US Politics Mega-thread - Page 362

Capitalize research & development (R&D)

Capitalize entertainment, literary, and artistic originals

Expanded capitalization of ownership transfer costs of residential housing

Accrual treatment of defined benefit pension plans

Real GDP growth. For 1929–2012, the average annual growth rate of real GDP was 3.3 percent, 0.1 percentage point higher than in the previously published estimates. For the more recent period, 2002–2012, the average annual growth rate was 1.8 percent, 0.2 percentage point higher than in the previously published estimates. For the most recent years, 2009–2012, the average annual growth rate of real GDP was 2.4 percent, 0.3 percentage point higher than in the previously published estimates.

For the 3 most recent years, the annual growth rate:

* was revised up from 2.4 percent to 2.5 percent for 2010,

* was unrevised at 1.8 percent for 2011, and

* was revised up from 2.2 percent to 2.8 percent for 2012.

John Boehner spoke to House Republicans today about the growing demands within the party for a government shutdown to force the defunding of Obamacare. National Review’s Jonathan Strong — who is well sourced among the GOP caucus — passes along the key detail:

In the meeting, Boehner didn’t reject the possibility of making the next appropriations bill an all-or-nothing fight over Obamacare funding, and in a press conference afterwards he insisted “no decisions have been made.”

According to Strong, Boehner told Republicans that the GOP already has a strategy, vowing “a series of well-placed, targeted strikes that will ultimately dissolve the Obamacare coalition and topple this trainwreck of a law.” Boehner seems to be leaning against a confrontation over defunding, but wants Republicans to think it at least remains a possibility.

Indeed, one GOP aide strategically leaked to Politico that Boehner doesn’t want such a showdown, and that he has privately warned Republicans “of the political dangers of shutting down the federal government.” And yet, in the very same leak, the GOP aide quickly clarified that Boehner absolutely isn’t ruling out this step by any means.

Plainly, Boehner believes a legislative strategy built on targeted anti-Obacare votes (such as on the employer and individual mandate delays) designed to make life difficult for vulnerable Dems remains the most viable way forward, and that flirting with shutdown rhetoric is a bad idea for the GOP. Remember, Boehner was there in the mid-nineties, and saw the damage Newt’s shutdown did to the party. But Boehner doesn’t want — or just can’t — rule it out. And neither does Mitch McConnell, who has refused to take a position on the push by hard right Senators to shut down the government to force a defunding of the law.

On August 01 2013 03:51 Gorsameth wrote:
Ah Republicans. Always willing to destroy there country because they don't happen to agree with a law.

On August 01 2013 03:36 JonnyBNoHo wrote:
The BEA released their big GDP revision today, stretching back decades. Nominally the economy is about $560B bigger than previously thought.

The main changes:


Link

The results of the changes:


Link

On August 01 2013 04:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

They think the law is bad. So fighting it is helping the country from their perspective.

President Obama met with House and Senate Democrats separately on Capitol Hill Wednesday, and faced some pushback over rumors that he may nominate Larry Summers to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) admitted after the meeting that there is significant Democratic opposition to tapping Summers for the job, but said the party will unite behind whomever the president ends up selecting.

“I personally don’t [share their skepticism]. Some of my senators have been involved publicly in directing the president’s attention to someone else,” he said. “Larry Summers is a longtime friend of mine. I like him a lot. I think he’s a very competent man. But that decision is up to the president. Whoever the president selects, this caucus will be for that person — no matter who it is.”

Summing up progressives’ misgivings with Summers — a former director of President Obama’s National Economic Council during 2009 and 2010 and Clinton-era Treasury secretary — Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) told Bloomberg News he’s “extraordinarily skeptical that his background is appropriate” for the important job.

“If you nominate someone who is a life-committed deregulator to be in a regulatory position and if you believe regulation is necessary to prevent fraud, abuse, manipulation and so forth, then there’s a lot of questions to be asked: Why is this person appropriate?” Merkley said.

On August 01 2013 04:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

They think the law is bad. So fighting it is helping the country from their perspective.

On August 01 2013 04:38 Gorsameth wrote:


Fighting it and trying to take it down is exactly what they should be doing if they think it is bad.
But when you start thinking that shutting down the government is an acceptable measure to get your point across I think you have lost sight of your job as a politician. Your no longer acting for the good of the people, your being an angry kid in the play ground that didn't get his ball.

On August 01 2013 04:51 Roe wrote:


Relativism won't lead us anywhere

On August 01 2013 04:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

They think the law is bad. So fighting it is helping the country from their perspective.

On August 01 2013 04:59 ZeaL. wrote:


Are you trying to say "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"?

On August 01 2013 05:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

No. I'm saying that different people have different opinions. Obamacare isn't something we can declare objectively good or bad at this point.

On August 01 2013 05:10 KwarK wrote:
If an election happens and the people who win the election want to pass a law and you campaign against the law but they have the democratic mandate and power to pass the law anyway and then it becomes law isn't the normal/democratic/reasonable/sane thing to do to campaign those with legislative power to change the law or try and win the next election yourself? Rather than simply deciding you know better, to hell with democracy and simply fucking up the system passed by those empowered to do so. That's the bit where I get lost.

On August 01 2013 05:15 ZeaL. wrote:


While we can't declare it good or bad, I think we can safely say that shutting down the federal government is an objectively bad thing. If Obamacare was truly the terrible thing the house republicans make it out to be, why not wait for after 2014 when they can argue their case and hope that voters agree with them?

On August 01 2013 05:20 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

Yeah, Republicans won elections, they exist in congress and they're doing what they campaigned to do.

On August 01 2013 05:28 KwarK wrote:

Presumably they voted against Obamacare but there were too few of them. That's losing the democratic fight for the issue. Nothing about sabotaging the implementation following the legislative battle is democratic. You don't get to lose, then decide you know better and attempt to fuck over the guys who won democratically. I'm sure they genuinely believe that they're right but thinking you're right doesn't actually give you the right to make policy decisions.

On August 01 2013 05:24 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

Sure, but thinking about threatening to shut down the government isn't the same thing as shutting it down. Nor is shutting it down some apocalyptic horror.