Broadcast

washingtonindependent.com — Amid the clamor over the crisis on Wall Street, the U.S. Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Rescue Program, or “TARP,” bill and the evolving collapse of the global banking system, little attention has been paid to the extraordinary credit extensions at the Federal Reserve. But these are now without parallel in Fed history, including during the Great Depression.

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thenation.com — The most important glue binding conservatism together is a shared sense that someone, somewhere is looking down their noses at them with a condescending sneer. And to conservatives, McCain has been too often one of the sneerers. That helps explain the strange McCain contortions Republicans have been forcing themselves into in recent weeks.

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motherjones.com — During the Tea Party protests on Capitol Hill this week, conservative activists warned that if Congress manages to pass health care legislation, their movement would become more formidable than ever. But far from fueling the tea partiers' cause, a sweeping new health care law could suck the air right out of their movement. Many tea party activists have a lot to gain from reform — because their ranks are dominated by aging baby boomers. This makes the movement's opposition to the health care bill one of its most enduring paradoxes.

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ft.com — Branding China a currency manipulator would be explosive. Beijing would not take kindly to being chastised formally. It is likely to respond in kind, and it is safe to assume that changing its currency policy will not be part of that response. Yet ducking the issue also carries costs. Is there a way out? The key is to recognize that the renminbi is a problem not just for the US but the world and, as such, requires a multilateral rules-based solution rather than a bilateral confrontation between Washington and Beijing.

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thenation.com — If this health care reform fails, Obama will probably be forced to abandon the issue for the duration of his presidency, as will most mainstream Democrats. Conversely, a victory would suggest that the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress have the wind at their back and are moving their agenda. And it raises the prospect that more can be done — to improve the health care legislation. What about the legislation itself — what does it accomplish? On a concrete level, it expands health insurance to as many as 30 million Americans who are currently not covered; on a symbolic one, it makes clear that the government — not the market — is responsible for health care. Those are no small achievements.

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guardian.co.uk — Republicans are in denial. They're desperate to convince Democrats that passing comprehensive health care reform legislation will be the worst possible move they could make. It is time for everyone to recognise that for all the spin, misinformation and outright lies, Democrats intend to band together in an almost unprecedented display of party unity to pass this legislation. If they do, setting aside the benefits of reducing the deficit, giving 31 million Americans health coverage and lowering costs, their decision will have major political consequences.

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prospect.org — On Monday, President Barack Obama released a complimentary statement about Sen. Chris Dodd's latest proposal for financial reform, singling out its creation of "a new consumer financial protection agency to set and enforce clear rules of the road." This is notable largely because it is not, in fact, true. What the bill actually creates is a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection within the Federal Reserve, a move that has raised great concern among consumer advocates who note, with more accuracy, that the Fed's numerous consumer-protection failures played a large role in the recent crisis. But the rhetoric around the creation of a new consumer-protection agency illustrates the central pitfall of financial regulatory reform: telling real reform from the cosmetic.

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politico.com — What better way is there to use the current government giveaway to private lenders than to work toward restoring the promise of equal opportunity? And, high quality early education pays. Long-term studies have demonstrated that taxpayers actually save money from public investment in high-quality early childhood education through reduced special education and correctional system costs, a lower crime rate and a more skilled workforce. Why should taxpayers continue to give large student loan companies both high rates and a government guarantee? Let’s transfer those excess bank profits to students, especially our youngest, while we can still change the trajectory of their lives.

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slate.com — In the early 1700s, Europeans discovered in the Pacific Ocean a large, unpopulated island with a temperate climate, rich in all nature's bounty except coal, oil, and natural gas. Reflecting its lack of civilization, they named this island "Basicland." Today, Basicland is under new management, using a new governmental system. It also has a new nickname: Sorrowland.

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washingtonpost.com — Dear wavering House Democrats: I feel your pain. Eighteen years ago, I was elected on the coattails of a popular young Democratic president who promised a post-partisan Washington. A year later, with partisan gridlock capturing the Capitol, there was a razor-thin vote on the House floor over legislation that Democrats said would remake the country and Republicans promised would bankrupt it. I voted my conscience and it cost me. I am your worst-case scenario. And I'd do it all again.

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huffingtonpost.com — Reason # 10 — Consider the source. Who are the major advocates of the theory that it is bad politics for Democrats to vote for health care reform? None other than Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner. If they recommend that Democrats vote no, then any Democrat with half his wits should fall all over himself to vote yes.

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truthdig.com — Some of the men and women rose at 3 a.m. to secure a place at the head of the line that extended a city block or more from the entrance to St. John’s Well Child and Family Center in South Los Angeles. Visit such a place anywhere in America and you can see why the health care reform bill — as limited as it is — must be passed. The twin evils of unemployment and a weak medical care system have reached deep into the country, leaving working people uninsured and unemployed and lengthening the lines in front of places such as St. John’s.

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nytimes.com — California has been very, very good to Toyota. It is one of the largest markets in the world for the popular Prius hybrid. Nearly 18 percent of all Toyotas sold in the U.S. are sold in California. The state has showered the company with benefits, including large-scale infrastructure improvements for its operations and millions of dollars for worker training. California is one of the key reasons that Toyota is the wealthiest carmaker on the planet. Toyota is paying the state back with the foulest form of ingratitude.

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baselinescenario.com — What the Democrats need is something that will compel big banks to come out in force against them — to show their teeth and to pick off votes in an explicit manner. These powerful forces, once mobilized and out in the open, will almost certainly stop anything from passing the Senate. But the debate will grab people’s attention — and the ads, the lobbying, and the outrageous vote buying of Big Finance will help get across the bigger point: Big banks became only more powerful as a result of our most recent boom-bust-bailout sequence. Reasonable reform has almost no chance of passing the Senate. But a well-crafted debate, drawn up on the right terms — and with the support of the president (although don’t hold your breath on that) — could really help shift popular understanding of the issues.

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huffingtonpost.com — Are we at a turning point in the Obama presidency? It took far too long, but the president has belatedly grasped that when the other party is out to destroy you, the search for common ground is a fool's errand. For over a year, Obama believed that reform required him to govern as a post-ideological bipartisan. Now, mercifully, he has learned that progressive leadership demands taking on the Republicans, just as it requires taking on the insurance and banking industries. There is little common ground on those fronts either.

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truthout.org — Today, Joe McCarthy's heirs are more slick and glib than he ever was, yet their fundamental methods are the same. When Elizabeth Cheney, William Kristol and their media friends slander Justice Department attorneys as the "al-Qaida 7" and malign the "Department of Jihad," they are engaging in the smear tactics that became synonymous with McCarthy. What is different now is the cynical hypocrisy of the new McCarthyites, who know that the flimsy accusations they level against Democrats in the Obama administration could just as easily be turned on Republicans who served President Bush.

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truthout.org — To listen to John Roberts, you'd think that mobs of pitchfork-waving Democrats had accosted a handful of trembling justices and demanded that they reverse themselves on the spot — or else. Speaking to law students at the University of Alabama, Roberts said anyone is free to criticize the court. Except, apparently, not to the justices' faces.

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tomdispatch.com — What does it mean that we so eagerly slap the label “Ponzi scheme” on those things that most frustrate, infuriate, or confound us? Why do so many Americans feel like hapless investors who have thrown away their life savings to pay off guys at the top whose only goal is to screw over everybody else? It’s an unmistakable sign, at the very least, of a deep, simmering distrust and disillusionment, a dark undercurrent of despair spreading through our culture. The distrust extends as well to the government that finally jailed Madoff and is prosecuting Stanford, but has dealt a free pass to Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers.

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