The Year Nothing Got Done

The first full year of the 112th Congress was epically dysfunctional, thanks to the ideological intransigence of the Republicans in both houses.  This poor performance has scholars going back to pre Civil War times to find such incompetence and gridlock.  Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institute says that in modern history, "there have been battles, delays, brinksmanship - but nothing quite like this."  At a time when bold action was needed to help the country recover from the Great Recession and create jobs, very little useful legislation was passed.  The blame is squarely on the Republicans, whose primary goal since Obama's election has been to deny him a second term. 

The Tea Party extremists may have overplayed their hand by fighting the payroll tax cut compromise until the eleventh hour.  Even other Republicans told them to get with the program and stop being so stupid.  This was a tax break, for goodness' sake.  Republicans may be hoping that by the time of the 2012 elections, voters will have forgotten what caused the mess in the first place (after all the Recession was already in full swing in 2008 after the deregulation fiasco, the unjustified wars, and the Bush tax cuts) and who stood in the way of providing the necessary stimulus to create jobs and recover from the recession.  Combined with the far-reaching Republican disenfranchisement efforts and the notable lack of enthusiasm among young voters, Obama may just be a one-term President as fervently wished by Republicans. 

While Obama holds a significant advantage over Romney among the "millenials", the all-important voter turnout depends primarily on enthusiasm.  It's hard to be enthusiastic when you are loaded with student debt and out of work.  But it would be a mistake for young voters and the OWS people to stay away from the polls this November.  If you think the situation is bad now, just think what it would be like with Republicans in control of all three branches of government.  So for a New Year's resolution, let's all go out and vote.  Throw the Republicans out of Congress and hold onto the Presidency.  Who knows?  A President with some balls, to use Matt Damon's phrase, and a Congress that actually could accomplish something might make for a good 2013. 

In the meantime, Happy New Year and hang in there in 2012.  It may not be much better than 2011 but it cannot be much worse.

US Ends Iraq War

After nearly nine years, all American troops are finally leaving Iraq.  The United States formally ended the war today - eight years, seven months and 14 days after the so-called "mission accomplished" speech.  Nearly 4500 Americans lost their lives.  Thankfully there will be no more from this particular war.  Welcome home. 

The costs of this totally unnecessary neocon war have been enormous.  And, the increasingly irrelevant John McCain and increasingly misguided Cheney family to the contrary, the withdrawal is long past due.  In addition, the official number of wounded Americans is more than 33,000.  The toll on Iraqis was much greater - a minimum of 100,000 - 125,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the US invaded (Iraq Body Count website).  Some other estimates are much higher (e.g., Lancet/Johns Hopkins study on the "excessive" Iraqi deaths).  The total US price tag for the Iraq War will eventually reach 3 trillion dollars with the cost to other countries about the same order of magnitude (Stiglitz and Bilmes, Washington Post article).  For a good summary of Stiglitz and Bilmes analysis of the total cost of the war, see the 2008 article by Aida Edemariam in The Guardian.

The Iraq War is the greatest US foreign policy debacle since Vietnam.  It has immeasurably damaged the US reputation throughout the world.  It has damaged the world and national economy.  It was based on false intelligence and "sold" to a gullible and scared American public with deception, arrogance and lies.  Senator McCain, you have it completely wrong.  It was the neocons who misled the country into this unnecessary war of aggression and it is they, not the President who finally extracted us from Iraq, who will be judged most harshly by history. 

More dastardly doings

As the year ends, Congressional Republicans are once more demonstrating why they do not deserve to govern in a democracy.  Over the past couple of weeks:

• House Republicans passed the REINS bill.  This bill would allow either house of Congress to veto executive branch rules (e.g., EPA, OSHA) that cost $100 million or greater to implement.  If the rules are not approved by a majority in both houses they would not be implemented.  So if the Party of No decides that its okay to release let's say certain toxins to the atmosphere rather than implement an EPA rule that would control the release, well then if they have a majority in either chamber, they could just go ahead and vote no and the Executive Branch could not implement the rule.  I haven't read anything about financial industry regulations but I assume this law would apply there also.  As a NYT editorial stated this is an undemocratic, terrible piece of legislation that would undermine the executive branch: "The bill is the fullest flowering of the Republicans’ antiregulatory philosophy."  When will the right-wing understand that the problems that led to the financial meltdown was too little, not too much, regulation.  The good news is that the Senate will likely not bother to take up the measure and Obama will veto it if it makes it that far.
• Senate Republicans blocked the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...just as they had previously done to Elizabeth Warren.  As the Star-Ledger (Newark) put it: "Senate Republicans are suffering collective amnesia about the banking and mortgage loan mess that trashed the American economy."  Republicans have as their stated aim to substantially weaken the agency before they allow someone to head it, rendering it less effective.  I guess Obama will have to appoint a CFPB head when the Congressional clowns go home on recess.  I mean if "W" could appoint someone as unqualified as John Bolton to be the US representative to the UN, why can't a person clearly qualified to protect consumers be appointed head of an agency meant to head off the next financial meltdown? 
• House Republicans passed a payroll tax extension that has several "poison pills" in the legislation that will surely result in a White House veto.  These toxic provisions include:  requiring a fast track review of a controversial tar sands pipeline project, reducing by 40% the maximum time emergency unemployment benefits could be extended (99 weeks to 59 weeks), and delaying EPA regulations on industrial boiler emissions.  For this last one, the EPA has estimated that the new regulations would prevent 8100 premature deaths and 52,000 asthma attacks annually.  I'm of two minds when it comes to the payroll tax extension.  It is necessary now as a means of providing additional stimulus to the economy - it's about the only stimulus Republicans will allow. BUT continually extending the payroll tax cut would eventually undermine the Social Security system.  So  a one-time extension of the tax cut would be useful but additional extensions would be dangerous.   In any case, the vote should be on the merits of the extension and not contaminated with other issues.
• Still to come: will unemployment benefits be extended in time to prevent 5 million people from losing their benefits in 2012.  And who will pay the price?  If Republicans hold true to form - it will be domestic programs and other parts of the social safety net that will suffer.

Channelling TR

President Obama traveled to the small Kansas town of Osawatomie today and channelled Teddy Roosevelt who, a hundred years ago gave a stirring speech in the same community for a "square deal" for the American people. 

Speaking to the audience at the local high school, Obama said “I’m here in Kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we are greater together than we are on our own.  I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules.”  He received a warm reception and enthusiastic applause in the very red state of Kansas.  The chances of Obama winning Kansas in 2012 are, as we used to say, between slim and none.  It was obviously meant as a national speech and began to define his 2012 campaign.  The speech, described by the Christian Science Monitor as "combative", took Republicans to task for their opposition to the extension of the payroll tax cut, their attempts to dilute or defund the financial industry regulations passed in the last Congress, their opposition to increased taxes on the wealthiest Americans and their opposition to the American Jobs Act. 

A good start...and one which needs to be pounded home every day from now until next November.  Obama may win the election for the Presidency but if Congress is still controlled by Republicans, none of these speeches will matter.  The Republicans in the Do Nothing 112th Congress have had as their main objective denying Obama a second term rather than solving the problems the country faces.  It's time to turn these misguided legislators out of office.  They have stood in the way of nearly every possible solution to the jobs crisis in this country...but somehow they have managed to convince people that the sad state of the economy is all Obama's fault.  According to the right-wing extremists now in control of the Republican Party, all we need are fewer regulations and lower taxes on the rich and let the free market solve our problems.  That formula has never worked and never will.