Monthly Archive for July, 2009

Obama still doesn’t own the economy

by Jeff Rosenberg | 13 Comments

Here’s another interesting bit from the NY Times / CBS News poll:

20. Who do you think is mostly to blame for the current state of the nation’s economy — 1. the Bush administration, 2. the Obama administration, 3. Wall Street and financial institutions, 4. Congress, or 5. someone else?

4/1-5/09 7/24-28/09

Bush administration

33

30
Obama administration 2 4
Wall Street and financial institutions 21 29

Congress

11

12

Someone else

7

7

All of the above

7

6
Combination 14 11

I’ve been asking for months when Obama would own the economy. The number still overwhelmingly show that Americans don’t blame the Obama administration for the state of the economy. It’s now been a lot longer than I would have expected, and only 4 percent of those surveyed blame Obama for the economic crisis.

Of course, this is just one poll, and it’s at odds with a Rasmussen poll I wrote about a month ago. It’s interesting, though, that when combined with the poll’s findings on health reform, it seems Americans are still willing to give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt.

July 31, 2009, 3:00 pm | Category: Misc. National Politics |

All politicians losing in health reform debate — but GOP is losing more

by Jeff Rosenberg | 2 Comments

I’m not going to claim that the health reform debate has been good for Barack Obama. He’s been taking a beating in the polls, there’s no doubt about that. But as Greg Sargent points out, health reform has hurt pretty much everyone. In fact, it may be hurting the GOP even more than Obama. To those who are proclaiming that Obama’s presidency is already finished, let’s try to keep everything in perspective. Here are some of the things Sargent pulls out of the latest NY Times/CBS news poll internals:

* Only 28% view the GOP favorably, the lowest since at least 2005.

* A huge majority wants major changes to the health care system, and a plurality says Obama is reforming health care at “the right pace.” The public wants change now, meaning voters will probably extract a major price if it doesn’t get done.

* Voters blame Republicans, and not Obama, for obstructionism: Fifty nine percent say Obama is working with the GOP on health care reform, versus only 33% who say Republicans are working with the president.

* Fifty five percent says Obama has the right ideas for health care reform, versus only 26% — barely more than one-fourth — who say the GOP does.

Yes, health reform is taking its toll on Obama. But it’s taking its toll on everyone, and there’s no evidence that it’s causing much more harm to Obama and the Democrats than it is to the Republicans. Everybody loses while the public watches Congress struggle to get something done.

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July 31, 2009, 11:00 am | Category: Misc. National Politics |

Star Tribune: Pawlenty speech received “politely”

by Jeff Rosenberg | 14 Comments

Tim Pawlenty is forcefully making the case for why he should lead the Republican Party. The Republican Party, in turn, doesn’t particularly seem to care. The Star Tribune reports on the speech:

The keynote speech to the Republican National Committee was designed to energize a party hammered in recent elections and to introduce Pawlenty’s middle America, outside-the-Beltway persona to those who could help generate buzz about his prospects and open up campaign checkbooks.

And the response:

Pawlenty received mild applause from the crowd and a polite standing ovation afterward.

Ooh, mild applause. Sounds like T-Paw is generating a mild amount of buzz. If he’s lucky, his recent appearances will help him raise a mild amount of cash.

The trouble is, Pawlenty’s just not all that exciting. Given that he has largely the same positions as more exciting conservative leaders like Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, it’s hard to see how he’s going to attract the interest of Republican primary voters.

July 31, 2009, 8:00 am | Category: Misc. Local Politics | Tags: .

Why it’s so hard to pass a responsible budget

by Jeff Rosenberg | 9 Comments

Why do so many policy-makers settle for gimmicks like accounting shifts instead of real budgetary reform like raising taxes or cutting spending? Part of the blame can be laid on their constituents, who apparently don’t want a responsible solution according to a New York Times/CBS News poll:

Fifty-six percent of respondents said that they were not willing to pay more in taxes in order to reduce the deficit, and nearly as many said they were not willing for the government to provide fewer services in areas such as health care, education and defense spending.

There you have it. Don’t raise taxes, and don’t cut spending. I understand that neither of those options are particularly pleasant, but eventually we’re going to have to make tough choices to solve our budget problems, in Minnesota and in states all around the country.

July 30, 2009, 3:00 pm | Category: General |

Socialized medicine? They’ve said that before

by Jeff Rosenberg | 5 Comments

Think the Republicans are treating the public option like the apocalypse? That’s nothing compared to what they said about Medicare. The Wonk Room remembers:

Ronald Reagan: “[I]f you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.” [1961]

Well, Medicare passed 44 years ago today. Has our nation survived the carnage? Of course there are problems with Medicare, but overall it has done a great job of providing health care for seniors. And the market for health care has not collapsed, even after 44 years.

Admittedly, the growth of Medicare spending does pose a problem for the Federal budget. But that has a lot more to do with soaring health care costs in general, and not anything having to do with Medicare in particular. In fact, Ezra Klein points to a study showing that Medicare costs have been growing less than private health insurance premiums.

Given Republicans’ tendency to predict calamity, and given their equal tendency to be wrong, maybe we should all just take a deep breath for a moment. If the health care market didn’t collapse from Medicare, which is a (gasp) single-payer system, what is the likelihood it will collapse from a public insurance option?

July 30, 2009, 10:00 am | Category: Misc. National Politics |

Ethics Complaint Against Michele Bachmann

by Aaron Landry | 29 Comments

As a follow-up from yesterday’s post, Dusty Trice, Brian Falldin and I have filed an ethics complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics. A copy of the complaint is here and the press release is below.

MINNESOTA BLOGGERS FILE ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST REP. MICHELE BACHMANN FOR PARTISAN USE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS

ST. PAUL, MINN – Jul. 29, 2009 – Minnesota bloggers Dusty Trice, Brian Falldin, and Aaron Landry filed an ethics complaint with the House Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) requesting an investigation into whether Rep. Michele Bachmann’s office has violated House franking rules pertaining to proper e-mail usage.

The complaint points out that an e-mail sent by Representative Bachmann’s office on May 26, 2009, advocates for the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), a political organization, which is in violation of the House Franking Rules.

Aaron Landry, who first began investigating the story said, “Michele Bachmann is no stranger to NADA, they’ve been a strong donor to her congressional campaign committee.” According to campaignmoney.com, Rep. Bachmann has received approximately $13,000 from NADA since 2006. Thus, Rep. Bachmann’s ties to the organization establish a potential quid-pro-quo scenario.

Brian Falldin, who began looking into filing the ethics complaint said: “While Michele Bachmann tends to moonlight on national news shows, she apparently spends little time following the rules of the road while at her day job, which is unfortunate for the 6th District and America.”

Dusty Trice, who is well known in Democratic circles for his firebrand commentary, stated: “It’s clear that Michele Bachmann cares about one thing – and that’s making sure she rewards those who give her the most money, regardless of the rules she needs to break in the process.”

Aaron Landry summed up the reasons for filing the complaint best: “There’s a reason why ethics rules exist: to keep our representatives ethical. I believe the Office of Congressional Ethics will continue to protect the taxpayers of Minnesota against the kind of activity Representative Bachmann’s office participates in.”

Dusty Trice, Brian Falldin, and Aaron Landry are well-known writers in the Minnesota political community. For more information or press inquiries, please visit www.dustytrice.com, www.brianfalldin.com, www.s4xton.com or call 612-234-5614.

# # #

July 29, 2009, 4:08 pm | Category: CD6 | Tags: .

The timeline for health care savings

by Jeff Rosenberg | 1 Comment

There’s been a lot of debate lately over whether health reform will lead to significant savings over the next 10 years. Clearly, when you’re adding tens of millions of people to the health care system, even if you bring costs down it’s going to take quite a while to overcome the expense of insuring all those new people. But even if it doesn’t save money over the next 10 years, we need to look at health care savings over a much longer period.

I post this graph at least once a month, it seems, because it shows just how important it is to reel in health care spending over the decades to come. Even if health reform will add to costs over the next decade as a result of dramatically expanding coverage, what about the potential for savings after that? If we can simultaneously improve health care for tens of millions of Americans and make a dent in the exponential rise of health care costs, that would be a major victory.

We need a much longer timeline, but unfortunately neither the Congressional Budget Office nor Congress itself think that way. It’s hard, as an elected politician, to think 50 years into the future, but that’s what we need to do with health care reform. The results 10 years from now are important, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. We need a plan that can save us money for decades after that if we’re going to avoid a major fiscal crisis.

July 29, 2009, 2:00 pm | Category: Misc. National Politics |

The MNGOP’s strategery

by Jeff Rosenberg | 9 Comments

I’m getting so confused. First Mark Ritchie, and now Collin Peterson — the Minnesota GOP is going after prominent DFLers nearly a year and a half in advance. They do realize this is 2009, not 2010, right?

The GOP says they will be running ads against Collin Peterson, although it’s unclear how much they will be spending. The only way this makes sense is if they’re just baiting reporters to give them free coverage; I can’t imagine that they’re really so brain-addled that they’re going to spend a significant sum of money on ads over 15 months before the election.

I keep wondering if the new GOP leaders actually have a plan, launching a string of negative attacks when nobody at all cares. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. This can’t be as stupid as it seems, can it?

July 29, 2009, 10:30 am | Category: Misc. Local Politics |

Updated: Tarryl Clark for Congress – It’s Official

by Megan Gamble | 0 Comments

You may have read about it in the St. Cloud Times, but you certainly heard it here first: Tarryl Clark is gravitating towards the CD6 Congressional seat stronger than Michele Bachmann’s lips to W’s face.   Clark has filed her paperwork with the FEC (though they seem to think she is running in 2000… come on FEC, I know the “0” is right by the “9”, but really); and her MN Senate reelection website is “no longer in service”.

Like we’ve said before on this blog, Tarryl is a strong candidate out of CD6, having been endorsed in every campaign she’s run there.  While she has some catching up to do with Tinklenberg and Reed, I believe that she has enough time and support to do so.

Oh, and keep an eye here.

UPDATE:

Tarryl’s campaign site is up and running, including this video:

July 29, 2009, 9:22 am | Category: General |

Pawlenty’s “nation-leading” health reforms

by Jeff Rosenberg | 0 Comments

Tim Pawlenty is taking a play from the Sarah Palin playbook: If you don’t have any real accomplishments, just make some up. Apparently he is now a health care expert, qualified to release a “report” on health care reform. I use the word “report” very loosely. Supposedly co-authored by Pawlenty and John Boehner, the House Minority Leader, the 19-page report must have taken a GOP intern an hour to produce, given that it’s filled with nothing but quotes from Politico, Fox News, and the Heritage Foundation.

In releasing the report, Pawlenty also touted his many accomplishments on health care in Minnesota:

“Our nation’s health care system should be market-driven, patient-centered, and quality-focused,” Governor Pawlenty said.  “In Minnesota, we have implemented nation-leading reforms that have begun to rein in the growing costs of health care.

Governor, throwing thousands of people off of health care by eliminating General Assistance Medical Care is not a “nation-leading reform.” The point of the Democrats’ plan is to actually insure all Americans, not to save money by taking away health care from millions of Americans. We’ve already got plenty of people who are uninsured today.

The DNC released a pretty thorough review of Pawlenty’s record on health reform. As you can guess, it’s not so good.

PAWLENTY CUT HEALTH CARE FOR THOUSANDS OF MINNESOTANS

2009: Pawlenty Cut A Health Care Program That Serves 30,000-35,000 Childless Adults Near Or Below The Poverty Line—Most With Chronic Or Mental Illness. “Already, Pawlenty wiped out millions of dollars in approved spending through line-item vetoes. None was as deep as the $381 million cut to the General Assistance Medical Care program in the second year of the two-year budget, essentially ending the program beginning in mid-2010. The program serves 30,000 to 35,000 childless adults near or below the poverty line, most with chronic or mental illness. Some of them could qualify for a premium-based state insurance program. But hospitals worry they will feel the brunt of the cut because the level of uncompensated care could rise. They are already warning they will eliminate services and lay off staff to absorb the losses.” [AP, 5/18/09]

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July 29, 2009, 8:00 am | Category: General |

Michele Bachmann Violating Ethics Rules, Improperly Spending Taxpayer Dollars

by Aaron Landry | 10 Comments

Michele Bachmann has three staffers responsible for communications and press. Most representatives only have one, a few have two, but Bachmann has three. I’m not saying she doesn’t need them, I’m just saying that this means there are fewer staffers responsible for, let’s say, constituent services.

As she has three people in communications, at least one should really brush up on the Rules of the House of Representatives, read the “Involvement With Outside Activities and Entities” section from the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, browse the “Red Book,” or what’s otherwise known as the Regulations on the Use of the Congressional Frank by Members of the House of Representatives and lastly read the Member’s Handbook from the Committee on House Administration. If they read just one of those documents, they would have realized they’ve been making some huge errors — some of which may put Michele Bachmann in trouble.

1. Bachmann is helping and endorsing outside organizations using taxpayer communications. Here’s an excerpt from an email from Bachmann.Bulletin@mail.house.gov, Tue, May 26, 2009, sent to constituents:

My staff and I have been in close contact with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), which represents auto dealers’ interests in Washington.  NADA has hired a firm to represent the legal interests of those auto dealers that have been chosen by the Task Force to close.  Any such auto dealer should call 703-821-7000 for more information.

Michele Bachmann’s office violated House Franking Rules by using taxpayer resources to tell constituents to call the National Automobile Dealer’s Association. House offices can’t even encourage people to donate blood, let alone ask them to call a national organization to get legal representation. Unsurprisingly, Bachmann has received $13,000 from that very same organization in 2006 and 2008.

Regulations on the use of the Congressional Frank prohibits the helping or endorsing an outside organization with official communications (see the bottom of page 16).

2. Bachmann is improperly linking from her federally-funded house.gov site to the highly-partisan Townhall.com.

Illegal Link to Townhall.com

It’s taxpayer dollars pushing people to a right-wing propaganda portal run by the Salem Web Network. It is deceptive as it is integrated as part of the navigation of the page and with the use of the RSS icon — a symbol used to indicate a feed related to the page you’re currently on.

3. Bachmann’s house.gov site deceives visitors when they are leaving the official government website and entering a third-party site. From the Committee on House Administration, a House website will:

…display an exit notice stating that users are leaving the House of Representatives prior to linking to a non-House of Representatives Web site. The exit notice will include a disclaimer that neither Members nor the House are responsible for the content of linked sites. Member offices maintaining their sites on the Public web server are required to incorporate the exit notice into their external links.

Sure, it’s legal for Bachmann to have a blog on a partisan site but she is not allowed to seamlessly integrate it with her non-campaign, taxpayer-funded site. Especially for constituents that are less familiar with the Internet, this is incredibly dishonest and misleading for them.

From the Committee on House Administration’s rule on this as of October 2008:

The official content of any material posted by the Member on any Web site must be in compliance with Federal law and House Rules and Regulations applicable to official communications and germane to the conduct of the Member’s official and representational duties.

When a link to a Web site outside the Member’s official cite is imbedded on the Member’s official site, the Member’s site must include an exit notice advising the visitor when they are leaving the House. This exit notice must also include a disclaimer that neither the Member nor the House is responsible for the content of the linked site(s).

This is extremely important, and easy for their webmaster to implement (see page 113). So why did they not do this? One thing is certain: it diminishes the line between what is government, taxpayer-funded and what in this case, is incredibly partisan and certainly not government-sponsored.

(Note to SEO nerds: in addition, do you know what kind of impact you get when you’re direct linked from a dot gov? Yeah. Uh hum.)

Maybe handling situations like this is why she has three press people.

July 28, 2009, 4:51 pm | Category: CD6 | Tags: .

Best. Healthcare. Ever.

by Jeff Rosenberg | 7 Comments

Over at Shot in the Dark, Johnny Roosh says we have the best healthcare system in the world. The proof? Rich people from all over the world come here for their health care:

Is our health care system the best in the world? Yes.

Are a majority of Americans satisfied with the system as it is? Yes.

Do most American’s believe our health care system needs change? Yes.

…but if it’s so bad, why are some of the wealthiest people in the world coming here for their health care?

This is definitely a point at which we need to stop and clarify our terms a bit. Many of the best doctors and medical facilities in the world are here in the US. The wealthy can get access to the absolute best medical care here. But the problem is one of distribution; the way our health care is rationed today means that most Americans don’t see that side of American medicine. What most Americans receive would not be mistaken for the Mayo Clinic. So do we actually have the best health care system? Absolutely not.

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July 28, 2009, 3:00 pm | Category: General |

DFLers desperately need an earlier primary

by Jeff Rosenberg | 14 Comments

Over a year away from the 2010 election, It’s not too difficult to predict the general contour of the gubernatorial election here in Minnesota.

Both the DFL and GOP will have hard-fought, bruising conventions, that will eventually end up with a single candidate endorsed. After that, though, the two parties will diverge. Several well-funded DFLers will commit to an even-more-bruising primary fight, while Republican kingmakers will step in to threaten all non-endorsed Republicans that they’ll never work again if they contest the election.

From the convention until the September primary, the DFL candidates will spend millions of dollars attacking each other. Finally, one candidate will emerge victorious. Cash depleted and exhausted from the primary battle, he or she will then have about 7 weeks to raise a new war chest, introduce himself to the voters, and draw distinctions with his opponent, who will have been steadily building support and raising money for about 3 months already.

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July 28, 2009, 11:00 am | Category: Misc. Local Politics |

Will Pawlenty be able to avoid standard GOP attack politics?

by Jeff Rosenberg | 1 Comment

Tim Pawlenty says the Republican party needs to change its tone. In theory, I agree with him:

What, exactly, is Pawlenty’s new GOP message? At Aspen, he said that Republicans should be hopeful and optimistic, that voters “don’t want to follow cranks.”

A fiscal and social conservative, Pawlenty said that Republican rhetoric has run too hot and angry in recent years, alienating potential new voters and so-called Reagan Democrats looking for a more positive message.

That all sounds well and good. But in his new post as the vice-chairman of the RGA, will he really be able to put those words into action? I seriously doubt it. Let’s take a look at Pawlenty’s job description with the RGA:

Governor Pawlenty will work closely with RGA Chairman Haley Barbour to ensure that Republicans running in the 39 upcoming governor elections will have the resources and support they need to win.

Dusty Trice, putting on his Haley Barbour decoder ring, says this means raising money for negative attack ads. There’s no doubt about that; Pawlenty may also be called on to unleash negative attacks himself. Here’s the thing — 3rd-party advertisers like the RGA just don’t do “hopeful and optimistic.” Their job is to fling mud so the candidate doesn’t have to. Don’t expect Pawlenty to treat the job any differently. I think we’ll find that, while Pawlenty says he wants a more positive message, he’ll get soon be down in the mud just like the rest of the GOP.

July 28, 2009, 7:30 am | Category: Misc. National Politics | Tags: .

Our very own birther

by Jeff Rosenberg | 8 Comments

Ugh. Michele Bachmann just blocked a House Resolution, the purpose of which was “Recognizing and celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the entry of Hawaii into the Union as the 50th State.” Why would she do such a thing? Apparently because of this provision:

Whereas the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii

I was wondering when Bachmann would join the birther movement. It’s far too crazy for her to avoid; after all, she wouldn’t want anybody stealing her spotlight!

Watch Bachmann block the resolution below:

[via Think Progress]

UPDATE (9:45 PM): Salon (and commenter yaz) says this wasn’t craziness, just a boring procedural move:

This time, though, Bachmann was being criticized unfairly. She did indeed block a vote on the resolution, noting the absence of a quorum, but that move wasn’t about Abercrombie’s resolution specifically. She was just playing her part. The House had already decided to postpone the votes on all of the resolutions being considered under a suspension of the rules until Monday evening. Bachmann noted the absence of a quorum for several other non-controversial pieces of legislation so that those votes, too, could be postponed until the scheduled time.

July 27, 2009, 7:31 pm | Category: General | Tags: .