More Reasons to Eat Chocolate

Uncle Sam is willing to shell out $4,500 for your brand new car. That’s the new plan President Obama worked out with Democrats in the House today. You just have to trade in an old gas-guzzler for a nice, modern gas-saving model.

And might I suggest one that runs on Willie Wonka’s trash?

Scientists today unveiled a racecar that can go 145 miles per hour on the vegetable oils and chocolate waste that candy manufacturers call garbage.

Boo, Obama!!

President Obama is wussing out stem cell research, allowing federal funding only for research involving embryos from fertility clinics rather than those created specifically for scientific research. This is the same plan favored by former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN).

Granted, it’s a hell of a lot better than President Bush’s policy to only allow research on existing lines of stem cells and no new ones whatsoever.

But there are important reasons why scientists want to clone embryos for stem cells for scientific research, which apparently Obama will not allow funding for. Among them, scientists want the stem cell DNA to exactly match patients to avoid rejection and other problems.

This is a big disappointment, Mr. President.

Turning a Blind Eye

It’ll be nice to have a functioning EPA again:

The Environmental Protection Agency eight years ago said it wanted to set a national standard for ponds or landfills used to dispose of wastes produced from burning coal.

The agency has yet to act.

Eight years, huh? That’s a pretty telling number.

The notion that the Bush Administration neglected an issue that would have been uncomfortable for the energy industry will surprise no one. The idea that if the Bush Administration had bothered to act, the TVA ash disaster in East Tennessee might have been averted will be lost on deliberately blind-eye Republicans like Rep. Zach Wamp.

Once again the Bush Administration failed to foresee or prevent a disaster that they had been explicitly warned about. Leaving President-elect Obama to deal with this:

Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated.

An Associated Press analysis of the most recent Energy Department data found that 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds similar to the one that collapsed last month in Tennessee.

Only 11 more days until the White House is once again the head of the federal government instead of its primary obstacle.

No Brainer

Time's Person of the Year? Barack Obama. Probably the easiest decision in the magazine's history. At least they didn't try to get all cute with it like 2006.

79%

I still don’t understand how a president-elect has a job approval rating, but CNN reports that Obama is kicking ass:

“An Obama job approval rating of 79 percent -- that's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster," said Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst. "To many Americans, the Bush administration was a national disaster."

Sic 'em, Obama!

Looks like it was the Obama team that busted Blagojevich. According to the Huffington Post:

Local news reports, meanwhile, suggest that it was Obama chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel who blew the whistle on the governor.

Write or Wrong

Barack Obama wants you to: Learn what you can do now to support President-elect Obama's agenda for change and continue to make a difference in your community.

Take the first important step by hosting or attending a Change is Coming house meeting. Sign up right now:

http://my.barackobama.com/changeiscoming

Looks like he’s serious about keeping up the emails.

Robert Gates - the Handbreak on Bush's Handbasket to Hell

If Obama is a complete reversal of Bush’s policies, but Bush had already started to reverse himself a little bit, does that make Obama just more of the same? Hogwash. Complete garbage.

Still, that’s why David Brooks tries to argue in the New York Times today.

Brooks claims that President George W. Bush (learning from the unmitigated disaster of Iraq from 2003-2006) launched a new, holistic approach to foreign policy under Sec. of Defense Robert Gates. And Brooks goes on to praise President-elect Obama for following in Bush’s recent footsteps.

Bringing in Gates as Secretary of Defense was an important step towards replacing recklessness with common sense; I’ll give Bush that. But to pretend that a holistic approach to foreign policy is somehow a Bush invention is preposterous.

Alleviating global poverty, strengthening the rule of law, and stabilizing peaceful governments has been a vital part of US foreign policy since World War II. Only Bush was stupid enough to think it could be accomplished by the military alone.

Gates was never that stupid. He was never a neo-con. He doesn’t represent Bush’s governing philosophy or foreign policy; he’s a repudiation of it. Gates comes from outside Bush’s circle – not just his circle of people but his circle of thought.

Gates represents “continuity,” Brooks claims? Ha. At best, Gates represents that even Bush knew his own political ideology led to total failure.

$1,000,000,000,000

A one trillion dollar budget deficit in 2009! The entire 2009 federal budget (as submitted by President Bush) is only $3.1 trillion! Holy crap!

That’s what President-elect Obama will inherit, thanks the President Bush’s reckless mismanagement of the federal government, taxes, and economic policy.

The AP describes it pretty well:

While nobody likes a deficit, many economists agree that heavy federal government spending—on food stamps or unemployment benefits or public works projects—may be necessary to keep economies moving in times of recession or war.

The problem is that this time Washington was racking up massive deficits even before the current economic downturn.

We can’t cut government assistance in this economy. We can’t cut anything that would result in significant government layoffs. So the deficit explodes…

If President Bush wants to do what’s best for his country, he’ll immediately start recommending specific cuts to the military budget since these are best received when they come from a Republican (the “only Nixon could go to China” philosophy). Obama, as a Democrat, can then tackle non-military spending cuts.

However, spending cuts can only get us so far. In fact, they’re a drop in the bucket compared to $1 trillion deficit. We’re not talking about trimming the fat here; we’re talking about nearly one third of the entire federal government being financed by deficits.

We’d have to eliminate one third of the federal government to catch up. It’s almost beyond comprehension what that means.

PS: Maybe President-elect Obama bought himself a little political capital on military spending cuts by keeping Gates as Secretary of Defense. If Gates gives the green light to certain cuts, that might help. Perhaps Obama understood that he need the credibility of a Republican Secretary of Defense to do what needs to be done, not just for defense spending but for bringing our troops home.

Vote "All of the Above"

Forget “Team of Rivals” – this is turning into a Team of Superstars! Biden, Clinton, Richardson, Daschle, Napolitano… wow. It’s like the Democratic Pantheon. Man, it was tough to pick just one for president; who knew we’d get ‘em all in the end anyway?

Benefit of the Doubt

Should Pres. Barack Obama keep Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at his post? Looks like it may happen. I can’t say I’m thrilled with the idea, but I’m willing to trust Obama’s judgment.

Some Obama fans may be horrified to see anything short of an crisp, clean break from President Bush and immediate abandonment of his foreign/war policies. But there’s something to remember -- Gates was already a repudiation of Bush’s war policies. After 2006, Bush was forced to fire Donald Rumsfeld and pretty much acknowledge that everything in Iraq up to that point had been a total disaster.

Gates is not a neo-con. He’s not a Rove-ite. He’s not part of that inner Bush circle that ransacked the federal government, politicizing everything they could and burning the rest to the ground. If President-elect Obama says he can work with this guy, then I believe him.

I can’t stand Republicans who would drive this country into a brick wall just to spite the Democrats. I can’t stand Republicans who confuse reckless ignorance with “principles.” The last thing I want is for President-elect Obama to start mimicking that behavior. If he did, that would represent a far more dangerous continuation of President Bush’s behavior than keeping Gates in charge of the Defense Department.

If President-elect Obama says the best thing for our nation and our troops is to keep Gates around another 6-18 months for a slower, more gradual changeover, then I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Secretary Daschle (Or Do You Prefer "Adminstrative Assistant"?)

Everybody knew Tom Daschle would be in Secretary of something; it was only a question of which Department. Today we have the answer: Health & Human Services. It’s not usually one of the sexier appointments, but with President-elect Obama’s big plans for healthcare reform, this may turn out to be a hugely important position.

Great pick, Mr. President-elect! The former Senate Majority Leader is the right guy to shepherd major changes through Congress and then carry them out as Secretary of HHS.

Hillary and Holder

Will President-elect Obama offer Hillary Clinton the State Department? Will she accept it if he does? Oh, the drama!

Personally I think Hillary Clinton would make a great Secretary of State, but I hope she stays in the Senate. Why take a job with an expiration date? I think she’s better off as the next Ted Kennedy rather than the next Warren Christopher. With patience, she could become (probably should) Senate Majority Leader. She can be a dominant force in the Senate for decades if she wants.

Of course, Secretary of State is a better resume builder for 2016. Does that trump any other motivation or consideration? It might--and I wouldn’t hold it against her if it did.

Secretary of State is also more prestigious and glamorous, which probably makes it more fun. I also wouldn’t hold it against her if she just thinks she’d enjoy life more as head of the State Department, even if it’s just a one or two term gig.

Anyway, that’s a lot of words to say I’m happy either way. I think she’s probably sincerely agonizing over it. She’d have to give up a ton whichever direction she goes. However, there’s probably no wrong choice here. It’s great or great, just in dramatically different forms.

So what about Eric Holder as Attorney General? Meh.* He’s a Washington type, which is kind of disappointing. After the Bush Administration’s grotesque politicization of the Justice Department, I’d rather have someone not involved in game at all. Someone righteously outraged by all that crap. I’m sure he’ll be competent, but will he clean house like it needs to be done? We’ll see…

*Now officially in the dictionary!

Thank You, Mr. President-Elect

I paid $1.99 for gas this weekend. The Obama presidency is already a success!

First Mother-in-Law

In a twist straight from a cheesy sitcom, it looks like Barack Obama’s mother-in-law is going to move into the White House with him. I fully expect Martin Lawrence to play both roles in the movie.

The Cost of Living

In news that would have been a lot more meaningful before the election, an independent study of President-elect Obama’s healthcare plan finds that it will provide coverage for 2/3 of currently uninsured Americans at a cost of $75 billion--or about one tenth of the bailout. The government will recover about $25 billion of that because it won’t have to cover the hospital costs of those newly insured people anymore.

So that’s a $50 billion bill to the taxpayer in exchange for health insurance for 31 million people.

Of course, it’s an annual cost, not a one-time deal. With healthcare costs rising much faster than inflation or wages, the burden will become increasingly large every year.

I’m all for the Obama plan, but I think it’s important to take an honest look at the numbers. If anyone thinks we can pay for it with the money we’ll save by withdrawing from Iraq, remember that we paid for Iraq with borrowed money--which was stupid--and it’d be stupid to pay for this with borrowed money as well.

In the long term, we can pay for healthcare reforms with the money we currently pay on interest on the national debt, but we’ve got to eliminate the deficit first and start paying down the debt before that money gets freed up. In the meantime, the money must come from somewhere.

No one said Obama’s job was easy.

I Already Miss Poll Numbers

How the heck does a president-elect have a job approval rating?? He’s not in office yet! Rasmussen claims 52% of Americans approve of Barack Obama’s job performance, the same as his popular vote percentage. Thanks for the update. Money well wasted.

The same poll says 38% of Americans expect a tax hike under President Obama. I guess 33% of them will be pleasantly surprised.

(Either that or a crazy percentage will be absolutely convinced Obama hiked their taxes--even if they really got a tax cut. Never underestimate the Republican rabble’s capacity to outright refuse reality.)