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Gridlock Is Good [updated]

By mw | Related entries in Democrats, Fiscal Responsibility, Polls, Republicans, tea party

The bogeyman of “gridlock” will not dissuade voters. While often messy, political gridlock in Washington D.C. can yield very positive results. The poster child of dysfunctional gridlock is the Clinton/Gingrich budget impasse that shut down the government in 1995. Ugly – to be sure. Yet out of that same dynamic during the six years of divided and “gridlocked” government, we got a lot of good, smart governance.

July 13th, 2010 | Permalink| 64 Comments »

Investors Love Divided Government – 2010 Edition

By mw | Related entries in Business, Democrats, Fiscal Responsibility, Republicans, Stocks, Video

Most investors believe that the stock market will benefit from Republicans taking control of either the House or Senate in the fall. With that expectation, a rising market could very well be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the GOP begins to look like it has a realistic chance of taking control of one house, the opportunities may come along sooner rather than later.

July 10th, 2010 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

GM pays back $6.7B in government loans by using a $13.4B government funded escrow account in order to secure $10B in new government loans.

By mw | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Cars, Corporate Business, Democrats, Economy, Fiscal Responsibility

All week I’ve watched GM CEO Ed Whitacre walking down a factory floor in a GM advertisement, crowing about repaying government loans while saying he could respect the opinion of those who did not want to give GM a “second chance”. It is good to know that Ed can respect my opinion of the bailout. He might be interested to know that my current opinion is that his claim that GM repaid the loan from the US Government in full and ahead of schedule is more than a little disingenuous. I hope Ed still respects me.

April 27th, 2010 | Permalink| 17 Comments »

Please Watch A Featurette About “Casino Jack and the United States of Money”

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Democrats, Economy, Fiscal Responsibility, Money, Republicans, Taxes, The Politics Of Film, Video

Alex Gibney, the filmmaker behind Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, is back with his take on the Abramoff scandal and it seems like it’ll be illuminating…and scary. Check out this featurette… Basically…Money + Power = Problems. Especially when it comes to the upcoming financial reform legislation. Which is why I’m heartened that the [...]

April 24th, 2010 | Permalink| 3 Comments »

The Discretionary Spending Freeze And What It Means For You

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Economy, Fiscal Responsibility, Money, Obama

First, the relevant facts about the budget that’s set to be released on Feb 1… About $447 billion will be devoted to funding the government — the parts that aren’t mandated by law (the entitlements) or aren’t related to defense, intelligence, veterans or national security issues. Obama will promise to veto any budget that exceeds [...]

January 27th, 2010 | Permalink| 16 Comments »

Administration: Don’t like our message? No worries. We have a different message just for you.

By mw | Related entries in Banks, Budget, Economy, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal stimulus, Media, Politics

Yesterday, in a background briefing, the administration announced a three year spending freeze on portions of the budget. Since departments with the fastest growing government expenditures like Defense, VA, the State Department, and entitlements are excluded from the “freeze”, it will have a negligible effect on the ballooning deficit. One cannot help but wonder if the administration is trying to be all things to all people, and risks representing nothing to no one.

January 26th, 2010 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

Politicos Peruse President’s Populist Pivot

By mw | Related entries in Banks, Fiscal Responsibility, health care reform, Politics

The President is on the stump, giving speeches, sitting for interviews, and conducting town-halls in a media blitz supporting the financial system reform initiative. He campaigned on this reform and his administration has promoted several iterations of the bill since taking office. In the meantime, Democrats in the House and Senate are crafting reform bills that are inconsistent (if not incompatible) with each other and with the President’s promises.

January 25th, 2010 | Permalink| 8 Comments »

Thanksgiving tradition – precedented and “un”

By mw | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Barack, China, Economy, Fiscal Responsibility, Food

The administration that has initiated so much that is unprecedented in American politics, introduced an unprecedented new Thanksgiving tradition – carving up our currency for the holidays.

November 26th, 2009 | Permalink| No Comments »

To Dream The (Im)Possible Health Care Reform Dream

By mw | Related entries in Congress, Fiscal Responsibility, Health Care, Ideas

Justin Gardner (Donk Quixote) and Mike Wallach (Phanto), endeavor to tilt at windmills (With apologies to Miguel de Cervantes). Justin is a registered Democrat, considers himself an independent but views the world from the left side of the political spectrum. Mike most recently registered as a Republican, but considers himself primarily a fiscal conservative, deficit hawk, and a libertarian leaning independent. They find common ground in the Health Care Reform debate.

August 27th, 2009 | Permalink| 33 Comments »

Health Care Reform Redux

By Solomon Kleinsmith | Related entries in Corporate Business, Fiscal Responsibility, Health Care, Independents, News

Now that the House has left for summer recess, with the Senate leaving in a week, it’s a perfect time to look back and see what may have gone wrong in the Democrats’ plan to pass a major health care reform package before this week had passed. Most people tend to focus on the policy [...]

August 1st, 2009 | Permalink| 17 Comments »

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