Plenty of things, of course; I'm going to single out Janet Yellin to the Fed.
On the doesn't matter front...I'll stick with the various spin stuff from the shutdown, from the House minibills to the House discharge petition. This one isn't going to be decided by spin.
What do you have? What do you think mattered this week?
Shutdown woes really seem to be stacking up, James Fallows had a piece about how the aerospace industry is in serious trouble because equipment and products can't be inspected, imported and exported. Angry constituents were never going to get the GOP to move, pressure from interest groups like the aerospace industry might just do the trick.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with JB that it looks like Ted Cruz really hurt his 2016 chances and if he is winnowed that matters.
Yeah, I don't know if this counts as this week's news, but I'm getting more and more tired of crisis politics, where Congress is racing to the deadline, or breezes past it, to do what it's supposed to do anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm concerned about the National Park Service overreaches. This government agency seems to be acting in a "political" manner. A few months ago, we learned the same about the IRS, at least to a limited extent. And Justice is getting ripped on freedom of the press grounds pursuing leaks.
ReplyDeleteHope I'm not becoming some paranoid tin foil hat type. What do you guys think? Please talk me down off the ledge!
I don't understand what you mean by "political" manner. Because they closed the parks? By that logic, can't you argue that the food inspectors are acting in a "political" manner by not inspecting our food? The National Institute of Health is acting in a "political" manner by not seeing patients? The immigration services are acting in a "political" manner by not processing visas?
DeleteIn short, are you saying that all government workers are acting in a "political" manner by not working without pay?
We learned no such thing about the IRS; we have actually learned that they were doing their job, absolutely apolitically.
DeleteSimlarly the NPS. They've been told, by Congress, to shutter operations because no money if forthcoming to fund it. They are complying.
This might help:
Deletehttp://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/06/irs-targets-occupy-progressive/66550/
As for national parks, the Congress refused to fund government, told non-essential parts to shut down. They did. National Parks are considered non-essential.
But middle class Republicans don't consider parks "non-essential" they consider them one of the only good things you can get from government! (though of course for-profit management could do it better).
DeleteI'd expect park services to be closed during a shutdown. But my understanding is that the parks themselves are closed to visitors. Hikers have even been cited for not observing the closure.
DeleteThe Republicans, having shut down the government as part of a larger bargaining strategy, are trying to avoid blame for the inconveniences caused to the public by asserting that nothing important (or popular) really had to be closed down as a consequence of their actions and therefore someone else must be responsible. It's pretty transparent, but it could sow the seed of doubt in the minds of people who don't follow these things closely, which is a lot of people.
DeleteThe Democrats might be tempted to accentuate the inconvenience as a way to undermine the Republican strategy, but I'm not sure that these things can be fine-tuned that easily in the short term. Does anyone know anything about that?
The reason park trails are closed is if someone gets hurt, the park staff isn't in a good position to help them. I live next to Great Smoky Mtns NP, with 100's of miles of backwoods trails. Who goes and gets a hurt hiker?
DeleteMark, there are public lands that are more remote than the smoky mountains, where search-and-rescue would be difficult even under normal budgetary conditions. That may be a good reason for posting cautionary notices, but not for closing-off public access. Nor does it explain why we would close public access to the WWII memorial.
DeleteThere are clear political motives behind these tactics. Perhaps they will help achieve their desired goal, I don't know. But one unfortunate consequence is to encourage an us-vs.-them relationship between the people and their government.
Zic - true, the IRS did investigate progressive groups. But, reported in many places including non-conservative sites like CBS and HuffPost, they investigated conservative groups much much more. Are there more recent facts disputing this? Please cite.
DeleteYellin matters but I think her appointment was inevitable once Summers withdrew his name. To appoint anyone else would really look like spite on Obama's part--"Those liberals wouldn't let me have Summers, so I won't let them have Yellin."
ReplyDeleteWhat mattered this week was the U. of Hawaii study that places dates on when the climate changes permanently: 2047 for most of the U.S., when the coldest annual temps will be warmer than the hottest annual temps normally. There is no going back from this change.
ReplyDeleteAnd what will matter is that it has been ignored, along with the IPIC report and anything to do with the climate crisis.
That has two effects. First, really grappling with the implications and planning aren't happening. Second, the news goes directly in the unconscious, where it motivates all sorts of seemingly unrelated beliefs and behavior. Such as shutting down the government and deliberately sending the country into a premature economic doomsday, without admitting or even knowing that this kind of information is part of the motivation.
So I'm going to go ahead and make the prediction that Reid is telling McConnell this morning that he will file a vote to strip the minority of the ability to filibuster the two matters at hand if the Senate Republicans don't play ball. The two matters at hand are: authorizing funds for a duly passed budget (i.e. opening the government) and raising the debt ceiling. He reserved this power at the beginning of the session, and really, the majority has always had it. So for all the posturing going on, Reid has always had the unilateral leverage to drive a clean deal.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm still thinking that we're going to go right up to the deadline. McConnell's got a real devil's deal sitting in front of him: be the adult in the room and discipline the Tea Party, or look impotent and let minority rights in the Senate get stripped away.
Hard to poll-test that one!
Just an extension of the age old problem of government spending. And the
ReplyDeleteWhat could matter for not just the short term, but also the medium term: free-falling economic confidence among the general public. See Gallup's numbers (and I wonder what they'll be for Oct. 3 onward, to be released soon):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gallup.com/poll/165287/weekly-drop-economic-confidence-largest-2008.aspx