Republicans are again threatening to block unemployment insurance during this deep recession. They’re doing so for supposedly two reasons, both of which are bogus. Their first argument is that we need to be more fiscally responsible and stop adding to the deficit. The continued irony of Republicans becoming deficit hawks only when Democrats are in charge aside, they also have the economics wrong. The best way to start turning the deficit around is by getting people back to work, which increases revenues. And the best way to get people back to work is by increasing consumption and demand. Unemployment insurance is easily the most effective way of doing that because people receiving those benefits are most likely to spend the money. It’s Econ 101.

Their second argument is that unemployment insurance provides a disincentive for people to go out and get work. To that suggestion, all the people who lost their jobs and are without work should be offended. The vast, vast majority of people who are unemployed are trying hard to get back into the labor force and should not be punished for the very slim minority that games the system. The average unemployment check is somewhere just north of $200 per week. Think of how much that gets you if you have to pay rent, bills and groceries. Do conservatives really think people are taking it easy and living the good life on that type of money? Republicans are flirting with not only an ignorance of the economic facts, but also just pure heartlessness toward the average American suffering from this harsh downturn.

Tonight, Fox News decided to have Sean Hannity broadcast live from the location of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann’s joint campaign rally. I know MSNBC has liberal shows now and people like to think that makes them even, but this type of collusion with one of the major political parties takes it to a ridiculous level. I understand having biases, but news outlets no matter where they’re coming from should at least have some level of separation. Fox News and the Republican party have been blurring that line for a very long time now. Palin and Bachmann are the two most visible women in the GOP today, which I find flatly embarrassing. Both are purely low-information, conspiratorial, red-meat political hacks that seem to have such little grasp over actual policy knowledge. But surprise, surprise! The base loves them, which means Fox News is going to cover them and promote their nonsense. Here is our glorious media in action:

With the health care debate now largely over, things look to be turning back toward the economy. More specifically, Congress and the Obama Administration are now preparing a financial regulatory reform package. I don’t think Democrats are looking for another big policy fight as they get closer to the midterm elections, but I don’t think this one will be as contentious as the health care fight. It will be a little harder to spin negatively if only for the fact that it doesn’t affect the American people as directly as health care reform would. Combine that with the anti-bailout, anti-wall street culture that is out there and this could be a political winner for the Democrats.

Now the content of such reform will be heavily debated and flushed out over the next couple of months and I hope to have several posts that bring some of these complex issues to light. Depending on who you talk with, you’re likely to get very different stories on what brought about this financial crisis. Very broadly speaking, I tend to believe that a culture of wrong economic incentives, from mortgage originators at the bottom to dangerous financial instruments at the top, was allowed to build and explode due to lack of regulation. These giant financial institutions were investing heavily in the housing bubble and when it all started coming down, the credit markets began freezing up. Whatever legislation that emerges from this process should contain much stiffer regulation on these institutions so that the American (and global) economy is not at risk every time they make poor business decisions. It is time to move beyond the overly free market ideology that has been building over the last several decades. Even the maestro himself, Alan Greenspan, the prolific student of Ayn Rand, admitted that part of his philosophy, that markets can police themselves, was wrong.

It’s been about a week now since President Obama signed the Democratic health reform bill into law. Polls since have been mixed, with some showing higher approval and others still showing a majority in opposition. I wouldn’t really pay attention to the polls immediately following the passage of the bill. Give time for the dust to settle and for people to find out more of the specifics. Personally, I think once people realize that the government isn’t taking over health care or sending some bureaucrat to get between you and your doctor, the approval will start to rise. I did a post about how polls can be misleading on this subject a couple of weeks ago.

I wanted to do this post about what seems to be the most “controversial” aspect of the bill: the individual mandate. As it states in the bill, by 2014, everyone will be required to purchase health insurance or face a fine. Many conservatives seem very adverse to this idea, viewing it as some kind of infringement on their liberties or something or other. In fact, 14 states Attorneys General are actually filing suit against the passage of this bill as a violation of the Constitution. The basis for this claim isn’t entirely strong and most of the claims seem politically based, but that isn’t the point. This isn’t some conspiracy for more government control over the people. There actually is a rationale behind requiring everyone to buy health insurance. The reason is so that we can cover people with pre-existing conditions. If we prevented insurance companies from discriminating against pre-existing conditions without an individual mandate, there would essentially be no reason to ever purchase health insurance. This would leave insurance companies to fund only the sick. You don’t have to be a business major to figure out how long that business model would last.

The rest of the bill seems rather harmless in comparison to the scary claims being put out there by the right wing. The majority of this bill is insurance industry regulation and increases in subsidies for low-income Americans, all while REDUCING the deficit. I can’t stress that enough. The two biggest fears about this bill is the mandate and the cost. What people need to realize is that the best way to solve the deficit problem is to reform health care. Making it more efficient and introducing more people to spread the risk pool will help control costs in the end.

While I am in not attacking public education, I do think that this video presents valuable insights into the public education system and the way it presents its data.  If we are to engage in a true civic debate on things like education, we need the true facts, and this video attempts to highlight the flaws in the presentation of that information.  Check it out; let me know what you think in the comment section,  I’m interested.