Putin says U.S. is parasite on global economy

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States Monday of living beyond its means “like a parasite” on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets. From Putin says U.S. is parasite on global economy | Reuters Putin is an awful proto-despot that is holding back both political… Continue reading Putin says U.S. is parasite on global economy

Medicaid Spending In New York State

If you have a program that delivers services, and the expense of providing the services seems disproportionate to the benefits, and if the reason the expense seems disproportionate is something that unionized public workers have gotten out of the political process, then it’s easy to get conservatives hopping mad about it. But if you have… Continue reading Medicaid Spending In New York State

Supercongress

Anyone else notice the idiocy of attacking the alleged problem of government being too big, too wasteful and too out of touch by creating a new layer of government that doesn’t answer directly to the people, would introduce a whole new arena of horse trading and doesn’t actually have any authority under the constitution to… Continue reading Supercongress

How to end GOP economic hostage taking

Obama should announce that there will be no new drilling permits issued until the house passes an energy bill that works to reduce US consumption of foreign oil. This could be done without congress and will have the oil companies put pressure on the house to pass some watered down bill. The president should then… Continue reading How to end GOP economic hostage taking

GOP101

The overall governing strategy for the GOP from the mid 1990s to today seems to be Create a problem via inaction, negligence or partisanship grandstanding. Blame the problem on the democratic party and liberalism in general Insist on solution that doesn’t actually address the problem, but does benefit the tiny minority of wealthy families and… Continue reading GOP101

Lawyers, Coins, and Money

there’s no similar limit on the amount of coinage. A little-known statute gives the secretary of the Treasury the authority to issue platinum coins in any denomination. So some commentators have suggested that the Treasury create two $1 trillion coins, deposit them in its account in the Federal Reserve and write checks on the proceeds.… Continue reading Lawyers, Coins, and Money

Maybe Someone Should Do Something

A major Bronx water supply line burst this morning just before 6:30 a.m., flooding Jerome Avenue for several blocks near 177th Street, halting traffic, disrupting subway and bus service, and damaging two nearby gas mains. The water flow was capped by 9:20 a.m., officials said. Speaking at a news conference, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said… Continue reading Maybe Someone Should Do Something

Conservative Origins of Obamacare

Romneycare, is a three-legged stool of regulation and subsidies: community rating requiring insurers to make the same policies available to everyone regardless of health status; an individual mandate, requiring everyone to purchase insurance, so that healthy people don’t opt out; and subsidies to keep insurance affordable for those with lower incomes. The original Heritage plan… Continue reading Conservative Origins of Obamacare