From YouTube to the Swamp... Welcome!
Oops, in 2011 Krugman pointed to VA as model for health reform. I'm making it a picture so more people will look. pic.twitter.com/O47JXbw85U
— Robert P. Murphy (@BobMurphyEcon) May 22, 2014
“The problem is not that the Democrats are overly ideological -- because the truth of the matter is, is that the Democrats in Congress have consistently been willing to compromise and reach out to the other side,” Obama said.Sure they have.
“All of you look the same and I look like Morgan Freeman,” he said after pointing out some of his old friends from his days in Chicago.Let's link me to a trusted actor whose played a president with gravitas in the movies. Let's put that false equivalence in your mind.
“There’s a tendency to say, a plague on both your houses. But the truth of the matter is that the problem in Congress is very specific,” he added, citing the Republican Party.Yeah, it's all Republican's fault. No fault on your side at all. You didn't just overhaul the health care system and make it worse completely on party lines.
Obama explained that he was committed to addressing climate, but Republicans continued to “deny the science.”Only science I agree with is accurate.
“And I know it's hard to talk about global warming here in Chicago after this winter,” he joked. “But everybody here understands that it's changing weather patterns that are at stake here, with potentially devastating, catastrophic consequences.”We know it's been colder lately, like for the last 2 decades, but really. It's warming. Trust me.
Two noteworthy details here. One: Rockefeller couldn’t be more casual in lobbing his grenade. He’s not out at a fundraiser with a drink in his hand, mindlessly babbling to some reporter with his guard down. He’s at an actual Senate hearing with a Republican senator sitting right in front of him, and yet it’s bombs away — and not for the first time. Congressional rules of decorum forbid swearing and personal insults, but if you want to charge the other side with racism for questioning Obama’s pet boondoggle, fire away. Two: Unlike most instances where this accusation is made, the target was present and eager to respond. Watch the very beginning and then the last few minutes of the second clip to see Johnson hit back. I would have walked out if I were him, but admittedly, his approach is smarter.He says "It's not something you're meant to talk about in public." Really? It seems like you guys can't wait to talk about it ad nauseum. Second, the failure of Obamacare is documented. The broken promise of "you can keep your health care" is well known. So. We criticize a law that's unsuccessful and that's racism. So should we have assumed failure? Is expecting success racist by their measure? So it's racist to assume competence from a black man? That expecting failure and incompetence is somehow not racist? Then who are the real racists?
Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic challenger to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, refuses to say whether she would have voted for Obamacare. Asked the question twice directly by the Associated Press on Wednesday, she dodged it both times.If you vote for someone who won't answer a question about a vote she will never actually have to make, what does that say about you? Is party above all for you? This is mystifying to me, even if she says she would have at the time, she could explain it with "but I understand now that it is flawed and it needs to be overhauled" or SOMETHING. Instead she only shows herself to be a gutless coward who will only take a stand for political expediency.
Obama promised last April to take a 5 percent pay cut in “solidarity” with federal employees who were furloughed as a result of the automatic budget cuts, known as the sequester. The cut was meant to equate to the level of spending cuts imposed on nondefense federal agencies.
“The president has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury,” a White House official said at the time.
According to his tax returns, Obama is still receiving the presidential salary of $400,000 per year. Last year, he earned $394,796 in wages from the Defense Financing and Accounting Service (DFAS-CIVPAY), which handles the salaries for civilian members of the Defense Department.Of course he didn't. A meaningless gesture that really, wouldn't cost him anything. He would make it all back after his term in speaking engagements and whatnot. But even this little bread crumb of a promise, even if it was a cynical ploy to garner sympathy (which it was), he couldn't even execute on that. But sure, let him overhaul the health care system. He's more than competent.
