NY Times Editors Call For Taxes, Pain And War (Have A Nice Weekend!)

The Times editors know what the American public needs and is ready to give it to them, good and hard.

First, we need more taxes, and not just on the rich:

Why Taxes Have to Go Up

...

To reduce the deficit in a weak economy, new taxes on high-income Americans are a matter of necessity and fairness; they are also a necessary precondition to what in time will have to be tax increases on the middle class. Contrary to Mr. Boehner’s “spending problem” claim, much of the deficit in the next 10 years can be chalked up to chronic revenue shortfalls from the Bush-era tax cuts, which were only partly undone in the fiscal-cliff deal earlier this year. (Wars and a recession also contributed.) It stands to reason that a deficit caused partly by inadequate revenue must be corrected in part by new taxes.

Will these sacrifices be painful? Don't worry about that pain...

Making Some Painkillers Harder to Get

Painkillers like Vicodin that contain hydrocodone are the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States — and the most widely abused because they are relatively easy to obtain. The Food and Drug Administration has an opportunity to help tighten restrictions on drugs whose use has spiraled out of control over the past two decades.

It's the NY Times, so you know they want us to be more like Europe:

Many countries in Europe and elsewhere make little or no use of hydrocodone products and do fine in treating their patients for pain.

Yeah, yeah. Peole are suffering in Eastern Europe, although with their entry into the EU they can now chew on fine Corinthian leather. Codeine products are available over the counter in Great Britain and other European countries (cf Nurofen Plus), and good luck trying to legalize that here.

Well, no worries, we are off to war, or will be if weakness invites aggression:

On the spending side, Republicans are resisting cuts to defense. That implies brutalizing cuts in nondefense discretionary areas, like education and environment, which are already set to fall to their lowest level as a share of the economy since the 1950s.

The Times editors also identify another brutalizing unmet need - public financing of political campaigns, this time at the state level:

What Gov. Cuomo’s Budget Needs

...

The budget is also missing the necessary financing for a public campaign system that the governor has promised in his reform agenda. Advocates for a system of matching funds like the one in New York City have estimated that the state’s cost would be about $40 million a year. That is a small price to pay to encourage small donors and limit the influence of a few powerful special interests.

Just what we need. I look forward to Saturday and their calls for pestilence.

Comments

[Clarice]

Love ya , TM. You want pestilence, you'll get pestilence.

[narciso]

Talk about 'restoring to it's rightful place' I would buy Pinch's advice, if they weaned themselves off Carlos Slim's allowance,

[Danube of Thought iPad]

I wish those assholes would just shut up.

[maryrose]

Raise taxes on the middle class. These editors at the NYT are either delusional or insane. Much like Bammy and his cohorts. Why do they ring the bell for something that is just not going to happen?

[maryrose]

DOT:
Well said sir!

[Thomas Collins]

The rich can deal with tax increases better than the middle class can. The Sulzberger clan has armies of professionals advising them. The middle class worker won't be able to plan around greater wage withholding and higher gas taxes.

In addition, the NY Times no doubt classifies as rich those entrepreneurs in real businesses (those not enabled by Obama connections) and who already face increasing regulatory and mandate burdens (such as ObamaCare).

Finally, although the rich can deal with tax increases better than the middle class, if the rich face higher marginal tax rates, the economy as a whole will suffer, and that suffering will affect the middle class far more than the rich.

[narciso]

The Inner Party will not disturbed, also Steven Rattner;

The National Futures Association, the industry’s self-regulatory body, shelved a proposal to ban the ex-chief of MF Global from the multi-billion futures trading industry after a nearly four-hour board meeting yesterday.

[Rob Crawford]

brutalizing cuts

I hate "journalists".

[rse]

TC-I had a meeting with a teacher yesterday explaining what is coming with Common Core. When I got done, she said "I have believed in social justice all my life. What you are telling me is it does not work anything like what I believed."

One small victory.

I had a comment go missing but all the ed reforms are coming out at an employee ownership, participatory decision-making view of the future workplace. And I am not looking. I am just following up on the support in the cited footnotes. Names for the type of "capitalism" vary but not the vision.

[Clarice]

New book out on GZ-Trayvon case..Chicago Tribune tells readers to brace themselves for a not guilty verdict.http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2013/02/zimmermanniversary.html

[Clarice]

I think Sunday's column will be aimed at advising the executive on where to make cuts..
TSA, FEMA head my list but I welcome and encourage your suggestions,

[Clarice]

Also I want to remind readers of waste--cash for clunkers, Solyndra, GM bailout.

[henry]

rse, the "you did not build that" idea has deep roots. Plus "it takes a village" to make a business decision. I am guilty of "linear thinking" and "positivism" so my contributions are banned -- besides I have the wrong skin color / gender to contribute to the future (all things I was told in Org Behav seminars in grad school).

If employees want to provide risk capital and build something, nothing stops them (except government licenses, regs, and taxes).

[narciso]

Seriously, what use do we get from the TSA, it's like the wandering Cossack program (for Chuck Hagel, that's not a good thing). As for FEMA, it's really as incompetent apparently, as they alleged in the Guiffrida era.

[maryrose]

clarice:
I can't wait to read your article. People need to be reminded of Obama's epic -fail list of bad ideas and failures.

[Manuel Transmission]

Welcome back Clarice. I am flummoxed by the usual scare tactics that cry about teachers, firemen, etc. being cut from the terrible reductions in the increases in Fed spending. Beyond the incongruity of the logic, how is it that the Feds are paying for the bottom course of the pyramid? I realize this is the standard ploy of cutting busing when you vote down a school levy, but Fed money?

[narciso]

Well this is part of his research;

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Questions-surface-about-night-of-Trayvon-Martin-shooting/-/1637132/18474832/-/9vekuy/-/index.html

[maryrose]

Obama called in Boehner and McConnell today to participate in hauling his rear-end out of the fire wrt to his his goofy idea of sequester. My advice to them is to tell Obama to suck it up and remind him that he can take any future tax increases and stick them where the sun don't shine.Sequester should happen and everyone should know that the idea originated with the emperor sans clothes.

[Melinda Romanoff]

MT-

I just have a hard time making the logic jump from Municipal Finance to Congressional Finance when it comes to firefighters and teachers. Never gets called on it.

[Jane: Mock the Media]

Congrats RSE, you really are doing your part.

Clarice, I think the executive should cut presidential vacations.

[narciso]

It seems they stretch the definition of 'evidence' and substitute supposition here;

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Forensic-evidence-both-supports-casts-doubt-on-Zimmerman-claims/-/1637132/18476640/-/118xu38z/-/index.html

[Rob Crawford]

The rich can deal with tax increases better than the middle class can. The Sulzberger clan has armies of professionals advising them. The middle class worker won't be able to plan around greater wage withholding and higher gas taxes.

Seems to me the entire suite of policies pursued by the left is intended to keep the poor from getting into the middle class and the middle class from getting rich.

Income? They'll take that.

Property? Well, until you die. Then they take half.

Saved for emergencies? For retirement? They want that, too.

[Rob Crawford]

Well, this seems to be a new tone:

The Miamisburg Sportsmen's Club has passed a unanimous resolution opposing any new restrictions on law-abiding gun owners. The resolution also states that any infringement promoted by elected officials will be regarded as a violation of their oath of office and a hostile action against their constituents.

LUN

[Captain Hate]

Chicago Tribune tells readers to brace themselves for a not guilty verdict

Let Scott have to deal with any and all damages that may occur from his gutless inability to let the system handle it the way it was designed.

[Captain Hate]

Getting it half-right is a major accomplishment for this crew: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112492/ted-cruz-elizabeth-warren-freshman-senators-are-misunderstood?utm_source=The+New+Republic&utm_campaign=8294770c16-TNR_Daily_022213&utm_medium=email#

[narciso]

Well he was following the right path, till the shock collars, 'Bergeroned' him, back into drone status.

[matt]

driving down the 5 to San Diego the other day the news came on and reported that the State of California had released a propaganda piece/report stating that if everyone who was eligible to whatever they call welfare/assistance was signed up, it would generate over $8.5 Billion in economic activity.

They have been renaming transfer payments and all of that, so we really have gone over the edge into Minitrueland.

Whatever you do, don't used illegal immigrant, or undocumented alien or whatever was the term the last time.

The Left has made it part of their policy to reshape the language itself for its own purposes. Gay marriage = civil rights, etc. etc....

[NK]

For those of you blessed not to live in a Blue Hell-- the NY Times readers/voters actually agree with this crap-- whether they understand it or not. Their Lefty Echo Chamber is reflexive and involuntary at this point. Buying into crap like this, is just like breathing to them.

[Rob Crawford]

if everyone who was eligible to whatever they call welfare/assistance was signed up, it would generate over $8.5 Billion in economic activity

So theft from productive future generations is now "economic activity"?

[rse]

Clarice-you might mention all the references to using federal ed spending to force states and local districts to have a level the playing field and distribute opportunity equitably. It was in that Equity and Excellence report I cited on a previous thread and wrote about yesterday. I can no longer do LUNs.

The other thing that needs to have attention called to it is all the NSF spending in the behavioral and social sciences to squelch climate skepticism and use education to change the nature of what is believed. It really is being used over and over again to instill false beliefs and communitarian values to prompt altered future behaviors.

You might also call attention all that would be under any circumstance but then to announce a major new initiative for the federal government to study the human brain as the NYT announced Obama was doing on the 17th makes it look like the brain research is to monitor the physical effects of all the change in ed focus and behavioral science spending.

This really is not about Parkinsons in my opinion.

[narciso]

Orwell called, he said I'm spinning at 180 rpm,

http://twitchy.com/2013/02/21/threatened-sequestration-cuts-to-tsa-not-so-threatening/

[Chubby]

((Obama called in Boehner and McConnell today to participate in hauling his rear-end out of the fire wrt to his his goofy idea of sequester.))

Boehner promised he was not going to negotiate with Obama ever again. Sounds like he's poised to break that promise.

on Hannity radio the other day, he interviewed Lindsay Graham, who mentioned that the president had just phoned him that afternoon, and when talking about the fact that the president had called him, he sounded like a giddy subservient courtier. it was sickening

[Porchlight]

Peole are suffering in Eastern Europe, although with their entry into the EU they can now chew on fine Corinthian leather.

Heh.

[Jim Miller]

Tom - If I recall correctly, the Times is in favor of biofuels, too. That would let you add famine to your cheerful list.

Clarice - Although the amounts of money are trivial -- when compared to the federal budget -- it would be important, for symbolic reasons, for Obama (and Biden) to cut back their own spending.

For instance, the Obamas could spend every other vacation in Chicago. And Biden could pay us back for all those subsidized train trips.

[jimmyk]

TSA, FEMA head my list but I welcome and encourage your suggestions,

Where to begin? It would be great to eliminate three or four cabinet departments, but failing that, I'd call for immediate 20 percent cuts in payrolls of Agriculture, Energy, Education, Commerce, HHS, and HUD. They can decide whether to cut employment or salaries.

Then go after government pensions: Congress first, but overall. The pensions should be defined contribution and comparable what private sector pensions are, or less. No double dipping. No early retirement outside of the military.

Still, the big elephants in the room are SS/Medicare/Medicaid. Hard to deal with that in one column.

[Melinda Romanoff]

JimM-

I'll have you know that getting a tee time in February is a bit challenging, even for the White House. Body surfing is a bit harsh as well.

[Rocco]

Foreign aid to countries that hate us makes me sick.

"This year alone, Obama will be sending the Egyptians 200 M1A1 Main Battle Tanks.

Egypt already maintains the world's 7th largest tank force, numbering in at 4,000.

The active-duty Marine Corps has less than 150 M1A1 Abrams tanks in its inventory at any given time.

http://www.examiner.com/article/egypt-obama-sends-muslim-brotherhood-rulers-more-tanks-and-fighter-jets

[narciso]

Ah, I just recognized the 'four horsemen motif,
as they say, I fell out of the tree.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Rocco-

It's as if he was supplying an invasion force....

[narciso]

They granted Pistorius bail, seriously after that at best, gross negligence with a fire arm?

[derwill]

--"This year alone, Obama will be sending the Egyptians 200 M1A1 Main Battle Tanks.--

Why don't we cut out all foreign aid--all of it, and all the money we give to the UN too. They all hate us anyway, so let them live without us.

[Rocco]

Mel

Yeah, makes me wonder if Israel has become our target instead of our ally? When you consider the cozy relationship Morsi has with Hezbollah, what the heck is Obama thinking?

[Jack is Back]

Mike Knox has a very positive reputation in this neck of the woods. He is a mechanical engineer with a master's in Forenscis from UF. He has worked for Corey in the past but I don't believe he has anything to do with that crowd this time.

Don't know if writing the book now puts him a position to be called for expert testimony but I'll bet O"Mara is into his 3rd reading by now. It will all come down to the level of courage the judge has in deciding SYG or go to trial and leave it to a jury. Hot potato syndrome.

[Jim Miller]

Mel - You have just mentioned two of the advantages that I see in Chicago vacations fot the Obamas.

[AliceH]

--if everyone who was eligible to whatever they call welfare/assistance was signed up--

They still make people SIGN UP??? Fascists.

[NK]

JimmyK-- you have a lot more patience than me. The fed Gov't in FY13 will take in about $2.7-2.8T and spend about $3.7-3.8T. Cut it all.. hard. I would cut DoD and Medicare last, and 'reform' Soc Sec... by increasing retirement age and COLA formula. The nonDoD rest? 30% across the board, except Obamacare and Dodd-FrankConsumerPro-- cut those 100%. WE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY, AND THE DEBT BOMB IS ABOUT TO GO OFF!

[NK]

Rocco-- Israel? Wonder?... as long as Bibi is PM, Israel is Obama's enemy #1.... even more than the House Repubs, because they're alot easier to deal with as far as JEF is concerned.

[jimmyk]

Speaking of symbolic cuts: Let's not forget Big Bird. No money for PBS/NPR and other propaganda outlets.

[AliceH]

I have a jillion tabs open right now and no idea where this link came from, so if it's from 2 inches up on this very page, errrr, thanks!

For your consideration, Clarice: Union That Bankrupted Hostess to Receive Generous Government Subsidies

[jimmyk]

Also, where did I read a couple of weeks ago that all sorts of cabinet departments (like Agriculture) have SWAT teams. I think Iowahawk was tweeting about that. There was a story about a SWAT team going in to some little cheese maker because he making cheese for customers who wanted it from unpasteurized milk.

[jimmyk]

And repeal Davis-Bacon. Ok, I'll stop now.

[Manuel Transmission]

I caught Megan on BOR talking about Pistorius. It hit me at the time that we have no appreciation for the degree of fear that exists down there for home invasion attacks. I'm not looking for excuses for his actions, but I would hope that their judicial system is more attuned to that reality than our bench racer's cluelessness to the core ruthless behavior they live with daily.

Flamethrowers under your car? Double gate systems to your home?

[Thomas Collins]

Meanwhile, as the real world of power politics continues (see LUN), our Secretary of State, who occupies the position previously occupied by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, William Seward, Dean Acheson and George Marshall, chooses as the topic of his initial foreign policy speech his worry that there is not sufficient international bureaucratic diktat re the climate.

Who is a more exquisite form of Codevilla's Ruling Class individual, Sulzberger or Kerry? Close contest.

[jimmyk]

we have no appreciation for the degree of fear that exists down there for home invasion attacks.

True, and somewhere I read that there are 20,000 homicides/year in Pretoria. That's almost hard to believe, but seems to be true, per this article, for example:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/pretoria-one-of-sa-s-most-dangerous-1.406483

Still, that doesn't make Pistorius innocent.

[Rocco]

Foreign aid to China drives me crazy too. We borrow trillions and send it right back so they can open some more phony Apple stores.

[Beasts of England]

"spending problem". Nah. It ain't no problem...

[NK]

"Who is a more exquisite form of Codevilla's Ruling Class individual, Sulzberger or Kerry? Close contest."

I vote Pinch-- Kerry has no real power.

[Porchlight]

I vote Sulzberger, too. There are millions of elite libs who realize (even if they won't admit it) that Lurch is a fool but still revere Pinch and all things NYT.

[MarkO]

"They granted Pistorius bail, seriously after that at best, gross negligence with a fire arm?"

Perhaps because he has no legs he's considered to be flightless waterfowl.

He might get off, but he deliberately killed her.

[Old Lurker]

I'm with NK 11:54.

[Danube of Thought]

DWS explains why the sequester is a smashing idea:

DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Well, everything is — everything would be delayed. You’re going to have massive indiscriminate cuts to education, to health care research, you’re going to have research grants that won’t get funded. I mean, the decisions that we make now, letting the sequester kick in, have short-term effects that affect people’s daily lives, but they also have significant long-term effects. If a university isn’t able to hire a researcher or — because the grant doesn’t come through — that researcher never does groundbreaking work that could save thousands of lives later on down the road. I mean, this is dramatically irresponsible. It’s irresponsible for our economy and the impact on it. It’s irresponsible to, in terms of the impact it would leave on the middle class and working families. The only ones who get protected are the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans. But that appears to be the Republicans’ goal. And it’s just baffling. How could they possibly continue to only care about people who are already doing really well who are the only ones that would be shielded from the impact of sequester cuts?

[Danube of Thought]

Sandra Fluke unloads again:

In a revealing presentation at Claremont McKenna College, birth-control activist Sandra Fluke said the U.S. military should accept transsexual recruits. The demise of the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” program, she said, should be only a first step toward a more inclusive American fighting force. Referring to what she called “the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning” community, Fluke said lawmakers didn’t go far enough in ending the military’s official but often unenforced ban on homosexuals. “We still don’t let trans-folk join the military,” Fluke said February 13. “That needs to change.”

Well, at least our side has the guns.

[AliceH]

I don't understand the argument about "indiscriminate" cuts.

If I cut the DoE budget by n Dollars or n Percent, then the DoE will determine, discriminate if you will, which projects and expenses will be reduced or eliminated. Don't they? Who else?

[Melinda Romanoff]

7th District upholds Moore v. Madigan on CCW rules coming to IL.

Whoo-Hoo!

[Melinda Romanoff]

AliceH-

Like Schroedinger's Cat, the cuts only occur where you happen to be looking at that exact moment.

(Things DWS explains best, aka moving goalpostitis.)

[Jane: Mock the Media]

Rocco,

WE are having a 2nd amendment rally in Worcester tomorrow. Can you come? It's 1-3 and the storm isn't supposed to get here until 4:00.

It hit me at the time that we have no appreciation for the degree of fear that exists down there for home invasion attacks.

I really want this not to be per-meditated murder however how does someone scared of home invasion leave their porch door wide open?

Clarice, I recommend we break up Washington. The Dep of agriculture should go somewhere where there actually is agriculture, like Kansas. The dept of education should be completely dismantled because that's a state's issue. The dept of Homeland Security should be relocated to Guam so it can deal with the Russian flyovers and also to the borders where the drug cartels rule, leaving their guns behind.

[Captain Hate]

Who is financing Sandra Fluke? It's no accident that an overaged and underbrained college student gets so much publicity for so little substance.

[Melinda Romanoff]

CH-

WH/OfA.

[Extraneus]

Imagine if the sequester cuts don't cause any serious pain? Dems can't afford to let that happen.

[Janet]

Speaking of symbolic cuts: Let's not forget Big Bird. No money for PBS/NPR and other propaganda outlets.

and Planned Parenthood. Not even about abortion...but just about why we are funding this business. It is a business. They made millions in profits & have over a billion in assets. Why in the world Americans have to give that business money is beyond me.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Ex-

Only loss in cuts would be the loss of face by some, and evidence of no pain when cuts actually occur, which will tear a hole in the Dem Time/Space continuum.

[Beasts of England]

Ol' Sandra is a woman of myriad expertises. More trans-folk in the military... What could go wrong with that little social experiment; that's why we have armed forces, right? Aren't her 15 minutes up?

[NK]

what is OFA?

[rse]

MT-our next door neighbors moved from South Africa as part of that massive exodus about 20 years ago. It took years for them to get over their fears of kidnapping. Witnessed first hand when their youngest was playing with my kids who were much younger and we were thus not where they expected her to be. After they calmed down they later talked about emigrating in part as a reaction to the kidnappings.

Home invasions became the next reality for those that stayed.

[NK]

What's a Sandra Fluke? isn't that some kind of oily, smelly Atlantic fish?

[Melinda Romanoff]

OfA-Organizing for America.

WH campaign wing.

[rse]

Organization for Action, nk.

It is the successor to all the fund raising and info capacity to make sure the desired agenda for fundamental Transformation occurs.

With no obligation now to disclose donors.

[Danube of Thought iPad]

You think somebody has invased your home and locked himself in the bathroom? Sure. So you fire four shots through the bathroom door? Sure.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--What's a Sandra Fluke? isn't that some kind of oily, smelly Atlantic fish?--

No, it's a parasitical worm which lodges in the genitalia of the body politic.

[derwill]

There will be no sequester cuts. The whole thing was an artificial construct anyway, that was never meant to actually happen, so there's no reason why they can't "postpone" them indefinitely. There is a recession coming, which the cuts would only exacerbate. At which point the media would blame the recession--which was coming anyway--on the sequester cuts and the sequester cuts on the GOP. The GOP know this, which is why they will cave, and frankly I'm all for them caving. Let Obama and the Dems own the recession, along with the consequences of the exploding debt bomb when it comes, and it's not like the sequester cuts are enough to prevent that from happening anyway.

[NK]

DoT@1:23-- I agree with that. I don't know the details, but based on life lessons, I assume 'The Blade' had a very specific target in mind, and he aimed well.

[Beasts of England]

Ig@1:26 - golf clap

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--It stands to reason that a deficit caused partly by inadequate revenue must be corrected in part by new taxes.--

No, it doesn't.
As this chart very clearly shows the tax burden per household rose precipitously from 2003 to 2007, the very period over which Bush's tax cuts were enacted.
It also clearly shows the "inadequate revenue" is essentially entirely a product of recessions.
Raising taxes in no way stands to reason as a method of stimulating a moribund economy. Even the sainted fool Keynes understood that.

[jimmyk]

How to cut government? Iowahawk has a good idea:

@iowahawkblog
Idea: reality TV show where government programs compete to survive in front of celebrity judges - "The Ryan Seaquester"

[Captain Hate]

Allen West on FB: It would be one thing to read about the story of Coptic Christians being ritually beheaded coming out of Egypt, sadly it is from New Jersey. We all know that persecution of Christians across the world is rampant, now in the one country where this should not be happening, well, it has. First we had honor killings in our country, and we denied it, now this. It begs the question, who are we as a nation and what do we stand for?

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/02/21/muslim-beheads-two-coptic-christians-in-koranic-ritual-51726

[MarkO]

Fluke is the pluperfect subjunctive.

I renew my offer for lifetime contraceptive protection for her if she agrees to take it every day.

[jimmyk]

Of course, in my 1:42, the celebs have to be Clint Eastwood, Patricia Heaton, Bruce Willis, Dennis Miller, and the like.

[Enlightened]

“We still don’t let trans-folk join the military,” Fluke said February 13. “That needs to change.”

She speaks from her own trans-folk experience I am convinced.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--There is a recession coming, which the cuts would only exacerbate.--

Hate to disagree, but I do nonetheless.
Cuts in government are excellent in good economies but essential in bad ones.

[NK]

derwil@1:27-- I agree that a recession is coming, I don't know that these sequestration cuts will affect the recession one way or the other.. the 2009 STIMULUS! proved conclusively that Keynesian pump priming in this environment is nonsense as far as I'm concerned. Finally, is is smart for Repubs to postpone the Sequestration? I really doubt that.. amongst conservative I'm about the most patient and tolerant of the DC Repubs, if they cave here... well...even I've had it with them and would go all-in TP/NRA. That's saying something.

[Jane: Mock the Media]

per-meditated

Why would spell check do that to me? I think I will sue.

[NK]

Ig@1:45-- I think that's definitely true for the 2013 USA economy. The 2009 STIMULUS! proved that.

[AliceH]

When does the sequester go into effect? Officially, as of now, I mean. March 1?

I'm with derwill@1:27 that it won't actually happen, but I'll go further and say it won't be positively stopped before that deadline - it will first get another postponement. Maybe two. Ultimately, though, it will be stopped approximately 4 hours after its last deadline has been reached.

[Rob Crawford]

There is a recession coming, which the cuts would only exacerbate.

The assumption here is that money borrowed from thin air will stimulate the economy.

[AliceH]

Tidbit about vicodin. It happens to be one of the 'last resort' meds for people with Restless Leg Syndrome - those who don't respond to iron supplements, various epilepsy or parkinson's meds, etc.

RLS can be exceedingly painful and life threatening - if you get to the point where you simply cannot sit down, where the only relief is walking. and walking. and walking. and not sleeping even 1 hour for days on end.

A friend had this and got almost to this point - saw several doctors and NOT ONE would give him even a single day's dose of vicodin, even though they agreed it would help, and believed him when he said he had had 5 hours total sleep in 4 days. It's on the "bad" prescriptions list, and they didn't find his agony sufficient reason. Well, that, and due to his totally messed up state of mind, he couldn't really coherently press the issue.

(epilogue: it was 4 months or so of this before they determined a weird/less common type of anemia was a factor, and started him on a "special" kind of iron pills - regular ones were useless. 3 more months before an actual full nights sleep. Yay! The country was saved from another vicodin abuser!)

[Jane: Mock the Media]

Mark,

I love your Fluke offer. I can think of a few more people you should extend it to.

[derwill]

Well, I'm not an economist, nor do I play one on TV, but it seems to me that the only thing keeping the economy barely breathing at the moment is government spending paid for by money printing in the form of QE, so if you cut it, you're going to see a contraction.

If there were a way to ensure that the sequestration cuts were made where there is actual fraud and waste that would be one thing, but we all know that what they will cut will be those things that will be visible and hurtful to the voters, so that the Dems can then say, "See, what those evil Republicans made us do and now you know that we can't ever, ever again cut government spending because then there would be no teachers, and no firemen, and no police, and no cancer research, oh noes!" And it's not like the sequestration cuts are enough to stave off the inevitable in any event, so what will we have actually accomplished in the end by dying on this particular--and artificially constructed--hill?

And I don't know that you can use the 2009 stimulus as proof that reasonable stimulus spending can't be used to jump start an economy in free fall, given that the 2009 stimulus was money spent in all the wrong places. Would things have be different today if that money had been used to create actual jobs, rather than for propping up bankrupt state public service pensions, filling labor union coffers, and being syphoned off to Obama donors like Solyndra?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Great point on twitter, there will be no bad marks on the economy from sequestration because they'll just edit out the bad data.

[Chubby]

((He might get off, but he deliberately killed her. ))

I found his testimony of what happened that night compelling, obviously the judge did too. Before I heard his side, I was 100% convinced that he had murdered her in cold blood, afterward hearing his side, I wasn't sure of that at all.

[Chubby]

"after hearing his side"