Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) twittered himself into some trouble during a sensitive co-del to Iraq and Afghanistan. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
The Washington Post‘s Stephen Pearlstein, speaking last night on “Hardball”:
What if a leader of the House Dems sent out a profanity-laced video attacking a major outside group? In this case, it’s the office of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), House GOP whip, sending out a profanity-laced video attacking union members as mobbish goons, who can’t go three words without a four-letter word.
Dems still trying to pull executive pay limits from the Stimulus Bill? Apparently so.
Adam Posen, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who has studied Japan’s “Lost Decade” of economic growth, sees startling parallels with our current situation — including the anemic initial efforts to bailout the banking system. Posen admits that he was slower than some to anticipate the depth of the current crisis, but now that we’re here he says there’s no good reason to hesitate to follow the Swedish model: wipe out the shareholders of insolvent banks, have the government briefly take them over, and sell off the good assets to new private banks.
Longtime reader commenting on the stimulus deal:
Like everyone else, I’m waiting for the details. But from what I’ve heard so far, this seems to be a remarkable triumph for the new president.
A month ago, Obama economists Romer and Bernstein released job-creation projections that “assumed a package just slightly over the $775 billion currently under discussion.” Lo and behold, the final bill comes in at $789 billion. It reportedly includes Obama’s proposed tax cuts, comprising almost exactly the same proportion of the overall package. For the past month, media attention has focused on all the changes to the package, and on the controversies it has engendered. Obama has been criticized for failing to forge a bipartisan consensus, for not safeguarding his priorities, and for not taking a sufficiently aggressive role in the negotiations on the Hill. So it’s worth stepping back to take note of the fact that the final package looks remarkably like what Obama has wanted all along. In fact, it’s closer to that original proposal than to either the House or Senate versions of the bill. Remarkable.
Whether or not it’s the right package is a whole separate topic. But as a legislative achievement, coming so early in the term, this is astonishing.
The House and Senate conferees on the Stimulus Bill were just scheduled to get together for a final semi-ceremonial meeting to agree on the final bill. But the House folks didn’t show up. Not clear what that means precisely, but does not sound promising. We’ll have more for you shortly.
Leon Panetta’s nomination as CIA director makes it out of committee.
Late Update: Same for Hilda Solis.
Later Update: And Bill Lynn makes it through full Senate to officially become deputy Secretary of Defense.