Congress

The Chicago Tribune's initial reaction to Paul Ryan's Budget Plan is as loathsome as it is predictable:

What Real Leaders Do

Steve Benen quotes this summary of Rep. Ryan's appearance on Fox News Sunday:

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defended proposed Republican budget cuts to popular domestic programs Sunday as necessary to maintaining fiscal health.

HuffPost also reports on the appearance:

Jonathan Chait points out what I think is obvious:

I continue to believe that the filibuster will be eliminated or curtailed when Republicans gain simultaneous control of the House, the presidency, and more than 49 but fewer than 60 Senators. Conservatives have invested a lot of energy into defending the supermajority requirement in the Senate, but the ideological basis of that commitment is tissue-thin and will disappear as soon as it's inconvenient.

Steve Benen does a fine job summing up what most of us from a liberal persuasion are likely to think of Sen. Joe Lieberman's departure from the Senate.

If I were to think of some of the more damaging things he's done, I'd have to include his negative role during the Health Care debate where as Steve rightly says, "...Lieberman was chiefly responsible for killing the public option..."

Classic Krugman on the "bipartisan" debt-reduction commission:

It seemed obvious, as soon as the commission's membership was announced, that "bipartisanship" would mean what it so often does in Washington: a compromise between the center-right and the hard-right.

Follow-up Krugman Quote de Jour (this time on Soc. Sec.):

From TPM:

ABC News is reporting that sources close to Nancy Pelosi say that far from resigning from Congress, she's leaning toward staying in Congress and running the position of Minority Leader.

UPDATE: Nancy Pelosi:

Get well soon, Senator Durbin! We all rely on you.

David Waldman over at the Orange Satan nicely defines the frustration House members must feel living in an era:

Senate votes no on world's most stingy stimulus bill. Erza points out that with close to 10% unemployment, maybe deficit reduction isn't the most important thing:

There'll come a time when we need to start reducing the deficit. If we can get the economy back into gear, that time might even be soon. But for now, increasing the size of the deficit isn't some nasty side effect of stimulus spending. It is, quite literally, the point of the enterprise.

Blast from the past:

"We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed." (1/28/2010)

(As quoted in the NYTimes.)