Gibbs Watch [Peter Wehner]
THE CORNER
It wasn't just the clumsy (and irritated) Jake Tapper incident. Here Gibbs is refusing to answer a question regarding labor secretary-designate Hilda Solis's husband and his back taxes:
Video
As one friend wrote to me, "This guy is worse than Scott [McClellan] was. He's going to need to go quick." Even Jon Stewart is ridiculing Gibbs. That can't be good news for Gibbs or Obama.
re: Comparative-Effectiveness $ in Stimulus [Michael Cannon]
Sens. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) are reportedly looking for items to cut from the $900-plus-zillion spendfest moving through Congress. Here's one: the $1.1 billion for research comparing the effectiveness of medical treatments.
Why? For one thing, a federal comparative-effectiveness agency is doomed to fail. Sure, conservatives fear a comparative-effectiveness agency will lead to government rationing of medical care. After all, that's the whole idea. Yet the graveyards in Washington are littered with agencies that once tried to conduct comparative-effectiveness research, but were eliminated under pressure from the health care industry. If history is any guide, a new agency will be a waste of time and money.
I explain it all in a new Cato Institute paper titled, "A Better Way to Generate and Use Comparative-Effectiveness Research." (The paper is to be released tomorrow, but we snuck it online today.)
The President's Non-Compromise Position [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Also from today's press briefing:
Chuck Todd: "Robert, you've said just now actually in an answer to one of the questions or the President has said if he hears some good ideas from the Republicans, he's all for it. Has there been a good idea from a Republican that he is now trumpeting into this stimulus packet?"
Gibbs: "Well, I think the President talked with Senator Snowe and Senator Collins yesterday."
Todd: "Was there specific like okay, that's a good idea, let's do it?"
Gibbs: "I have not gotten from him that. I know that he believes that and stated over the course of the negotiations that there are things that he didn't, while good policy, didn't believe should be in the bill. And I think he is watching what is. And I think he is watching what is going on in the Senate in order to see where the process moves this along."
Stimulus Good News and Bad News [Mark Hemingway]
Just spoke to a Republican source in the Senate. The good news is, according to the source, "We have the momentum to either stop the bill or at least lay it at Democrats' feet." The source thinks that Reid may have as many as three Republican votes, and while that may be enough to pass it, that's hardly bipartisan cover. The bad news? "We're shooting ourselves in the foot right now by trying to help the Democrats out to improve the bill. It's a Keynesian policy and it's not going to work and just tweaking it around the edges and adding a few good provisons and taking out a few of the bad — the core of this bill takes the country in the wrong direction."
Here's what the source thinks is going on right now: "It certainly seemed that after the Democrats had their kumbaya moment yesterday at their retreat that they must have just said, 'we've taken enough hits, they're killing us out there, this is a public relations nightmare. We'd better lock arms and get this bill passed before Friday. We can't allow to this to hang out any longer and support is going to dwindle.' Reid got his guys in line and decided they're going to power through this. They're going to pass it one way or the other. I'm just looking right now and I have eight [Republican] amendments yesterday that were all rejected yesterday after they came back from their retreat."
If Republicans want to kill the current stimulus package or otherwise make it a more reasonable bill, the key might be finding a way to prevent a vote before the weekend. If they're lucky, support keeps trending down as more detailed questions about the bill continue to be asked.
Creating More Jobs Americans Won't Do [Mark Krikorian]
I'd obviously prefer this "stimulus" monstrosity fail in the Senate, but if it's going to pass, it should at least contain the provision in the House version of the bill to require contractors getting funds to use the E-Verify system to screen out illegal workers. The potential size of the problem is suggested by an estimate my research director has posted: If the bill were to perform as expected, it would give as many as 300,000 jobs to illegal-alien construction workers. Sen. Sessions is apparently trying to get a vote on the E-Verify issue, and if that happens, I don't see how it could lose—the campaign attack ads practically write themselves. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation has more on the topic here.
"CBO: Obama stimulus harmful over long haul" [Rich Lowry]
From the Washington Times:
President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.
CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. [The House bill] would have similar long-run effects, CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, who was tapped by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to be Commerce Secretary.
corner.nationalreview.com |
