Retweet if you agree: the Republican fiscal house is a mess.

There's a message making its way through the various conservative hashtag groups on Twitter:

Retweet if you agree: it's time Washington got its fiscal house in order. #tcot #tlot #teaparty #ocra #p2 #retweetthisif

It's from the Twitter account of Rep. Eric Cantor, the GOP Whip.

There are two problems with that message. First, it's always time for sound fiscal policy in Washington. It doesn't matter who's in Congress or the Oval Office. Budget priorities will differ, but the fundamental principles should always apply. Second, the GOP whip's call is a few years too late. Three reasons why:

First, the national debt:

Year	National Debt (as of 12/31)
2008	$10,699,804,864,612.13
2001	$5,943,438,563,436.13
difference	$4,756,366,301,176.00

That's over $4.7 trillion dollars. How did we get there? By doing the exact opposite of what people do when they want to balance their own budgets. The Bush Administration reduced income and raised expenses.

Second, Medicare Part D: In 2007, the Office of Management and Budget listed the cost of Medicare Part D's unfunded obligations: $8.4 trillion. For all the complaints about "unfunded mandates," the Bush Administration created a doozy of their own.

Third: the Bush tax cuts. Did they pay for themselves in increased revenue? No. From Time Magazine, 2007:

Virtually every economics Ph.D. who has worked in a prominent role in the Bush Administration acknowledges that the tax cuts enacted during the past six years have not paid for themselves--and were never intended to.

How much will they cost us? When Politifact fact-checked a Paul Krugman column, they were satisfied with his estimate of $1.8 trillion. Other groups have put the price tag higher.

Lower income. Higher spending. Is that still the Republican prescription for getting Washington's fiscal house in order?

Be Careful What You Wish For

Update: Rep. Cantor might want to read Elza Klein's piece: it identifies six Republican ideas that are already in the healthcare reform bills.

If you look in the dictionary for the definition of "bipartisan," this is what you'll find:

Of, consisting of, or supported by members of two parties, especially two major political parties: a bipartisan resolution.

That is, unless your dictionary is sitting on a Republican bookshelf:

"If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health spending bill," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (source)

From Rep. Eric Cantor's office:

After going it alone on health care reform for nearly a year, President Obama has decided he wants to bring Republicans into the conversation. Here’s the problem: unless the President and Speaker Pelosi are willing to scrap their government take over and hit the reset button, there’s not much to talk about.

Republicans believe the status quo is unacceptable, but so is any health reform package that spends money we don’t have or raises taxes on small businesses and working families in a recession. To that point, House Republicans have offered the only plan, that will lower health care costs, which is what the President said was the goal at the start of this debate. (source)

Senator McConnell and Rep. Cantor are both responding to this interview with President Obama:

KATIE COURIC: Yesterday, you said in front of the DNC Winter Meeting, quote, "Just in case there's any confusion out there, I'm not going to walk away from health care." But specifically, how are you going to move forward?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, what I've been doing is consulting closely with the leaders in the House, the leaders in the Senate on the Democratic side. And I want to consult closely with our Republican colleagues. So, they're gonna be coming in to the White House next week. And what I want to do is to ask them to put their ideas on the table. And then after the recess, which will be a few weeks away, I want to come back and have large meeting with Republicans and Democrats to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.

But part of the reason that people need to understand why we can't back off on this -- one of the major insurers in California just announced that in the individual market, they're increasing their premiums by 39 percent. That's a portrait of the future if we don't do something now. It's gonna keep on beatin' down families, small businesses, large businesses. It's gonna be a huge drain on the economy. We're gonna have to do something about it. And I think we can.

KATIE COURIC: So, you're inviting Republicans here to the White House. Does that mean, Mr. President, you're willing to start at square one?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well I think that what I want to do is to look at the Republican ideas that are out there. And I want to be very specific. "How do you guys want to lower costs? How do you guys intend to reform the insurance market so people with preexisting conditions, for example, can get health care? How do you want to make sure that the 30 million people who don't have health insurance can get it? What are your ideas, specifically?" And if we can go step by step through a series of-- these issues, and arrive at some agreements, then procedurally, there's no reason why we can't do it a lot faster than the process took last year.

Notice the difference: Where the Republicans want to start from the beginning, as though the House and Senate bills that passed last year don't count, the President wants to address the two major concerns Republicans raised: that they were being shut out of the legislative process (provably untrue) and that the negotiations were not televised as the President promised (provably true).

Be careful what you wish for, Republicans. The President has called your hand. Your party has a share in the country's leadership, too, and the time for being "The Party Of No" is over.

Democrats have been elected to a 59% majority in both houses of Congress. They get to lay out the policy agenda, because the people elected them to do so. Republicans get to influence the direction of that agenda... but sitting on your hands like a petulant child isn't the way to do that. Be leaders. Work with each other, not against each other. That's why we elected you.

Tale Of The Tape: Obama vs. Palin

Barack OBAMA vs. Sarah PALIN
August 4, 1961	Birthdate	February 11, 1964
6' 1 1/2"	Height	5' 4 3/4"
Barry From DC	Nicknames	"The Hockey Mom"
44th President of the United States		11th Governor of the State of Alaska
1	Presidential Election Wins	0
1	US Senate Wins	0
1	State Senate Wins	0
0	State Governor Wins	1
0	Mayoral Wins	1
GOP House Issues Conference, Baltimore, MD	Venue	National Tea Party Convention, Nashville, TN
140 Republican Members of Congress	Opponent	500 paid attendees
Fired-up politicians w/ GOP talking points	Opponents' Power Punch	Pre-screened questions from the audience
11-dimensional chess	Strategy	Sharpie, right palm
#questiontime	Results	#palinhand, #telepalin

Professor Lawrence Lessig: How to Get Our Democracy Back

This is a companion video to an article Professor Lessig has published in The Nation.

The pull quote:

"Whether on the left or the right, there is an endless list of critical problems that each side believes important. The Reagan right wants less government and a simpler tax system. The progressive left wants better healthcare and a stop to global warming. Each side views these issues as critical, either to the nation (the right) or to the globe (the left). But what both sides must come to see is that the reform of neither is possible until we solve our first problem first--the dependency of the Fundraising Congress."

Dear Senator Shelby

Update: Senator Shelby has released most, but not all, of his holds.

Can you hear that sound?

It's your fellow Americans, from both the left and the right, and they're not at all happy with you.

First, there's the impasse in the Banking Committee. Months of talks with Senator Dodd. No bill on regulatory overhaul. No consumer protection agency. The result? Status quo: the same broken system that allows banks to be "too big to fail" and that permits credit card companies to charge interest rates that would embarrass a loan shark.

That's not serving the public interest.

Second, there's this "blanket hold." Every Administration needs to hire men and women to run things. Your role as a Senator is to advise and consent: it says so right here in the Constitution.

Your role is not to hold those men and women hostage.

Ed Morrisey, writing on Hotair.com, says this:

It isn't at all legitimate to hold up every single appointment to demand more pork for one's state, or favorable bid decisions, or any other gimme impulse. Regardless of who is President, the elected executive is entitled to appoint people who want to implement his policies, and the Senate should usually give the nominees the courtesy of a floor vote, especially on political posts within the executive branch, with the noted exceptions for questions of incompetence, inexperience, or corruption.

Senator Shelby, the lights are on: we can see you.

Tell Senator Reid you're dropping the blanket hold. Tell Senator Dodd you're coming back to the table.

Do the job that your constituents elected you to do.

Do the job that the Nation expects of you.

You'll even get credit for saving or creating 70 jobs. Not too bad in this economy.

On Healthcare Reform, The Speech You Want To Hear

(with apologies to Ronald Reagan and Peter Robinson)

Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, ladies and gentlemen of the Democratic caucus: Sixty-five years ago, President Harry S Truman visited Congress, speaking to the people of this city and the nation about the need for health care reform. Well, since then other presidents have come, each in his turn, to Congress. And today I, myself, make my third visit to you.

Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout #p2, #bipart and #rebelleft. I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in #tcot. To those listening throughout Fox Nation, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen, in this firm, this unalterable belief: there's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.

Before me stands a wall that separates those who have health insurance from those millions who do not. This barrier divides our nation. From Maine to California, this barrier restricts millions of Americans. There may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain pre-existing conditions and skyrocketing premiums - still a restriction on the right to affordable health care, still a growing burden on our economy. Yet it is here in Congress where the wall emerges most clearly; here, dividing the Democratic caucus, where the C-SPAN camera and the Twitter feed have imprinted this brutal division upon the mind of the #hcr world.

Senator Edward Kennedy has said, "This is the cause of my life: that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." Today I say: As long as one American is denied coverage, as long one sick American has their policy dropped, it is not the Democratic challenge that remains unmet, but the American challenge. Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Congress a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.

Members of Congress, if you seek reform, if you seek prosperity for the United States, if you seek affordable health care for all: pass this bill! Senator Reid, use reconciliation! Speaker Pelosi, pass this damn bill!

83% Of These People Are Planning To Vote in 2010 - Are You?

I can only hope that this Daily Kos poll is an outlier... but what we've seen over the past two years makes me worry.

39% of the Republicans surveyed think that President Obama should be impeached. 32% say no, and the other 29% are not sure.

In the follow-up survey (and dear Lord, please let there be one soon), I would love to know what high crimes and misdemeanors they think he has committed. Or it could be that the word is losing its meaning: see "socialist" and "secession" below.

36% do not believe that President Obama was born in the US. 42% do believe so. 22% are not sure.

Head, meet desk. Either someone pranked this poll, or the problem is deeper than we're admitting.

63% think President Obama is a socialist. 21% say no, and 16% are not sure.

Proving that when you repeat the same word often enough, it loses any meaning and just turns into "a bad thing." Let's ask Frank Luntz what other words poll badly, so that maybe we can try those, too.

53% think Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President. 14% say no, and 33% aren't sure.

I cannot imagine Sarah Palin during #questiontime. Actually, I can... and she looks an awful lot like Tina Fey in the pilot for "Dealbreakers."

23% believe their state should secede. 58% say no, while 19% aren't sure.

Like "socialism," "secession" is losing any meaning. It's just the thing to do when you disagree with a politician.

Democrats, we have to get out the vote from now until the last polling place closes this November. Republicans are gearing up for another 1994 and a new "Republican Revolution." The Tea Party is feeling their oats after the Scott Brown win in Massachusetts... never mind that he discounted their influence.

Sadly, for all of us, the paranoid style in American politics is alive and well. We have to fight back.