Say not, when I have leisure I will study; you may not have leisure.
The Mishnah
Sunday Talk Soup
Some relevant commentaries on selected points during today's Meet the Press:
SEN. [Lindsey] GRAHAM [R-SC]: Well, you know, one, I would take the course that conservatives have been taking for the last 30 years. The War Powers Act is unconstitutional, not worth the paper it's written on. It requires congressional approval before the commander in chief can commit troops after a certain period of time, and it would allow troops to be withdrawn based on the passage of a concurrent resolution never presented to the president. So I think it's an infringement on the, the, the power of the commander in chief.Senator Graham is putting lipstick on a pig. The fact of the matter is that the President does not have unrestricted powers as Commander in Chief. The ability of the Congress to declare war would essentially be nullified, not to mention any effective restraint over spending and essentially required to raise whatever revenues are necessary to cover a President's blank check. Now at some point there has to be some flexibility because foreign adversaries are unlikely to wait until the Congress decides to declare war. There are a number of complications, e.g., are we part of a military alliance under which we have commitments say by a ratified treaty? How direct are US interests? Are military actions reactive or preventive? How material or imminent are the threats? I think the War Powers Act serves as speed dumps on the powers of the Commander in Chief. I think an argument can be made that there should be some pragmatic fuzziness on deadlines for say withdrawals. Now clearly Graham in the related context is arguing for sustenance of the Libyan operation. My position is that Obama is refusing to comply deliberately with Congressional demands to provide full details within a reasonable timeline for action by the people. This does not seem to be an issue where Obama is unable to provide an adequate response because of logistics issues; this seems to be more of a principled refusal to comply with the balance of powers in the US Constitution.
I now believe that Obama's failure to comply to be an abuse of Constitutional authority and an impeachable offense.
MS. GOODWIN: I think the one thing Romney did well in that debate, he has an answer, finally, for the Obamacare thing by saying, "I did it in my state. There are problems in my state. He should have come and asked me what worked, what didn't work." He was prepared for this in a way that he wasn't prepared four years ago. It really helps to have run for the presidency once before. It's a whole different planet. We were talking about planets before.I don't think that's what Romney said. Almost every time I've heard Romney discuss the issue he contrasts the Massachusetts model from the super-infrastructure of ObamaCare. Remember, Scott Brown (R-MA) ran on being the 41st vote against ObamaCare while Brown supported RomneyCare as a state senator. I think Romney needs to do a much better job explaining how RomneyCare is different than ObamaCare. I think he needs to get into more details on exactly why, with a higher percentage of insured in the state, the needs for any mandates, how state mandates differ from federal mandates, I think he needs to flesh out some lessons learned, accessibility issues, etc.
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I think the term was used now twice, it feels like these people are on another planet. I mean, the fact is America's out of work, too many people haven't been able to get back into the workplace. We're not doing enough to train those new workers. We're cutting infrastructure and transportation. In America's cities, we're, we're saying that America needs to focus at home again. And, and this issue of the war in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq is now an issue that's front and center of debate in our cities.
GREGORY:...Friday for the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors ... they introduced a resolution calling for the speedy end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and calling on Congress to use $126 billion a year the wars cost for urgent domestic needs." You see missed priorities here.
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: Absolutely. You know, you have Democrats who don't want to address entitlements and Medicare and Social Security. You have Republicans who say that defense spending is off the table. So what's left? It's infrastructure, it's transportation, it's education, it's public health, it's eviscerating Medicaid and the safety net.The Los Angeles mayor is so clueless, it's hard to know where to begin. First of all, just under 60% of the federal budget has to deal with entitlements. Second, defense spending is only a fifth of the budget (around $700B). When you've got just over $2T in federal revenues and a $1.6T deficit, we have entitlements roughly comparable to all of federal revenues, and entitlements are growing faster than revenues. The tired old liberal rhetoric about defense in a zero-sum relationship with entitlements has been circulating since the 1960's (if not earlier). Let me be clear about my position: assuming the validity of the $126B figure, the idea we need to "invest" it in notoriously leaky, ineffective federal programs constitutes, in my judgment, moral hazard: we should not be subsidizing cities which have engaged in chronic local government malpractice by making unsustainable, morally corrupt public pension obligations, the result of crony partisan bargains. Incompetent partisans like Villaraigosa want to scapegoat federal defense spending because now they find funding six-figure retirement incomes of 50-odd year old retirees are crowding out overextended city budgets. How is this the federal government's problem? If you continue to bail out local and state governments for fiscal imbalances due to ineffective governance, where do you draw the line? Let's just say that if we are able to save some $126B, it needs to go to pay down the $1.6T deficit, not bankroll more inept local government programs. But let me also point out that Obama Administration has failed to cut across the board (unlike the urging of fiscal conservatives like myself) and has proposed defense spending increases.
Oh, and don't get me started on Villaraigosa's let the government throw good money after bad "training" (obviously the government, which is a monopoly, knows better than the private sector how to provide jobs in the private sector), bloated, stunningly mediocre local education, and 1001 other local government spending initiatives with putting-lipstick-on-a-pig "investments".
Romney Is Right To Refuse Susan B. Anthony List Pledge
The pro-life pledge would go beyond Indiana's restrictions relative to abortions at organizations like Planned Parenthood (potentially affecting more widespread, diversified hospitals or relevant entities) and want to impose litmus tests on abortion for judicial and other nominees. I think Romney is right to worry about unintended consequences, and we must not be hypocritical here: we don't like policy-making judges from either than left or the right. This blog has been consistently pro-life. We don't need a GOP nominee alienating moderates or independents with polarizing issues like these. Romney have suggested for the most part he supports the pledge--he just has a problem with unduly polarizing and/or too broad initiatives.
Killebrew Fact
May 18, 1962: Killebrew and teammate Bob Allison both hit grand slams in the first inning. Not a bad way to start a game.Political Humor
"Newt Gingrich was so impressed with Michele Bachmann at the Republican debate that he gave her a $200,000 gift certificate for Tiffany's." –David Letterman
[Well, after Donald Trump took credit for Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate, he had it framed at Tiffany's.]
"Donald Trump is 65 today. Had a big party. He likes to play Pin Everything on Obama." –David Letterman
[During Obama's birthday parties, he prefers to play Pin the Blame on the Elephant, Obama Says (spend more money, pay other people's taxes), Duopoly (GSE Home Mortgage Edition), Twister (shift your position), Whack-A-Bush, Musical Chairs (of Economic Advisers), Punt, Pass and Kick (to the next generation), Dodgeball (of any decisions and responsibilities), and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (when I'll tax it all away).]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Chicago, "Will You Still Love Me?"
