Want some proof of why the auto industry doesn’t deserve $25 billion? How about this pearl of wisdom from the management, from today’s New York Times:
The cause of their misfortunes was not management mistakes, they said, but the weak economy and the inability of consumers to obtain credit to buy cars.
You’ve got to be kidding me. The American auto industry has been fatally mismanaged. These executives refuse to admit that they have any accountability for their companies’ collapse, and they have the cojones to claim that we should give them $25 billion? By their own admission, this clearly won’t change anything, because they don’t recognize the need to change.
I think we need a compromise here. As I said in Monday’s podcast, I don’t think — and I don’t know anyone who really thinks — that our auto industry has earned a $25 billion bailout. At the same time, now is just a terrible time to let them fail. We’re talking something like 3 million jobs, between the automakers and their suppliers — enough to send our economy into yet another tailspin.
So what to do? I say we keep them afloat just until they can’t completely screw our economy. Give them enough money for 6 or 9 months, and let them try to get their act together in that time. After that, let them go bankrupt; it’s been coming for a long time.
Tim Pawlenty sounds like the guy who can fix the Republican party. Everything he said at the Republican Governor’s Association was dead on:
Pawlenty said that although Republicans idolize Ronald Reagan, some would balk at the compromises he made. “One of the things that gets glossed over is his pragmatism,” he said. “He got stuff done, and he compromised to do it.” [via BrauBlog]
I think just because you bring up the name Joe the Plumber — while people view that as a symbol — but what does that mean, in terms of what Republicans can do to make my health care more affordable, my — filling up my car more affordable? I think just throwing out a symbol or an icon is not enough.
Pawlenty, on paper, seems to fit most of my criteria for a leader of the Republican party:
Gas prices have dropped by $2/gallon in the last month or so. That’s great news while it lasts, but let’s not be fooled into forgetting the importance of creating true energy independence.
Here’s why we need to stay focused: The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2008 makes it clear that today’s low prices are purely a market fluctuation caused by the global economic crisis. For most of the next 20 years, we can expect gas prices to be as high or even higher than they were last year.
It’s so easy, as soon as gas prices drop, to lose our focus on creating true energy independence. But gas prices won’t stay as low as they are for long; as soon as the global economy picks back up, gas prices will soar again, for one simple reason: skyrocketing demand, and stagnant supply. As I wrote back in October, the reason gas prices have been falling lately is because of plummeting demand. But in the long run, we can still expect demand to rise sharply, for one reason: China. Demand in the U.S. is actually forecast to drop, but oil is sold globally, so we will have to pay more because of China’s insatiable demand.
Here’s the IEA’s graph of changes in demand over the next 20 years [source - PDF link]:
I’m in favor of green jobs as much as the next guy, but that’s all the governor has to say about the upcoming legislative session? We are facing a massive budget deficit, and all he comes up with is a proposal for a few tax breaks? Governor, we are going to need a whole lot more than that.
As far as the green jobs initiative goes, I’m on the fence. It’s an okay idea, but it’s modeled after Pawlenty’s horrific “JOBZ” program, which has done a lot more harm than good. And of course, as DFLer Ellen Anderson noted in the Star Tribune, “he unveiled his proposal at the same time that a joint legislative task force on green jobs, which includes his agency representatives, was meeting in north Minneapolis to develop a unified plan.” [I'm quoting the Star Tribune writer here, not directly quoting Anderson]
Ultimately, the green jobs initiative isn’t the point. The point is Pawlenty’s disconnect from the larger problems that will be faced during the 2009 session.
I wrote over the weekend that the new transportation bill (due next year) would be a battle. Steve, an engineer and a bigger transportation policy wonk than myself, pointed out in the comments just how tough the fight would be:
TEA-21 [the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century] expired in September ‘03, and SAFETEA-LU [Safe, Affordable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act - A Legacy for Users (seriously)] wasn’t passed until June/July ‘05. There were something like half a dozen “emergency extensions” of TEA-21 until SAFETEA-LU could get done. Yeah, the past is no guarantee of the future, but I’d be flabbergasted if Fourth TEA is any quicker.
Steve, as usual, is right. Expect this one to get ugly. I still maintain that we can expect crazy Michele Bachmann to take the lead in villifying any and all funding for trains.
Between President-elect Barack Obama, a rare President from a big city; Vice-President-elect Joe Biden, who commuted via Amtrak for 36 years; and House Transportation Chair Jim Oberstar (D-MN), we are about to see some major advances in transportation in this country. All are extremely transit-friendly. And, by sheer luck, the transportation bill is set to be renewed next year!
I’m sure we will see a major fight over the transportation bill. Most conservatives have simply never liked transit, despite the fact that, by some measures, it is actually less-heavily subsidized than roads. Expect the transit-hating to be led by Michele Bachmann, who has already complained about what she thinks transit means for America:
Sorry, folks. It’s inevitable. Minnesota relies heavily on our sales tax for revenue, and nationwide we’re seeing one of the worst years for retailers in decades. When sales decrease, obviously sales tax revenues decrease as well. Add to that the last biennnium’s budget, which included a number of one-time solutions, and our government faces a big gaping hole.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago that the Federal government had two possible choices:
…we can address the deficit and raise taxes, or we can keep taxes stable and allow the deficit to rise.
Here in Minnesota, we don’t even have those two options. We will have a large revenue shortfall, but we are required to have a balanced budget. We can’t borrow our way out of trouble and run up a deficit. Nationally, a higher deficit is the best option at the moment, but locally, it’s not an avenue available to us.
Just a few days after the election, politicos probably don’t want to hear this, but both sides are going to have to be willing to make compromises this year. Conservatives, we are going to have to raise taxes, at least temporarily. There is a large revenue shortfall that we simply can’t ignore, and government spending is an important source of economic stability during a recession. Nevertheless, liberals, we are going to have to cut spending. Although government spending is important during the recession, we simply will not have the resources to be able to sustain our spending at current levels.
Can we be grownups in this state for once? Can both parties take their rhetoric and their reliance on party dogma down a notch, and act in the best interests of our state?
In another major blow to the most basic tenet of conservatism, Minnesotans voted on Tuesday to give themselves a tax increase. The “Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage, and Natural Areas” amendment passed with 56 percent of the vote. That means that we have chosen to increase our own taxes, in order to preserve our environment. We weighed the options, and decided that the tax increase was worth the money.
You see, Minnesotans understand that taxes aren’t just the government taking our money for no reason. Taxes actually pay for things — they pay for many of the reasons we value the state we live in. They pay for our infrastructure, for our schools, for preserving our environment, and much more. We’re happy to pay them, as long as they’re used for things we want.
I really didn’t know how to start writing about this, so I decided not to write about it. There’s a reason I got this brand new microphone.
Listen to my comments by clicking on the button below.
P.S. I’m new at these audio posts. I’m starting to practice for an eventual daily podcast, but some of the early recordings like this will probably be a bit rough. Sorry.
Congratulations to the Minnesota Republicans who won this year in a very tough climate. Michele Bachmann did a good job putting Tinklenberg on the defensive after her gaffe made the 6th-district race competitive. I complained earlier in the election season that Erik Paulsen seemed to think the Ramstad endorsement would win this election for him, but it looks like he may have been right.
Bachmann, of course, will continue her crusades on assorted extremist right-wing issues, and thus she’ll remain the conservative punching-bag of choice for the Minnesota leftybloggers. Clearly, she has shown that she can take it. Erik Paulsen, on the other hand, ran on platforms of moderation and bi-partisanship. I hope he will remember that in Congress, although I’m not particularly hopeful. If Paulsen votes like the extremist I think he is, you can be sure I will publicize his votes often.
The Daily Liberal will be keeping a close eye on all of our Representatives’ voting records throughout the next two years. I hope you’ll stay tuned!
My mother-in-law plans to try to vote during her lunch break today. She works in downtown Minneapolis, and will have to drive 10- to 15-minutes from her work to her home precinct, not to mention the huge lines expected around lunchtime. Will she be able to make her vote count?
It is a major problem when people have to choose between voting and working. That’s why we need a different system: weekend voting, early voting, a voting holiday, or pretty much any other system than what we have going right now. We need to be in the business of making it as easy as possible for our citizens to vote.
Note: originally published on August 21, 2008. I am re-publishing this series as a resource for voters interested in Norm Coleman’s record.
Last week, I started looking through some of the voting history compiled by the good folks at Peace Action West, which illustrates some of Norm “W” Coleman’s dangerous votes on foreign policy. Peace Action West is an organization which advocates for “broad-based civic activism to create a strong voice for peaceful and pragmatic solutions to global problems.” They developed a Congressional scorecard to highlight Congressmen’s votes on foreign policy and peace. Norm “W” Coleman’s record is so bad, I had to split it into two weeks. Last week, I covered his support of new nuclear weapons. Here are some more of his bad votes.
The Coleman/Franken/Barkley Senate race has become so nasty that I’m considering leaving my TV off until the polls are closed. Millions upon millions of dollars have been spent on disgusting attacks by both sides. I can handle attack ads when they actually discuss the issues, but few of them have. Instead, the two candidates have simply lobbed personal attacks back and forth for over a year.
The irony is, there are a lot of reasons to vote against Norm Coleman based on his record. Coleman’s record alone is the reason I will be voting for Al Franken tomorrow. Coleman has:
Over the past week, I’ve been re-running my series on Norm Coleman’s record. If you haven’t already, please take a look at Coleman’s record before you vote. I haven’t made any of this up; it all comes directly from the CQ Weekly floor votes database [subscription required]. Coleman’s record speaks for itself, and it certainly does not say that Coleman has Minnesotans’ interest at heart.
Maps I use maps to show the political dynamics of each Congressional district in Minnesota.
The Incredible Shrinking GOP Voter apathy is hurting the GOP this year. But the party's sharp moves to the right may marginalize it for the next decade. I keep track of the indications that the GOP is becoming a fringe party for extremists.
[note: I am currently editing the category structure]
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Jeff Rosenberg | November 19, 2008
