Thursday Open Thread [11.7.13]

Hey, the economy was doing pretty good until the Republicans decided to throw a temper tantrum. From the Huffington Post.

The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate from July through September, a surprising sign of strength ahead of the 16-day partial government shutdown. Exports rose, businesses stocked up, home construction increased and state and local governments spent at the fastest pace in four years. […] The third-quarter outcome was nearly a full percentage point stronger than most economists had predicted. Analysts expect the shutdown will slow growth in the October-December quarter.

The Senate is likely to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) this afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday set up the the final series of votes for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act—which prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity—culminating in a vote final passage on Thursday afternoon if the bill passes a key, 60-vote threshold procedural test in the morning.

Senate passage of ENDA seemed more and more likely Wednesday after the Senate unanimously accepted an amendment by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) protecting religious groups exempted under the legislation from government retaliation. That amendment likely secured the vote of several other Republicans pushing for that language, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Given that House Republicans enjoy discrimination, given their status as bigots, the bill will go no where in the House.

Jonathan Chait wonders why the media is so focused on the 3% of rate-shock victims:

Why has their plight attained such singular prominence? Several factors have come together. The news media has a natural attraction to bad news over good. “Millions Set to Gain Low-Cost Insurance” is a less attractive story than “Florida Woman Facing Higher Costs.” Obama overstated the case when he repeatedly assured Americans that nobody would lose their current health-care plan. There’s also an economic bias at work. Victims of rate shock are middle-class, and their travails, in general, tend to attract far more lavish coverage than the problems of the poor. (Did you know that on November 1, millions of Americans suffered painful cuts to nutritional assistance? Not a single Sunday-morning talk-show mentioned it.)

About that overstatement on Obama’s part. It is true, he did not lie, because no part of the law actively requires anyone to cancel their insurance policies. But the affect of the law, by requiring insurance companies to offer better policies, resulted in cancellations anyway. So the President should just apologize. In the words of Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis, “In politics, when you have to eat shit, you don’t nibble.” His advice to the President would be “to admit his like-your-plan-keep-your-plan dodge was a mistake and apologize immediately and conspicuously.”

TEXAS–US SENATE–Public Policy Polling: Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) “is in grave danger of losing a primary next year if a serious campaign is run against him.”

“Cornyn’s approval with Republican primary voters is only 46%, with 33% of voters disapproving of him. And 49% say they would like their candidate next year to be someone more conservative, compared to only 33% who say they support Cornyn.”