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- While it's undoubtedly true that "jobs" are going to rank higher than "deficits" among the public's economic priorities during a recession, the public also believes that the deficit is somehow indicative of wider economic uncertainty. We should expect Republicans to push for "fiscal austerity," but for Democrats to jump on the bandwagon instead of promoting economic growth is baffling.
- Given that unconditional love for dirty energy companies is in vogue these days, I think it would be a significant victory to pass an energy bill that only prices utilities in the wake of industry-wide cap-and-trade failure. Considering the technological marvels of our world, it's incredible that much of the electricity powering it comes from ... burning lumps of coal and vats of oil.
- It seems unbelievable, but for now we'll just have to take Sen. Claire McCaskill at her word that she has secured the 67 votes necessary to end the Senate's anonymous hold practice. Yet ending the filibuster would be a bigger deal, as Sen. Tom Harkin pitches here. Ironically, it's Obama who would come out looking like a visionary, as suddenly his agenda would come to pass.
- Weekend Remainders: Obama criticizes Congress; the high price of advanced medicine; Darrell Issa deserves credit for rightfully depicting the GOP as the party of Corporate America; nobody could have predicted that Republicans soliciting policy ideas on the Internet would yield eclectic results; and a right-wing Senate hopeful moonlighting as a late-night TV, free-government-money huckster sounds about right to me.
--Mori Dinauer
