Open Thread For July 18, 2017
Trumpcare Dead…For Now. No senator wanted to be the single deciding no. So Senators Lee and Moran jointly announced that they were both no votes. In typical McCain weasel fashion, Arizona’s senior senator then said that the time was right for bipartisan negotiations. Hey, he may be temporarily off of TV, but his words aren’t.
Wilmington Ethics Chair Axed Because He’s a Democrat. Hey, when both the D’s and R’s genuflect before the Chamber, it’s tough to tell them apart. Guy was from the Highlands, Purzycki assumed he was an R.
Sallie Mae Hitting Up State For $2.2 Mill. Yes, we’re talking the so-called Delaware Prosperity Partnership. No state officials will stand between our tax dollars and this giveaway.
New Train Station Coming To Newark. I’m a sucker for train stations. No discouraging words from me.
Of COURSE Ivanka Won’t Produce Her Goods In the USA. Just in time for Trump’s ‘Made In America’ Week. BTW, his company is still buying its steel from China.
Drug Expiration Dates–Another Artificial Drug Cost Inflator. So many ways we could reduce drug prices–if Big Pharma didn’t own Congress.
We Could Face A Real Debt Ceiling Crisis This Year. Amateurishness all around. Not to mention Tea Party purists.
Dems Partner With Bush-Era Neocons. The Hillary/Carper Third Way must be killed. This is just awful. Your must-read of the day.
What do you want to talk about?
“Alliance for Securing Democracy” Of course. Why not? The people who have been wrong about everything domestically, formally joining with the people who have been wrong about everything internationally.
The Clinton Dems and NeoCons are made for each other. Also, with these guys working on it, Democracy is now officially doomed.
State giving $2 million to Sallie Mae when the company just paid a $2 million fine in April for a scandal for their corporate practices…NICE!
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2007-04-11-sallie-mae-settlement_N.htm
Where’s the oversight on giving money to companies to “save jobs” and economic development when they are admitting wrongdoing and conducting shady practices?
@chris: That’s was El Som and I were talking about on another thread. DEDO had no accountability at all. John Kowalko has complained about it for years, so now DEDO is dead and its successor is officially unaccountable.
Delaware Democrats are so crooked they screw their pants on.
Alby: At the RD level, Dems drive good Dems out. Leaving a detritus of self-interested persons incapable of promoting good candidates. It is both disappointing and disgusting.
Just did some quick math on the Sallie Mae Giveaway.
$2.2 million for 285 jobs equals $7,719 per job.
Let’s assume each job pays $65,000 a year. A single taxpayer earning $65K and taking the standard deduction would pay $3,096 a year in state income taxes, or $7,740 over 2 1/2 years (which turns out to be pretty damn close to that $7,719 per job).
Really don’t know what these jobs would pay, but you’d hope they’d be in our tax bracket (otherwise, why would we want to bring these jobs here?) so $65K seems like a rational guesstimate. Now, if it will take 2 1/2 years after these jobs are filled for the state to break even, tax-wise, not taking into account the government services we will have provided these new Sallie Mae employees, is there an economist out there who can tell us whether this is a good deal?
Today in news you can’t make up: China bans Winnie the Pooh:
http://globalriskinsights.com/2016/03/china-blacklists-winnie-pooh/
MW: that’s one of the problems with these state giveaways all across the country. The State, through whatever agency is created, provides no cost-benefit analysis to the public even though public funds are being given away.
Why? Because it’s supposedly ‘proprietary information’, which is just another way of keeping prying public eyes out of how public money is spent.
It totally sucks.
Very sorry to hear of the death of News-Journal reporter Molly Murray. First met her on a fireboat back when the Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge was in its infancy. A group of us were touring the Christina and imagining what could be.
Excellent environmental reporter and a wonderful person:
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2017/07/18/longtime-news-journal-environmental-reporter-has-died/487751001/
Regarding the Sallie-Mae extortion attempt please see my remarks posted on Delaware Online:
I’m outraged and have been every step of the way for my entire 6 terms in office. I’ve expressed it publicly, criticized it in the media and on my Facebook site and begged and cajoled my colleagues and the three Governors I’ve served under to cease and desist. It’s time for the public to step up and be outraged. When you became aware (unless you’re living in a rabbit hole) that $70 MILLION in taxpayer money was spent on roads and egress to the ASTRA-ZENECA site to enhance its sellable price-tag tenfold where was the outrage. It’s been reported on in the major media sites and I’ve written extensively about this state’s corporate welfare (including Astra-Zeneca, JPMorgan, Dupont, Chemours) policies apparently to a deaf, dumb and blind constituency. Bring the outrage please, bring it.
Representative John Kowalko
I do agree on most of the points being made regarding Sallie Mae. An absolute ripoff for kids or their parents that have to use them.
Good day for news you can’t make up: Science committee GOP Rep. asks NASA, on the record, if there was an advanced civilization on Mars “thousands of years ago.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/is-there-cheese-on-the-moon-internet-erupts-after-gop-rep-asks-nasa-if-mars-had-ancient-civilizations/
Sallie Mae posts $71M profit in 2Q17……News Journal report
No outrage hear, Silence of the Lambs…..What the f*** people give ’em $2,3,4,10 million more. All in favor stay silent. All opposed start your anxiety attacks.
Representative John Kowalko