Internal Monologue

Not a single Republican in the House voted for the economic stimulus package. So what were House Democrats and Obama doing watering it down with all kinds of compromises to placate Republican hissy fits? Republicans have no political incentive to get on board with Obama. So can we please not deny poor people contraceptive funding on at their behest?

Quote of the day : It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours. Harry S Truman , in Observer, April 13, 1958 33rd president of US (1884 - 1972) via McArdle . Her post on the paradox of thrift is a good one: If we (hypothetically) decide to eliminate takeout from our menu and eat tuna sandwiches instead, we are saving money. But the restaurant loses it. By foregoing spending, we are pulling money out of the economy. This is the insight behind the liquidity trap--if everyone tries to hoard money by selling more goods and services while buying fewer, the total demand for goods and services will drop, and we will make ourselves worse off. There's a problem with this crude, version, of course: it's only true if we hoard the money in the form of cash. If we put it in the bank and the bank lends it out, that money will be spent by whoever borrows it. [...] The problem is that the banks aren't lending. We're ho

This proposed 28th amendment would require special elections to replace U.S. Senators who vacate their offices mid-term, rather than allow governors to appoint replacements. That seems like a very good idea to me. It's more democratic (small "d"), and it would avoid some of the recent political circuses we've had. Apparently, the House already requires this. Kos agrees.

I originally started this post ("The tentacles of obligation") for Internal Monlogue , but it really belongs on Love and Survival with Fragile X . I am not in a good mood, but it is something of a relief to actually say this stuff, and say it publicly.

Hold our new president accountable with the PolitiFact Obameter , a compilation of about 500 Obama campaign promises and how he'd doing on them. The scorecard right now: Tracking Obama’s promises Promise Kept 5 Compromise 1 Promise Broken 0 Stalled 1 In the Works 14 No Action 488 Keep at it, Mr. President! I give you good marks for your first few days. Spend more energy trying get things done than trying to convince Republicans to sign on to things. You'll get a few, but don't bend over backwards too far. They're going to blame you when things go bad anyway (and even if they don't go bad, they'll still blame you). So you might as well craft the best legislation possible rather than spending your time and effort trying to convince the remaining Republicans to get on board.

Andrew Sullivan is for small government, is against progressive taxation, and identifies himself as a conservative. He wrote a book called The Conservative Soul . He supported Bush over Gore and initially favored the invasion of Iraq. And he doesn't like Michael Moore. (See his Wikipedia entry for more on his political stances) So Forbes has decided that he's an influential liberal. In fact, one of the 25 most influential liberals in the U.S. media. Influential, certainly. But the fact that Forbes calls him a liberal shows how wacky our political spectrum has become. Sullivan certainly doesn't fit in the mainstream of Republican-style conservatism (which is anything but mainstream), but that doesn't mean he's a liberal. These days, the word "liberal" gets thrown at anyone who didn't agree with every single darn thing Bush tried to do. I hope this rights itself in the Obama era. (Of course, there are more important things than political labeling th

James Fallows thinks this is a rather lame move on China's part: I find myself more more incredulous with each passing hour that Chinese media authorities could have thought it as necessary or smart to censor live coverage of an event being watched intently in every other corner of the world: the inaugural address of America's first black president and current champion orator. I have been trying to think: in what other country might this occur? Burma, perhaps. North Korea, no doubt. Perhaps other tinhorn states. But a real, important, powerful, rich country that in many ways (eg, finance) is America's most important partner? It is almost literally incredible. He goes on to discuss why they might have done this. It is strange to think how completely different some societies are.