Tuesday Open Thread [1.7.14]
NCCo Councilman Bob Weiner (R) wants to televise all council meetings on the county’s television channel. Not only do I wholeheartedly endorse this proposal, I think it should extend to all public meetings of county and state legislatures and public task force meetings.
Want to dial 911 in New Castle County? There is now an app for that.
The U.S. trade gap falls to $34.3 billion in November, a 4-year low, as exports rise to a record high. Another sign of a taking-off economy.
I cannot wait for this:
Francine Kiefer quotes congressional historian Julian Zelizer of Princeton University in her column “Democrats to push income inequality as top issue of 2014. Winning tactic?”:
“A lot of Democrats feel the last two years have been consumed with health care … and the deficit,” he explains. “Until you shift the debate, you’re not going to be able to get in a position where you can push for legislation like the [higher] minimum wage. And this is the right time because the Republicans are in a moment of division” over whether to obstruct or to compromise.
Well, it looks like the Democrats have already been successful in shifting the debate. How do we know that? Because now Republicans are talking about income inequality:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will give a speech Wednesday that aides said will lay out changes to federal programs to help people climb out of poverty permanently. In the weeks to come, Rubio also plans to introduce ideas to make it easier for mid-career adults to go back to college or learn new job skills at vocational schools.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the 2012 vice-presidential nominee, has been traveling to impoverished areas and meeting with community organizers. He plans to address poverty in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams on Thursday.
A third potential GOP presidential candidate, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), is also putting a renewed emphasis on the poor, traveling to Detroit to pitch a plan to revitalize urban centers through “economic freedom zones.” Paul has given his message on income inequality an ideological edge — mixing lofty, empathetic language with anti-government broadsides.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who has been visiting urban schools, will give a speech Wednesday promoting school choice as a way to address poverty. And Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has proposed increasing the child tax credit as a means of blending social conservatism with anti-poverty policies.
HuffPo’s Liz Cheney cover right now is completely priceless.
Rubio, Cantor, and Paul? I’m really trying to be patient……
The Obama administration’s policy of creating money out of thin air, and then giving it to Wall Street has exponentially increased the wealth divide, and now he’s talking income inequality?
It’s no wonder the Democrats want to shift the debate (narrative), considering the ongoing debacle of Obama care.
Watch in the coming days as the complicit shills in the media work double time to back this new narrative.
We may even see a resurgence of the occupy movement…….this could get entertaining.
@fhb
I think both parties are guilty of shoveling money to the wealthy. And the GOP is clearly better at it than the Dems, so why complain about Obama?
And as for Obamacare, most Democrats I know are now fairly comfortable with the way things are going forward… So sure GOP… Please continue talking about that.
Yeah, if the GOP thinks it will win the election based off Obamacare, LOL, then I will be enjoying some more schadenfreude come November.
There is some kind of weird meme going around wingnut circles about Obama using his dictatorship to “print new money” like it is going to be some hot button issue.
My brother in law heatedly mentioned it over the holidays and I tempted to ask what the hell he was talking about, but thought better of it.
Why would they care about the printing of new money, anyway? If there is new money, it is mostly going to the people they want it to go to.
If someone handed you a credit card, and said spend all you want, your kids will foot the bill later,……. Would you even use it?
I guess FBH’s comment is related to Obama’s dictatorship in some wingnut way, but I don’t really get it.
I don’t get it, either. Since my point about the money or credit card is that it goes to the people they think they are advocating for anyway.
“I think both parties are guilty of shoveling money to the wealthy. And the GOP is clearly better at it than the Dems, so why complain about Obama?”
Then why has the wealth/income gap increased more under Obama than with Bush?
“If someone handed you a credit card, and said spend all you want, your kids will foot the bill later,……. Would you even use it?”
That’s not a hypothetical. Many Americans are doing just that, as they cash in 401(k)s and home equity, or use actual credit cards to survive their loss of income.
“Then why has the wealth/income gap increased more under Obama than with Bush?”
Momentum. Most of the Obama administration has been spent under Bush economic policies. Obama inexplicably prolonged the Bush tax cuts when the law would have let them expire. The worst Bush features of those tax cuts have been retained permanently. There has been at best a partial reversal of the Republican economy, and that has only been since last January. The recognizably Democratic parts of the economic policy are only a year old. Obama has been alternately unable and unwilling to implement the Democratic agenda. The sequester was only partly resolved just a month ago. The long jobless recovery was no accident.