But Don't Take My Word For it...

This is David Brooks' reaction to Jindal's speech, via TNR:

What's Government Good For?

Leon Weiseltier, literary editor at The New Republic, ventures into the political arena with this article encouraging Obama to, in a word, be more liberal. If you’re someone who appreciates government’s role in society, you’ll love this sentence:

"I want the president to tell the American people that, contrary to what they have been taught for many years, government is a jewel of human association and an heirloom of human reason; that government, though it may do ill, does good; that a lot of the good that government does only it can do; that the size of government must be fitted to the size of its tasks, and so, for a polity such as ours, big government is the only government; that strong government comports well with strong freedom, unless Madison was wrong; that a government based on rights cannot exclude from its concern the adversities of the people who confer upon it its legitimacy, or consign their remediation to the charitable moods of a preferred and decadent few; that Ronald Reagan, when he proclaimed categorically, without exception or complication, that "government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem," was a fool; and that nobody was ever rescued, or enlarged, by being left alone."

Liberalism, at its heart, is about guaranteeing the greatest amount of freedom for the greatest number of people. For liberals, government isn’t about suppressing liberty; it’s about ensuring opportunity.

Government will never be perfect, but as Weiseltier writes, “For all its grotesqueness, American government is a beautiful thing.”

The Myth of the Centrist

Ross Douthat doesn't buy the myth of the magical centrist Senator. At best, Douthat thinks that centrist Senators make extremists a tiny bit less extreme:

“In this world, centrist Senators exist to take politics as usual - whether it's tax cuts in Republican eras, or spending splurges in Democratic ones - and make it ever so slightly more fiscally responsible. So if the GOP wants, say, $500 billion in tax cuts, the country clearly needs $400 billion in tax cuts - but not a penny more! And if the Democrats want $900 billion in stimulus, then the best possible policy outcome must be ... $800 billion in stimulus! To read this Arlen Specter op-ed, justifying both the stimulus package and the cuts the "gang of moderates" have attempted to impose, is to encounter a mind incapable of thinking about policy in any terms save these: Take what the party in power wants, subtract as much money as you can without infuriating them, vote yes, and declare victory.”

Centrists: make up your mind!

So This is what "Increased Government Spending" looks like...

The proposed economic stimulus that’s currently sitting in Congress waiting for votes is, by any measure, huge. The New York Times reports that the bailout promises to reshape government roles in both education and healthcare.

Education:

"The proposed emergency expenditures on nearly every realm of education, including school renovation, special education, Head Start and grants to needy college students, would amount to the largest increase in federal aid since Washington began to spend significantly on education after World War II."

And healthcare:

"As Congress rushes to inject cash into a listless economy, it is setting aside many of the restraints that have checked new domestic spending for more than a decade. The White House said the changes contemplated by Congress would provide coverage for nearly 8.5 million newly uninsured people who had lost their jobs and would protect Medicaid for many more whose eligibility would otherwise be at risk.

Of the $127 billion cost, the Congressional Budget Office said, $87 billion would be used to increase the federal share of Medicaid, $29 billion would subsidize private insurance and $11 billion would finance Medicaid for unemployed workers who could not otherwise qualify."

This is the first in-depth look many non-experts have had at the bill, and even for someone who wholeheartedly supports Obama and the bailouts, these numbers are just enormous and give one pause. Doubling the federal budget on education? Providing 8.5 million uninsured people with insurance? Incredible.

I’ve been so used to government refusing to spend more money on education and healthcare for the past 8 years that these statistics are a bit shocking. I hope the Democrats know that they’re talking about. If not, we’re all in trouble.

Andrew Cuomo on the Attack

Andrew Cuomo, NY State's Attorney General and until recently one of the frontrunners for the just-filled New York Senate seat, has subpoenaed John Thain. Thain is the ex-Merrill Lynch CEO who allegedly authorized bonus payments worth some $3 billion mere days before Merrill was acquired by Bank of America.

Problems at Merrill Lynch have been a primary cause of Bank of America's current problems, which have led to BoA requesting billions of dollars in bailout money. Indeed, Merrill Lynch's losses, according to the New York Times, were more than $15 billion. Those losses are now on BoA's books. Aware of the losses, Thain nonetheless doled out the company-wide bonuses before BoA could do anything to stop them.

Cuomo wants to find out why the bonuses were paid out nearly a month earlier than they had been in previous years. I don't know the specific legal issues involved, but I'm guessing that it's probably not OK to knowingly give out billions of dollars in bonuses when your company is losing money by the fistful, knowing full well that taxpayers are going to be on the hook.

This makes me really despise Thain.

It also makes me like Cuomo. I wasn’t a big fan of Caroline Kennedy and I don’t know much about Kirsten Gillibrand, but Cuomo seems to be more than competent at his job. He was the one who took the lead in investigating the Long Island Railroad retirement scandal, which has actually led to charges against ex-L.I.R.R. officials.

After the recent Senate appointment debacle, Gov. Paterson is the one who comes out looking like a doofus. Cuomo is untainted by Paterson’s screw-up and he’s now out with his guns blazing. Not a bad day’s work for the current AG and potentially soon-to-be-governor-of-New York.

The Floodgates Have Opened....for now

In this joyful article, the Washington Post recaps Obama's first week in office:

"In his first seven days in office, Obama has banned the use of controversial CIA interrogation tactics, ordered the closure of the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and begun planning for the drawdown of troops in Iraq. He also imposed stringent limits on lobbyists, unveiled an $825 billion stimulus plan, and ordered a halt to any last-minute rules and regulations put in place by his predecessor."

Music to my ears/eyes/senses. Eventually his ambitions will run up against reality, but for now let's enjoy the sensation of an elected official following through on his promises.

The Bailout needs Bailing Out

Timothy Geithner, PRESIDENT Obama's Treasury Secretary nominee, said today during testimony before a Senate panel that the bailout measures passed late last year needed serious overhauling:

"'Many people believe the program has allowed too much upside for financial institutions, while doing too little for small business owners, families who are struggling to keep their jobs and make ends meet, and innocent homeowners,' Geithner said."

I don't think bailing out big financial institutions was a mistake. After all, look what the collapse of Bear Sterns and Lehman Bro's did to the economy as a whole. But I find it refreshing that a powerful government official is actually concerned about helping individuals. Not out of charity, but out of necessity.

That's something that the Bush administration and the rest of the neocons refuse/d to acknowledge. Helping individuals helps everyone, including the Fat Cats. Only helping the Fat Cats doesn't necessarily help anyone else out. Trickle down doesn't work. It didn't work in the 1930s and it didn't work in the 2000s.