Join me tonight at 8PM on The Conservative Wahoo Live! at 8PM. Call in at (347) 637-2203 to join the conversation or listen in on your computer over the interwebs.
Here's what I'm thinking for tonight.
1. Health Care
A. Dem Triumph on two levels
i. Extending coverage—in their DNA
ii. Changing the basic government/governed relationship (also in DNA)
B. What does this mean for 2010?
i. Will Republicans be able to capitalize?
a. How?
ii. Or will the American Public forget about it by then?
C. What should Republicans do?
i. “Repeal”
ii. “Improve”
2. Student Loan Industry
A. Huge government takeover underway (part of healthcare legislation)
B. US no longer guarantor of private, low interest student loans
C. Those funds now go to more direct loans from the Fed gov’t to students
D. System awash in money
i. Tuition rising while amount of loans/funding rises. Linkage?
E. Middle class entitlement, Scarlet “E”
3. The Economy
A. Improving
B. What credit can the President take?
i. Did the stimulus stimulate?
ii. Role of TARP?
C. Is this a false recovery?
D. Should we fear inflation? Are you buying gold?
4. Earmarks
A. What they are
B. Why they happen
C. Why they are unpopular
D. Why getting rid of them is a bad idea
5. Lazy Book Review—“The Great Gatsby”
A. Yet another classic I saved for late in life
B. What’s all the hubbub, Old Sport?
C. The Scarlet Letter—Now there’s a classic!
6. Sandra Bullock/Jesse James
A. Surprise? Uh, no.
B. Why do men cheat?
C. Why do women cheat?
Recommend deleting the People Magazine segment on Sandra "I Can Tame Bad Boys" Bullock and Jesse "Bad Boy" James. Leave that to the tabloids. Who really cares about this [Hollywood] segment of our society anyway? I should say, who, with a life, really cares?
ReplyDeleteHow is being the party of reaction (vs. Reagan's 'party of initiative') a winning strategy for the GOP?
ReplyDeleteIs the complete shutdown of support from the GOP we've seen (and which McCain threatens will continue) a harbinger of what you hope will come of a Republican majority in the next election: a stalemate and shutdown as we saw between Clinton and Gingrich in 1995 ?
Does the GOP's best (or most reasonable) hope have Dem DNA (acc. to your measure)?
Papa--it's late in the show, and could very well go away. But the site is about more than just politics, and I enjoy pop culture as a guilty pleasure.
ReplyDeleteGHP--nice to know your back problems not impacting your typing. Call in tonight if you wish to bat some of this around.
Just listened to last night's show. I wished I shared your sentiments on the economy's 'recovery'. I see it as more of a 'remission' that could very easily deteriorate. With the additional deficit spending required by HCR combined with state budgets bleeding red, taxes will need to rise. Businesses aren't being incentivized to take risks and hire; how could they when they're about to be bent over the table?
ReplyDeletePCE's and CRE's continue to lag. There are simply simply too many home units for sale on the market. These two measures are typically what have brought this country out of recession in the past. Both are systemically damaged.
Yes, the market is up - I would imagine all of the downsizing and 'fat' trimming done in 2009 have made many companies appear profitable. But they're not necessarily expanding. Meanwhile, the European Union continues to languish - I suspect many foreign investors have been hedging their bets by investing in the market.
I don't see a 'recovery' per se; I see a very fragile state of economic affairs unable to sustain the massive debt being piled onto it.