President/Administration

This was my favorite part of Obama's speech on fiscal policy:

They want to give people like me a $200,000 tax cut that's paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay $6,000 more in health costs. That’s not right. And it’s not going to happen as long as I’m President. (Applause.)

Ezra Klein complains that he didn't get enough "policy specifics" from Obama's State of the Union speech.

I find such expectations strange. From where I stood, the speech was 100% teflon. The rightwingers can't touch it and everyone else will like what they hear.

Borderline brilliant.

People think Obama is a muslim? Bob Schieffer tells us on Face the Nation that it's not the GOPers but teh Internets to blame -- because it's the "only news delivery system we've ever had that has no editor."

Jonathan Chait quotes a TNR account of Obama choosing to go all out on health care reform rather than piecemeal as recommended by Emanuel and Biden, among others:

It couldn't have come at a better moment. David Leonhardt:

For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.

But he thinks as well. (Yeah, I know, scary stuff.)

[h/t ThinkProgress]

It's the easiest thing in the world to come up with a plan when you're completely indifferent to the final results. That's always been the GOPers' advantage when it comes to HCR: basically they can recommend anything they want since universal health care is not part of their agenda, it's part of ours.

So when one of the GOPers in Baltimore whined (in so many words) 'you're ignoring us -- we have a plan too!', it was great to hear Obama respond:

I had a great time watching the SOTU with old friends from the Niles Township Democratic Meetup. Leah called us all together and it was great seeing people, some of whom I hadn't seen for way too long. We all left re-inspired and energized by Obama's words.

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.