Suddenly, it seems, the conversation inside the Beltway has shifted from whether to attack the deficit to how to conquer it.My favorite bits:
This [alternative from the left] comes from Demos, the Economic Policy Institute and The Century Foundation, which have banded together in a project they call “Our Fiscal Security.”
“Our number one priority is job creation, which is the first step towards long-term budget sustainability,” the groups say, outlining proposals they say would achieve primary budget balance — that is, everything besides interest — by 2018. “We strongly oppose the idea that America’s fiscal challenges should be solved by cutting long-standing social insurance programs that have brought security and prosperity to millions.”
Health care: Contain government health-care spending by relying on mechanisms built into Obamacare and enacting a “public option,” a government-sponsored competitor to private insurance.And now, I will sleep with dreams of sugarplums dancing in my head.
Public investment: Spent more on pre-k education and child care, infrastructure, pubic transit [sic], research and development, rural broadband.
Taxes: Set same tax rate for ordinary income and capital gains, convert some popular individual-income tax deductions to tax credits, including mortgage-interest deduction and limiting it to $500,000 in mortgage debt. Limit tax deductibility of corporate interest. Let Bush tax cuts on upper-income earners expire, and impose surcharge on those with incomes above $1 million. Reinstate estate tax at $2 million threshold and 50% rate. Boost the gasoline tax and impose a carbon tax or cap-and-trade bill that refunds 50% of the proceeds to consumers, uses the rest to reduce deficit. Impose a financial-speculation tax.
Then came what is now remembered as the Macaroon Security Standoff. At 6:30, with the Seder about to start, Neil Cohen, the husband of Michelle Obama’s friend and adviser Susan Sher, was stuck at the gate bearing flourless cookies he had brought from Chicago. They were kosher for Passover, but not kosher with the Secret Service, which does not allow food into the building.Also, I cannot tell you how much joy I get from the image of Malia and Sasha stealing the afikoman.
Offering to help, the president walked to the North Portico and peered out the door, startling tourists. He volunteered to go all the way to the gates, but advisers stopped him, fearing that would cause a ruckus. Everyone seemed momentarily befuddled. Could the commander in chief not summon a plate of cookies to his table? Finally, Mr. Love ran outside to clear them.
Over the past two years, more than a dozen Securities and Exchange employees and contractors have tried to view pornography on government computers at least 8,273 times. Here's what they were looking at while the global financial system cratered.A woman! Heavens to Betsy! And yes, if you click the link, you'll get a full list of the porn sites of choice for the SEC. So you can thoroughly investigate current events.
The Washington Times broke the story of the SEC's porn problem, which became the subject of numerous inspector general investigations, last month. And Dealbreaker subsequently published one report of an inspector general investigation into an SEC regional supervisor who viewed transvestite porn at work as stress relief.
Now we've obtained reports of 16 investigations into porn-surfing by SEC employees and contractors (one of them is a woman!), including one man who said his daily porn viewing at work was limited to "no longer than an hour and a half a day."
