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Showing posts with label Bridgeghazi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bridgeghazi. Show all posts

08 February 2014

BRIDGEGATE! BRIDGEGHAZI! Now we understand.......

"It was all a mistake! I'm dieting and I told my staff to close the FRIDGE!" --attributed to Governor Christie
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17 January 2014

Practical Progress: Top Wonks Demand A Higher Minimum Wage ... A Patriotic Millionaire and Top Republican Do Too ...17JAN14

PRACTICAL PROGRESS: The Agenda Project Action Fund's actually 'brief' briefing on the most Important news from the Progressive Movement.

TOP WONKS DEMAND A HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE -- The Economic Policy Institute published a letter on Tuesday signed by 75 economists urging Washington to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10, which would provide higher wages for 17 million Americans by 2016. Signers include Top Wonks Dean Baker, Jared Bernstein, Alan Blinder, Heather Boushey, Arindrajit Dube, Nancy Folber, Richard Freeman, Heidi Hartmann, Lawrence Mishel, Robert Reich, John Schmitt, Heidi Shierholz, and Joseph Stiglitz. University of Texas Chair in Government and Business Relations and Top Wonk James Galbraith recently made his case for a higher minimum wage, and elsewhere Assistant Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst and Top Wonk Arindrajit Dube delved into the "Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes." READ an analysis of the paper by CEPR Senior Economist and Top Wonk John Schmitt HERE.
... A PATRIOTIC MILLIONAIRE SECONDS DEMAND FOR HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE ... Venture Capitalist and Patriotic Millionaire Nick Hanauer spells out the capitalist's case for a 15 dollar minimum wage HERE ...
... AND A TOP REPUBLICAN AGREES ... Silicon Valley tycoon and former publisher of the American Conservative Ron Unz says: "A large minimum wage hike would constitute an enormous, permanent economic stimulus package."
SO WHO DOESN'T WANT TO RAISE THE MINIMUM? See Huff's story HERE.
LADIES -- THIS MEANS YOU -- As the minimum wage debate heats up, Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress (CAP) released the third Shriver Report, analyzing the realities of 42 million American women on the economic brink. President of Families and Work Institute Ellen Galinsky: "We know low-income women are the backbone of our economy and of their families ... What they need -- and what our economy needs -- are supportive, flexible, Effective Workplaces, which benefit the employee, the employer, and our nation as a whole."
READ "A Woman's Nation Pushes Back from the Brink," TWEET #ShriverReport and WATCH an informational video HERE.
THE GOVERNOR, THE BRIDGE, HIS WIFE, AND HER CHARITY  -- As questions mount about NJ Gov. Tony Soprano, eh hem, Chris Christie's bridge closure our sources say Christie's wife is still sitting on more than half of the funds her charity raised for Sandy victims. SEE the Daily Agenda's original story HERE. Looks like using Sandy relief funds to produce self-serving tourism ads are just the tip of the iceberg. CNN broke last night that Port Authority created an executive position for a Christie ally. READ: "Christie: A Bully's Bully" over at The Nation.
Huffington Post, MSNBC, Politico, and Roosevelt Institute also covered the story.
PROGRESSIVES TO RALLY IN NYC -- January 21 is the fourth anniversary of Citizens United -- a ruling that paved the way for Super PACs to spend over 600 million dollars in the 2012 election alone. Fair Elections for New York and American Family Votes will be hosting Sen. Elizabeth Warren and NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to discuss taking on big money's power over the economy. Co-sponsors include Americans for Campaign Reform, Brennan Center for Justice, ColorOfChange, Common Cause/NY, CREDO, Democracy Matters, Demos, Greenpeace, MoveOn.Org, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Sierra Club, and more. FIND out event details and RSVP HERE.
MoveOn.Org, Demos, and the Democracy Initiative will also be hosting a virtual teach-in on the anniversary discussing immediate grassroots solutions on the 21st. Leaders from the Sierra Club, NAACP, and Communications Workers of America will be featured. RSVP to WATCH it live HERE.
300+ DAYS WITHOUT REPRESENTATION  -- North Carolina NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber slammed NC Govenor McCrory's recent Writ of Election decision that would delay a special election in the state's 12th Congressional District until November, leaving the seat empty: "While Congress debates the Farm Bill, budget issues, immigration reform, historic national security issues, and the future of Section 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act itself, the 12th District -- comprised of citizens of North Carolina from all walks of life" Black, Latino, White, poor and rich; hard-working Democrats, Republicans, and Independents -- will be without a voice."
A STEP TOWARD FAIR DISCIPLINARY POLICIES -- Advancement Project Managing Director of Programs James Eichner lauded the Obama Administration's groundbreaking new legal guidelines for addressing racial discrimination in public school discipline: "The DOJ/DOE guidance confirms what advocates on the ground have been saying all along: there are stark racial disparities in school discipline, and schools are needlessly funneling children of color from the classroom to the criminal justice system."
FROM THE WONK WIRE ...
... CARBON CUTTING PROGRESS: Georgetown Climate Center of Georgetown Law Executive Director and Top Wonk Vicki Arroyo stands by the EPA's newly proposed rules to cut carbon pollution from new power plants.
... FEAR CONQUERS ALL: Former Secretary of Labor and Top Wonk Robert Reich explains why fear is crux of low-wage workers' self-sabotage.

... FDL BOOK SALON -- This Sunday Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow and Top Wonk Michael Konczal will be hosting an online book salon featuring CEPR Co-Director and Top Wonk Dean Baker. They will be discussing Dean Baker's new book Getting Back to Full Employment. FIND out more HERE.
Find more at www.TopWonks.org.
ON OUR AGENDA ... PP congratulates Demos President Miles Rapoport on his next step as President and CEO of Common Cause. We second Demos' Board Chair Amelia Warren Tyagi's sendoff: "In his 13 years as President, Miles has built Demos up to where it is today: full of potential, and ready to take the next, exciting leap forward." Demos will announce its new President in the coming weeks ... our sources say Top Wonk Heather McGee has been tapped for the top job.
Check out our newsletter's site at PracticalProgress.org and join the Movement -- E-mail tips, news, and reactions to Hannah Hendler at hhendler@agendaproject.org.
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16 January 2014

DAILY KOS RECOMMENDED 15JAN14

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The Daily Kos team

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11 January 2014

ROSEANNE ROSEANNADANNA (VIDEO), BRIDGEGHAZI, GOV CHRIS CHRISTIE & Chris Christie's Bridge Scandal, Explained & Christie Says, "I Am Not a Bully." Here Are 8 Videos of Him Yelling, Name-Calling, and Belittling People. 10,8&9JAN14

EVERYTHING you want and need to know about BRIDGEGHAZI and gov chris christie's involvement. From Daily Kos and Mother Jones. BUT first, for those who remember Mr Richard Feder from Fort Lee, NJ, two short Roseanne Roseannadanna videos, click the links.....

http://youtu.be/sWjLlFqI_ac
http://youtu.be/uqcbS51BHMQ
Daily Kos is the place to go for breaking news about the Chris Christie bridge scandal. Here are some of the biggest developments and expert opinion on the scandal that you may have missed over the past 24 hours:

Chris Christie's Bridge Scandal, Explained

New emails suggest a senior aide to Christie—a 2016 presidential contender—ordered a nasty traffic jam in Fort Lee as political payback.

—By and
| Wed Jan. 8, 2014 8:54 AM GMT
Chris Christie bridgeNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Future-Image/ZUMA
This article is being updated as news breaks. Click here for the latest.
Internal emails released Wednesday strongly suggest that a top aide to New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie orchestrated massive traffic problems in Fort Lee, New Jersey, last fall as an act of political retribution against the city's Democratic mayor. For months, Christie and his administration have denied allegations that road closures in Fort Lee were politically motivated. The emails, released as part of an investigation by Democratic state legislators, could spiral into a major political scandal for Christie, a possible 2016 presidential candidate. Here's what you need to know.
Christie missing child photo
READ MORE: A Fort Lee official says the Christie lane closures slowed the search for a missing 4-year-old child.
How'd this begin? In mid-September, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey unexpectedly closed two access lanes on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge, which spans the Hudson River and serves as a major commuter route between the two states. A massive, weeklong traffic jam ensued, clogging the streets of nearby Fort Lee.
Cops and lawmakers in Fort Lee said they were given no warning about the decision to close the lanes, which delayed school buses, first responders, and commuters bound for New York City. The Port Authority justified its decision by saying it was conducting a "traffic study."
Why is this political? Soon after the traffic jam, rumors emerged that the Port Authority closed the bridge lanes as political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who endorsed Gov. Chris Christie's opponent in the 2013 gubernatorial campaign. As news outlets and New Jersey Democrats dug deeper into the circumstances of the bridge incident, they eventually connected the lane closures to two Port Authority officials with close ties to Christie: Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the agency, and David Wildstein, its director of interstate capital projects. Baroni and Wildstein have since resigned, and both men have retained criminal defense attorneys.
All along, the Christie administration had denied any connection to the decision to close the bridge lanes. In September, a Christie spokesman called the retribution claim "crazy." Christie told reporters at a December press conference that the Fort Lee traffic snarl was "absolutely, unequivocally not" a result of political score-settling.
What's new today? In response to a subpoena, Wildstein provided a bevy of emails sent by Christie's staff to a panel of state lawmakers investigating the road closures. The messages fly in the face of many of the claims Christie has made about the lane closures. Wildstein will testify about the documents before that panel on Thursday.
The messages, traded between several members of Christie's senior staff, his campaign manager, and his deputy chief of staff, were sent mostly from staffers' private accounts and did not loop in Christie. They strongly suggest that members of Christie's inner circle planned the lane closures as political retaliation against Sokolich. Other top Christie associates included in the email chain after the lanes were reopened include David Samson, the chairman of the Port Authority, and Michael Drewniak, Christie's spokesman. The emails contradict repeated statements by Christie that neither his staff nor anyone from his campaign was involved with the lane closures.
The messages also lay bare Christie's staff's gleeful anticipation of Fort Lee's traffic debacle. On the day of the lane closures and in the aftermath, Christie's top aids privately traded jabs at Fort Lee's mayor and mocked the town's residents as they struggled to deal with the traffic.
What are the highlights? "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Bridget Anne Kelly, a top Christie aide, wrote in an email to Wildstein. "Got it," Wildstein replied.
One text message sent to Wildstein on the day of the lane closures referenced mass school bus delays. "Is it wrong that I'm smiling?" the message read.
"No," Wildstein wrote.
"I feel badly about the kids. I guess," the person, who is unidentified, texted back.
Wildstein replied, "They are the children of Buono voters." Barbara Buono was the Democratic challenger to Christie who lost handily to the governor last November.
Numerous messages mock Fort Lee's mayor as he scrambled to learn the reason behind the closures from the Port Authority and spoke publicly about the closures in the aftermath. In one email sent the day of the closures, Wildstein assures Kelly that the Port Authority was responding to Sokolich with "Radio silence."
As Sokolich began speaking to press after the closures, Bill Sepien, Christie's campaign manager wrote, "The mayor is an idiot."
"It will be a tough November for this little Serbian," Wildstein wrote to Sepien, apparently referencing Sokolich's nationality. Elsewhere in the documents, Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority, refers to Sokolich as "Serbian." Sokolich is Croatian.
UPDATE 1: On Wednesday, Gov. Chris Christie released this statement:
"What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable. I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions."
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.),* the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, replied to Christie's statement, saying, "These revelations are troubling for any public official, but they also indicate what we’ve come to expect from Governor Christie—when people oppose him, he exacts retribution…And when anyone dares to look into his Administration, he bullies and attacks." (Return to the top.)
UPDATE 2: The Christie administration's decision to create a massive traffic jam by closing two access lanes to the George Washington Bridge resulted in delayed response times for local emergency responders in four different emergencies, according to Fort Lee's EMS chief.
In one case, the Bergen Record reports, the traffic jam slowed down paramedics as they tried to reach an unconscious 91-year-old woman. The woman later died in the hospital, though EMS officials say her death was not a direct result of the delays. In another case, it took paramedics seven to nine minutes—double the normal time—to reach a car accident where four people sustained injuries. Read more about the delays here. (Return to the top.)
UPDATE 3, Thursday, Jan. 9, 10:42 a.m. EST: The US attorney for New Jersey will open an inquiry into the bridge scandal, the New York Times reports.
UPDATE 4, Thursday, Jan. 9, 11:27 a.m. EST: In a press conference, Christie announced that he fired his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, for her involvement in planning the Fort Lee lane closures. He also said that he has instructed his longtime campaign manager Bill Stepien, who Christie says withheld details of the bridge scandal from him, to withdraw his name from consideration for chair of the New Jersey Republican Party. "I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team," he said. Read more.
UPDATE 5, Thursday, Jan. 9, 11:47 a.m. EST: A judge has ruled that David Wildstein, the former Port Authority official who ordered the lane closures and whose emails and text messages were released on Wednesday, must comply with a subpoena to testify before a panel of state lawmakers investigating the bridge scandal, NorthJersey.com reports.
On Wednesday, Wildstein filed a lawsuit to quash the legislators' subpoena for his testimony. Before his lawsuit, Wildstein was scheduled to testify at noon on Thursday. Return to the top
UPDATE 6, Thursday, Jan. 9, 1:05 p.m. EST: Ex-Christie aide David Wildstein is currently testifying before the New Jersey Assembly's transportation, public works, and independent authorities committee on the lane closures. Watch it live here.
UPDATE 7, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2:30 p.m. EST: The New Jersey Assembly's transportation, public works, and independent authorities committee voted to hold David Wildstein, an ex-Christie appointee at the center of the George Washington Bridge scandal, in contempt for refusing to answer any questions about his role in the scandal. On the advice of his attorney, Wildstein invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to all questions by state lawmakers. The committee's contempt vote is a misdemeanor violation in New Jersey.
Wildstein's attorney disputed the committee's contempt vote, saying his client had cooperated by providing emails and text messages. Wildstein's attorney said his client would be far more forthcoming if given immunity by prosecutors investigating the lane closures. Wildstein remains under subpoena by the transportation committee.
UPDATE 8, Friday, Jan. 10, 2:30 p.m. EST: Kevin Drum considers an alternate theory about the Christie administration's motives for creating the traffic jam.
UPDATE 9, Friday, Jan. 10, 4:27 p.m. EST: Andy Kroll and David Corn report on a key question left unanswered in the first batch of emails and text messages released this week: Did other aides on Christie's team know that the lane closures on the George Washington were politically motivated and not the result of a supposed traffic study? Messages suggest two other Christie aides, attorney Charlie McKenna and campaign finance director Nicole Davidman, might have known that Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly ordered the Fort Lee traffic jam.
Drawing on a new trove of emails released Friday afternoon, Molly Redden reports that Patrick Foye, the executive director of Port Authority, said the unexpected decision to close three lanes on the George Washington Bridge "violates federal law and the laws of both states."
UPDATE 10, Friday, Jan. 10, 6:12 p.m. EST: New emails released Friday afternoon show that the traffic jam forced Fort Lee police officers to direct traffic instead of responding to emergencies, Molly Redden reports.
READ THE EMAILS:

This sentence has been corrected to reflect that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a member of the House of Representatives, not a US senator. Return to the story.

Christie Says, "I Am Not a Bully." Here Are 8 Videos of Him Yelling, Name-Calling, and Belittling People.

—By
| Thu Jan. 9, 2014 2:06 PM GMT
On Thursday, New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie held a press conference to address allegations that his appointees orchestrated a dangerous traffic jam for political revenge. Christie maintained that he was deceived by a member of his "circle of trust" and noted that he had fired his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, who was implicated in the scandal. He insisted that he had not known that Kelly ordered the traffic problems until the news broke on Wednesday. But many commentators have wondered if this whole episode—whether Christie was in the know or not—has bolstered the view that Christie is a bully.
Christie took issue with this characterization at the press conference. He asserted, "I am who I am. But I am not a bully…The tone that we've set here [is] that I'm willing to compromise." But those who have been the targets of Christie's wrath disagree. And here are 8 videos of Christie yelling, belittling people, and name-calling—and most of the clips are promoted by Christie himself on his popular YouTube page:
1. Christie to a teacher: "If what you want to do is put on a show and giggle every time I talk, well then I have no interest in answering your question."
http://youtu.be/PkuTm-ON904
​2. Christie to a former Navy SEAL: "Your rear end's going to get thrown in jail, idiot."
http://youtu.be/GVfMpYDIpQ0
3. Christie to a reporter: "You know Tom, you must be the thinnest-skinned guy in America…you should really see me when I'm pissed."
​(Video no longer available due to a copyright claim by the Star-Ledger of Newark)
​4. Christie to a constituent: "Hey Gail, you know what, first off it's none of your business."
http://youtu.be/15Eb-fdQPuU
​5. Christie to a former White House doctor: "This is just another hack who wants five minutes on TV…she should shut up."
 http://youtu.be/50xrw7kRyiU
​6. Christie to an Occupy Wall Street protester: "Something may be going down tonight, but it ain't going to be jobs, sweetheart."
http://youtu.be/5ycso518xK0
7. Christie to a reporter: "Are you stupid?…I'm sorry for the idiot over there."
http://youtu.be/5gz0XCpyoh8
8. Christie to a person on the street: "You're a real big shot. You're a real big shot. Just keep walking away. Keep walking."
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10 January 2014

EZRA KLIEIN'S WONKBLOG FOR FRIDAY 10JAN14

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The Washington Post Friday, January 10, 2014
Ezra Klein's WONKBOOK
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Welcome to Wonkbook, Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas's morning policy news primer. Send comments, criticism, or ideas to Wonkbook at Gmail dot com. To read more by Ezra and his team, go to Wonkblog.
Wonkbook's Number of the Day: 1.7 million. That's the number of documents Edward Snowden took, according to a leak of details from a Department of Defense report.
Wonkbook's Graph of the Day: Here's the graph the Fed is thinking about right now. Rising yields on two- and three-year Treasuries show that markets think monetary policy will tighten far more quickly than promised.

Wonkbook's Top 5 Stories: (1) the year for NSA reform; (2) how you finish the two biggest trade deals in U.S. history; (3) the mess of the UI extention; (4) what good news on Obamacare sounds like; and (5) Bridgeghazi.
1. Top story: Could NSA reform end up the biggest policy issue of 2014?
Behind the scenes, White House preoccupied by NSA surveillance controversy. "[I]n public, President Obama has focused this week on income inequality, touting initiatives to help the poor and unemployed. But in private, the president and his top aides have spent more time dealing with another issue. Obama met Thursday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to update them on his review of the National Security Agency's vast surveillance program. A day earlier, he huddled separately with top intelligence officials and a White House advisory panel on privacy issues and civil liberties. He also called German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose mobile phone had been tapped by the NSA, and invited her to Washington...[H]is top lawyer, White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, met with privacy advocates Thursday, and executives from the nation's largest Internet companies were scheduled to visit the White House on Friday." David Nakamura in The Washington Post.
What Obama is about to propose for the NSA. "President Barack Obama is leaning toward extending broad privacy protections to non-U.S. citizens and is seriously considering restructuring the National Security Agency program that collects phone-call data of nearly all Americans, officials familiar with the process said on Thursday. Mr. Obama plans to unveil these and other changes to surveillance programs as soon as next week, the officials said." Siobhan Gorman and Carol E. Lee in The Wall Street Journal.
@mattyglesias: Time for someone at the NSA to leak all their info on this [Christie bridge scandal] and unify our scandals.
Intel panel: DOD report finds Snowden leaks helped terrorists. "Edward Snowden's leaks about National Security Agency programs have put U.S. troops at risk and prompted terrorists to change their tactics, according to a classified Pentagon report. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Mich.) said that the Pentagon report found a significant portion of the 1.7 million documents Snowden took were related to current U.S. military operations." Jeremy Herb in The Hill.
Obama, lawmakers discuss whether to end NSA collection of Americans' phone records. "President Obama met Thursday with senior lawmakers on opposing sides of a debate about whether to end the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' phone data. The 90-minute meeting came in the wake of a report by a presidentially appointed review group that concluded that the program, which gathers billions of phone call toll logs, "was not essential" to preventing terrorist attacks. The group recommended that the data be held instead by the phone companies or a private third party" Ellen Nakashima in The Washington Post.
@ChadPergram: PATRIOT Act author Jim Sensenbrenner after Obama mtg: I'm not so sure that the president thinks we need legislation (to reform the NSA)
NSA and GCHQ activities appear illegal, says EU parliamentary inquiry. "The 51-page draft report, obtained by the Guardian, was discussed by the committee on Thursday. Claude Moraes, the rapporteur asked to assess the impact of revelations made by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, also condemns the "chilling" way journalists working on the stories have been intimidated by state authorities." Nick Hopkins and Ian Traynor in The Guardian.
@interfluidity: so, suppose a guy like Chris Christie--let's just say with staff like Chris Christie's--headed an executive branch that included the NSA.
As automakers tap smartphone technology, concerns grow about use of drivers' data. "The growing alliance between Silicon Valley and Detroit has executives in both places excited over the technological and money-making opportunities. But the fast-emerging trend also has raised questions about whether consumers will be able to control the massive trove of personal data that cars are expected to generate in the coming years. U.S. laws are vague about who can harness all that information. Can law enforcement use the data to prove that a driver was speeding? Will hackers be able to get personal data from Web-connected cars? Can consumers stop Google from tracking them as it seeks to sell targeted ads?" Cecilia Kang and Michael Fletcher in The Washington Post.
FRIEDERSDORF: The NSA leaks are about democracy, not just privacy. "[T]here is inherent value in citizens being given access to information when it informs their judgments about public policy. Information of this sort is a prerequisite for meaningful civic participation. There ought to be a strong presumption in favor of making it public, especially when the policy at issue is as significant and controversial as targeted killing...The unstated assumption behind a lot of national-security-state defenders and Snowden critics is that the public has no proper role in deciding any of these questions, because the information needed to make sound judgments is properly classified." Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.
Music recommendations interlude: This is a great YouTube playlist of all the Seventies songs in the movie "American Hustle."

Top opinion
KRUGMAN: The war over poverty. "The narrative went like this: Antipoverty programs hadn't actually reduced poverty, because poverty in America was basically a social problem -- a problem of broken families, crime and a culture of dependence that was only reinforced by government aid. And because this narrative was so widely accepted, bashing the poor was good politics, enthusiastically embraced by Republicans and some Democrats, too. Yet this view of poverty, which may have had some truth to it in the 1970s, bears no resemblance to anything that has happened since." Paul Krugman in The New York Times.
SUNSTEIN: A new War on Poverty needs correct facts. "[S]ome programs have especially big impacts. All by itself, for example, the earned income tax credit reduced child poverty by no less than 5 percentage points in 2012. Food and nutrition programs had almost as large an effect. In 1967, the impact of such programs was close to zero." Cass R. Sunstein in Bloomberg.
ABRAMOWITZ: Political independents don't really exist. "[T]he large majority of independents are "closet partisans" who consistently support only one party's candidates. They call themselves independents and many of them register as independents when given an opportunity, but they vote like partisans...87 percent of independent Democrats (i.e., independents who lean Democratic) voted for Barack Obama while 86 percent of independent Republicans voted for Mitt Romney. Moreover, 78 percent of independent Democrats voted a straight ticket for president, House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, as did 72 percent of independent Republicans." Alan Abramowitz in Politico.
Opinion interviews: A health industry expert on 'the fundamental problem with Obamacare.' Robert Laszewski speaks with Ezra Klein. This sociologist has a plan to make America more like Sweden. Lane Kenworthy talks with Dylan Matthews. The Washington Post.
RITHOLTZ: The best housing program you've never heard of. "Of all of the various government housing programs run by various federal agencies, [the Home Affordable Refinance Program] is the most effective and efficient one out there...[A]fter HARP was modified in 2011, refinances increased significantly. The total number of avoided foreclosures has passed 3 million. What does the HARP 2.0 program actually do? It takes people who are underwater in a variety of expensive, or ill-advised or even predatory mortgages, and allows them to refinance their homes into traditional conforming 30-year fixed mortgages. A broad assortment of "interest-only" mortgages, 2/28 teaser rates, adjustable-rate interest-only loans are eligible under the program." Barry Ritholtz in Bloomberg.
BROOKS: Movement on the right. "I'd invite you, for example, to cast your eye over the new issue of National Affairs, the right-leaning policy journal edited by Yuval Levin. You'll find nine different articles that hang together coherently around what could well be the dominant style of conservatism of the coming years. This is the conservatism of skeptical reform. This conservatism is oriented, first, around social problems, not government...But the emerging conservatives begin their analysis by looking at concrete problems: how to help the unemployed move to where they can find jobs; how to help gifted students from poor families reach their potential. If you start by looking at these specific matters, then even conservatives conclude that, in properly limited ways, government can be a useful tool. Government is not the only solution, but it is also not the only problem." David Brooks in The New York Times.
COHN: The young are alright. "Thanks to analysis from Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist who was an architect of both the Massachusetts and federal reforms, we know that enrollment was slow to get rolling in Massachusetts--and that, relatively speaking, healthy people came into the system late. Now Gruber has done a new analysis, breaking down enrollment specifically by age, and provided it to the New Republic...Over the course of the first year, the proportion of young people (in this case, ages 19 to 34) who had obtained health coverage through the Massachusetts insurance exchange grew. In other words, they were more likely to sign up late." Jonathan Cohn in The New Republic.
TYSON: For once, a bit of optimism has arrived. But let's be real: it's just a bit. "Optimism about the future should also be tempered by recognition of where the economy is today and what it has lost since the recession. Even with more rapid growth this year, output and employment will remain far below prerecession trend lines for several years. Output fell 8 percent relative to its noninflationary potential in 2008-9 and is now around 10 percent lower than what was judged to be its potential in 2007." Laura D'Andrea Tyson in The New York Times.
This is just great interlude: Now you too can have a business card like Chen Guangbiao.
2. How you finish the two biggest trade deals in U.S. history
Trade bill to open debate on globalization as Congress demands more oversight. "Lawmakers have proposed a bill that would narrow the Obama administration's room to negotiate new free-trade agreements, demanding that sensitive issues such as currency ma-nipu-la-tion be covered in future treaties and deepening congressional oversight of the process. The legislation, introduced Tuesday by three of the top lawmakers on U.S. trade policy, would give the administration a green light to complete new trade pacts covering an important swath of Asia and Latin America and all of the European Union -- the most significant such agreements in a generation...The measure requires that future treaties set ground rules for how countries manage their currency values -- a sensitive issue for any sovereign state that may be difficult to build into a trade agreement with countries as diverse as Japan and Peru. It also asks for limits on the role of state-owned enterprises, and it would allow any member of Congress to attend trade negotiating sessions." Howard Schneider in The Washington Post.
Explainer: What is "trade promotion authority" or "fast track"? Lydia DePillis in The Washington Post.
More economists are taking the 'glass half-full' view on U.S. growth. "Record exports and the smallest trade deficit in four years. Healthier consumer spending, including the strongest annual increase in automobile sales since 2007, spurred by a booming stock market and an improving housing sector. And a slow but steady pickup in job creation that has pushed unemployment to its lowest level since 2008. The confluence of all these forces in recent weeks has prompted economists to sharply revise their expectations for growth in late 2013 and early 2014, and prompted hopes that a more sustained economic expansion has finally arrived...The newfound optimism will face its first test on Friday, when the Labor Department reports the latest data on unemployment and job creation in December." Nelson D. Schwartz in The New York Times.
Jobless claims fall by 15,000. "Initial claims for jobless benefits, a measure of layoffs, decreased by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000 in the week ended Jan. 4, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was the lowest level in more than a month. Economists had expected 335,000 new claims for the week...The four-week moving average for claims, which evens out bumpy week-to-week data, fell by 9,750 to 349,000." Eric Morath in The Wall Street Journal.
Federal Reserve faces prospect of bond market showdown over rates. "Bond traders are bringing forward their expectations of when the Federal Reserve will start to tighten policy, leading to a jump in short-term US borrowing costs. Recent economic data have pointed to a gathering American recovery, and could result in a showdown between policy makers and the Treasury market....[T]he upbeat tone of recent economic data is testing the bond market's belief that the central bank is in no hurry to start tightening policy after the gradual withdrawal of QE is completed, probably later this year." Michael Mackenzie in The Financial Times.
What should we call Chris Christies bridge scandal? interlude: Bridgeghazi? Bridgegate? Blagojebridge? WikiLanes?
3. The fight to extend unemployment benefits has turned into a real mess
Showdown vote ahead on Senate Democrats' bill to extend jobless benefits. "Democrats offered a roughly $18 billion proposal that would extend the benefits through most of 2014, and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) scheduled a showdown vote on the new proposal for next Monday...The new Democratic plan would extend the emergency unemployment program until mid-November (the original proposal was for three months). " Paul Kane in The Washington Post.
Here are some more key policy details. "The law that expired in December provided federal aid to supplement the 26 weeks of unemployment benefits provided by most states. The expired law provided up to 47 weeks of additional payments; the new Reid proposal would scale that back to a maximum of 31 weeks. To partially offset the cost, the bill included a proposal--similar to one backed by President Barack Obama and a broader one introduced by Mr. Portman--to eliminate a kind of "double dipping" by cutting off Social Security disability benefits to people if they are also collecting unemployment benefits. Most of the cost of the bill, some $17 billion, would be offset by postponing for one year the expiration of across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, that apply to mandatory spending programs, including payments to health providers under Medicare." Janet Hook in The Wall Street Journal.
Jobless benefits are not a priority for House Republicans. "House Republicans are showing little appetite, urgency and interest in extending the program, and are hinting that they are content to let the issue disappear if the Senate fails to pass its own legislation...Some Republicans think the nation is awash with unoccupied jobs, others are wary of shuffling more government money to the unemployed and nearly every GOP lawmaker wants to see seismic changes to the way benefits are administered." Jake Sherman in Politico.
Reid is burning bridges trying to get the bill through -- and to an extent that it's hurting the bill. "With his strong-armed change to the filibuster rule and an iron-fisted control of the Senate floor, Senator Harry Reid has engaged in the greatest consolidation of congressional power since Newt Gingrich ruled the House, unleashing a bitterness that may derail efforts to extend unemployment insurance. Mr. Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, on Thursday dismissed all proposed Republican amendments to the unemployment extension, even those drafted by Republicans who had handed Democrats a victory on Tuesday by voting to take up the bill." Jonathan Weisman in The New York Times.
<strong">Trains are a cool hobby interlude: Check out these cool ones in history.
4. What good news on Obamacare sounds like
Obamacare is giving a big boost to Georgia's health IT industry. "Politically, Georgia is fighting the health law at every turn. Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, has chosen not to expand Medicaid, and the state's insurance commissioner publically vowed to obstruct the Affordable Care Act. But that doesn't mean Georgia isn't seeing a financial benefit from the law. Take the company called PreMedex. Founder and president Van Willis knows that just a few years ago, a company like his would've been a hard sell -- impossible, even. The two-year-old company contracts with hospitals and doctors' offices to call patients after they're discharged. Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are penalized if Medicare patients are readmitted within a month for several specific illnesses." Jim Burress in Kaiser Health News.
Maryland's plan to upend healthcare spending. "The Obama administration is set to announce Friday an ambitious health-care experiment that will make Maryland a test case for whether aggressive government regulation of medical prices can dramatically cut health spending. Under the experiment, Maryland will cap hospital spending and set prices -- and, if all goes as planned, cut $330 million in federal spending. The new plan, which has been under negotiation for more than a year, could leave Maryland looking more like Germany and Switzerland, which aggressively regulate prices, than its neighboring states. And it could serve as a model - or cautionary tale - for other states looking to follow in its footsteps." Sarah Kliff in The Washington Post.
Medicaid is nearly free health care. Will people move for that? "[S]hould we expect a widespread migration from the states who fail to expand Medicaid into those that are participating? New research suggests it's unlikely: Previous expansions of the public program, coupled with the geographic clustering of non-expansion states, suggest that cases like Workman's will be the exception rather than the rule..."The takeaway, I think, is that as states are considering whether to expand Medicaid it's unlikely they'll see an influx of beneficiaries if they expand," says Aaron Schwartz, a doctoral candidate at Harvard who published the new paper in the journal Health Affairs. "Based on past experience, we don't see any effects on migration."" Sarah Kliff in The Washington Post.
Survey: Most of the uninsured haven't been to HealthCare.gov yet. "The survey from Enroll America, a nonprofit with close ties to the Obama administration that is aiming to sign people up, found seven out of 10 uninsured people in the United States haven't visited an ObamaCare online exchange yet...In addition, 81 percent said they didn't know March 31 is the open enrollment deadline, after which they would be subject to the individual mandate penalty, if they remain uninsured. Sixty-nine percent said they weren't aware that tax subsidies and financial help might be available for them, and 59 percent said they didn't know anything about plans that may be available in their state." Jonathan Easley in The Hill.
Obamacare will cover breast-cancer drugs. "Certain medications that are intended to prevent breast cancer will be fully covered under Obamacare, in new guidance set to be issued by the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday morning. Women at increased risk of breast cancer can receive so-called chemoprevention drugs, including tamoxifen and raloxifene, without a co-pay or other out-of-pocket expense." Amanda Terkel in The Huffington Post.
White House stops short of veto threats on House healthcare bills. "The Obama administration stopped short Thursday of threatening to veto House bills to require officials to tell people if their personal data has been compromised through ObamaCare, and to require weekly reports on the health law's implementation. The White House said in two Statements of Administration Policy that it opposed both bills, one of which is set for a Friday vote in the House...Weekly reporting requirements on both enrollments and the operation of the HealthCare.gov website would require "unfunded, unprecedented, and unnecessary reporting requirements" on the health insurance exchanges, it said in one statement." Pete Kasperowicz in The Hill.
Writerly interlude: John McPhee on structure.
5. We're calling this Bridgeghazi, right?
Christie apologizes for scandal, fires deputy chief of staff, ousts top political aide. "A contrite New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized Thursday for a scandal that threatens his political future, announcing that he had fired a senior aide and banished his top campaign adviser for their roles in days of traffic jams orchestrated to punish a small-city Democratic mayor. Christie at once accepted responsibility as the state's chief executive but also insisted he had no involvement in shutting down a pair of access lanes to the heavily trafficked George Washington Bridge over four days in early September. The Republican governor said he was "blindsided" by this week's release of e-mails and text messages detailing his office's role in the plot to create severe gridlock in Fort Lee, N.J." Robert Costa and Philip Rucker in The Washington Post.
U.S. attorney's office reviewing GWB lane closings to see whether federal law violated. "U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman has been asked to review the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee last September to determine whether federal laws were violated. The review, prompted by a referral from the Port Authority Office of Inspector General, is considered a preliminary look to determine if a full-blown investigation is warranted. If a criminal investigation is undertaken, charges ranging from interfering with the right of state travel to obstruction of justice to criminal negligent homicide could be lodged, legislators and legal experts said on Thursday. Another outcome: lawsuits filed by commuters or business owners who were impacted by the massive traffic snarl." Peter Sampson and Karen Sudol in The Bergen, N.J. Record.
Firing of Stepien deprives Christie of a key counselor. "In Chris Christie's circle of advisers, few were as close to the governor as Bill Stepien. He managed both of the New Jersey Republican's winning campaigns for governor, helped shape Christie's tough-guy-on-your-side image and was expected to take a top role in an eventual White House bid. But when Christie cut him loose Wednesday evening, the governor didn't so much as speak to him. Christie's decision to oust Stepien and another top adviser implicated in the burgeoning scandal over George Washington Bridge lane closures demonstrated the blunt force that Christie is willing to use to contain a crisis, even if it means exiling members of his innermost circle." Matea Gold and Robert Costa in The Washington Post.
Reading material interlude: The best sentences Wonkblog read today.
Wonkblog Roundup
Maryland's plan to upend health care spending. Sarah Kliff.
Congress is considering whether to allow Obama to finish two massive trade deals. Lydia DePillis.
NASA wants to keep the International Space Station going until 2024. Is that a good idea? Brad Plumer.
Three insane ways marketers will reach you in the future. Lydia DePillis.
This sociologist has a plan to make America more like Sweden. Dylan Matthews.
A health industry expert on 'the fundamental problem with Obamacare.' Ezra Klein.
Medicaid is nearly free health care. Will people move for that? Sarah Kliff.
Et Cetera
How legalizing pot squeezes police funds for fighting drugs. Zusha Elinson in The Wall Street Journal.
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