The Accidental Patriot is committed to fight nonsense and anti-intellectualism by thinking outside the box, yelling on top of it, and pissing inside it. Politics, Opinion and Humor - Part 4
It will go down as one of the most painful openings to a political debate in recent memory.
Gov. Jan Brewer stumbled and stammered through her opening statement during a televised debate Wednesday night, suffering through an embarrassing, cringe-eliciting pause that lasted more than 10 seconds.
With her hands clasped in front of her, she looked at the camera, then down, possibly at notes, and back up at the camera. She smiled, let out a loud exhale, then resumed her statement with a pronouncement of her record as governor.
“We have, uh, did what was right for Arizona,” Brewer said, using a grammatical misconstruction she uttered twice during the debate.
Then, she bolted from a post-debate question-and-answer session with reporters after refusing to respond to queries about a past statement about bodies supposedly found beheaded in the Arizona desert.
Video of the pause and the post-debate walkoff from the media scrum quickly became an Internet sensation as Brewer was skewered on political blogs Thursday.
“Jan Brewer: Bumbling politician of the year,” salon.com headlined its post. “The rising star governor of Arizona gives a painfully awful debate performance.”
Some called it her Stockdale moment, a reference to James Stockdale’s bumbling debate performance as H. Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 presidential race.
Brewer herself acknowledged Thursday during an interview on a talk show on Phoenix radio station KTAR-FM that she could have done better.
“It certainly was the longest 16 seconds of my life,” Brewer said of the pause. “I’m human, I’m human.”
She said the post-debate questioning by reporters was unfair, but added that leaving as she did might have been “the wrong thing to do. ”
“But that’s how I felt at the moment,” she added.
Brewer became governor in January 2009 when her Democratic predecessor resigned in midterm and the Republican drew national attention when she signed the state’s controversial immigration law on April 29.
The immigration law turned her into a popular politician among Republicans around the country as she runs for a full term against Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard. She is heavily favored to win.
Not surprisingly, Brewer said she doesn’t think she’ll debate Goddard again. He previously challenged her to six debates across the state and his campaign renewed that call Thursday.
Goddard said Thursday that Brewer’s debate performance “unquestionably” would help him. “The unfortunate result is she’s now afraid to do any more debates,” he said.
The debate itself was peppered by heated give-and-take jabs by Brewer and Goddard over immigration, the state’s budget troubles and a recent prison escape, often with the candidates talking over each other.
Goddard also took Brewer to task over her comments about beheadings in the desert. He said such comments are false and hurting the state’s image and economy. That could help neutralize the immigration issue, and Goddard is also attacking Brewer on economic and budget issues.
Patrick Kenney, an Arizona State University professor of political science, said Brewer’s stumbles could hurt her, especially with the clip of the pause being replayed all over TV and the Internet.
“That clip and that part of the story is being replayed,” Kenney said. “It’s not the kind of image that any politician wants.”
UPDATE: Friday 2:51 p.m. – The campaign to oust Alan Simpson from President Obama’s deficit commission took a creative turn on Friday, with the launch of StuffAlanSimpsonSays.com, created by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. The site presents readers with a quiz that repeatedly asks readers to guess which of two provided quotes was in fact a comment made by the commission co-chair and former Wyoming senator.
Simpson’s recent “310 million tits!” remark has made him something of an online celebrity, if of the infamous variety, so readers should have no difficulty choosing the authentic quote from among these two:
“I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too…We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits!”
“Stop yapping your lips and listen good. This commission might be packed with millionaires, but we’re looking out for little people who need Social Security.”
The quiz, however, is not an easy one, even for a reader familiar the Simpson canon. The ultimate aim of the project is to urge visitors to the site to sign a petition calling on the White House to fire Simpson.
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UPDATE: Friday 11:55 a.m. – Jack Conway became the second Democratic Senate candidate to break with the White House and call on Alan Simpson to step down from the deficit commission for expressing disdain for Social Security in an email this week to an advocate for middle-aged and elderly women. “Senator Simpson clearly is not approaching the serious challenge of solving the long-term solvency of Social Security with serious solutions,” said Conway in a statement to HuffPost. “Instead, he’d rather use offensive language to make
headlines. Rather than serve as a distraction to the rest of the group, the Senator should step down.”
Social Security, however, does not face a solvency crisis; the program’s actuaries estimate it can pay full benefits until 2037 and slightly reduced benefits in the decades after, if not changes are made.
Conway called on his opponent, Republican Rand Paul, to repudiate Simpson. “I call on Rand Paul – not his spokesman but him personally – to disavow Senator Simpson’s comments. We can be fiscally responsible without harming seniors or privatizing Social Security,” he said. A Paul spokesman didn’t immediately return an email.
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UPDATE: Friday 9:09 a.m. – The Older Women’s League has continued to call for Alan Simpson’s resignation from the deficit commission despite his apology to the group’s executive director for telling her that Social Security is “a milk cow with 310 million tits!” and that she should find “honest work!”
The White House, however, has accepted the apology that was directed at Ashley Carson. In a letter to the President Obama, Donna Wagner, OWL’s president, said that Obama’s decision to leave him on the panel “sends a message that your Administration does not take sexism seriously and also that you are not concerned about Mr. Simpson’s views regarding Social Security.” She added, in a swipe at the administration for accepting an apology that was not directed its way, “I sincerely hope that Mr. Simpson apologized to you for his embarrassing actions and that is why you have chosen to accept his apology and keep him on board.”
The letter made implicit reference to the firings of Van Jones, Shirley Sherrod and other administration officials who came under criticism for conservatives, and questioned why a different standard exists for Simpson. From the letter:
It is with great disappointment that we received your response to the situation regarding Alan Simpson’s continued co-chairmanship of your National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. I sincerely hope that Mr. Simpson apologized to you for his embarrassing actions and that is why you have chosen to accept his apology and keep him on board. OWL released a statement yesterday that expressed our Executive Director, Ashley Carson’s, gratitude for Mr. Simpson’s prompt apology, but that OWL still wishes to see him resign.Today is Women’s Equality Day. Last week Carson was the keynote speaker at the Veterans’ Administration celebration of this momentous occasion, and today many of our colleagues are all across the country speaking and celebrating the day that women finally got the right to vote in the United States. It’s been ninety years since women got the right to vote, but sexism still exists in many forms, both subtly and blatantly.
OWL’s members believe that choosing to keep Mr. Simpson as your co-chair sends a message that your Administration does not take sexism seriously and also that you are not concerned about Mr. Simpson’s views regarding Social Security. There are a number of occasions where racial discrimination appeared both within government and elsewhere, and where your Administration acted swiftly and appropriately to correct wrongdoing. Why is one form of discrimination any different from another?
UPDATE: Thursday 3:00 p.m. – Senate candidate Elaine Marshall, a Democrat from North Carolina running against Republican Richard Burr, has added her voice to the chorus calling for Alan Simpson to step down from the deficit commission.
“Alan Simpson’s remarks were disrespectful to women and to Social Security recipients. He should resign or the president should fire him,” Marshall said, speaking at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, according to her campaign.
“The fact that he thinks this way shows that he can’t do his job with an open mind. We should be doing everything in our power to strengthen and protect Social Security, not attacking the recipients who depend on it.”
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is also calling on him to be terminated. The White House has so far stuck by Simpson. If he remains on the commission, his presence and his inflammatory remarks could undermine recommendations the panel may make to cut Social Security — a happy result, as far as defenders of the New Deal bedrock are concerned.
“We cannot trust the integrity of any product or recommendations of the Commission as long as former Senator Simpson is the Chairman,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in a statement calling for his dismissal.
UPDATE: Thursday 2:24 p.m. – A coalition of Social Security advocates representing some 50 million Americans called on President Obama to fire Alan Simpson from the deficit commission in the wake of his assertion that Social Security is “a milk cow with 310 million tits!” The Strengthen Social Security Campaign is a coalition of 125 labor, progressive, women’s rights and elderly groups.
“While I appreciate that Alan Simpson has apologized, he still must go,” said Nancy Altman, co-chair of Strengthen Social Security. “This is not the first time that Alan Simpson has shown he neither understands nor appreciates Social Security. His disdain for Social Security and the hard working Americans who count on it make him unfit to be anywhere near discussions about its future. Social Security should have no part in deficit discussions and Alan Simpson should have no part in the deficit commission. Social Security is too important to leave in Mr. Simpson’s hands or, for that matter, in the hands of budget cutters who fail to recognize that Social Security contributes not one penny to the deficit.”
UPDATE: Thursday 12:30 p.m. – MoveOn.org is urging its millions of members to call the White House and urge President Obama to fire Alan Simpson from the deficit commission for calling Social Security “a milk cow with 310 million tits!” in an email to a leading women’s rights advocate. MoveOn sent the following message to its members on Thursday:
It’s time for Alan Simpson to resign.When President Obama appointed former Sen. Simpson co-chair of the deficit commission, he said Sen. Simpson would lead the commission in building “a bipartisan consensus to put America on the path toward fiscal reform and responsibility.”
But instead, Sen. Simpson has made clear, again and again, that he has contempt for people who rely on Social Security, and will use his position to rant at anyone who doesn’t agree with his plans to cut benefits.
First, he referred to people who rely on Social Security as “greedy geezers,” then he called Americans who need Social Security “lesser people.” On Monday he sent an off-the-wall email to the Executive Director of a group representing older women about “people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree.” He went on to say, “It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where [Social Security is] like a milk cow with 310 million tits.”
Simpson just apologized for the last comment, saying it was a case of him putting his foot in his mouth. But this isn’t about a poor choice of words or a one-time gaffe. Simpson has repeatedly, over the course of years, shown contempt for those who rely on Social Security while berating those who disagree with him. As Paul Krugman wrote yesterday, “he has to go.”
Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming, portrays himself as a plainspoken farm boy but, in reality, is the privileged son of a former Wyoming senator and governor with little apparent knowledge of farm life. In fact, cows do not have “tits,” but teats.
UPDATE: Wednesday 8:30 p.m. – Simpson isn’t going anywhere, the New York Times reports. “Alan Simpson has apologized and while we regret and do not condone his comments, we accept his apology and he will continue to serve,” White House spokesperson Jennifer Psaki told the Times.
UPDATE: Wednesday 3:59 p.m. – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) called on President Obama to fire Alan Simpson from the deficit commission for referring to Social Security as “a milk cow with 310 million tits!” in an email this week to OWL executive director Ashley Carson.
The statement by Senator Simpson that Social Security is “like a milk cow with 310 million tits” is really quite beyond comprehension. Today, Social Security provides the majority of income for two-thirds of the nation’s elderly and for one-third it provides nearly all their income. Without it, millions of Americans would be living in abject poverty as was the case before the creation of Social Security. It is false and demeaning to say that these people, the vast majority of whom have worked their entire lives and contributed into the Social Security system, are somehow “milking” the system.Despite the many years of distinguished public service former Senator Simpson has dedicated to this country, his recent e-mail indicates that it is no longer appropriate for him to serve on the bi-partisan deficit reduction commission. Therefore, in order for your commission’s recommendations to have credibility with Congress, we respectfully urge you to remove Senator Simpson from the commission.
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UPDATE: Wednesday 3:08 p.m. – Alan Simpson apologized Wednesday for describing Social Security as “a milk cow with 310 million tits!” in an email to OWL executive director Ashley Carson.
Simpson’s apology comes as pressure is mounting on the former Wyoming Senate Republican to resign his co-chairmanship of President Obama’s deficit commission, which is considering cuts to Social Security.
The National Organization for Women called on him to step down Wednesday. “Alan Simpson is not fit to lead the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform,” said NOW President Terry O’Neill in a statement to HuffPost. “The ugliness of his disrespect for women is matched only by his dogged determination to dismantle Social Security by cutting benefits or increasing the retirement age. The National Organization for Women urges President Obama to take a stand on this issue and replace Simpson immediately.”
And in a public statement, AARP called Simpson’s comment “offensive” and said that it “undermine[s] the serious work of the commission and give[s] us little confidence the commission can fairly look at important programs such as Social Security.”
My wife Ann and I are in Yellowstone National Park for the opening of the new visitor center, so I only just now have had the opportunity to read your response to my recent e-mail. I apologize for what I wrote. I can see that my remarks have caused you anguish, and that was not my intention. I certainly did not intend to diminish your hard work for the Older Women’s League. I know you care deeply about strengthening Social Security, and so do I, just as deeply. I remember your testimony at our public hearing in June about the importance of retirement security for women. Over the last 40 years, I have had my size 15 feet in my mouth a time or two. To quote my old friend and colleague, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, when I make a mistake, “It’s a doozy!”Next time I’m in Washington, perhaps we could meet in person, and I could learn further of your sincere concerns.
Carson told HuffPost she was appreciative of the apology but that his comments demonstrate that he is unfit to lead the commission. A spokeswoman for NOW also said that their call for his resignation stands, despite the apology.
“I am very appreciative of Mr. Simpson’s quick apology and for his acknowledgment of wrongdoing,” said Carson. “That said, OWL’s position that Mr. Simpson should resign from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has not changed. This is much more than a ‘foot in your mouth’ situation. Mr. Simpson has demonstrated a consistent, decades-long, pattern of making statements that are offensive to seniors, to women and that are just plain unacceptable in 2010. There are consequences for actions — especially when those actions result in uniting people who fight for a common purpose. We, the advocates, do honest work day in and day out to help disadvantaged individuals create better lives for themselves and their loved ones. His actions demonstrate that he does not possess the judgment necessary to make objective recommendations about some of America’s most valued programs.”
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UPDATE: Wednesday 10:27 a.m. – Alan Simpson should resign as co-chair of President Obama’s deficit commission for sending an email to a leading women’s rights advocate calling Social Security “a milk cow with 310 million tits!” a leading advocate of Social Security said Wednesday, arguing that Simpson’s “disdain for the very program he claims he is trying to protect” makes him unfit for a leadership position on the panel, which is considering cuts to Social Security.
Social Security Works co-director Eric Kingson, in a statement released the day after the email became public, said that Simpson’s “disdain for the very program he claims he is trying to protect” makes him unfit for a leadership position on the commission, which is considering cuts to Social Security.
“Alan Simpson’s comments are offensive and sexist and clearly demonstrate that he is unfit to continue to lead the President’s Fiscal Commission,” he said. “His comments not only show his true view of women and older Americans but also his disdain for the very program he claims he is trying to protect – Social Security. Social Security Works is demanding that he resign immediately.”
The commission was established with an executive order from President Obama after Republicans who had championed such a commission voted against creating one on the Senate floor in an effort to deprive the president of a political victory. Obama has the authority to place and remove commissioners. If Simpson refuses to resign, said Kingson, Obama should can him.
“If he will not [resign], the President must fire him,” he said. “Alan Simpson has no business deciding the fate of hundreds of millions of Americans’ retirement future. He should have no power over Social Security, which provides vital economic support to millions of children and people with disabilities, as well as seniors and their families.”
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Tuesday 7:32 p.m. - Alan Simpson believes that Social Security is “like a milk cow with 310 million tits,” according to an email he sent to the executive director of National Older Women’s League Tuesday morning. Simpson co-chairs the deficit commission, which is considering various proposals to cut Social Security benefits.
Simpson’s email, which OWL chief Ashley Carson released publicly, (PDF) was sent in response to an April blog post Carson wrote for the Huffington Post. Carson criticized Simpson for repeatedly describing his Social Security opponents as “Pink Panthers,” arguing that the description had sexist connotations.
His email is peppered with exclamation points and condescension. At one point he urged Carson to read a certain graph, “which I hope you are able to discern if you are any good at reading graphs.”
Simpson concludes by implying that leading a major organization dedicated to the interests of middle-aged and elderly women is not “honest work.”
“If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know,” he writes. “And yes, I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too. It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow
with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work!”
It’s unclear from Simpson’s email if he means Social Security is the milk cow or if he’s referring to America in general. A Simpson assistant responded to a HuffPost email saying that Simpson was traveling and unable to comment immediately. OWL is now circulating a petition calling on the former Republican Senator from Wyoming to resign.
Simpson’s tirade continues a pattern of erratic behavior that threatens to undermine the commission’s work. In June, he unleashed a stream of error-riddled invective on a Social Security advocate wielding a camera outside a closed-door commission meeting, leading Paul Krugman to conclude (happily) that Simpson was killing the commission.
Illegal immigration to the U.S. has slowed sharply since 2007, with the bleak U.S. job market apparently discouraging people from heading north.
The influx of illegal immigrants plunged to an estimated 300,000 annually between March 2007 and 2009, from 850,000 a year between March 2000 and March 2005, according to new study released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group.
The decline contributed to a contraction in the overall size of the undocumented population to 11 million people in March 2009 from a peak of 12 million two years earlier, according to the Pew analysis, which is based on data from the Census Bureau.
The news comes as the Obama administration continues to tighten border security (assigning National Guard units to assist border patrols, and increasing drone flights) and more aggressive enforcement of laws preventing the hiring of illegal immigrants. As the Dallas Morning News reports, “removals from the U.S. interior have steadily climbed. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said their goal is to expel a record 400,000 people for the fiscal year ending this month.
All that said, the dismal economy has no doubt had a much bigger impact on cutting illegal immigration than anything that the federal government or the Obama administration has done. It has always been about jobs; as long as U.S. firms were gonna hire them, the immigrants were gonna come. The hiring has largely stopped, the inflow has largely stopped.
However, the unsurprising news that illegal immigration has slowed to a relative trickle — and that the total population of illegal immigrants has declined — highlight the fact that the overheated rhetoric about the administration “abandoning American soveriegnty” on the border and the passage of a draconian Arizona law (also backed by both gubernatorial candidates here in Georgia) all lack a cause in actual fact.
The problem is much less serious than it ever was, the federal government is doing more than it ever did, yet to hear the rhetoric the sky is falling and the country is collapsing and the world is coming to an end at the hands of illegal immigrants. I can’t remember a time in which hysteria so dominated the American political scene.
Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell has a robust evangelical outreach program, and she’s appealed to these voters in her Republican primary bid in part with her old-fashioned views about sex.
O’Donnell has said, for example, that masturbation is wrong, and that looking at pornography is equivalent to cheating on your spouse. She outlined her views in a November 1998 article titled “The Case for Chastity” for Cultural Dissident.
She wrote:
When a married person uses pornography, or is unfaithful, it compromises not just his (or her) purity, but also compromises the spouse’s purity. As a church, we need to teach a higher standard than abstinence. We need to preach a righteous lifestyle.
On an MTV show about abstinence (as summarized by Huffington Post), O’Donnell explained:
The reason that you don’t tell [people] that masturbation is the answer to AIDS and all these other problems that come with sex outside of marriage is because again it is not addressing the issue. … You’re just gonna create somebody who is, I was gonna say, toying with his sexuality. Pardon the pun.
In the 90s era discussion on MTV, O’Donnell said, “The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. So you can’t masturbate without lust.”
O’Donnell, who is Catholic, has been an outspoken advocate for abstinence, and was a frequent guest on television and radio shows including Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect”. She also did marketing consulting for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
She insists, however, that she had nothing to do with former campaign organization aide Yates Walker, who questioned her rival Rep. Mike Castle’s (R) sexuality in this video, and accused Team Castle of “mudslinging” in a statement on Friday. Walker is a former staffer from Doug Hoffman’s ill-fated campaign in New York’s 23rd Congressional district.
But, as WDEL Radio’s Allan Loudell wrote last week, O’Donnell repeated the innuendo “several times” when saying she doesn’t support what Walker said.
Loudell caught another dog whistle in the opening line of an O’Donnell press release:
Last night, Christine made the following statement to a crowd of over 200 supporters in response to the NEWS JOURNAL’s comments that Castle is gay:
A later version of the release rephrased:
Christine made the following statement to a crowd of over 200 supporters, in response to that day’s News Journal’s comment on the Liberty.com video release of Mike Castle.
O’Donnell’s campaign has also has attempted to suggest that Castle is pro-human cloning because he supports embryonic stem cell research.
Loudell sums up the concerns about O’Donnell among conservatives:
(Indeed, it IS telling that the state’s two conservative talk show hosts, our own Rick Jensen and the aforementioned Gaffney, dis Christine O’Donnell. That both Jensen and Gaffney regarded President George W. Bush as “too liberal” tells you volumes. In other words, while they’re ideologically much closer to O’Donnell than to Mike Castle, they’re deeply troubled by O’Donnell’s credibility and knowledge base.)
She may be making headway in the polls, and O’Donnell said recently that her donations have surged. But there’s also this interview she did with the conservative Weekly Standard, suggesting that people “follow me home at night,” and that she has to check the bushes and cars around her townhouse.
Thanks to that article and fears about the seat’s competitiveness against Democratic candidate Chris Coons, a quiet whisper campaign about the perils of her candidacy has grown a bit louder, with some Delaware Republicans openly questioning her credentials and background. Republicans in D.C. are only willing to speak about their concerns privately, but have provided reporters with pages of unflattering details from O’Donnell’s public appearances.
Someone seems to have sent the same information to conservative talk show host Dan Gaffney, who pressed her repeatedly on the questions about her finances, including back taxes, debt from prior campaigns and questionable campaign finance tactics. When asked about her college debt, O’Donnell tells the press that she didn’t have “trust funds,” and notes voters are tired of “elitist” views.
Then there were some gaps in her description of her college education, outlined here by Politico.
Additional reporting by Jon Terbush and Clayton Ashley
In an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), dished about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, her father’s running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign.
The younger McCain referred to Palin as “a Republican feminist,” but wouldn’t say whether she would vote for Palin if the she runs in 2012.
The insights come as the 25-year-old political daughter releases her new book “Dirty Sexy Politics,” which offers a unique glimpse into life on the campaign trail as well as her take on the political trajectory of the Republican party.
Here’s an excerpt of the one-on-one that went down between McCain, a Daily Beast columnist, and GMA host George Stephanopoulos:
Stephanopoulos: You write about her quite a bit in the book, you say there are a lot of things you like about Sarah Palin, but you also point out that she snubbed your mom’s efforts to reach out to the Palins, that she wasn’t much of a team player. You talk about doubts at the end, where you thought she actually hurt the campaign.McCain: Yes, but I do clearly state at the end that we did not lose because of her. And, I’m speaking out now because I do have conflicting feelings about her. I mean, she brought so much momentum and enthusiasm to the campaign.
In her newly-unveiled book, McCain writes about the darker side of Palin’s presence on the 2008 campaign. When Stephanopoulos asked about an excerpt highlighting the “drama, stress, complications, panic and loads of uncertainty” the Alaska governor brought to the political operation, McCain responded: “It’s true, I mean a lot of things happened, but I think that’s how campaigns are in general, no matter who comes.”
(Click here to read an excerpt of McCain’s new book “Dirty Sexy Politics” on ABC’s Web site.)
States that have had a large influx of immigrants tended to produce more, hire more and pay workers more than states that have few new foreign-born workers, the study shows. For every one percent increase in employment from immigration, the study finds, a state will see a .4 to .5 percent increase in income per worker.
In conducting the study, Giovanni Peri, an associate professor at University of California, Davis, compared output per worker and employment in states that have had large immigrant inflows with data from states that have few immigrant inflows. Peri found no evidence that immigrants “crowd-out” employment for American citizens.
Peri concludes that immigration boosted states’ output, income and employment because the economies “[absorbed] immigrants by expanding job opportunities rather than by displacing workers born in the United States.” Further, the results of the study support the theory that U.S.-born workers and immigrants tend to take different occupations, says Peri.
The study uses a hypothetical illustration to explain:
“As young immigrants with low schooling levels take manually intensive construction jobs, the construction companies that employ them have opportunities to expand. This increases the demand for construction supervisors, coordinators, designers, and so on. Those are occupations with greater communication intensity and are typically staffed by U.S.-born workers who have moved away from manual construction jobs. This complementary task specialization typically pushes U.S.-born workers toward better-paying jobs, enhances the efficiency of production, and creates jobs.”
Bank profits jumped 21 percent last quarter to nearly $22 billion, the highest level in three years, as banks put away less money to cover future losses, fewer borrowers fell behind on payments and lenders paid the least for their funds in perhaps 50 years, a government report released Tuesday shows.
Lending also dropped by about $96 billion, or 1.3 percent, as borrowers continue to remain skittish about the “slow recovery,” Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair told reporters Tuesday in Washington. “Consumers and businesses need to have confidence in the recovery before they will start making decisions on credit,” Bair said, according to a transcript of her remarks.
Meanwhile, despite the sector’s high profits, challenges remain: home prices are forecast to decline into next year while lenders continue to repossess homes at record rates; the commercial real estate market has yet to hit its nadir; community banks continue to fail; and the number of lenders on the FDIC’s confidential “Problem List” continues to grow. Nearly 830 banks are on the list, up from 775 at the end of March, the FDIC’s quarterly report shows.
“Without question, the industry still faces challenges,” Bair said in a statement. “Earnings remain low by historical standards, and the numbers of unprofitable institutions, problem banks and failures remain high. But the banking sector is gaining strength… most asset quality indicators are moving in the right direction.”
It also helps that banks’ cost of funds — the money they pay to garner deposits and other funds that are then used to lend, invest or trade — dropped to the lowest rate in 26 years of FDIC quarterly records. Banks paid 0.97 percent in interest for their funds, the first time they’ve paid less than one percent during a quarter since at least 1984, FDIC documents show.
Historical records on commercial banks’ cost of funds going back to the inception of the agency in 1934 show that the last time banks paid less than one percent for the year was 1960.
With the main interest rate effectively at 0.19 percent, savers suffer in a low interest-rate environment as banks pay less to attract deposits. The Federal Reserve’s policy-making body, the Federal Open Market Committee, has kept the rate at which banks lend to each other for overnight funds between 0 and 0.25 percent since December 2008.
Elsewhere in the FDIC report, the agency noted that two of every three banks reported higher profits compared to last year as firms put away the least amount of money to cover losses since the January-March period of 2008. Money socked away for a rainy day would otherwise be recorded as profit.
Though nearly two of every three banks increased their reserves for potential future losses, large banks cut theirs. Banks put away $40 billion, 40 percent less than during the same period last year, to cover future losses. Those with more than $10 billion in assets recorded $19.9 billion of the industry’s $21.6 billion of profit, or more than 92 percent.
Also, lenders wrote off $49 billion in uncollectible loans, a small decline from a year earlier and the first year-over-year decline since 2006. Loan losses are stabilizing, the agency said. Commercial real estate loan charge-offs, though, saw an increase.
Loans delinquent for at least 90 days but not yet written off also declined for the first time in four years, though they increased for banks with less than $1 billion in assets, the agency said.
Loan balances continued their decline, led by real estate construction and development lending which dropped more than eight percent from last quarter, according to the FDIC. Loans to small businesses and farms dropped almost two percent, or more than $13 billion. Loans to large businesses, meanwhile, dropped just 0.4 percent.
Bair noted that community banks “slightly” increased their lending — “to their credit,” she added.
A group of Obama supporters stormed today’s Tax Day Tea Party in downtown Washington, D.C., creating a brief and nonviolent ruckus among the tea partiers gathered to listen to Grover Norquist and Dick Armey on Freedom Plaza.
The pro-Obama group, known as “The Other 95%,” held a counter-rally earlier in the day to thank Democrats for what they say are the tax cuts the party has given to 95% of Americans since Obama took power.
I happened to be standing right next to the Freedom Party steps when TO95 organizer Alex Lawson walked up with several other members carrying a massive banner reading “Thanks For Our Tax Cuts, Obama!”
D.C. cops quickly tossed the group off the plaza, but not before they got into a couple of shouting matches with tea partiers present. Check out my video of how it all went down — and how one tea partier from Phoenix, AZ felt about it — after the jump.
Here’s the video, featuring Lawson and tea partier Sherri Stockard:
A volunteer with with TO95 me told the police tossed the group from the plaza because they didn’t have a permit to protest there. TO95 captured its own video of the day, available here.
Lawson told me the group wasn’t associated with the Democratic party, a union or the Obama administration.
“We are not sponsored by anyone,” he said. “We’re a group of concerned citizens. We put this together ourselves, and we paid for this banner…We’re just out here on our lunch hours making sure our message gets heard by everyday Americans.”
While President Obama mingled with Florida Democrats at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Miami Thursday night, thousands of Tea Partiers stood across from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to protest “Tax Day.” Mr. Obama admitted to his supporters that the anti-tax rallies “amused” him.
The president went over the laundry list of tax cuts instituted in Washington over the past year.
“In all, we passed 25 different tax cuts last year. And one thing we haven’t done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year — another promise that we kept,” he told supporters at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. “So I’ve been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes. You would think they would be saying thank you.”
The president argued that America is on the road to recovery and headed in the right direction — something an overwhelming number of Tea Partiers disagree with.
However, Mr. Obama submitted that “the true measure of our progress is the progress that the American people feel in their lives — and there’s still a lot of hurt out here.”
He said that while he is doing everything he can to accelerate private-sector job creation in the short term, he is also trying to create a new foundation for the middle class. While some are warning that anger over administration policies will endanger some Democrats in the midterm elections, Mr. Obama said, “elections will take care of themselves” if politicians stay true to their principles and do what’s right for the American people.
“One of the great things about running for president,” Mr. Obama said, “is it gives you a little perspective because you realize that these things go in cycles, the mood of the media and how things get portrayed. And so you’re like a genius for about a month and then you’re an idiot for about six months. Then, you know, you’re smart again for — you’re not as smart as you were, but you’re a little smarter than they thought you were, then you’re an idiot again.”
People shouldn’t focus on the day-to-day politics and polls, he said.
“What you’ve got to focus on is that true North, that lodestar, which is, are the things we’re doing over the long term going to help not just this generation but the next generation? Is this going to make America stronger?,” he said.
Mitch McConnell has rounded up the necessary votes to block Democrats from bringing Wall Street reform to the Senate floor, a spokesman for the Senate Minority Leader said on Friday afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Thursday he planned to bring the bill to the floor next week where it would be debated and amendments added. McConnell has now persuaded 41 Republicans to vote against debating reform.
‘We simply cannot ask the American taxpayer to continue to subsidize this ‘too big to fail’ policy. We must ensure that Wall Street no longer believes or relies on Main Street to bail them out. Inaction is not an option,” McConnell writes in a letter to Reid that was provided to HuffPost.
Democrats have been battering McConnell all week for his firm opposition to the Democratic reform effort.
Reid spokesman Jim Manley told HuffPost that Reid will be moving ahead regardless.
“Congratulations. I hope they feel good,” said Manley. “They’ve got 41 signatures on a weak, watered-down letter that simply calls for more negotiations. If they are at all serious, they will simply let us go to the bill next week and let the amendment process begin.”
Manley said the bill will be brought up for a vote on a motion to proceed to debate later this coming week.
Read the full letter:
Dear Leader Reid:We encourage you to take a bipartisan and inclusive approach, rather than the partisan path you chose on health care.
A bipartisan bill should address the damaging financial practices of big Wall Street firms and government-sponsored entities that led to unprecedented taxpayer bailouts and caused our government to take on enormous amounts of debt. We simply cannot ask the American taxpayer to continue to subsidize this “too big to fail” policy. We must ensure that Wall Street no longer believes or relies on Main Street to bail them out. Inaction is not an option. However, it is imperative that what we do does not worsen the current economic climate or codify the circumstances that led to the last financial crisis.
We are united in our opposition to the partisan legislation reported by the Senate Banking Committee. As currently constructed, this bill allows for endless taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street and establishes new and unlimited regulatory powers that will stifle small businesses and community banks.
This is a complex issue that could have unintended consequences on job growth, the ability of Americans and business owners to access credit, and the United States’ role as a worldwide leader in innovation and capital formation. The consequences of this bill will reverberate across our economy for years to come.
We urge you to support the bipartisan negotiations by the Banking and Agriculture Committees. We are confident that the Senate can overcome political tensions and provide a bipartisan approach to financial reform this year.
UPDATE: McConnell’s office sends along a statement from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who had been the holdout, that she will indeed vote to filibuster a motion to proceed: “If the Majority Leader brings the partisan Senate Banking Committee bill to the floor next week, Senator Collins will vote against a motion to proceed.”
UPDATE II: Reid spokesman Manley says that Democrats aren’t backing down. “Bring it on,” he says of the GOP filibuster threat.
It will go down as one of the most painful openings to a political debate in recent memory.
