Murder by Economic Policy

Nick Kristof writes, "There’s growing evidence that the toll of our stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul." He cites the work of epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett.

The Constant Weader comments:

I call this murder by economic policy. Republicans and ConservaDems have been working for decades to take from the poor and give to the rich. The obvious effects of their policies are more hungry children, more poorly-educated children, young people's curtailing their educations & thus making themselves poor candidates in the shrinking job market, millions of Americans going without adequate health care (50 million Americans still have no health insurance), & seniors doing without the basic necessities of life. But Wilkinson & Pickett suggest it's worse than we think: those policies result in mental health disorders and unnecessary early deaths.

Another interesting finding of Wilkinson & Pickett was that these higher mortality rates & stress levels in iniquitous countries & states were true across all income levels (though they admit their raw data are sketchy for the top one percent). That is, don't think you're not at risk just because you're in a higher income bracket. Everybody (with the possible exception of the ultra-rich) suffers.

"The Spirit Level," partly because it is such a devastating condemnation of conservative "starve-the-government" public policy, has been the subject of a lot of criticism, the most sweeping charge being that the authors have not really "proved" a cause-&-effect relationship between income inequality & early death. But do we need "proof"? If, as the authors show, closing the income gap leads to lower mortality rates, it is unnecessary to know exactly why it works. What's important is that it does work. Denmark, where taxes are much higher than ours but where income inequality is much lower, is famous for being the "happiest" country in the world.

After listening to Republicans, teabaggers & most other stripes of politicians, including President Obama, you might not think that higher taxes will make you happier. But if those higher taxes go into public programs that help reduce income inequality, then higher taxes will, ultimately, cheer you right up. So will laws that promote income equality: a higher minimum wage, for instance, and unionization facilitation.

We don't have to be a second-rate country, or as Mr. Kristof pointed out last year, Worse than a Banana Republic. But we've chosen legislators & Presidents & state governors who have pledged through their policies, to take us down.

White House photographer Pete Souza has compiled 72 of his favorite White House photos of the year. Click here to see the slide show.

"Because of a predicted snowstorm, I spent the night sleeping in my office knowing how bad the roads would be the following day. Early the next morning, I walked around the White House grounds and made several photographs using a tripod so I could shoot at a slow shutter speed. Mrs. Obama liked this picture so much that she chose to use it on the official White House Christmas card." -- Pete Souza. Photo dated February 2, 2010. CLICK PHOTO TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.

The Commentariat -- January 1

New Year's Eve, Times Square, New York City, 2011. CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.New York Times readers pick their top political moments of 2010. The Caucus writers pick a few more.

Robert Reich has a realistic; i.e., depressing, prediction for the U.S. economy in 2011.

Filibuster "Reform." Look for a watered-down, meaningless change you can't believe in:

     ... Brian Beutler of TPM: "A handful of junior Democrats, including Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), have done an impressive job building momentum for a package of modest, but meaningful, changes to the Senate's filibuster rules. But their plan could be completely upended and replaced by even more modest reforms, if Democratic and Republican leaders successfully negotiate a bipartisan rules reform compromise. In a phone interview with me Wednesday, Udall described negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) as a 'separate track' from his own efforts." ...

     ... David Waldman of the Daily Kos has a little on the history of "negotiated filibuster reforms." ...

     ... David Dayan of Firedoglake on the elements of the Merkeley plan. ...

     ... Here's more from Beutler on how the arcane procedure for changing procedures is supposed to proceed. ...

... Speaking of the do-nothing Senate, Steve Benen has more on Chief Justice John Roberts' plea to them to get off the dime on judiciary appointments. Senate Judiciary Committee Pat Leahy concurs with Robets. And Benen opines,

... Senate Republicans will do what they've been doing -- slowing everything down, blocking as many nominees as they can. But don't forget, the Senate will have very little else to do for the better part of two years. Over the last two years, Reid and the Democratic leadership had a lengthy to-do list, and couldn't eat up the calendar on nominees. GOP obstructionism meant it took at least three days for the Senate to consider one nominee, during which time the chamber could do nothing else, so more often than not, Reid just didn't bother. But that won't be much of a hindrance in 2011 and 2012, when the entire lawmaking process goes from difficult to impossible. ...

     ... Ezra Klein on filibustering judicial nominees.

Politico's "most memorable moments" video is okay till the end, which devolves into Palinostalgia:

      ... Stephanopoulos does a much better job:

I don't call [President Obama] a socialist because he's not. I don't doubt that he was born in Hawaii because he was. I don't call him a Muslim because he says he's a Christian. And I didn't say anything about death panels because there weren't any in that health care bill. -- Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC), on why he lost his primary race to a teabagger

Irony Alert! Amy Gardner of the Washington Post profiles Gena Bell, a grassroots tea party activist who was so opposed to President Obama & all that government spending -- that she decided to take a job with the government.

Rose Aguilar in Common Dreams: the public believes myths because well-paid spinmeisters repeat them over & over again & "teach" them to members of Congress who repeat them, and reporters & interviewers seldom or never challenge the spinners.

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones makes what amounts to a general apologia for liberal compromisers (oh, you may want to think President Obama here). CW: personally, I'm not buying it. I think liberals compromise because they've done a piss-poor job -- compared to conservatives -- of explaining why their programs are better than conservative programs. Liberals compromise because they have failed to gain support for causes that are good for the majority of the public.

Linda Greenhouse interviews retired Justices Sandra Day O'Connor & David Souter on civics education. The interview begins about 7 min. in:

Evelyn Rusli of the New York Times: "U.S Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ... sold his Washington D.C. home at a $1 million loss last week.... Mr. Paulson ... first put his home on the market in April.... But don’t feel too bad for the former Treasury secretary. As Reuters pointed out, the loss will barely dent Mr. Paulson’s personal fortune, last estimated at $700 million."