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- I don't know why it took an 11th-hour plea from the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka to get Democrats to coalesce around only extending tax cuts for the middle class, but this appears to be the plan. There are limits to how much substance pols can get out of "optics," but being the party that is clearly against giving millionaires free money should be a no-brainer.
- Sure, there are things the president can do without going through Congress, and some of them are worth doing on the merits, but this feels like an excuse for ignoring the mass unemployment that continues to plague the country. Either the administration doesn't have a plan, which is bad, or they don't care, which is even worse. I thought "do nothing" was something only Republicans were offering.
- As Krugman says, conservative economists coming out against monetary policy that would stimulate growth is all about fealty to an ideology that is fundamentally hostile to anything the government does, short of bombing foreigners to spread the freedom. Interestingly, it is no less than Milton Friedman who is being thrown under the bus; it will be interesting to see what other conservative icons are decimated by continuing collapse of the conservative mind.
- Remainders: David Brooks continues his devolution from irritating to bad to hack columnist; USA Today, as I always assumed, is not a serious news source; and as Rahm Emanuel indirectly demonstrates, "bipartisan" is a passive admission that there isn't a real difference between the parties.
-- Mori Dinauer
