Happy Tuesday folks,
Looks like Snowquester, or Snowmageddon, or just plain snow with bears hanging out in it is going to hit the DC region soon, but fear not, because the National Park Service has announced that the cherry blossoms will peak by March 26.
Speaking of words that rhyme with “snowquester,” Stanford economics professor Michael Boskin wrote in The Wall Street Journal that even if the sequester goes through, “the United States is headed in the wrong direction” because it spends too much. He notes that the CBO projects federal spending to shoot up “by $2.4 trillion to $5.9 trillion in a decade.”
Not only will more spending and higher deficits hurt the economy, Boskin argues that reducing spending even further will help the economy, “because expectations of lower future taxes and debt, and therefore higher incomes, increase private spending.” Ultimately, conservatives must embrace this pivot to families’ pocketbooks, and craft a message about the positive impact a reduced deficit will have; the emphasis on the “national debt” as a sole entity will simply remain aloof in the American psyche.
Seize the day,
Mark Bednar
@MarkBednar
Important Things On Tap For Today
10:00 AM: Defense Secretary Hagel hosts an honor cordon to welcome Israel’s Minister of Defense Ehud Barak to the Pentagon.
10:30 AM: Senate Budget Committee holds hearing on “Reducing the Deficit by Eliminating Wasteful Spending in the Tax Code.”
2:35 PM: President Obama visits the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
5:00 PM: Vice President Biden, with the president, meets with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.
Tweet Tweet
@HuffPostPol “On this day in 1770, the Boston Massacre took place.”
@mviser “Kerry to NBC: ‘Dennis Rodman was a great basketball player, and as a diplomat, he was a great bball player. And that’s where we’ll leave it’”
@DickieV “Congrats to Louisville - really impressive lately & Will be a major player in NCAA time @Rick_Pitino =HALL OF FAME #dickievpicks”
@DylanByers “Daily Caller: WaPo got wrong hooker http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/03/daily-caller-wapo-got-wrong-hooker-158467.html#.UTX1BVfguRg.twitter … via @POLITICO”
@WSJ “Hear Eric Clapton’s new album ‘Old Sock’ first. We have the whole thing, exclusively. http://on.wsj.com/W25OYC”
On The Radar
Economic Growth
New York City Leads Jump In Homeless from The Wall Street Journal by Michael Howard Saul. “An average of more than 50,000 people slept each night in New York City’s homeless shelters for the first time in January, a record that underscores an unsettling national trend: a rising number of families without permanent housing. Families have become a larger share of the nation’s homeless population, growing 1.4% from 2011 to 2012, after their numbers fell as the economy emerged from recession.”
Environmental Activists Reeling As Keystone Pipeline Gains Momentum from The Hill by Zack Colman. “Green groups are reeling after the release of a draft State Department report that seemed to put the Keystone XL oil pipeline on track for approval. Opponents of Keystone are furious at State’s environmental assessment of the project, which brushed aside of one of their central arguments against it: namely, that it would exacerbate clime change by expanding the use of oil sands.”
Young Adults Retreat From Piling Up Debt from The Wall Street Journal by Neil Shah. “Young people are racking up larger amounts of student debt than ever before, but fresh data suggest they are becoming warier of borrowing in general: Total debt among young adults dropped in the last decade to the lowest level in 15 years. A typical young U.S. household—defined as one led by someone under age 35—had $15,000 in total debt in 2010, down from $18,000 in 2001 and the lowest since 1995, according to a recent Pew Research Center report and government data. Total debt includes mortgage loans, credit cards, auto lending, student loans and other consumer borrowing.”
Obama Faces Political Risks In Emphasizing Effects Of Spending Cuts from The New York Times by Michael D. Shear. “As the nation’s top Democrat, President Obama has a clear imperative: to ratchet up pressure on Republicans for across-the-board spending cuts by using the power of his office to dramatize the impact on families, businesses and the military. But as president, Mr. Obama is charged with minimizing the damage from the spending reductions and must steer clear of talking down the economy. A sustained campaign against the cuts by the president could become what one former aide called “’a self-fulfilling kind of mess.’”
Airports See Few Problems Thus Far from The Wall Street Journal by Jack Nicas and Susan Carey. “Major airports reported smooth operations Monday after the Obama administration called attention to delays at two big airports over the weekend, adding to other early indications that the impact on air travel from forced government spending cuts may be less abrupt and in some ways less dramatic than many feared. The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that freezes to overtime pay that are part of the $85 billion in so-called sequester cuts left customs and immigration checkpoints understaffed Saturday at Miami International Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, causing two- to three-hour waits.”
Immigration
Jeb Bush Says He Could, In Fact, Support A Path To Citizenship from The Washington Post by Aaron Blake. “Former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R), who seemed to back off his previous support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants during an interview with NBC’s ‘Today Show’ early Monday, said in a later interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd that he could support one under the right circumstances. ‘I think we need comprehensive reform, and if there is a path to citizenship that has enough of a realization that we have to respect the rule of law, then so be it,’ Bush said.”
Jeb Bush Appears to Support Middle Ground on Citizenship For Illegal Immigrants from The New York Times by Sarah Wheaton. “As Congressional Republicans stake out an approach to overhauling the nation’s immigration system, a high-profile voice has emerged in support of a middle-ground option for the 11 million immigrants already in the country illegally. Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida and the younger brother and son of former presidents, has been one of the Republican Party’s most outspoken voices on the importance of Hispanic outreach, advocating not just a change in tone but also a comprehensive approach to immigration.”
Health Care
Obamacare Offers Low-Wage Workers Coverage. Will They Buy It? from Bloomberg News by John Tozzi. “How many people newly eligible to buy into company health plans next year will actually do so? That’s one of the many questions about health-care reform that we don’t know the answer to. It matters for a few reasons. First, companies that offer health coverage will be on the hook for a significant chunk of their workers’ premiums, so the number of people who sign up will affect their costs. That’s a particular concern for small companies providing health benefits for the first time.”
Medicare Cuts Are A Giant Step Backward from Politico by Doug Holtz-Eakin and Ken Thorpe. “It is well-known that policymakers are facing tremendous political pressure to reduce spending and the deficit. It is also clear that our entitlement programs are the chief driver of federal spending both now and in the future. However, indiscriminate cost cutting like the sequester is not the best answer for the latter, and certainly not the recently announced cuts to the Medicare Advantage program for the former. In both the sequester and Medicare debates, the decisions are not based on the impact on programs or the lives of Americans.”
Gunshot Wounds Drive Up Government Health Care Costs from USA Today by Kelly Kennedy. “Gunshot wounds and deaths cost Americans at least $12 billion a year in court proceedings, insurance costs and hospitalizations paid for by government health programs, according to a recent study. ‘I think people probably don’t understand that as well as they ought to,’ said Ted Miller, author of a study that found that gunfire deaths and injuries incur a direct societal cost of $32 per gun.”
Paul Ryan Floats Change To Medicare Plan from Politico by Jake Sherman and Jonathan Allen. “Paul Ryan’s budget will show how Republicans can balance a budget that’s trillions of dollars out of whack. But the most significant unresolved issue comes down to a minuscule number: one year. Ryan — the House Budget Committee chairman — has privately been floating the idea of allowing his changes to Medicare to kick in for Americans younger than 56. In previous budgets, those 55 and older were exempted from his plan to turn Medicare into a premium-support — or voucher — program.”
Hospitals Crack Down On Tirades By Angry Doctors from KHN by Sandra G. Boodman. “But that time-honored tolerance is waning, Samenow and other experts say, as a result of regulations imposed in 2009 by the Joint Commission, the group that accredits hospitals. These rules require hospitals to institute procedures for dealing with disruptive behavior, which can take passive forms such as refusing to answer pages or attend meetings. The commission has called for a ‘zero tolerance’ approach. Such behavior is not unique to doctors; researchers have found that nurses act out, too, mostly to other nurses, but that their behavior is less likely to affect patients.”
X-Factor
Mexico Wants U.S. Ties To Focus On Economy, Education, Not Drugs from Reuters by Dave Graham. “Mexico must give greater priority to economic cooperation and education in relations with the United States rather than allowing the fight against organized crime to take center stage, a senior Mexican official said on Monday.”
Up All Night: The Science Of Sleeplessness from The New Yorker by Elizabeth Kolbert.
This & That
Snowquester – Bring It On! from Cloture Club.
The Truth Behind “Duck, Duck, Goose” from Buzzfeed by Baby Praying Mantis.
Meet Your Local Billionaires, 2013 Edition from DCist by Benjamin R. Freed.
Two Suicide Attempts On Metro Prevented By Train Conductors from DCist by Rich Renomeron.