DENVER — American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner doesn’t just foresee huge new deficits in Barack Obama’s administration. He is cheering for them. At an afternoon panel in the Big Tent titled, “Take Back America: The Economy,” Kuttner said, “We need deficits.” Kuttner explained that they are necessary when “an economy is about to go off a cliff.” So where does Kuttner want Obama to funnel his massive new deficit spending? He wants “Apollo scale” investment in alternative energy (no word from Nancy Pelosi if this includes natural gas) and “public …
Today both the The Washington Post and The New York Times have front-page stories on Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) use of legislative “holds” to bring debate on spending priorities back to the U.S. Senate. A “hold” prevents the majority party in the Senate from moving forward on a bill until it has been debated. But in this Congress, the liberal majority does not want to debate issues or allow amendments. Of the 890 bills that have been passed in the 110th Congress, only 50 of them have been debated. For …
On Sunday the New York Times profiled Diane McLeod, a 47-year-old single mother working two jobs, who by her own admission acknowledges she spent too much money shopping to make herself feel better without reflecting on how it would impact her future. Commenting on reader reaction to the article, former Weekly Standard senior editor David Brooks wrote: “Individuals don’t build their lives from scratch. They absorb the patterns and norms of the world around them. … [W]hat happened to McLeod, and the nation’s financial system, is part of a larger …
This past week, Speaker Nancy Peolsi (D-CA) announced she wants to push another $50 billion in deficit spending through Congress for economic stimulus. This is on top of the $106 billion in stimulus payments the government is still sending out to Americans. This January Pelosi promised that the first $106 billion in deficit spending payments would create 50,000 new jobs. Former Treasury officials Ernest Christian and Gary Robbins report on how Pelosi’s promise turned out: By the end of June, $86 billion was in the hands of 105 million households. …
