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Harry Reid, Opening His Mouth Again

Filibuster reform next year.

Uh, sure Senator.

Lets go into imaginationland and pretend Harry Reid still has a job in the U.S. Senate next year and take a look at one of his quotes.

But we’re going to take a look at the filibuster. Next Congress, we’re going to take a look at it. We are likely to have to make some changes in it, because the Republicans have abused that just like the spitball was abused in baseball and the four-corner offense was abused in basketball.

The spitball was banned in 1920.  The four-corner offense is slightly more recent reference.  The NBA adopted the shot clock in 1954.  So good job not dating yourself Senator.  Kind of reminds of the time Reid talked about how Babe Ruth batted clean-up for the ‘27 Murderers’ Row Yankees (he didn’t, Gehrig did), but hey he is trying.

On a non-sports metaphor note, the push within the Senate to change the rules is coming from first term Senators.  Not really surprising since they have never been in the minority.  If they do go ahead with this, I cannot wait for the stories four or five years down the road about how Republicans are abusing the new rules to by-pass Democrats and once again democracy weeps.

Posted in Politics, Sports.

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Deficit Comparisons

President Obama shattered the record for highest monthly deficit in United States history.

In the month of February alone, the deficit expanded by $220.9 Billion dollars.  If you need some historical perspective just take a look at OMB’s projections.

From Table 1.1.

The $221 Billion monthly deficit is greater than the annual deficit for any year from 1789-1986.  In fact, if you were to roll all the annual deficits together from the start of the Great Depression through the end of World War Two, the February deficit was still greater ($220.9 B versus $198.1 B).

For the Bush-Blamers out there, the February deficit outpaced the annual deficits for 2001, 2002, and 2007.  When you take the year to date deficit of $651 Billion it is already greater than any of the Bush year deficits.

2001-2008 was not a hallmark era of fiscal constraint, but lets start being honest about just how large and damaging the federal deficit is right now.

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Outrage Du Jour

Did Democracy disappear while I was out over the weekend?  That is the general feeling I got from Eugene Robinson’s latest diatribe at the Washington Post.

Today’s topic, Liz Cheney, with her black, ice-cold heart, asking Attorney General Holder to release the names of seven political appointees at the Department of Justice who previously represented inmates at Guantanamo Bay.  McCarthyism!

It is pretty clear Liz Cheney and Keep America Safe are off base in their criticisms, but McCarthyism?  For requesting DoJ release the names of seven political appointees?  Really?

I think it is valid to question any appointees previous client work and associations in relation to their new job.  For example, I seem to remember folks on the left expressing concern over Chief Justice Roberts belonging to the Federalist Society during his confirmation hearing.  When Senators on the Judiciary Committee raised those concerns it was entirely legitimate.  Maybe not the most effective or relevant line of inquiry, but it was certainly not McCarthyism and neither is the present case.  The bottom line is if you want to work on behalf of the United States you should be prepared to defend your previous positions.

Further, given that Senator McCarthy held sway 60 years ago, I really don’t expect too many people to have a point of reference.  In my view, I would just point out Senator McCarthy’s campaign was so terrifying precisely because it was backed by the force of government.  Liz Cheney might not be correct here, but she is no McCarthy.  She is a private citizen voicing her opinion.

However, if you want an example of McCarthyism might look like this day in age, here you go.  I don’t buy into the idea that anyone in the US House or Senate comes close to the ex-Senator from Wisconsin, but requesting a list of names of private citizens whose “crime” was receiving a bonus from their employee does not look good me.

Finally, a parting thought; I find amusing in the current state of playing to populist outrage that the White House finds no cause for concern here, indeed these lawyers are patriotic heroes for following in the footsteps of John Adams.  But God help them if they were to ever have been employed as a lobbyist.  Then we would have problems.

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Baucus and the BCS

Even though Montana does not really have a dog in this fight, it was nice to seem him join Senator Hatch in requesting financial details from the BCS (well technically the constituent parts of the BCS, since as a legal entity the BCS does not exist).

It really isn’t that hard.  The BCS represents a collusion of six athletic conferences to keep the majority of revenue generated by college bowl games to themselves.  This allocation of money does not match up with actual performance.  In any other industry, this practice would have been shut down long ago, but because it happens in sports the public tolerates it.

Before anyone goes off on Congress has better things to do, remember roughly half of FBS teams are taxpayer funded state schools and that as an industry college football generates over a billion dollars annually.  Also, I would much rather have Baucus spend his time on blowing up the BCS than reviving the health care reform monster.

Posted in Politics, Sports.

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Health Care Whip Count

Hotline has the most comprehensive whip count I have seen up and running.

The bottom line is that Rep. Cleaver is correct, the votes are not there right now.  Who knows, maybe the Democrats will find some magic bullet provision to swing 10 or so members, but I would not bet on it.  I seriously doubt any ‘no’ vote the first time around thinks they made the wrong call and a couple ‘yes’ votes, Mike Arcuri being one, have publicly said they will switch.  Closer to home, Herseth-Sandlin says she will change her vote based on the process.  So if reconciliation is used then she is a no.

Maybe Rahm just needs to swing by the Member’s gym and convince a few more people.

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Politically Tone Deaf

Because health care is going so very smoothly President Obama now wants to take up immigration reform.  I see no possible way legislation granting citizenship to 10.8 million illegal aliens will be contentious.  Especially in this economic and political climate.  Such a debate will only bring out the best and most rational voices in our country.

An adult over at the White House really needs to step in before this comes to fruition.  This debate, right now, will be good for no one.

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Good Riddance

Eric Massa (D-NY) announced his resignation over health issues.  I have no doubts this was genuine and I wish him the best recovery.  But, good riddance, Congress will be better off with him gone.  He notoriously treated his staff poorly, or used ’salty language,’ if you will, and the charges of sexual harassment were the latest in a trend.

Working on Capitol Hill, I heard a lot of horror stories about bosses.  Even in a place full of egotistical and hard-ass superiors, Massa joined a select group including Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Sheila Jackson-Lee, and Joe Sestak as being consensus awful people to work for.  Not bad for a freshman.

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More On Monuments

It is not a “Secret Agenda,” Interior just never told anyone.

That is how Secretary Salazar defended the internal memo calling for the creation of a massive new National Monument on the Hi Line during a Senate budget hearing yesterday.

We are getting the best ideas in terms of how we protect the public lands of America and how we work with local communities, the states, members of Congress.

One idea, maybe not the best, would be to make sure states have been consulted when you claim they wish to divest 39,000 acres.

Other highlights of this circus included Secretary Salazar claiming to be supportive of the oil and natural gas leasing, while justifying $40 billion in new fees and taxes on the industry.  He also managed to avoid mentioning one of his department’s “best ideas” included locking up the Vermillion Basin in Colorado over fears of natural gas developments.

Posted in Montana, Politics.

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A Thought On Freeing Up Credit

I caught CBS airing Arrianna Huffington’s screed against the larger banks on Sunday.  The ostensible point was to push her “Move Your Money” campaign since;

JP Morgan, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo — these banks, that have received taxpayer money, that have been bailed out by the taxpayer, have not done their job at helping small businesses, at lending, so that the economy can start again, and start producing jobs.

The obvious solution is to move personal savings accounts into smaller local banks as a way to stick it to the man.  Never mind that hundreds of these smaller banks have entered FDIC receivership.

I guess on a pure populist level it makes some sense.  Force market behavior changes through individual decision.  On a larger level, the scale is just not there, so let me propose something else.

The heart of the problem is that the major banks have decreased lending to small businesses by $100 billion or so over the last year.  Looking before the crisis, banks rarely held high amounts of excess reserves (more reserve funds than Fed regulations require).  Meaning they used would be excess reserves for other purposes, like lending.  Now, the Fed requires a total of $61,417,000,000 in reserves of all banks.  Meanwhile they hold $1,253,692,000,000 in total reserves, which is way above historical norms.

Prior to 2008 such a move would have made zero financial sense as funds held in reserve are not interest bearing.  However, as part of the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2006 (Section 203), the Fed was authorized for the first time to pay interest to banks on required reserve funds.  This authority was extended and expanded in Section 128 of the 2008 Economic Stabilization Act to cover all reserve funds.  Also, during the same period, the Fed chose to exercise this authority by paying banks .25% in interest for all reserve funds.  Later that rate became the current .5%.

It really is not a mystery then why banks are choosing to hold onto $1 trillion in cash, we are paying them to do so.  A .5% return on investment with absolutely no risk is seen as a better choice than lending the money and risking default.  I cannot blame them.

My simple suggestion would be to if not repeal these provisions, then amend them so interest is only paid on required reserves not excess reserves. Remove the incentive to sit on reserves and start encouraging real investment.

I would wager such a move would be far more effective than some populist bank local movement.

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This Is A Whole Lot Of Wrong

Senator Bunning set off a firestorm Thursday by rejecting a unanimous consent request to pass a continuing resolution funding a host of stimulus projects and unemployment benefits.  A couple friends of mine are on unpaid furlough until this gets resolved.  So I get the outrage.  We are talking about real jobs, which makes the political theater all the more disappointing.

At its heart, Bunning’s request is not that nefarious.  Since the CR extends programs authorized in part under the stimulus bill we should pay for the extension using unspent, unallocated, stimulus dollars.

I agree with him on that point, but raising the objection 48 hours before the programs expire is petty, to be polite.

Which brings me to Harry Reid.  Why is this guy still Majority Leader?  It was not a mystery that these provisions were due to expire on Monday.  Why was the Senate just getting around to extending them less than 24 hours before leaving town? They had been included in the bi-partisan jobs bills before Senator Reid stripped that bill down and removed them.  Reid’s decision enabled Senator Bunning and led to this situation.

Maybe instead of preening in front of a camera all day on Thursday, the Majority Leader could have spent some time working with Senator Bunning to reach a compromise.  Or, since that was probably unlikely, bring up the bill under normal order rather than by UC.  There is no reason this is still held up other than Reid wants to make a political show out of it.  Senator Reid figures he can get away with painting all Republicans as obstructionists, even though conservatives like Senator Inohofe spoke out against Bunning.   So enough with the political posturing, just do your job Reid.

The only people doing a worse job than Senator Reid are, as usual, members of the media.  This is not a filibuster.  I do not care how many outlets report it as such, it does not change Senate procedure.  Bunning objected to a unanimous consent request.  All that means is that a bill had at least one person opposed to it.  A filibuster infers 41 Senators objected.  Get it right.

Bang up job D.C. crowd.  Objecting to extremely popular expiring programs, not planning ahead by including expiring provisions in a moving legislative vehicle, and completely misreporting what actually occurred in the Capitol Building.  Simply outstanding all the way around.

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