Author Archives: Doug Badger

Republicans Should Join Democrats in Impeding Obamacare Implementation

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Media reports indicate that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are nearing an agreement on temporarily funding the government and increasing its borrowing authority. [Credit: Huffington Post]

Media reports indi­cate that Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid (D‑NV) and Repub­li­can Leader Mitch McConnell (R‑KY) are near­ing an agree­ment on tem­porar­i­ly fund­ing the gov­ern­ment and increas­ing its bor­row­ing author­i­ty. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

Octo­ber 14, 2013, 7:15 am

Sen­ate lead­ers are report­ed­ly clos­ing in on a deal that would both fund the gov­ern­ment and restore its bor­row­ing author­i­ty for a few months. The deal report­ed­ly con­tains two changes to the health care law, one pro­posed by Repub­li­cans, the oth­er by Democ­rats. The pro­vi­sion backed by Repub­li­cans is polit­i­cal­ly mis­guid­ed, unwork­able and would do lit­tle to impede the law’s imple­men­ta­tion; the pro­vi­sion backed by Democ­rats, by con­trast, appears to com­pli­cate imple­men­ta­tion of a law whose launch has so far not gone smooth­ly. Repub­li­cans who oppose Oba­macare should join Democ­rats in seek­ing changes that would dam­age its imple­men­ta­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Jon Corzine: Poster Boy for Crony Capitalism?

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President Obama unsuccessfully campaigned for Jon Corzine. Since then, nearly $1 billion in client money disappeared into the ether in a firm Corzine steered into bankruptcy.

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma unsuc­cess­ful­ly cam­paigned for Jon Corzine in 2009. Since then, near­ly $1 bil­lion in client mon­ey dis­ap­peared into the ether from a firm Corzine steered into bank­rupt­cy, but the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion con­clud­ed that Corzine com­mit­ted no crime.

Jon Corzine is not a crook. No, really.

The Jus­tice Department’s inves­ti­ga­tion of the for­mer Wall Street titan, New Jer­sey Gov­er­nor and U.S. Sen­a­tor con­clud­ed last sum­mer that he’d done noth­ing wrong. Or at least noth­ing crim­i­nal. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Congress IS Getting a Special Deal Under Obamacare

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The Obama Administration cut Congress a break when it allowed them to keep their health insurance subsidies. Will Congress at some point be forced to vote on that special deal? [Credit: Getty Images]

The Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion cut Con­gress a break when it allowed them to keep their health insur­ance sub­si­dies. Will that spe­cial deal prove polit­i­cal­ly viable?  [Cred­it: Get­ty Images]

[Updat­ed Octo­ber 1, 2013]

The new health care exchanges opened for busi­ness today, even as most fed­er­al gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions shut down.

That result is exact­ly the oppo­site of what House Repub­li­cans intend­ed when they set­tled on their strat­e­gy of link­ing gov­ern­ment fund­ing with Oba­macare “defund­ing.” They insist­ed that their tac­tics would keep the gov­ern­ment open while stop­ping the health law in its tracks, though nei­ther Sen­ate Democ­rats nor the Pres­i­dent seem inclined to go along. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Tevi Troy on What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched and Obama Tweeted

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Tevi Troy's new book explores how presidents interact with popular culture ... like this awkward moment when the President met The King. [Credit: The Guardian]

Tevi Troy’s new book explores how pres­i­dents inter­act with pop­u­lar cul­ture … like this mem­o­rable moment when the Pres­i­dent met The King. [Cred­it: The Guardian]

Tevi Troy’s new book is more than just an enter­tain­ing chron­i­cle of what Pres­i­dents have read, watched and lis­tened to. It offers insights into their habits of mind and how these habits have shaped – and been shaped by – pop­u­lar cul­ture. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Syria and the Future of US Policy

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The August 21 chem­i­cal attack in Syr­ia has iron­i­cal­ly left Assad more secure­ly in pow­er than before, while increas­ing Russ­ian influ­ence in the region. [Cred­it: ABC]

The Syr­ia episode is behind us, but after the President’s ser­i­al impro­vi­sa­tions, our pol­i­cy, aims and inter­ests remain unclear.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How TARP Begat Obamacare

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Wall Street titans successfully lobbied Congress for TARP in 2008. Their success made Obamacare possible. [Credit: UPI]

Wall Street titans suc­cess­ful­ly lob­bied Con­gress for TARP in 2008. Their suc­cess made Oba­macare pos­si­ble. [Cred­it: UPI]

Oba­macare goes live on Octo­ber 1, when new­ly-cre­at­ed gov­ern­ment exchanges are to begin sell­ing health insur­ance and enrolling peo­ple in Med­ic­aid. The date car­ries an eerie sig­nif­i­cance. Octo­ber 1 also is the fifth anniver­sary of the Sen­ate vote that made Oba­macare pos­si­ble: a 74–25 vote to cre­ate the Trou­bled Asset Relief Pro­gram, the $700 bil­lion Wall Street bailout bill, more com­mon­ly known as TARP. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

When Crony Capitalism Goes Bad

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The government has finally found someone to blame for the mortgage meltdown: S&P, a ratings agency. But the accused says the government has other motives. [Credit: Boston Globe]

The gov­ern­ment has final­ly found some­one to blame for the mort­gage melt­down: S&P, a rat­ings agency. But the accused says the gov­ern­ment has oth­er motives. [Cred­it: Boston Globe]

What hap­pens to crony cap­i­tal­ism when things go bad­ly? Every­body lawyers up and charges and coun­ter­charges fly hard­er and faster than in a nasty divorce. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Syria and the Budget: Putting Our Money Where Our Morality Is

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The Pres­i­dent delib­er­at­ed for weeks before decid­ing to ask Con­gress for autho­riza­tion to attack Syr­ia. He’s work­ing the phones to gath­er votes but will his bud­get pro­vide future Pres­i­dents with the resources to car­ry out sim­i­lar actions? (Cred­it: Telegraph)

On August 14, the Sec­re­tary of the Army gave his sub­or­di­nates an order: pro­duce a list of cuts that will reduce spend­ing by 25 percent.

A week lat­er, a chem­i­cal weapons attack near Dam­as­cus left an esti­mat­ed 1,429 dead,  mov­ing the Pres­i­dent to ask the mil­i­tary to pre­pare for a retal­ia­to­ry strike against the Assad gov­ern­ment. Even a lim­it­ed assault would cost hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars, accord­ing to defense experts. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Welfare or Work: A Difficult Choice

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The choice between welfare and work is not always an easy one, according to a new study by the Cato Institute. (Credit: LA Times)

The choice between wel­fare and work is not always an easy one, accord­ing to a new study by the Cato Insti­tute. (Cred­it: LA Times)

(NOTE: This post was updat­ed on Sep­tem­ber 23 to incor­po­rate the gov­ern­men­t’s new­ly-released pover­ty rate data.)

If forced to choose between a full-time job that paid $24.40 per hour and enrolling in a pack­age of gov­ern­ment ben­e­fits that paid a com­pa­ra­ble amount, which would you choose? Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Moral Hazard of Government

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Sting wrote the stalker's anthem, "Every Breath You Take," a song that takes on new meaning in light of newest NSA revelations. [Credit: Davids Zondy]

Sting wrote the stalk­er’s anthem, “Every Breath You Take,” a song that takes on new mean­ing in light of newest NSA rev­e­la­tions. [Cred­it: Davids Zondy]

The intel­li­gence community’s gild­ed rep­u­ta­tion, already tar­nished by months of unau­tho­rized dis­clo­sures, was dragged into the realm of the creepy last Fri­day when an NSA offi­cial told a reporter about an agency employ­ee who had tapped secret gov­ern­ment data to spy on his ex-wife. Con­tin­ue read­ing →