TPM Reader DW on the need for a grand bargain …
I agree with Obama that a big fiscal taxes and spending deal that puts in place an actual budget blue print for 10 years is critically important. The amount of cash sitting on corporate balance sheets is staggering (and unprecedented), and the uncertainty in Federal budgeting as we jump from crisis to crisis is strangling the economy of life. It’s said so often now, its become a cliché, but the economy needs the kind of certainly that only a long term blue print of taxes and spending can provide. Corporations need to know where to put their money and, just as importantly, where not too. They can’t know this until such a blue-print is in place.
Lawsuit dropped against Bassem Youssef, sometimes known as ‘Egypt’s Jon Stewart.
Stewart’s defense of Youssef triggered an international incident when the US Embassy in Egypt tweeted Stewart’s comments, was rebuked by the office of the Egyptian President and then had to pull down their entire Twitter feed.
Incredibly disturbing story — not only the allegations but what would seem to be years of silence by quite a few people.
Interesting news on the pot legalization/medical marijuana front out of Florida. This time with an odd connection to the possible candidacy of Charlie Crist.
The FBI is now investigating possible extortion charges at the center of the Rutgers basketball scandal.
From TPM Reader DS …
In your comment ‘Obama’s Dangerous Game’ you forgot to mention that the curbing of Social Security benefits will have no effect on the budget. They are separate accounts. Everybody KNOWS this. Boehner boxed Obama into a corner where to keep the dialogue going, he had to lose something. He chose to lose me, a poor senior. To a lie. To what end?
Police in Hamas-controlled Gaza doling out head-shavings and beatings for “indecent” hair.
That’s what we’re discussing right now at TPMPrime. The dime version of my view is that as horrific as it is, I’m in total sync with the administration’s extreme reluctance to get involved militarily. I think it’s a bad, bad idea.
Are Republicans deciding they don’t want to do immigration reform after all?
Party elites speak through the traditional media while party bases register their opinions through voting and giving. This applies equally on both sides of the partisan divide. And I should add that I use ‘elite’ in this case not in a pejorative but purely in a prescriptive sense. That’s made it difficult to get a proper read on just where we are on the immigration reform debate and a host of other issues on which Republicans seemed inclined to move on after the November defeat.
But I’m sensing a shift. Read More
Earlier I noted that for the first time since the November election I’ve seen Republicans openly questioning whether they really need to get behind immigration reform. Or, to put it more concretely, whether the politics dictates that they need it to pass. But there’s something else going on too: Senate Democrats need to start seriously considering whether they’re getting played by the Gang of 8 charade. Read More