Sunday, July 4, 2010
Sharron Angle Drastically Re-Casts Her ‘Issues’ on New Website
Sharron Angles real webpage
The Atlantic, 7/1/10 - After winning her Republican primary, Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle completely revamped her old website, turning it into a one-page site (plus contribution form) encouraging people to donate. Now that she's reached her $1 million fundraising goal, the new SharrronAngle.com is up and running. It is far spiffier than the last version.
The "issues" page has gotten a drastic makeover as well, and Angle has removed, changed, or re-spun all of her controversial views. The difference is striking.
And, somehow, the old version is no longer available via Google in cached form, as her old homepage still is. (Luckily, The Huffington Post's Sam Stein, has saved a copy of Angle's old site.)
Her old page expressed her support for abolishing the Department of Education, phasing out Social Security, and repealing offshore drilling regulations. The new site contains no reference to the Department of Education; the first sentence of her "Social Security" section reads, "We must keep the promise of Social Security by redeeming the "IOU's" that have been written..."; her "Energy Policy" section begins, "America's policy should be to enforce the rules and regulations currently on the books with respect to off shore drilling" and calls BP's spill an "indictment" of the Minerals Management Service and an indication of BP's "high risk approach."
To be fair, some of these are very obviously consistent with her views. Particularly on Social Security, Angle never (to my limited knowledge) advocated for ending the program right now--she's always suggested paying those IOUs and simply not enrolling younger generations.
But the difference is notable, and it is obviously the product of some more glossy political strategic thinking.
Reid Campaign Re-Launches Sharron Angle’s Campaign Website
LAS VEGAS – Seeking to hide her extreme and dangerous agenda from Nevada voters, Sharron Angle today removed more than 75% of the contents of the “issues” section of her webpage – deleting all references to her true positions on issues like eliminating Social Security and her plan to make Yucca Mountain into a haven for America’s nuclear waste. Angle has also removed controversial endorsements like the 'Birther' PAC Declaration Alliance that she had proudly touted in the past. Apparently Angle and her new handlers think that scrubbing her website will make voters forget about her long-documented, radical positions.
Fortunately for voters seeking a true window into Angle’s real positions, a "new" website will allow them to view her dangerous and radical ideas – the ones she has espoused consistently for decades before her new handlers deemed them too radical. (Original typos included.)
View Angle’s real, pre-scrubbed website here: www.TheRealSharronAngle.com resurrects Angle’s original website featuring her dangerous and extreme agenda, before her handlers scrubbed it
“Sharron Angle thinks she can fool Nevada voters about her extreme and dangerous agenda to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, abolish the Department of Education, shut down the EPA and the DOE in the middle of the worst environmental crisis in our history, and end regulatory oversight of Wall Street and big oil companies like BP,” said Reid campaign communications director Kelly Steele. “Obviously, Sharron Angle’s new handlers are as alarmed by the prospect of promoting Angle’s extreme and dangerous agenda for Nevada as most mainstream voters will be when they learn her true views.”
Fortunately for voters seeking a true window into Angle’s real positions, a "new" website will allow them to view her dangerous and radical ideas – the ones she has espoused consistently for decades before her new handlers deemed them too radical. (Original typos included.)
View Angle’s real, pre-scrubbed website here: www.TheRealSharronAngle.com resurrects Angle’s original website featuring her dangerous and extreme agenda, before her handlers scrubbed it
“Sharron Angle thinks she can fool Nevada voters about her extreme and dangerous agenda to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, abolish the Department of Education, shut down the EPA and the DOE in the middle of the worst environmental crisis in our history, and end regulatory oversight of Wall Street and big oil companies like BP,” said Reid campaign communications director Kelly Steele. “Obviously, Sharron Angle’s new handlers are as alarmed by the prospect of promoting Angle’s extreme and dangerous agenda for Nevada as most mainstream voters will be when they learn her true views.”
Sharron Angle is so far right, it’s just plain wrong
It's this season's hottest new trend: Republicans nominating candidates so far to the right, they're practically falling off the map.You might be familiar with Rand Paul, the Kentucky candidate who went so far as to question the Civil Rights Act.
Well, meet Sharron Angle. She's the newly-minted Republican nominee to run against Senator Reid - and she makes Rand Paul look like a reasoned moderate.
Click here to help us beat back Sharron Angle and her Tea Party pals in California.
Sharron Angle is so far right, it's just plain wrong:
- She wants to repeal health care reform and let insurance companies run wild, kicking hundreds of thousands of Nevadans to the curb and making it possible for insurers to deny care to sick kids.
- She thinks the solution to Wall Street's colossal failure is to give the big banks more freedom to destroy our economy and rip off Nevada families with their risky schemes.
- She wants to cut Social Security benefits to fund more tax cuts for multi-millionaires, devastating Nevada Seniors.
- She doesn't even believe that climate change is caused by humans...yes, really.
Of course, Sharron Angle's record shows that she's not just too radical for Nevada - she's not much of a legislator. She was selected as the worst of 11 freshman assembly members, earning a D+ in a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Even her colleagues call her "wacky" - maybe because she proposes things like giving massages to prisoners.
But that won't stop national Republicans from putting everything they have into a nasty smear campaign to beat Senator Reid and put this arch-conservative in the Senate. Let's show them that Nevada is no place for radicals like Sharron Angle.
Yours truly,
-Brandon
Brandon Hall
Campaign Manager
Friends for Harry Reid
P.S. - Oh, did I mention that, in addition to opposing health care and Wall St. reform and supporting the privatization of Social Security, Sharron Angle supports shipping nuclear waste to Nevada's Yucca Mountain? Republicans and their new Tea Party overlords really found a gem this time - let's show them we're standing with Senator Reid. Make a contribution today!
Study finds Nevadans face second-lowest tax burden in nation
Nevada spending among top for fire and police services, study says
Thursday, July 1, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Carson City — If you, Nevada, feel overtaxed, just imagine how the rest of the country feels.
Nevada’s state and local tax burden ranks 50th out of 51, according to one study that includes Washington, D.C. A family of three living in Las Vegas with a $75,000 annual income had the 47th lowest tax burden compared with a similar family in each state’s largest city, another study found. More, we reportedly have near-bottom levels of taxpayer funding for welfare, education and parks.
Yet the political and policy debate in Nevada is all about who can most convincingly promise not to raise taxes. Both candidates for governor say they can improve education by better spending existing revenue (we supposedly rank 49th nationally on spending per pupil). All but a few liberal legislators deny that they will consider raising taxes to close the state’s $3 billion budget deficit.
U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle tapped into the anti-government, anti-tax anger among the electorate to win the Republican nomination to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“I would argue that Nevada is No. 1 in anti-tax, anti-government sentiment,” state historian Guy Rocha said. “It drives the political agenda.”
Nevada always has had a libertarian-leaning, conservative reputation. With the size of the federal debt and bailouts, combined with Nevada’s highest-in-the-country unemployment, anger at state and federal government is peaking, according to many political observers.
Rocha blames the political unrest on transplants to the state, upset with the government spending in the states they moved from, such as California or New York. They come to Nevada and assume state spending is similarly out of control and demand taxes not be increased. Or else their children are already educated, and they don’t want to pay for it again, he said.
“They’re taking out their frustration on Nevada,” said Rocha, the longtime state archivist.
A comparison of the 50 states released this week by the Taxpayers Network, a nonpartisan Wisconsin-based group that compiled reports from different organizations, portrays a state that is miserly when it comes to most public spending.
The Taxpayers Network said our welfare spending ranks 50th. We have the fourth fewest state employees. We rank 40th on parks and natural resources. And from 1998 through 2007, state spending per capita was among the slowest to grow.
Republican legislators such as state Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio of Reno declare that we have one of the leanest state governments in the country. But he’s still met by accusations that he’s a Republican in name only.
He said voters are the angriest he’s ever seen.
“People keep on being fed misinformation,” he said. “I don’t think they understand the true situation of what the tax burden is in Nevada.”
The Taxpayers Network highlighted some anomalies:
• We spend the fourth and fifth most on police and fire services, based on census figures.
• The average Nevada public schoolteacher was 22nd highest paid, according to the National Education Association, the national teachers union.
Not all agree that Nevada is a near tax paradise.
Conservatives point to another study by the Tax Foundation in 2008 that showed per capita, our state revenue is 22nd. Similarly, before the 2009 session, conservatives alluded to studies that showed Nevada’s per-pupil education funding was about average when capital costs for things such as new schools are included.
Geoffrey Lawrence, a fiscal policy analyst with the libertarian think tank Nevada Policy Research Institute, said the growth in state spending from 1998 through 2007 was higher than the Taxpayers Network calculated. When using figures from the state on population size and spending instead of census data, Lawrence said per capita spending increased 13.8 percent over the 10 years, instead of a 6.8 percent increase.
Carole Vilardo, president of the conservative Nevada Taxpayers Association, also warned against using the statistics.
“Depending on what taxes are included, how you calculate it, I could make us a high-tax or a low-tax state,” Vilardo said.
David Steffen, director of external affairs for the Taxpayers Network, said his organization is nonpartisan and without an agenda to increase or decrease taxes.
“We think there’s a lack of objective information provided to decision-makers or opinion leaders. We provide data. That’s it,” he said. “We let other individuals, experts, individual parties interpret (them) and spin (them). These ranks are very objective and quantifiable.”
With the state facing a $3 billion deficit, how spendthrift or efficient Nevada’s government is will be a key in the debate. Although gubernatorial candidates Republican Brian Sandoval and Democrat Rory Reid are loath to suggest taxes, a tax proposal is likely to come from the Legislature.
“We’re going to have a $3 billion shortfall in the existing budget, which has been cut pretty drastically,” Raggio said. “The level of funding we provide for what we call essential services, I don’t think it’s exorbitant. It’s pretty reasonable.”
But what qualifies as “reasonable” is always a matter of debate.
Unemployed Working Hard To Find Jobs, Despite Depiction As Spoiled Brats
First Posted: 07- 2-10 12:23 PM | Updated: 07- 3-10 10:58 AM
It's not just candidates, however. Representative John Linder (R-Ga.) -- the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee -- citing a "Detroit News story about landscaping businesses complaining that potential employees rejected job offers in favor of collecting unemployment benefits," decreed that "nearly two years of unemployment benefits are too much of an allure for some."
But Linder's example happens to be an exception. The basic reality for America's job seekers is that currently there are five people looking for work for every job opening. The average unemployment benefit is a scant $290 per week. And, as Arthur Delaney reported on these pages in early June, there are other difficult-to-ignore facts that harpoon the notion that the unemployed are content to live off benefits:
Larry Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute pointed out that only 67 percent of the 15 million unemployed receive benefits. Even if all those people are enjoying the dole, shouldn't businesses still be able to hire some of the other five million receiving no benefits at all?Exactly. If unemployment benefits truly tamp down the motivation of job seekers, there would still be about five million people going after the jobs that Sharron Angle believes exist with a rabid intensity.
But enough of the view from 30,000 feet. What is actually going on with job seekers in America? Well, as it turns out, they are desperately seeking jobs, wherever they may be:
June 30, 2010:
Hundreds of people attended a healthcare career fair sponsored by WALB Wednesday. Doors were opened at the Merry Acres Event Center 15 minutes early because of the long line of people wanting to get their resumes before employers.June 28, 2010:
Hundreds of job hunters descended on the Amway Arena today looking to meet dozens of potential employers for Congresswoman Corrine Brown's Annual Job Fair. Hiring employers included the military, law enforcement, theme parks, and other local and national companies.
June 24, 2010:
More than 1,500 job seekers filed into Augusta State University's Christenberry Fieldhouse on Thursday afternoon.June 24, 2010:
Trevor Huggins, 23, handed out résumés in hopes of landing a full-time gig.
"I've got an interview with an insurance company and I've handed out a few résumés," he said. "I just graduated from Mercer in Macon and moved back here so now I'm just looking for a job."
[...]
More than 60 potential employers attended the event, including Aflac, AT&T, Scana and Spherion. About 1,600 people attended, organizers said.
Some of those looking for a new job handed out their resumes at a job fair Thursday. Around 1700 hundreds applicants attended the 4th annual job expo at Christenberry Field House. There were plenty of job openings to apply for including medical jobs, teaching jobs and factory work. They also had resume critique sessions and seminars on how to scout out the job fair.June 24, 2010:
[...]
The competition was stiff. There were nearly 30 times the number of job seekers as employers.
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, about 50 job-seekers were lined up outside the Watsonville Career Center on West Beach Street. During the next 90 minutes, 278 people passed through the doors in hopes of finding work at a job fair sponsored by Workforce Santa Cruz County.June 23, 2010:
"For me, I feel so happy. There's a lot of opportunities," said Maria Murillo.
For 10 years, Murillo operated La Azteca, the restaurant she and her husband owned in Corralitos. But with three small children at home and her husband working as an electronics engineer in Silicon Valley, the couple decided to sell the business. Three months later, he was laid off.
"I wish somebody would hire me," Murillo said as she left clutching a stack of fliers. "I'm looking for any type of job."
[...]
Connie Corbett, manager of the career center, said Wednesday's job fair was designed to attract local residents, and since space was limited, only 10 companies were represented.
Hundreds of job seekers lined up at the Florence County Civic Center Tuesday morning, dressed to impress with resumes in hand. Representatives from businesses around the area were there to talk about the employment opportunities their companies have to offer.June 22, 2010:
Those who attended were able to inquire about 150 available jobs, ranging from entry-level to managerial positions. Waffle House, Target, RBC Bearings and Bankers Life Insurance were among the companies advertising at the job fair.
Officials with Alvin S. Glenn Dentention Center called their job fair on Tuesday a success, after more than 100 people showed up to fill an application.June 20, 2010:
"It's a tough place to work but it's a great opportunity to work in criminal justice, so we're hoping to get 20 great applicants to fill the positions," said Kathy Harrell with the facility.
Hundreds of job seekers shuffled through Benjamin Franklin School on Friday, as representatives from 15 local businesses took resumes and fielded questions at a Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now-sponsored job fair.June 20, 2010:
WILLISTON, N.D. - A recent job fair in Williston drew 126 people from 20 states seeking oil field work and other jobs.June 17, 2010:
Nearly hour before the job fair began the line of job seekers already stretched out the door of Indian River State College in Stuart. And that line continued to grow.June 17, 2010:
More than 2000 people pre-registered for the job fair, including mothers with children in toe, managers and professionals laid off in the middle of their careers, and entry level job seekers trying to land that first job.
[...]
Nineteen employers set up booths at the fair. Collectively, they have more than 400 positions available.
Summer heat and a brief downpour failed to discourage a throng of about 4,000 job seekers Thursday as they vied for about 400 positions from 19 predominantly local employers.June 12, 2010:
Workforce Solutions hosted what was to have been a three-hour job fair from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Indian River State College Chastain Campus. However, things did not go entirely as planned.
"When we got here at 9 a.m. to set up, there were already people here," said Odaly Victorio, Workforce Solutions communications coordinator. "At 12:30, we had already seen about 2,000 people.
Greene was one of approximately 200 people who visited the Goodwill Career Center in Opelika Saturday morning during a job fair for Hyundai Mobis. The manufacturing facility, on the pad of Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia in West Point, Ga., is looking to add 140 jobs to create another shift.June 8, 2010:
[...]
The fair began at 8 a.m., but when Bryant arrived for work at 7 a.m., he said people were already waiting in line.
According to numbers provided by organizers, a job fair held today at Harris-Stowe State University attracted more than 5,000 job seekers.So that's the real state of affairs. Far from being a nation of lazy sots, living off the government teat, America's unemployed are strivers. They are looking for work, everywhere. Entry-level work. Low-paying work. They show up early, they stand in line, and they often vastly outnumber the number of jobs available. Anyone who suggests otherwise is just out of touch with what's going on in the country.
Congressman Lacy Clay's 5th Annual Career Fair promised around 100 employers. Before it opened, the line of job seekers stretched nearly around the building.
By the way, let me clue Representative Linder in as to what's in the Detroit News today:
Some 36 companies, including the local offices of General Electric Co., Aflac and software firm ESI, set up recruiting shops Thursday in a job fair at the Rock Financial Showplace. They are looking to fill more than 3,000 positions, ranging from insurance agents and sales personnel to engineers and financial planners.Stop attacking the unemployed, chump.
Thousands of Metro Detroit job seekers showed up at the one-day event sponsored by HiredMyWay, a job recruiting firm.
VIDEO: Angle Says Plenty of Low-Wage Jobs Exist for “Spoiled” Nevadans on Unemployment
Angle coldly rejects any benefit extension for struggling Nevadans, evidence mounts that she’s either completely clueless or just plain cruelLAS VEGAS – Multiple Nevada television stations decided to investigate GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s claims from her Tuesday Face to Face appearance that government should cut off the final lifeline of unemployment benefits for struggling Nevadans because there were “plenty of jobs” out there if people weren’t being “spoiled” by their unemployment checks. Angle’s comments on Ralston’s show doubled down on her previous pejorative statements about Nevadans forced onto unemployment during these tough economic times being “spoiled.”
The reality of the situation, as reported on numerous Nevada television broadcasts, and summarized this morning on ABC News is quite the opposite:
“In Nevada, where the unemployment rate is a staggering 14 percent, Senate candidate Sharron Angle told journalist Jon Ralston in a local TV interview Tuesday that unemployment benefits discouraged people from looking for work. ‘The truth about it is that they keep extending these unemployment benefits to the point where people are afraid to go out and get a job because the job doesn't pay as much as the unemployment benefit does,’ she said, even though most people on unemployment receive less than 40 percent of their previous wages. (The maximum benefit in Nevada is $362 a week, far lower than the median household income there, which is more than $56,000.)”
***Watch Video Clip Summarizing Sharron Angle's "Screw You" Economics:
In addition, as reported by the Las Vegas Sun’s Anjeanette Damon, Sharron Angle’s misguided attempts to justify her cruelty to struggling Nevadans – desperately looking for jobs that simply don’t exist – is to tier their benefits to incentivize their return to work. Unfortunately for Angle, that policy actually represents how the law in Nevada currently works – suggesting Angle simply has no clue what she’s talking about, or she’s just so hell-bent on cutting government benefits that she doesn’t even care.
“Each time she opens her mouth about opposing unemployment benefits for struggling Nevadans, Sharron Angle demonstrates how out-of-touch she is with the plight of the tens of thousands of Nevadans, simply doing everything they can in these tough economic times to make ends meet,” said Reid campaign communications director Kelly Steele. “While most Republicans and Democrats agree that cutting off these struggling Nevadans’ very last measure of support is cruel and wrong, Sharron Angle continues to insist that these ‘spoiled’ Nevadans, who have been laid off through no fault of their own, simply need to try harder – a position that demonstrates complete ignorance and blind adherence to her extreme ideological agenda, or just plain cruelty on Angle’s part.”
Nevada’s Unemployment Insurance Program
WHAT SHARRON ANGLE CONSIDERS "SPOILED” – BY THE NUMBERS:
Average Weekly Wages In NV, $875.00
4th Quarter of 2009
[Quarterly Employment And Wages Survey, www.nevadaworkforce.com]
Average Weekly UI Benefit Amount, $321.96
4th Quarter of 2009
[US Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance Data Summary 4th Quarter 2009]
Maximum Allowable Unemployment Insurance
Benefit Amount $362.00
[Nevada DETR Unemployment Insurance General Info]
Weekly Pay After 40-Hour Work Week At
Minimum Wage (with no health insurance) $302.00
[US Dept of Labor, Minimum Wage Laws In The States, 1/1/2010]
Weekly Pay After 40-Hour Work Week At
Minimum Wage (with health insurance) $262.00
[US Dept of Labor, Minimum Wage Laws In The States, 1/1/2010]
Unemployment Insurance Forces Unemployed To Find Work
Unemployment Insurance Recipients “May Not Refuse An Offer Of Work.” According to the Nevada Department Of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, “when you are receiving unemployment benefits, you may not refuse an offer of work considered to be suitable. Suitable work is determined by your skills, training, experience and capabilities.” [Nevada DETR Unemployment Insurance FAQs]
Unemployment Insurance Recipients “Must Engage In Regular And Consistent Search For Employment.” According to the Nevada Department Of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, “You must engage in a regular and consistent search for employment. There is no set number of job contacts you must make. Normally, you must seek work several days each week and contact several employers each time you look for work. Seeking work is a full time job.” [Nevada DETR Unemployment Insurance FAQs]
Nevada Unemployment Insurance Already Incentivizes Returning to Work
Unemployment Insurance Already Incentivizes Work. According to the Nevada Department Of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, “If you work during a week and earn less than your weekly benefit amount, your check will be reduced by 75% of the amount of earnings. The amount deducted remains in your account for future use.” The net effect of this would be that a job seeker with a weekly benefit amount of $200 who earns $100 in income from work would go home with $225, while costing the unemployment insurance fund only $125. [Nevada DETR Unemployment Insurance FAQs; Nevada Revised Statutes 612.185 and 612.350]
Sharron Angle advocates halting unemployment benefits to force jobless to seek work
In her much anticipated emergence into the mainstream media last night, Republican senate candidate Sharron Angle tried somewhat to soften her previous comments that implied jobless workers were spoiled by unemployment benefits.
She said she doesn’t think the workers are spoiled, but that the country’s system of entitlements have “spoiled our citizenry” and caused a “spoilage” in our ability to return the jobless to the workforce, she told Jon Ralston on Face to Face.
While she advocated eliminating the extension of unemployment benefits, she also advocated for creating a tiered system that would supplement wages for those who took entry level jobs that paid less than their unemployment benefit.
Seems, however, that Nevada already does that.
According to the state’s unemployment website, workers who earn less than their unemployment benefit still receive money from the state. Their unemployment checks are reduced by 75 percent of the amount they earned at the lower-paying job.
Thus, workers who accept entry-level jobs—those jobs that Angle maintained still exist in the Nevada economy despite its 14 percent unemployment rate—will earn more if they are working than if they just accept unemployment.
While Reid has supported legislation to stop an economic meltdown and legislation to spur the economy, Angle hasn’t seen the need for them. Reid has worked to bring several renewable energy projects to Nevada, yet Angle has been dismissive, saying that a senator is “not in the business of creating jobs” nor is it a senator’s job to “bring industry to the state.” And while Reid has been working to extend unemployment benefits to the millions of Americans who have been hurt by the recession, Angle has said that Americans are “spoiled” by such benefits and she opposes the extension.
Angle’s views are, to put it politely, out of touch and extreme. On Tuesday, she appeared on “Face to Face With Jon Ralston,” and she held fast to her positions on the economy.
• Angle reaffirmed her belief that the job of a U.S. senator is not to create jobs but added that it “is to create a climate conducive to creating jobs.” How? By cutting government and regulation, she says. However, the explosion and sinking of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and the resulting environmental disaster, have been underscored by a painful lack of proper oversight and regulation. Yet just a few weeks ago, with crude oil washing up on the shore, Angle had the audacity to say that the oil industry needed less regulation, not more. In the meantime, people on the Gulf Coast have seen their livelihoods ruined because of the failure of oversight.
• Angle hasn’t shown compassion to those who are unemployed. “There are jobs that do exist” in Nevada, she said. What jobs? Every time there’s a job fair in Las Vegas, there’s a huge crowd of people, far exceeding the number of openings. The Labor Department estimates that 20 percent of Nevadans are either unemployed or underemployed — working part-time when they want full-time work.
• Ralston also asked Angle about her comment that people were “spoiled” by unemployment benefits. “I said it has spoiled our citizenry; that’s a little different,” Angle said. “They’re not spoiled. What has happened is the system of entitlement has caused us to have a spoilage with our ability to go out and get a job.” Seriously? The most someone can be “spoiled” by on unemployment in Nevada is $362 a week. That’s hardly lavish living.
The Republican campaign against Reid and the Democrats has continued to show a disconnect with reality. The stimulus bill that Democrats and Reid championed kept thousands of Nevadans and millions of Americans employed. Reid’s efforts to pave the way for business in Nevada have also successfully brought many jobs, even during the recession. And the extensions of unemployment benefits have helped keep many Americans from total disaster.
Angle’s views are outrageous, but she isn’t alone in holding steadfast to them. Other Nevada Republicans have made similar remarks. For example, during a 2003 debate, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said better unemployment benefits would result in “less incentive” for people to find work. And this year Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., questioned a proposal to extend unemployment benefits, asking, “Is the government now creating hobos?”
This type of thinking is out of touch with the pain caused by the current economy. If Republicans were in charge, and they followed through on their rhetoric and slashed benefits and other economic stimulus bills, the economy would have melted down and the nation would be in shambles.
She said she doesn’t think the workers are spoiled, but that the country’s system of entitlements have “spoiled our citizenry” and caused a “spoilage” in our ability to return the jobless to the workforce, she told Jon Ralston on Face to Face.
While she advocated eliminating the extension of unemployment benefits, she also advocated for creating a tiered system that would supplement wages for those who took entry level jobs that paid less than their unemployment benefit.
Seems, however, that Nevada already does that.
According to the state’s unemployment website, workers who earn less than their unemployment benefit still receive money from the state. Their unemployment checks are reduced by 75 percent of the amount they earned at the lower-paying job.
Thus, workers who accept entry-level jobs—those jobs that Angle maintained still exist in the Nevada economy despite its 14 percent unemployment rate—will earn more if they are working than if they just accept unemployment.
A clear distinction
Angle shows she, party are out of touch with the reality Americans face
Thursday, July 1, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
At 14 percent, Nevada’s unemployment rate is the highest in the nation, so knowing where the candidates stand on economic issues is of paramount importance. In the race for Senate, the contrast between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his Republican challenger, Sharron Angle, couldn’t be clearer.While Reid has supported legislation to stop an economic meltdown and legislation to spur the economy, Angle hasn’t seen the need for them. Reid has worked to bring several renewable energy projects to Nevada, yet Angle has been dismissive, saying that a senator is “not in the business of creating jobs” nor is it a senator’s job to “bring industry to the state.” And while Reid has been working to extend unemployment benefits to the millions of Americans who have been hurt by the recession, Angle has said that Americans are “spoiled” by such benefits and she opposes the extension.
Angle’s views are, to put it politely, out of touch and extreme. On Tuesday, she appeared on “Face to Face With Jon Ralston,” and she held fast to her positions on the economy.
• Angle reaffirmed her belief that the job of a U.S. senator is not to create jobs but added that it “is to create a climate conducive to creating jobs.” How? By cutting government and regulation, she says. However, the explosion and sinking of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and the resulting environmental disaster, have been underscored by a painful lack of proper oversight and regulation. Yet just a few weeks ago, with crude oil washing up on the shore, Angle had the audacity to say that the oil industry needed less regulation, not more. In the meantime, people on the Gulf Coast have seen their livelihoods ruined because of the failure of oversight.
• Angle hasn’t shown compassion to those who are unemployed. “There are jobs that do exist” in Nevada, she said. What jobs? Every time there’s a job fair in Las Vegas, there’s a huge crowd of people, far exceeding the number of openings. The Labor Department estimates that 20 percent of Nevadans are either unemployed or underemployed — working part-time when they want full-time work.
• Ralston also asked Angle about her comment that people were “spoiled” by unemployment benefits. “I said it has spoiled our citizenry; that’s a little different,” Angle said. “They’re not spoiled. What has happened is the system of entitlement has caused us to have a spoilage with our ability to go out and get a job.” Seriously? The most someone can be “spoiled” by on unemployment in Nevada is $362 a week. That’s hardly lavish living.
The Republican campaign against Reid and the Democrats has continued to show a disconnect with reality. The stimulus bill that Democrats and Reid championed kept thousands of Nevadans and millions of Americans employed. Reid’s efforts to pave the way for business in Nevada have also successfully brought many jobs, even during the recession. And the extensions of unemployment benefits have helped keep many Americans from total disaster.
Angle’s views are outrageous, but she isn’t alone in holding steadfast to them. Other Nevada Republicans have made similar remarks. For example, during a 2003 debate, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said better unemployment benefits would result in “less incentive” for people to find work. And this year Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., questioned a proposal to extend unemployment benefits, asking, “Is the government now creating hobos?”
This type of thinking is out of touch with the pain caused by the current economy. If Republicans were in charge, and they followed through on their rhetoric and slashed benefits and other economic stimulus bills, the economy would have melted down and the nation would be in shambles.
Spill Boss
BIG FAT STORY
If Dudley does too good a job, he might soon find himself with all of Tony Hayward’s responsibilities. Bloomberg BusinessWeek names him as one of the top candidates to succeed Hayward as CEO if Hayward gets the boot. His main competition, the magazine says, is Andy Inglis, who heads exploration
and production, and Iain Conn, who runs refining and marketing.
PRESUMPTIVE HEIR
The Next CEO?
Could succeed Hayward atop the oil company.
TAINTED?
Oil on His Hands, Too
Was in charge of American operations.
Though Dudley promises to put a more sympathetic face on BP, it’s not as though he didn’t play a role in the mismanagement that helped lead to this disaster. In fact, since becoming BP’s managing director in April 2009, Dudley has overseen BP’s American operations. At the time of his appointment, BP told Dudley to take a “top-level view,” rather than an operational one; now he finds himself in the thick of operations. Could the disaster have been avoided if he had taken a more “operational” view in the first place?
From Russia, with Dividends
RESUME
Dudley headed BP's Russian venture.
Guy Chazan of The Wall Street Journal must be pleased with BP’s decision to hand over the oil-spill reins to Dudley: He recommended him for the job last week. “If anyone can do the job, Mr. Dudley can,” Chazan wrote. He says the “soft-spoken and easy-going American” has a “strong resume”—most impressively, five years as CEO of TNK-BP, BP’s Russian joint venture. Dudley withstood raids by the Russian federal security service and, under his watch, TNK-BP had the highest total return of all Russian oil companies, paying out more than $18 billion in dividends, but he lost a shareholder war and was forced to leave Russia in 2008 after his work visa was not renewed. Whether this type of professional success translate into the wherewithal to manage the oil spill, however, remains to be seen.
WORST JOB EVER
Robert Dudley, just handed the reins of BP’s oil-spill operations, must clean up monumental environmental and PR messes. Is he the right man for two of the worst tasks on the planet?
It’s easy to see why BP has chosen Dudley to be the face of its oil-spill response; the only question is why it waited so long. Unlike CEO Tony “I’d Like My Life Back” Hayward and Chairman Carl-Henric “Small People” Svanberg, Dudley has deftly handled his interviews. He conveys a technical expertise of the Gulf procedures without coming off as painfully unsympathetic or straying too far from the company line. Speaking at a press conference with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on June 7, Dudley eloquently humanized his employer:
“I know BP can feel like a big, faceless logo at times, but it’s like any other business—it’s made up of people, and thousands of them. I believe they get up in the morning each day believing they make a difference in the world. Some may be your friends, family, and neighbors here in the Gulf. They probably seem quiet now. We have many employees in Louisiana and other states around the coast. Our employees simply can’t believe this has happened. But it has. They want to make this right, they want to restore life back to the way it was around the Gulf. Because this is their home, and because they, and we, believe BP is a company that lives up to its responsibilities.”
One huge advantage Dudley has over Hayward: He grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and spent his summers in Biloxi and Gulfport. “I absolutely understand. I grew up on the Gulf Coast,” Dudley told Judy Woodruff when asked about criticism of BP. “I know those beaches down there. And this is a very difficult time for people. And it’s very difficult. A lot of BP people live and their families are down there in the Gulf Coast as well. It’s very personal for all of us.”
Lord Browne's Poor Record at BP
BIG FAT STORY
BP’s buyouts of smaller, often failing, oil companies—most notably Amoco and Arco—marked the start of the Lord Browne era, a time in which the company grew enormously. Exploration and production earnings rose 54 percent, while those for refining and marketing fell by 29 percent, the BBC reported in 1999. As history made evident, however, such success would come at a serious price.credit: James A. Finley / AP Photo
Oil Spill
Deepwater Horizon Rig Explodes
And pinpoints failures of the Browne-era.Takeover Raids
BP Seizes Control of Failing Oil Companies
As part of aggressive expansion strategy.
BP’s buyouts of smaller, often failing, oil companies—most notably Amoco and Arco—marked the start of the Lord Browne era, a time in which the company grew enormously. Exploration and production earnings rose 54 percent, while those for refining and marketing fell by 29 percent, the BBC reported in 1999. As history made evident, however, such success would come at a serious price.
credit: James A. Finley / AP Photo
credit: James A. Finley / AP Photo
THE SINS OF BP'S GODFATHER
The U.K. government appointed former BP chief Lord Browne as its new efficiency czar—a disturbing and controversial move, considering the role Browne, who led the oil giant between 1998 and 2007, played in the gushing Deepwater Horizon spill. The Daily Beast takes a look at the larger story behind his spotty tenure.
Disaster Strikes
Texas City Oil Refinery Explodes
Due to years of infrastructure mismanagement.
On March 23, 2005, an explosion at a refinery in Texas City, Texas, killed 15 workers and injured 170. Caused by cost cutting, massive production pressures, old equipment, and exhausted employees—some of whom worked 12 hours a day for 29 days straight—the problems were largely facilitated by Lord Browne, who ordered 25 percent cuts across the board. “Flagrant violations of law and sense” is how Brett Coon, the lawyer who investigated BP in the aftermath, put it to Esquire. OSHA later fined BP $87.4 million—the largest fine in the administration’s history—after the oil company’s failure to comply in several hundred instances. According to The New York Times , OSHA issued BP 271 notifications and identified 439 “willful and egregious” violations.
credit: Tony Gutierrez / AP Photo
credit: Tony Gutierrez / AP Photo
In 2002, California officials alleged that BP had falsified inspections of fuel tanks at a Los Angeles area 
refinery. More than 80 percent of the facilities didn’t meet the requirements, and inspectors had to get a warrant before they checked the tanks. A lawsuit brought by the South Coast Air Quality Management District was settled for more than $100 million.
refinery. More than 80 percent of the facilities didn’t meet the requirements, and inspectors had to get a warrant before they checked the tanks. A lawsuit brought by the South Coast Air Quality Management District was settled for more than $100 million.credit: LM Otero / AP Photo
Avoidance Techniques
BP Falsified Fuel Tank Inspections
In an attempt to avoid California regulations.The Washington Pos
Sex Scandal
Lord Browne Forced to Resign
After lying about gay relationship.
In May 2007, a newspaper revealed Lord Browne had lied about how he had met Jeff Chevalier, his Canadian partner between 2002 and 2006. Browne claimed they met while running in a London park; in fact, they met via suitedandbooted.com. Already having announced he would retire by the end of 2008 after a series of operational gaffes—the Texas City explosion, the various Alaskan oil spills—this was the final straw. Tony Hayward, his designated successor, was immediately appointed.
credit: Tony Gutierrez
In March 2006, an oil worker smelled hydrocarbons, which led to the discovery of a 267,000-gallon oil spill in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska—the largest oil spill to ever occur on the tundra of the state’s North Slope at the
time. A result of decaying pipes in an aging system, this wasn’t the pipeline’s first leak during Lord Browne’s tenure, either. In fact, just five years before, 285,000 gallons spilled out after a hunter shot the pipeline. More problems in Alaska continued from there. As ProPublica reports, between September 2008 and November 2009, three BP gas and oil pipelines on the North Slope ruptured or clogged, leading to a heightened risk of explosions.
credit: Al Grillo / AP Photo
credit: Al Grillo / AP Photo
Leaking Pipes
Oil Repeatedly Spills
From pipelines on Alaska’s North Slope.
Are We In a Treasury Bubble?
| Thu Jul. 1, 2010 4:36 PM PDT
Conservative economist Scott Sumner tries to divine Paul Krugman's secret to economic prognostication:
thinks that interest rates and inflation are going to remain subdued, then your best bet — as Krugman and DeLong point out regularly — is that interest rates and inflation are going to remain subdued.
Of course, neither Krugman nor DeLong is a big fan of EMH, so Sumner is having a bit of fun at their expense in this post. Still, there's a point to the snark, and it's why I'm a smidge less sure about the market's view of interest rates and inflation than K&D are. The problem is that I'm on their side when it comes to EMH: it really isn't a very reliable theory, and it's especially unreliable in the middle of bubbles. Relying on market prices as a guarantee of safety during the credit bubble of the aughts would have led you wildly astray, and I suspect that it might be doing the same thing now: thanks to the global recession, the overall dearth of good investment opportunities, and a general fear of the future producing a sustained flight to safety, we may be in the middle of a treasury bubble that's pushing interest rates to artificially low levels. If we are, then that bubble may pop unexpectedly and we may learn that the market has been fooling us all along.
Now, DeLong in particular has been tireless in making a related but separate point: it doesn't really matter what you think about the future. If the market — whether or not it's being fooled by a bubble mentality — is willing to loan the government money for 10 or 30 years at low interest rates, then the government should take the money. Once the rate is locked in, it means we're getting cheap funding to stimulate the economy, and we might as well take advantage of it. This has nothing to do with either EMH or any attempt to predict the future.
And I basically agree. I'm not sanguine about the state of the economy, and I think the risk that either expansionary fiscal policy or expansionary monetary policy will touch off a serious inflation storm is small. In any case, small enough that I'm willing to take it. Still, there is a chance that expansionary policy will, at some point, spook the market enough that it wakes up from its bubble and decides to send interest rates skyrocketing. I don't think it's a very big chance, but it's a chance. And it's why I'm just a little bit waffly on the whole subject.
If you read Brad DeLong, you probably notice that he is a bit in awe of Krugman’s ability to be right about everything. Actually, Krugman isn’t right about everything....But to give the devil his due, he is right about an awful lot of things. Why is that?EMH is the Efficient Market Hypothesis, and in this context it basically means that current prices reflect the best information we have about the state of the market. There are no hidden secrets and there are no models that can provide better predictions. If the market, putting its money where its mouth is,
....Think about all his recent posts mocking the conservative fear that big deficits will lead to higher interest rates. What evidence does Krugman use? He cites the low and falling 10 year bond yields. In other posts he has used TIPS spreads to explain why inflation is the last thing we should be worried about. Now flash back to March 2009, when Krugman warned that $780 billion in stimulus would not be enough to get the job done. Did he know this from his models, as he claimed? Or did he cheat, did he peek at the equity, commodity and bond markets, and notice that all were predicting a severe recession with lots of disinflation, if not outright deflation? I think he peeked.
My theory is there are two kinds of economists:
1. Those who look smarter than they really are, because they rely on the EMH to predict
Paul Krugman2. Those who look dumber than they really are because they rely on their own models to predict
Scott Sumner
etc
thinks that interest rates and inflation are going to remain subdued, then your best bet — as Krugman and DeLong point out regularly — is that interest rates and inflation are going to remain subdued.Of course, neither Krugman nor DeLong is a big fan of EMH, so Sumner is having a bit of fun at their expense in this post. Still, there's a point to the snark, and it's why I'm a smidge less sure about the market's view of interest rates and inflation than K&D are. The problem is that I'm on their side when it comes to EMH: it really isn't a very reliable theory, and it's especially unreliable in the middle of bubbles. Relying on market prices as a guarantee of safety during the credit bubble of the aughts would have led you wildly astray, and I suspect that it might be doing the same thing now: thanks to the global recession, the overall dearth of good investment opportunities, and a general fear of the future producing a sustained flight to safety, we may be in the middle of a treasury bubble that's pushing interest rates to artificially low levels. If we are, then that bubble may pop unexpectedly and we may learn that the market has been fooling us all along.
Now, DeLong in particular has been tireless in making a related but separate point: it doesn't really matter what you think about the future. If the market — whether or not it's being fooled by a bubble mentality — is willing to loan the government money for 10 or 30 years at low interest rates, then the government should take the money. Once the rate is locked in, it means we're getting cheap funding to stimulate the economy, and we might as well take advantage of it. This has nothing to do with either EMH or any attempt to predict the future.
And I basically agree. I'm not sanguine about the state of the economy, and I think the risk that either expansionary fiscal policy or expansionary monetary policy will touch off a serious inflation storm is small. In any case, small enough that I'm willing to take it. Still, there is a chance that expansionary policy will, at some point, spook the market enough that it wakes up from its bubble and decides to send interest rates skyrocketing. I don't think it's a very big chance, but it's a chance. And it's why I'm just a little bit waffly on the whole subject.
RNC Chair: Obama Started War in Afghanistan
| Fri Jul. 2, 2010 8:59 AM PDT
Adducing yet more evidence that Michael Steele is a mendacious clown hardly seems worth the bother, but this is pretty spectacular even by his standards:
Dear Michael,
You are, I know, a patriot. So I ask you to consider, over this July 4 weekend, doing an act of service for the country you love: Resign as chairman of the Republican party.
Your tenure has of course been marked by gaffes and embarrassments, but I for one have never paid much attention to them, and have never thought they would matter much to the success of the causes and principles we share. But now you have said, about the war in Afghanistan, speaking as RNC chairman at an RNC event, "Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in." And, "if [Obama] is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?"
Needless to say, the war in Afghanistan was not "a war of Obama’s choosing." It has been prosecuted by the United States under Presidents Bush and Obama. Republicans have consistently supported the effort. Indeed, as the DNC Communications Director (of all people) has said, your statement "puts [you] at odds with about 100 percent of the Republican Party."
And not on a trivial matter. At a time when Gen. Petraeus has just taken over command, when Republicans in Congress are pushing for a clean war funding resolution, when Republicans around the country are doing their best to rally their fellow citizens behind the mission, your comment is more than an embarrassment. It’s an affront, both to the honor of the Republican party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission they’ve been asked to take on by our elected leaders.
There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan, and they’re certainly entitled to make their case. But one of them shouldn't be the chairman of the Republican party.
Sincerely yours,
William Kristol
Keep in mind, again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in....But it was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should in Afghanistan. Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who has tried over a thousand years of history has failed, and there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan without committing U.S. troops.It starts around the 0:20 mark. I'm taking bets in comments: what Bush-era policy will Steele repudiate next? I'm hoping he blames lower tax rates on Obama.
A Letter to Michael Steele
William Kristol
July 2, 2010 12:12 PM
Dear Michael,
You are, I know, a patriot. So I ask you to consider, over this July 4 weekend, doing an act of service for the country you love: Resign as chairman of the Republican party.
Your tenure has of course been marked by gaffes and embarrassments, but I for one have never paid much attention to them, and have never thought they would matter much to the success of the causes and principles we share. But now you have said, about the war in Afghanistan, speaking as RNC chairman at an RNC event, "Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in." And, "if [Obama] is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?"
Needless to say, the war in Afghanistan was not "a war of Obama’s choosing." It has been prosecuted by the United States under Presidents Bush and Obama. Republicans have consistently supported the effort. Indeed, as the DNC Communications Director (of all people) has said, your statement "puts [you] at odds with about 100 percent of the Republican Party."
And not on a trivial matter. At a time when Gen. Petraeus has just taken over command, when Republicans in Congress are pushing for a clean war funding resolution, when Republicans around the country are doing their best to rally their fellow citizens behind the mission, your comment is more than an embarrassment. It’s an affront, both to the honor of the Republican party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission they’ve been asked to take on by our elected leaders.
There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan, and they’re certainly entitled to make their case. But one of them shouldn't be the chairman of the Republican party.
Sincerely yours,
William Kristol
White House releases staff salary data
- 07/02/10 10:58 AM ET
The White House on Friday released the salaries of its staff members ranging from its lowest-level employees to chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.Emanuel, press secretary Roberts Gibbs, senior adviser David Axelrod and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett make the top salary amount of $172,200 per year. Three staffers have their salaries listed as $0.
In total, the White House pays its staff $38,796,307.
"Since 1995, the White House has been required to deliver a report to Congress listing the title and salary of every White House Office employee," the White House blog says. "Consistent with President Obama's commitment to transparency, this report is being publicly disclosed on our website as it is transmitted to Congress."
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