TODAY: Good Sense Carpet-Bombed in GOP Debate | Budget Deal A Right-Left Split Decision | Economy Girds For End of Zero Interest Rates | Who Owns Nevada's News? | Breakfast Sides
MORNING MESSAGE
CNN
marketed hysteria to promote Tuesday night’s debate. And, in the wake of Paris
and San Bernardino, it isn’t surprising the Republican candidates rose to the
bait. ... In the midst of the hyperbole, a serious debate managed to break out.
Rand Paul argued forcefully that the bipartisan excitement about toppling
dictators – in Iraq, in Libya and now in Syria – has had calamitous results,
leading to failed states, violence and chaos in which terrorist groups like ISIS
can thrive. ... Against this, Rubio, Christie, Kasich and Fiorina offered
bluster.
Good Sense Carpet-Bombed in GOP Debate
Frank
Bruni at The New York Times on Ted Cruz’s plan to “carpet-bomb” ISIS: “You
would carpet bomb where ISIS is, not a city, but the location of the troops,” he
said, as if there’s no mingling and the fighters of the Islamic State are
somehow clustered apart from everyone they control, extinguished with the mere
dropping of a rug. … That’s some magic carpet. And it was a prime example of the
bluster and oversimplification on vivid, infuriating display in this Republican
presidential debate…”
Matthew
Yglesias in Vox explains why he thinks Donald Trump was boosted by Tuesday’s CNN
debate. “The entire tenor of the debate — almost obsessively focused on ISIS
to the exclusion of all other issues — played perfectly into the atmosphere of
fear and paranoia that has boosted Trump.”
Ruth
Marcus writes that “Ted Cruz is more dangerous than Donald Trump.” “First,
although neither man is particularly constrained by truth or facts, Cruz is even
more ruthless and cutthroat. … Second, while Trump’s efforts are in the service
of self-promotion, Cruz’s are all that plus the implementation of an
extreme-right ideology. “
Budget Deal A Right-Left Split Decision
Republicans
score wins in budget deal, but some of their key demands were successfully
blocked. From Roll Call: “They won a repeal of the decades-old ban on crude
oil exports … a prohibition on gene-editing, a repeal of mandatory
country-of-origin labeling requirements and a freeze on some Internal Revenue
Services operations as punishment for allegedly preventing conservative groups
from obtaining tax-exempt status. … The GOP also has set the gears in motion for
passage this week on package of ‘tax extenders’ … But Republicans didn’t secure
a policy rider curtailing the so-called “fiduciary rule” contained in the
Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul bill much maligned by the GOP. They
weren’t able to undo a recent National Labor Relations Board ruling related to
joint employment status or undermine the Obama administration’s normalization
efforts with Cuba.”
Other
wins for Democrats in the budget deal, according to The Hill: “The spending
bill will postpone the “Cadillac tax” on expensive healthcare plans … Senate
Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) made an all-out push for including the
Cadillac tax freeze, which is a top priority of labor unions … also includes a
five-year extension of tax breaks for wind and solar energy companies … would
keep the 2009 expansions of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit and
American opportunity tax credit for college tuition, all core pieces of
President Obama’s stimulus law, on the books indefinitely. “
Economy Girds For End of Zero Interest Rates
The
Washington Post’s Matt O’Brien says the biggest question about today’s Fed rate
raise is “whether the Fed eventually ends up back where it started—at zero.”
“That, after all, is what has happened to every other country that has tried to
“lift off” from what economists call “the zero lower bound.” … And it might
happen here, considering the Fed looks like it’s going to start increasing
interest rates even though inflation is far below its 2 percent target and isn’t
really rising.”
The
Financial Times editorializes against a Fed rate increase. “Year after year,
the Fed — along with most forecasters — has overestimated inflationary pressure,
suggesting either a miscalculation about the economy’s output capacity or
something even more fundamental going wrong. … While American unemployment is
low, so is the US’s number of economically inactive people — those neither with
a job nor looking for one — both by international and historical standards.”
“Democrats
brace,” says Politico. “With recent assurances from Yellen that the central
bank will exercise extreme care, growing numbers of Wall Street analysts now
believe that a gentle hike of just a quarter of a percentage point will not be
necessarily bad news for markets … the knock-on effect could be good news for
Democrats including Hillary Clinton who don’t want to see the bank pump the
brakes too hard. … On the other end of the spectrum, some left-leaning Democrats
are fretting that wages are still slow to rise and that too many workers are not
participating in the labor market or are being forced to take part-time
jobs.
Who Owns Nevada's News?
Mystery:
Did a right-wing mogul just buy Nevada’s largest newspaper? Truthdig:
Someone bought the [Las Vegas Review-Journal], said to be Nevada’s largest and
most influential news source, and nobody will say who. In fact, according to
reports, the buyer’s anonymity was a stipulation of the $140 million cash
sale.
Breakfast Sides
Seattle
for-hire drivers win right to organize. Reports The Stand in Seattle:
“[AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said,] ‘The vote by the Seattle City Council
represents progress in the fight to extend collective bargaining rights to all
workers, regardless of whether they drive for Uber or work in a factory.’ …
Under the proposal, drivers would have the ability to come together to choose a
non-profit organization to represent them. Once authorized, the organization
could engage in collective bargaining on the drivers’ behalf. The new law would
apply to all taxi drivers, for-hire drivers, and drivers for app-based dispatch
companies, such as Uber and Lyft.”
Dean
Baker explains why it’s a bad idea to privatize mortgage giants Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac. “As long as Fannie and Freddie are essentially public companies
that do not offer high returns to shareholders and pay outlandish salaries to
CEOs, no one has incentive to take excessive risks. This changes if we allow
private banks to issue mortgage-backed securities with the guarantee of the
government.”
Economist
and progressive banking expert Bill Black tells Real News Network a Justice
Department official in a court case accused him of waging “jihad” against
banks. “This is how far the Justice Department has fallen … Anyone who wants
them to do their job they are treating as a terrorist,” Black told The Real News
Network. Says Naked Capitalism’s Yves Smith: “Since when is calling out fraud
tantamount to conducting a religious war? Only if you are a devout adherent of
cult of elite finance.”
Progressive
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