Rachel Maddow's Blog, page 3365

Refreshing Paul Ryan's bad memory

Associated Press

In anticipation of President Obama's economic address this afternoon, congressional Republicans made an announcement of their own overnight: they intend to fight tooth and nail to slash public investments, regardless of the economic effects, on everything from infrastructure to environmental protections, health care to energy efficiency, law enforcement to transportation.

Looking at the GOP plan, one starts to get the impression that Republicans hold some kind of personal grudge against struggling American families, as evidenced by plans to cut "education grants for poor students and slash Community Development Block Grants to a level below the funding during the Ford administration -- and Ford created the block grants.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) said, in reference to the president, "His priorities are going nowhere."

No, of course not. It's not like the American public twice elected him to the nation's highest office by fairly wide margins, right?

This, however, was the talking point that rankled.

"It's about time we cut some spending around here," said Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Here's the problem: Ryan's inability to remember the recent past is becoming a cause for concern. In 2011, Congress and the White House agreed to a deficit reduction package that cut government spending by roughly $1.5 trillion. That's "trillion" with a "t." Then Washington cut spending even more with the ridiculous sequestration cuts that hurt the country on purpose.

It's one of the reasons government spending has stalled during the Obama era and the deficit is shrinking at its fastest pace since World War II.

If the typical American doesn't remember this, that's a shame. When the chairman of the House Budget Committee -- a guy the Beltway perceives as a numbers wonk -- doesn't remember this, it's far more discouraging.

Indeed, this is a reminder of my ongoing thesis: Paul Ryan has the worst memory in American politics.

Ryan that he used to refer to his own plan to end Medicare as "vouchers."

Ryan doesn't remember taking credit for the sequestration policy he later condemned.

Ryan doesn't remember learning about Democratic alternatives to the sequester.

Ryan doesn't remember what happened with the 2011 "super committee."

Ryan doesn't remember Bill Clinton's tax increases.

Ryan doesn't remember the times he condemned social-insurance programs as "taker" programs.

Ryan doesn't remember all of the times he appealed to the Obama administration for stimulus funds for his congressional district.

Ryan doesn't remember his marathon times.

Ryan doesn't remember how much he was inspired by Ayn Rand.

Ryan doesn't remember his own speeches.

As we've discussed, everyone can be forgetful once in a while, but the Republican Budget Committee chairman seems to forget rather important details and developments so often, it's unsettling.

Unless, of course, his memory is fine and Ryan is simply prefers near-constant efforts to mislead the public. That couldn't be, could it?

 

 

Support for Congress can get worse after all

It seems there are quite a few headlines today about President Obama's approval rating slipping, and while it's obvious his support dipped a bit from its post-inaugural highs, the president is still in decent shape. The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll has Obama's overall approval at 45%, though Gallup has him at 46%, and the latest ABC/Washington Post poll has the president at 49%. These aren't great numbers, but they're not necessarily evidence of a systemic problem, either.

That said, if the political world is interested in an institution with weak public standing, I might recommend the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

The new NBC/WSJ results show Congress' approval rating at 12%, with 83% disapproving. When was the last time support for Congress was this awful? NBC/WSJ have been doing national polls for about two decades, and it's never been this bad.

Given that Obama's support is still lukewarm, and he'll never be on the ballot again, I'd argue that Congress' woeful approval rating is significantly more important.

Indeed, this number could get considerably worse if congressional Republicans kill immigration reform, force a debt ceiling crisis, and threaten a government shutdown.

Indeed, the closer one looks at the poll, the worse things appear for the legislative branch. Obama's personal favorability is 48%, while for House Speaker John Boehner, it's 18%. Only 22% believe congressional Republicans emphasize unifying the country, while 67% believe they prioritize partisanship. A 56% majority believe GOP lawmakers are "too inflexible" when dealing with the White House.

And a 51% majority wants Republicans to stop holding votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

As a practical matter, if GOP lawmakers wanted to be more popular, it'd be pretty easy -- they could, in theory, pass a popular immigration-reform bill, turn off the deliberately harmful sequester, pass a measure to reduce gun violence, maybe consider a bill or two that creates jobs, or compromise on a budget plan.

Or they can keep trying to take health care benefits away, while threatening to crash the economy on purpose. Which do you suppose they'll choose?

First same-sex couple gets marriage license in Pennsylvania

Photo: Margaret Gibbons

Pennsylvania bans same-sex couples from getting married, but after the Supreme Court's big ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act last month, it's no longer clear that state bans would stand up to a challenge. On Monday, a federal judge in Ohio ordered that state to recognize the marriage of two men, despite the ban there. 

Today in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia, the county clerk is going for it. Yesterday, clerk Bruce Hanes announced that he would grant a marriage license to any couples who showed up in his office, gay or straight. Today, the first two people in line were Alicia Terrizzi and Loreen Bloodgood, who have been together 18 years and have two kids. We got the news from the Raging Chicken:

Call it a coup by local democratic officials in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania or call it a victory for progressives who wouldn’t be able to pass same sex marriage legislation in Pennsylvania’s House State Government Committee, but a county official in Pennsylvania has just issued the Commonwealth’s first same-sex marriage license in state history.

So far, Terrizzi and Bloodgood are the first of two gay couples to get a license in Montgomery County today. The local press says they left the clerk's office on their way to getting married and then taking a vacation. (Update: The ceremony.)

This month the ACLU sued Pennsylvania over the ban on marriage equality. Pennsylvania's attorney general, a Democrat, says she will not defend the law in court.

H/t @SandiBerhns. Image: Margaret Gibbons of the Intelligencer.

Far-right support for GOP shutdown threat grows

Associated Press

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

As best as I can tell, Sen. Marco Rubio was first. At a speech two weeks ago, the Florida Republican argued that Congress should shut down the government instead of funding the federal health care system. If Democrats agreed to defund "Obamacare," then Rubio would back off the shutdown threat.

A week later, campaigning in Iowa, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the same thing. On Fox this week, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) endorsed the idea. And all of a sudden, the shutdown threat is metastasizing.

The conservative Club for Growth is pushing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to use the threat of a government shutdown to deny funds for ObamaCare.

The group urged McConnell on Wednesday to back an effort led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to filibuster any government funding bill that includes money for the healthcare law.

Lee has been circulating a letter summarizing the plan. It has 15 signatures so far, according to the Club.

Whether the letter actually has 15 signatures is unclear, but a related letter has circulated among House Republicans, and according to proponents, it's picked up 64 signatories and counting.

Heritage Action, a more blatantly political offshoot of the Heritage Foundation, has not only endorsed the idea, it's practically obsessed -- the group announced yesterday that lawmakers would be "scored" on whether they co-sponsor a measure to block Obamacare funding, even if the result is a shutdown.

Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a fundraising group that supports conservative Republican challengers, told The Hill,"Any Republican who votes to give Obama a single penny to implement ObamaCare is part of the problem and should be defeated. Any Republican who votes to fund ObamaCare should have a primary challenger."

OK, now tell us how you really feel.

Even if we put aside policy and substance, I still think this is a strategic mess. There's obviously no realistic way Democrats are going to cave on this. So either Republicans cave or they take the blame for a government shutdown. It's as if GOP officials worked their way onto a branch and threatened to start sawing.

As for why Republicans are so hysterical on this all of a sudden, I think Kevin Drum's analysis rings true:

In a sense, I suppose this was inevitable. Republicans are convinced that once Obamacare goes into effect on January 1, it will become popular pretty quickly and repeal will be off the table forever. So the closer we get to D-Day, the more desperate they get to derail it.

For what it's worth, I think Republicans are right to believe this. Behavioral economics taught us a long time ago that people react a lot more strongly to losing something than they do to not getting it in the first place. Once guaranteed issue and community rating and subsidies and all the rest have been in place for a year, even tea partiers will be loath to see them taken away.

So it's now or never.

For what it's worth, I still think Democrats would be lucky if the Republican threats are sincere. An incumbent president's party nearly always struggles in a sixth-year midterm cycle, but if GOP lawmakers shut down the government over providing health care benefits to working families, all bets are off.

Wednesday's campaign round-up

Associated Press

Today's installment of campaign-related news items that won't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* In Wyoming's closely watched U.S. Senate primary, Public Policy Polling found incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi (R) cruising past Liz Cheney, 54% to 26%. Half of respondents said the Republican media personality should run in Virginia instead. Ouch.

* In Virginia, where gubernatorial hopeful Ken Cuccinelli (R) has struggled to overcome his reputation as an extremist culture warrior, we learned yesterday that in 2008, Cuccinelli supported criminal penalties for adultery.

* Speaking of the commonwealth, Virginia Republicans have put some distance between themselves and E.W. Jackson, the party's candidate for lieutenant governor, but Jackson boasted this week, "I represent the entire ticket by the way. And we are a unified ticket and we are going to win in November."

* The editorial board of the New York Times today urged former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) to end his mayoral candidacy.

* In California, the latest Field Poll shows Gov. Jerry Brown (D) with a healthy 51% approval rating. A plurality of Californians are inclined to support Brown if he seeks another term.

* Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) was already resigning to take a job at the University of Alabama, but yesterday moved up his departure date. Bonner is now getting out on Aug. 2.

* And in North Carolina, state House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) is reportedly struggling to juggle his responsibilities with his fundraising efforts for his U.S. Senate campaign. The editorial board for the Charlotte Observer published a tough piece the other day, insisting he choose one job or the other.

In defense of old diagnoses

Associated Press

In just a couple of hours, President Obama will deliver an economic speech the White House is awfully excited about. Reporters haven't heard the pitch just yet, but Dana Milbank is unimpressed.

[E]ven a reincarnated Steve Jobs would have trouble marketing this turkey: How can the president make news, and remake the agenda, by delivering the same message he gave in 2005? He's even giving the speech from the same place, Galesburg, Ill.

White House officials say this will show Obama's consistency.... Yes, but this also risks sending the signal that, just six months into his second term, Obama is fresh out of ideas. There's little hope of getting Congress to act on major initiatives and little appetite in the White House to fight for bold new legislation that is likely to fail. And so the president, it seems, is going into reruns.

I can appreciate the political world's appetite for new -- new messages, new policies, new strategies, new phrases, etc. Especially for those of us in media, "new" captures our attention in ways "old" does not.

But I'd like to pause to express some appreciation for the old.

Imagine a guy goes to the doctor with an ailment and asks for a remedy. She gives the appropriate diagnosis that would make the guy better, but the patient and hospital administrators decide the solution to the problem is ideologically unsatisfying, so the prescription is ignored.

The guy's condition doesn't improve, so he goes back to the doctor, who again recommends the correct remedy, which is ignored once more.

As time elapses and there's little improvement, the guy returns. The doctor reiterates her support for the appropriate solution, which has been endorsed by other medical professionals, and would work if tried. The patient replies, "It sounds to me like you're fresh out of ideas and going into reruns."

The economy has improved and the job market has strengthened, but few are satisfied. The Recovery Act rescued the economy, but its resources are long gone, and the immediate boost it provided that turned the economy around has faded.

Obama has accurately diagnosed the problem and prescribed the right medicine -- in fact he's done so more than once. We know what will produce a more robust recovery and the president's preferred remedy would be pretty effective.

And with this in mind, the problem is not with the repetition of the right answer or the pizzazz with which the president offers the right solution, but rather, with lawmakers who expect to be rewarded for holding the economy back.

Milbank added, "Obama will need some bold new proposals." Why, so Republicans can reject them, too? What if the old proposals are still the best ones?

White House chides 'laughable' Boehner boast on immigration

At a Capitol Hill press conference yesterday, a reporter asked House Speaker John Boehner about taking a "hands-off approach on immigration." The Ohio Republican rejected the premise of the question and responded with a curious boast.

For those who can't watch clips online, the Speaker said:

"Nobody's spent more time trying to fix a broken immigration system than I have. I talked about the day after the election and I've talked about it a hundred times since.

"And while some may disagree about how we're going about fixing the broken immigration system, it's been a big goal of mine. Now, we believe that a common sense, step-by-step approach to addressing this problem makes a lot more sense than one big, massive comprehensive bill."

What a complete mess. For one thing, if Boehner thinks "nobody" has worked more on immigration than him, he's even further gone than I thought. The poor guy can't bring a bill to the floor or even state a personal opinion on key parts of the debate.

For another, the Speaker really shouldn't bring up what he "talked about the day after the election" -- that's when he endorsed a "comprehensive" solution that he later abandoned when his right-wing caucus told him to.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters yesterday, "The president believes that we have to address this in a comprehensive way. That is the right thing to do. And the idea that you can, oh, I don't know, declare yourself to have been more committed than anyone to improve our immigration system and then have nothing to show for it is a little laughable."

Boehner can prove his detractors wrong pretty easily: he can do what he said he would do and bring a comprehensive bill to the floor.

Ahead on the 7/23 Maddow show

Andrew Dallos

NYC mayoral candidate and former congressman Anthony Weiner speaks to reporters during a press conference this afternoon.

Tonight's guests include:

Melissa Russo, reporter for WNBC in New York 

Sen. Al Franken, (D) Minnesota, member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee

 

Anthony Weiner story takes an unfortunate turn

I'd more or less assumed we'd heard the last of the controversy that forced New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D) from Congress in 2011. Folks had reached their own conclusions, formed their own opinions, and would judge Weiner accordingly.

What was unexpected was another sexting controversy, which Weiner acknowledged today.

Hours after a gossip website published raunchy texts and explicit photos it said were from 2012, Weiner held an extraordinary press conference -- accompanied by his wife Huma Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton -- to apologize and ask voters for a second chance.

"Some of these things happened before my resignation. Some of them happened after," Weiner said without providing any specifics. And in her first public remarks on the scandal, a clearly nervous Abedin said it took "a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy" to put her marriage back together.

Of particular interest was this line from Weiner: "I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have."

Yes, but it's the timeline of events that's difficult to get around. Weiner was caught in a sexting controversy, which he initially lied about, then acknowledged before resigning. But as we learned today, Weiner initiated another sexting relationship months after his other sexting relationships derailed his career.

In other words, when Weiner declared, "I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out," I suspect most folks thought this was in reference to incidents from before his 2011 resignation, not incidents from 2012, when he was believed to be putting his personal life back together.

That he used the cringe-worthy "Carlos Danger" pseudonym only adds insult to injury.

There are 49 days remaining before the Democratic primary in the mayoral race. Weiner insisted this afternoon that he's staying in the race.

Tuesday's Mini-Report

Today's edition of quick hits:

* The bloodshed in Iraq has worsened.

* In related news: "Al Qaeda's Iraq affiliate asserted responsibility on Tuesday for brazen assaults on two prisons on the outskirts of Baghdad two days earlier that freed hundreds of inmates, including many of its own members, in one of the most serious breaches of security since the final American military withdrawal from the country more than two years ago."

* Afghanistan: "Three American and four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter were killed Tuesday morning in Wardak Province after an insurgent riding a donkey detonated a bomb in one of the most hotly contested districts in the country, officials said."

* Egypt: "At least six people were killed Tuesday near a sit-in held by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi, the latest sign that Egypt's political impasse is devolving into street battles."

* EPA: "The White House is promising to veto a House bill that would impose new checks on regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The legislation would waste time and money, the administration said, 'thereby delaying or permanently preventing EPA from fulfilling its legal obligations to protect public health and the environment.'"

* Student loans: "Senate Democrats worked to shore up support for a student loan compromise as the White House tried to nudge it across the finish line Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the bill would be voted on by the full Senate 'this week for sure,' and offered a definitive 'yes,' when asked if he was confident a majority of Democrats would back it."

* Ohio: "A federal judge has ruled in favor of two Ohio men who want their out-of-state marriage recognized as one of them nears death, a case that's seen as encouraging for same-sex marriage supporters in the state."

* FDA: "A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration was wrong to allow a misbranded and unapproved new drug to be imported for use in executions by lethal injection."

* A week later in Florida, Dream Defenders continue to stand their ground.

* And in case anyone's curious, there was a massive server problem that derailed the usual posting schedule this afternoon, delaying this post (among others).

Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.