosted.ap.org — A Democratic Congress, unwilling or unable to approve a $25 billion bailout for Detroit's Big Three, appears ready to punt the automakers' fate to a lame-duck Republican president. Caught in the middle of a who-blinks-first standoff are legions of manufacturing firms and auto dealers — and millions of Americans' jobs — after Senate Democrats canceled a showdown vote that had been expected. President George W. Bush has "no appetite" to act on his own. If just one of the auto giants were to go belly up, some estimates put U.S. job losses next year as high as 2.5 million. |
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| Fed: Recession to Extend into 2009 |
| hosted.ap.org — The economy will log little, if any, growth this year, and could jolt into reverse, according to various Fed projections. And, the frailty will extend into next year, the Fed said, where the economy could shrink or turn in subpar growth. The economy "would remain very weak next year" and "the subsequent pace of recovery would be quite slow," the Fed said in its new economic projections. "The unemployment rate would increase substantially further." The Fed projected that the national unemployment rate will rise to between 6.3 percent and 6.5 percent this year. That would be up sharply from last year's average rate of 4.6 percent. For 2009, the Fed expects the jobless rate to climb to between 7.1 percent and 7.6 percent. |
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| Health Insurers Offer Acceptance, on Condition |
| nytimes.com — The health insurance industry said that it would support a health care overhaul requiring insurers to accept all customers, regardless of illness or disability. But in return, the industry said, Congress should require all Americans to have coverage. The proposals, put forward by the insurers’ two main trade associations, have the potential to reshape and advance the debate over universal health insurance just as President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office. In separate actions, the two trade groups, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, announced their support for guaranteed coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions, in conjunction with an enforceable mandate for individual coverage. |
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| Report Criticizes Homeland Security |
| usatoday.com — The Homeland Security Department has done a poor job overseeing the purchase of billions of dollars of equipment and technology since the agency was created five years ago, according to a federal report scheduled for release today. Senior department officials have "not provided the oversight needed" to ensure that purchases "with important national security objectives" function properly and stay on budget, according to Congress' Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO report is the latest to raise questions about the Homeland Security Department, which Congress has criticized for gaps in aviation security, a faltering response to Hurricane Katrina and slow progress in securing land borders. |
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| Bush to Relax Species Regulations |
| hosted.ap.org — With the Bush administration on the verge of relaxing regulations protecting endangered species, Democratic leaders are looking at ways to overturn any last-minute rule changes. The Bush administration has until Friday to publish new rules in order for them to take effect before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in. Otherwise, Obama can undo them with the stroke of a pen. A rule eliminating the mandatory, independent advice of government scientists in decisions about whether dams, highways and other projects are likely to harm species looked likely to meet the deadline, leaving the only chance for a quick reversal to Congress. Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House will be looking at ways to overturn the final endangered species rules and other one-minute-to-midnight regulations. |
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| China Announces Food Safety Rules |
| nytimes.com — The Chinese government, struggling to contain the fallout from a scandal over contaminated milk and eggs, announced a wide range of food safety measures aimed at reining in abuses in the dairy industry. The State Council, China’s cabinet, issued several new rules it says will govern all aspects of the industry, from cow breeding and animal feed to the packaging and sales of the milk. Since September, when Chinese-made milk powder was found to be adulterated with the industrial chemical melamine, at least four infants who drank the formula have died and more than 50,000 children have fallen ill. The scandal has led to recalls of milk products across the world, embarrassed the Chinese government and devastated domestic dairy farmers and milk producers. |
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| Big Pharma Seeks to Shape Health Plan |
| reuters.com — Major drug makers want their voices heard as U.S. Democrats, traditionally critics of the industry, start crafting plans to expand health insurance coverage and cut the escalating costs of care. Companies are promoting the success of Medicare's prescription drug coverage and potential for pharmaceuticals to save money in the long term. Big Pharma executives are meeting in Washington this week at a gathering of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations. Democrats have attacked drug makers for high prices, excessive advertising and some manufacturers' handling of side effects. |
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DEAN BAKER
Will Henry Paulson Sink Detroit?
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| tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Henry Paulson's main claim to fame is getting just about everything wrong in his tenure as Treasury secretary. However, he now stands to gain lasting notoriety as the person who destroyed the domestic U.S. auto industry, and the economies of the Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana along with them. |
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MICHELLE SINGLETARY
American Taxpayers are Getting Played
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| washingtonpost.com — Corporate America is playing us like chumps. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the folks he's assembled to try to get us out of the economic tempest are being played like chumps. |
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BRIAN ROSS
The Case for Bailing Out the Big Three
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| huffingtonpost.com — Lefties want to stick it to the man! Down with corporate greed! Environmental wonks wag their fingers at the industry and are reveling in a big "See I told you so!" Righties want to stick it to the unions. Down with corporate welfare to overpaid workers! Here is why all of y'all should be embarrassed. |
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TITUS LEVI
How to Save the Big Three From Themselves
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| truthdig.com — Detroit's economic importance is great but now occupies a lesser role than it did before it entered a slow-but-steady decline in the 1970s. It suffers from acute and advanced damage that will require major surgery. And like any major surgery, treating Detroit malaise will be a complicated affair with no assurance of success. However, doing nothing may be worse, especially for the state of Michigan. |
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Wrong Place to Be Chronically Ill
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| nytimes.com — Chronically ill Americans suffer far worse care than their counterparts in seven other industrial nations, according to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund. It is the latest telling evidence that the dysfunctional American health care system badly needs reform. |
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EUGENE ROBINSON
After the Torture Era
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| washingtonpost.com — Amid the excitement of the election and the urgency of the economic crisis, it has been easy to lose sight of the terrorism-related "issues" that defined George W. Bush's presidency and robbed America of so much honor, stature and goodwill. |
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RUTH CONIFF
The Progressive Transition--Putting Pressure on Obama
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| progressive.org — It could be a very short honeymoon for progressives who supported Obama, with all the Clinton Administration officials crowding into the cabinet. What about "change" propelled by the power of small donors, a huge field operation, and the massive numbers of new voters and newly energized activists who got Obama elected? |
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JOEL BLEIFUSS
We Have Much to Celebrate
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| inthesetimes.com — Next year, President Barack Obama and the solidly Democratic Congress can pass legislation that provides universal health care, establishes a sustainable energy program, reforms labor laws and restores environmental safeguards. We can also put on the agenda issues that were ignored during the presidential campaign. |
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MARK SCHMITT
The Audacity of Patience
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| prospect.org — Obama's savvy coalition-building broke all the rules about how to run for president. If he can take the same approach in the White House, he will be a towering success. |
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BILL SCHER
Progressive Mandate At Work: Waxman Named House Energy Chair |
| Last week, the progressive mandate was felt in the Senate, as right-leaning Democratic Senator Max Baucus proposed legislation to guarantee health care for all. Today, the progressive mandate was felt in the House, as the Democratic caucus voted to remove longtime global warming skeptic Rep. John Dingell as chair of the House energy committee, in favor of environmental champion Rep. Henry Waxman. |
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DIGBY
(Card) Check Please |
| I have long been amused by certain bizarre conservative rallying cries. This past election I noticed a new catch phrase. The minute a conservative breathes the word "card check," his or her supporters completely lose their minds. But where does the passion come from? |
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DAVID SIROTA
Wash Post Re-Floats Possibility of Lame-Duck NAFTA Expansion |
| Glenn Greenwald long ago taught us why we should always look skeptically at the fact-free prognostications of the Washington Post's Steve Pearlstein. That said, this line in Pearlstein's column today caught my eye today. |
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| Mandate Watch: "Team of Rivals" Or Rival Team? |
| A quick lexicographic note: Seems to me the term "Team of Rivals" is the new euphemism for "bipartisanship," which unto itself has always been a synonym for "buypartisanship" (ie. bipartisan corporatism) and "Broderism" (the principle, championed by Washington Post columnist David Broder, that bipartisanship is an inherent virtue regardless of what it is in pursuit of).
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RICK PERLSTEIN
New New Deal? The Literary Evidence |
Turns out the president-elect has been reading Jean Edward Smith's fine biography FDR. An excellent choice — and a strong suggestion that maybe Obama is thinking about our "New New Deal video. Here's my review of that book. |
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| Right Minded |
| Last week I shared with you the post-election reflections of a listserv I follow of conservative "scholars." I think I'll keep 'em coming. This stuff is too good not to share. |
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MONICA SANCHEZ
Health Insurance Premiums and the Stock Market |
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The stock market is down. Can you guess what will be going up? Health insurance premiums, of course!
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Progressives Have A Mandate To Govern
In hotly contested 2008 congressional races on November 4, 2008, the Democratic winners were — overwhelmingly — real progressives who campaigned and won on progressive platforms. Voters didn’t just elect Democrats, they elected progressives. The Campaign for America's Future report on the 2008 election predicts at least a 36-vote swing to the left in the House and at least a 10-vote swing to the left in the Senate. Meanwhile, the House Progressive Caucus says it expects to add at least 11 new members to its ranks, increasing its size to at least 84 of the House's 254 Democrats. Those numbers are a strong argument against the majority of voters wanting the new administration and Congress to govern more conservatively.
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