I'm still trying to figure out why one election in Massachusetts ought to be a game-changer for anything, let alone vitally important national issues. There's just no proportionality.

What makes me optimistic is the confidence that simply out of a sense of self-preservation, if nothing else, we're going to see something moving -- for real and not rhetorically -- on HCR, banks & the economy. It just can't end like this.

Pass. The. Damn. Bill.

[h/t S. Benen]

I understand that the decision to open the corporate financial floodgates for political campaigns is the direct legacy of GOPer appointments to the Court since the days of Ronald Reagan.

The weird thing is, is this the best time -- when the nation is doing a belly flop on the economy and corporations aren't, shall we say, particularly popular -- is this the best time to hand them such a present?

Can you say, backlash?

From TPM:

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), who has said he favors breaking the bill into chunks and passing them individually, emerged from a meeting with House leadership confident they'd have a deal by the end of the week. [emphasis added]

With a bad enough candidate you can lose to a GOPer even in Massachusetts. Here's looking to 2012!

This is stupid (if for real).

Obama on great and proud nations:

Came across this gem co-written in 2004 by Peter Orzag then at the Brookings Institute discussing the effects of the 2001 Bush tax cuts:

It is astonishing that, more than four years after the proposal was first made public, the administration has still not released an analysis of the plan's long-term economic effects, or even a statement of how it intends to pay for the tax cuts. Even supporters of the tax cut would presumably like to know the answers to those questions.

Let's face it, compared to the alternatives, the Senate bill they're about to approve is pretty conservative. That's why complaining about it not being 'bipartisan' is almost adding insult to injury.