Krugman: ‘Don’t Appease Economic Terrorists.’:
No, raising the debt limit doesn’t give the president free rein to spend whatever he wants. It simply allows the government to honor its promises, which include everything from paying interest on its debt to sending checks to Social Security recipients. These promises, duly authorized by Congress, exceed the expected amount of taxes and other revenue, so they must be met in part through borrowing; but that’s normal operating procedure, and financial markets are happy to lend us the money.
Unfortunately, a quirk in the U.S. budget process requires Congress, having enacted budget legislation, to vote again to authorize the Treasury to raise the funds needed to follow the law. And Republicans — who had no problem with large-scale borrowing when Donald Trump was in the White House — are now getting ready to weaponize that quirk.
Krugman offers five solutions. Fair use prevents me from listing them. So, read. Learn.
You Think The Judge Was Too Subtle Here? This is how the order leads off:
This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident
from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none
of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.
Thirty-one individuals and entities were needlessly harmed in order to dishonestly advance
a political narrative. A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers
undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who
have suffered actual legal harm.
The judge imposed about $1 mill in fines on Trump and his lawyer.
Idle Thought: How long before George Santos gets offered a deal for his own reality show? I could argue that his story is ‘stranger than fiction’, but I read Nikolai Gogol’s ‘The Nose’ last night. You should too.
Can Florida Just Secede Already?:
Florida’s ongoing war against so-called “wokeism” has reached a new low. On Wednesday, 28 presidents of Florida’s state and community colleges announced that they would seek to eliminate policies and academic programs that are viewed as forcing a “belief in critical race theory” or subjects related to intersectionality.
“Our institutions will not fund or support any institutional practice, policy, or academic requirement that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality, or the idea that oppression should be the primary lens through which teaching and learning are analyzed/ improved upon,” the Florida College System presidents wrote in a joint statement.
The alarming move comes weeks after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered Florida’s colleges and universities to submit comprehensive reports outlining spending data on programs related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory, prompting fierce condemnation that the move would pressure universities to simply cut such programs from their budgets. The request builds on Florida’s “Stop WOKE” Act, which aims to restrict race-based teachings in Florida schools and colleges.
Jessica Ardern’s Integrity. She knew when to quit. Why she should quit. Then quit:
One of the hardest things in life is knowing when to stop. So it is testament to Jacinda Ardern’s enduring skills that she has made it look almost easy. New Zealand’s prime minister announced her resignation this week in an emotional but characteristically graceful speech, declaring that after five and half gruelling years at the top she no longer had “enough in the tank to do it justice”.
She was quitting, she said, not because the job was too hard but because she believed leadership was about giving it everything you’ve got for as long as possible, but recognising when your time is up. And so Ardern becomes that rarest of unicorns, a politician with the emotional intelligence to jump instead of waiting to be pushed.
Would it be gratuitous for me to point out that Gov. Carney never ‘had enough in the tank’ to do justice to being Delaware’s governor?
Speaking of our Budget-Smoothing Bro–Didja know that Delaware’s ‘on a roll’? We’re creating so many new jobs by bribing businesses to locate here that there’s nobody to fill the jobs:
One of the biggest challenges facing Delaware is filling the number of open jobs in the state.
“For my entire career in public service, we’ve been focused first on creating jobs,” Carney said. “There have always been more people looking for work than jobs available.
“Today, it’s just the opposite. We have thousands more job openings than we have people looking for work.”
The governor said Delaware businesses have 37,000 job openings, but only 21,000 residents looking for a job. There are 2,000 openings just among state agencies.
“I’ve never seen a situation like this before,” he said.
To beat this, Carney said, the state will need to keep more University of Delaware and Delaware State University graduates in the First State.
Gee, why didn’t anybody think of that before?
What do you want to talk about?