TW3 — and record keeping

April 23rd, 2008

That Was The Week That Was … disturbing, and full of psycho-sexual tension; the first topic on our Harper’s list is connected to the last, sex and death twisted together by the politics of patriarchy, rape and control. Note the snip of whackadoodle, vapid commentary we’ve come to call ‘a Bushism,’ because it’s the kind of inappropriate response and limited thought process that elucidates the two bonus pieces — new records set by the Dubby and his policies.

Jude

HARPER’S WEEKLY REVIEW
April 22, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI toured the United States. Kathleen
Battle, Harry Connick Jr., and Kelly Clarkson serenaded
him, President George W. Bush gave him a crystal cross and
a birthday cake, Placido Domingo threw him a birthday
party (but forgot to invite him), Jews welcomed him into a
Manhattan synagogue, and fans at Yankee stadium performed
the wave in his honor. Three Girl Scouts fainted in his
presence. The Senate and the House took half a day off so
that more than 100 members of Congress, including House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader John Boehner,
and Senator Edward Kennedy, could take a bus to Nationals
Park, in Washington, D.C., to hear the Pope deliver
Mass. Baker Liturgical Art, LLC, the Connecticut-based
clothing company hired by the Vatican, revealed that more
than 150 artisans (including 50 seamstresses), and 1,500
yards of fabric were necessary to outfit the Pope and his
entourage in new vestments for their 6-day stint in the
United States. Brian Baker, the company’s president, also
created a one-size-fits-all flex-miter for the
occasion. The Pope turned 81, Supreme Court Justice John
Paul Stevens turned 88, and 75-year-old Democratic Senator
John Murtha said that 71-year-old John McCain is too old
to be president. “Let me tell you something,” said
Murtha. “It’s no old man’s job.” Christie’s was unable to
sell the skeleton of a 65-million-year-old, 25-foot-long
triceratops.

Suicide bombers struck in Gaza, Afghanistan, and Iraq. “We
are seeing the globalization of suicide bombs,” said
Mohammed Hafez, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate
School; U.S. officials revealed that suicide bombing was
on the rise, with more than 658 attacks worldwide last
year, double the number in any of the past 25 years. Iraqi
police were cracking down on drivers who neglect to wear
their seatbelts. “It is a symbol of civilization,” said
Ahmed Wahayid, a taxi driver. “Western people in Europe
and America have it.” Ohio Governor Ted Strickland signed
into law a bill that allows disabled hunters to shoot from
their cars. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard
Dean told superdelegates that they had to decide between
Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton “starting now.”
Bruce Springsteen endorsed Obama. Zodiac Vodka announced
that Obama, a Leo, will defeat Clinton, a Scorpio, in the
race for the Democratic nomination. “Leo has never lost to
a Scorpio,” said the company. “Scorpio, however, has lost
to 11 of the 12 signs.” A German TV station aired segments
from recently discovered top-secret Stasi porno movies
with names like “Private Werner’s Big Surprise” and
“Fucking for the Fatherland.” “I didn’t recognize myself,”
said a former actor/soldier. “Neither did my wife, thank
God.” President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown met and discussed the “special relationship” between
the United States and the United Kingdom. “If it wasn’t a
personal relationship,” said Bush, “I wouldn’t be inviting
the man to a nice hamburger or something. Well done, I
might add.” A new study revealed that forgoing beef at
least once a week could drastically curb greenhouse gas
emissions.

A Yale art major convinced the press that her senior
thesis project chronicled the nine months she spent
artificially inseminating herself “as often as possible”
and then repeatedly inducing abortions; a Yale spokeswoman
said that the artist’s claims were false and that the
project was “performance art.” Argentines were upset about
a recent episode of “The Simpsons” in which Homer’s
friends praised “military dictator” Juan Peron for
successfully disappearing people and for his lovely wife,
“Madonna.” “This type of program causes great harm,” said
former congressman Lorenzo Pepe. “That part about
Madonna–that was too much.” Astronomers watched baby
stars being spawned in galaxy M83, more than 15 million
light-years away; a NASA spacecraft captured images of
solar burps spewing from the Sun and ripping the tail off
a passing comet; scientists built a tiny operating table
in order to perform laser nanosurgery on a one millimeter
worm; and researchers tinkering with the genes of female
fruit flies were able to make them produce an alluring
song by vibrating one of their wings, an action previously
seen only in males. A woman hitchhiking from Milan to Tel
Aviv dressed as a bride in order to promote world peace
was raped and strangled in Turkey. “Her travels were for
an artistic performance and to give a message of peace and
trust,” said the artist’s sister, “but not everyone
deserves trust.”

– Claire Gutierrez
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/WeeklyReview2008-04-22

Disapproval of Bush breaks record
Susan Page, USA

WASHINGTON - President Bush has set a record he’d presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove.

The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.The previous record of 67% was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.

Bush’s rating has worsened amid “collapsing optimism about the economy,” says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies presidential approval. Record gas prices and a wave of home foreclosures have fueled voter angst.

Bush also holds the record for the other extreme: the highest approval rating of any president in Gallup’s history. In September 2001, in the days after the 9/11 attacks, Bush’s approval spiked to 90%. In another record, the percentage of Americans who say the invasion of Iraq was a mistake reached a new high, 63%, in the latest poll.Assessments of Bush’s presidency are harsh. By 69%-27%, those polled say Bush’s tenure in general has been a failure, not a success.

Low approval ratings make it more difficult for presidents to maneuver, limiting their ability to get legislation passed or boost candidates in congressional elections.

“The president understands war and the slowdown in the economy weigh down public opinion, but the situation in Iraq is improving and the economy is about to get a big boost from the stimulus package,” said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.Bush has had dismal ratings through most of his second term. His approval rating hasn’t reached as high as 50% since May 2005. He’s been steadily below 40% since September 2006.

Views of Bush divide sharply along party lines. Among Republicans, 66% approve and 32% disapprove. Disapproval is nearly universal - 91% - among Democrats. Of independents, 23% approve, 72% disapprove of the job he’s doing. ++

U.S. deficit at record high and rising
The federal deficit hit $311 billion for the first half of fiscal year 2008, up from $162 billion the year before.
Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor
April 23, 2008

WASHINGTON - Deficit? What deficit? Three big intersecting events - war in Iraq, the economic downturn, and the presidential race - this year have combined to knock fiscal discipline far down the list of Washington’s policy priorities.

In fact, the federal deficit hit an all-time high of $311 billion for the first half of this budget year, reports the Treasury Department. And Congress is discussing further moves to help distressed homeowners and stimulate the economy. Iraq and Afghanistan will cost at least another $170 billion in supplemental funds through the end of next year.

Given the need, the current rush of spending might be understandable, say some deficit hawks. But they worry that Washington will use recession and war as excuses to stop caring about red ink altogether. They also warn that current deficits leave Washington ill-prepared to face an imminent explosion of spending on Social Security and Medicare caused by retiring baby boomers.

“I’ve spent a professional lifetime worrying about the federal budget and fiscal responsibility. And I’ve never been more worried than now,” said Alice Rivlin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, at a recent Brookings Institution symposium in Washington.

This February, in the president’s annual budget submission to Congress, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) predicted the federal deficit for fiscal year 2008 would come in at $410 billion.

That figure would represent a big jump from the fiscal 2007 deficit of $162 billion, admitted the White House. But, measured as a percentage of the nation’s gross domestic product, $410 billion in red ink is well within recent historical norms, according to administration budget documents. Moreover, the “primary” reasons for the rise would be short term: the cost of the stimulus bill and a slowdown in tax receipts caused by the softening economy.

Fast-forward to April. Treasury figures now show that the deficit is likely to be larger than OMB had anticipated, since it was $311 billion through the first half of the fiscal year alone.

Why the extra red ink? The economy has been even worse than the White House predicted - and Congress increased the size of the stimulus package beyond what the administration wanted.

A 300 percent increase

Tax receipts generally pick up in the summer, so the deficit is unlikely to surpass $600 billion. But $450 billion, or even $500 billion is possible.

“There is no fiscal discipline this year, and they have an excuse to not have any: the economy,” says Stan Collender, managing director of Qorvis Communications and a veteran federal budget expert. “The deficit is going to increase close to 300 percent, and nobody is saying anything.

“Next year, the gap between Uncle Sam’s income and outgo might increase even further. Costs for Iraq and Afghanistan will continue to mount, even if large numbers of troops begin to come home. Congress may rein in the disliked Alternative Minimum Tax, costing the government further revenue. A new president is likely to have new - possibly expensive - priorities. “It’s not hard to come up with a $600 billion [fiscal 2009] deficit,” says Mr. Collender.

The degree to which parsimony is out of fashion in national politics perhaps can be seen in presumptive GOP nominee John McCain’s April 15 speech on his economic proposals. Senator McCain emphasized tax reductions - he proposed eliminating the federal gas tax for the summer, for instance - and did not repeat his previous assurances that he’d balance the budget in his first term in office.

At an April 2 round table hosted by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin suggested that reducing the federal budget “is not an end in itself,” according to a summary of the event published by CRFB. Rather than focusing on red ink, a president should talk about all the important issues related to the budget, including the need to protect US security and help American families, he said.

10,000 new retirees a day

Meanwhile, the baby boomers will become eligible for Social Security this year. That means the long-awaited tsunami of retirees washing into federal entitlement programs is almost upon the US. Over the next two decades, more than 80 million boomers will become eligible for Social Security and Medicare. That’s about 10,000 people per day. By definition, spending for these programs is on auto-pilot. More beneficiaries means higher federal spending - much higher.

Due to entitlements, “without fundamental changes in our tax policy and our spending policy, deficits are going to grow from the rather benign levels that we’ve experienced in the last couple of years to levels that this nation has not experienced in peacetime,” said Robert Reischauer, also a former CBO chief and president of the Urban Institute, at the Brookings symposium.

A bipartisan group of experts organized by Brookings and the Heritage Foundation recommends that Congress enact explicit long-term budgets for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and set limits on the automatic entitlement spending growth. Such action would force Congress to make trade-offs between entitlements and other fiscal priorities.

“What our proposal does is put those programs on the same playing field, if you like, as other programs,” said Stuart Butler, vice president of domestic and economic studies at the Heritage Foundation. “There should be an orderly discussion about the commitment we make and how money is allocated and so on.” ++

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

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Entry Filed under: Political Waves