Another Unkind Cut

At least they are waiting until after January, but TJ Maxx parent company TJX is laying off some 4,400 employees in 2011.

The company said the workers will hold their jobs through the holiday season and into late January. It plans to offer severance and other assistance to the workers.

"While I believe this move makes us a much stronger company and will benefit TJX in both the near-term and long-term, it was not an easy decision as many positions will be eliminated and it will be difficult for our affected associates," said Chief Executive Carol Meyrowitz, in a press release.

The Framingham, Mass.-based company also said it is converting 91 A.J. Wright stores into T.J. Maxx, Marshalls or HomeGoods stores. TJX will close the remaining 71 stores as well as A.J. Wright's two distribution centers and its home office, the company said.

No demand, no need for retailers, no retail jobs, lower demand as the survivors tighten their belts.  Fun, huh?

And on the cycle goes.

Can't Win For Losing

David Brooks thinks losing pretty much every vote on his agenda, being publicly rebuked by House Dems on the tax deal and people actually asking if Obama is still relevant meant a good week for the President.

The fact is, Obama and the Democrats have had an excellent week. The White House negotiators did an outstanding job for their side. With little leverage, they got not only the unemployment insurance, but also an Earned Income Tax Credit provision, a college scholarship provision and other Democratic goodies. With little leverage, they got a package that could win grudging praise from big-name liberal groups like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Center for American Progress.

Moreover, Obama has put himself in a position to govern again. The package is popular. According to the most recent Gallup numbers, 67 percent of independents and 52 percent of Democrats support extending all the tax cuts. Higher numbers support extending the unemployment insurance. Obama is reminding independents why they liked him in the first place.

He only needs to work on two things. He needs to explain his method better than he did in his press conference. It is entirely consistent to support a policy and be willing to move off of it in exchange for a greater good or a necessary accommodation. That’s called real life.

Then he’s got to bring this networking style to the larger issues. It’s easy to cut a deal that explodes deficits. It’s harder to cut one that reduces them. But there are more networks waiting to be built: to reform the tax code; to reduce consumption and expand productivity; to reform entitlements.

Washington doesn’t know how to handle coalition-building anymore; you can see consternation and confusion all around. But did anybody think changing the tone was going to be easy? 

Only one problem there, Dave.

Obama didn't "get" any of those.  And Republicans blocked all the other things on his agenda all but killing them completely because they realized that Obama really does score a win for the reasons Brooks mentioned if he can get this deal worked out.  The deal will therefore be changed.  House Dems aren't going to move on the estate tax cut, and Republicans are increasingly against the payroll tax cut.

Compromise is needed, yes.  If this deal passed as is, it would be a good week for Obama, especially if that meant DREAM Act, DADT repeal, and START ratification was done as well.

But what Brooks still is incapable of understanding is that the Republicans will never allow such a win for Obama.  So it really doesn't matter what House Dems think in the end:  Senate Republicans will run out the clock no matter what Obama does and then the Republican House will introduce their own tax plan and force Obama to sign it or else.

I don't know how this counts as "compromise" but apparently Brooks is unaware of the definition of the term.

Triangulation Nation: Taxing My Patience Edition

All the serious problems facing this country right now and Barack Obama wants to use the fierce advocacy of the bully pulpit to...simplify the tax code?!?

President Obama is considering whether to push early next year for an overhaul of the income tax code to lower rates and raise revenues in what would be his first major effort to begin addressing the long-term growth of the national debt.


While administration officials cautioned on Thursday that no decisions have been made and that any debate in Congress could take years, Mr. Obama has directed his economic team and Treasury Department analysts to review options for closing loopholes and simplifying income taxes for corporations and individuals, though the study of the corporate tax system is farther along, officials said.

The objective is to rid the code of its complex buildup of deductions, credits and exemptions, thereby broadening the base of taxes collected and allowing for lower rates — much like a bipartisan majority on Mr. Obama’s debt-reduction commission recommended last week in its final blueprint for reducing the debt through 2020.

Doing so would offer not only an opportunity to begin confronting the growth in the national debt but also a way to address warnings by American business that corporate tax rates and the costs of complying with the tax code are cutting into their global competitiveness.

Mr. Obama signaled his inclination in off-the-cuff remarks on Wednesday as he was defending the tax cuts deal negotiated with Congressional Republicans this week. “We’ve got to have tax reform,” he said.

Economic and political advisers say the process is in its early stages, and Mr. Obama ultimately could decide against such action, given the pitfalls, both political and substantive. In the past, any effort to alter the tax code has provoked powerful opposition among interest groups, and the picking of winners and losers.

Yet proponents within the administration and among some outside advisers say that Mr. Obama, by putting tax reform atop the national agenda, could seize an opportunity to take the offensive in dealing with the newly empowered Republicans in Congress, repair his strained relations with business and embrace a potentially powerful theme heading into his re-election campaign. 

I have to admit, the Times' Jackie Calmes does a laudably efficient job of packing in all the Villager tropes on this story in the first 300 words or so:  Bipartisanship Village style (giving into Republican demands),  the Catfood Commission are the smartest people on Earth,  it'll be good for his re-election campaign and my personal favorite, Obama needs to give businesses more because they are being crushed under taxation despite the fact that last quarter resulted in record nominal profits for them.

I'm not sure where the whole tax simplification thing came from as far as Obama's concerned, but you notice the Catfood Commission tax scheme (lowering taxes on the rich more than makes up for the deductions they'd lose, but the middle class would pay more due to lost deductions despite the lower rates, and the poor would pay more due to a higher rate) seems perfectly okay with Obama, at least in theory.  Thay may not be what he means, of course we have no numbers, but I don't hold it as a good sign.

The larger problem is the fact we have larger problems than simplifying the tax code right now.

Never The Right Time For Some

As I keep pointing out, two-thirds of America want to see DADT repealed.  Republicans keep saying "Oh yes, we support this."  Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the time to repeal is now as 70% of the military has no problem with letting openly gay military members serve.

And I expect Republicans to keep taking hostages.  It's what they do.  But Democrat Joe Manchin is a special case for opposing it in yesterday's vote.

Manchin said the Senate testimony from military branch chiefs last week -- most of whom said they were opposed to repealing the ban, but that they could implement it if asked to do so -- was part of his decision not to back repeal for the time being.

"My concerns, as highlighted in the recent defense survey and through the testimony of the service chiefs, are with the effect implementation of the repeal would have on our front line combat troops at this time," he said.

Manchin said he is "very sympathetic to those who passionately support the repeal," but added that he needs more time "to visit and hear the full range of viewpoints from the citizens of West Virginia."

Besides, Manchin added -- if supporters of repeal are upset with the Senate vote, they can always go talk to President Obama about ending DADT discharges with a stroke of his pen.

"While I may disagree with a repeal of DADT at this time, some believe that President Obama, as Commander-in-Chief, if he so chooses, has the authority to suspend discharges under DADT, if he deems it a matter of national security," Manchin said. "If this is correct, and the President was to make such an order, while I may disagree with it, I would respect his authority as President to do so."

And he's right.  Of course, if Obama does do this (and he can) the next homophobic Republican President to come along will undo it immediately, hence the point of binding legislation.  Which Manchin can't bring himself to actually vote for, despite being "sympathetic".  He can't make a moral decision without talking to more of his constituents.

This is the same mealy-mouthed crap we keep hearing from "moderate" Republicans.  The timing is wrong, or more consultation is needed or I'm unsure, yadda yadda.

What's Joe Manchin's price for doing this?  What does he want for taking hostages?  Hey, give him some credit:  he's using what's worked for the Republicans for years now.

StupidiNews!

• Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia as he continues to serve his prison sentence.
• London students continue a second day of destructive protests as Parliament has voted to triple University tuition.
• Attorney General Eric Holder is angrily denouncing proposed Senate legislation that would end all civilian trials for terrorists.
• Bernie Madoff's "unstoppable" hedge fund has lost 60% of its value since Madoff's arrest two years ago.
• Switching your broadband ISP makes little to no difference in satisfaction, according to one survey.

Last Call

Been a hell of a long day.

Just to really top it off, Senate Republicans blocked a bill to provide health care for 9/11 first responders.  We can't afford it, they said.

Republicans complained that the $7.4 billion price tag was too high, while Democrats said the government had an obligation to help the first responders to the deadliest terrorism attack in U.S. history.

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health Bill -- named after a deceased New York Police Department detective who had worked in the toxic plume at ground zero -- seeks to provide free medical coverage for responders and survivors who were exposed to toxins after the attacks.

Nope.  Screw these 9/11 first responders who headed into the toxic cloud to save lives.  Republicans are going to let them die, because it's a waste of money to help them.

Republicans are too busy demanding we cut the estate tax instead.  What's it going to take, folks?

What's it going to take before we tell these bigoted, hateful, smarmy, assholes to go to hell?

Irish Eyes Are Crying, Part 11

Ireland's Labor Party just took a shillelagh to the bailout deal, and the euro just found a nice cliff to jump off of as a result.

The dollar rose against the euro on Thursday after an Irish political party said it would vote against an emergency European Union bailout for the country and a ratings agency cut Ireland's sovereign debt rating.

The euro fell to session lows around $1.3169 EUR= and was last trading at $1.3185, down about 0.5 percent on the day.

Ireland's Labor Party said it would vote against the 85 billion euro bailout when it comes before parliament next week, and traders said that raises concerns about Ireland's ability to service and redeem outstanding debt.

"Word the Irish Labour Party will vote against the bailout sent us down here to test the lows. Some longs are dumping euros here," said Brian Dolan, chief strategist at Forex.com in Bedminster, New Jersey. "It's a question of people worrying about sovereign default risk, which is bad for the euro.

Fitch's move to cut its rating for Ireland, which secured an emergency European Union bailout last month, weighed on the euro.

The Irish bailout is not a done deal folks.  If the Labor Party is bailing on it (and the massive austerity chokehold it entails) then all kinds of chaos is coming down the pike.   Ireland's government may not have to votes to pass this deal, and if they don't, things are going to get problematic for the EU.

Derailing That Train Of Thoughtlessness

Via Balloon Juice, Ohio GOP Governor-elect John Kasich's petulance has cost the state $385 million, and Wisconsin's GOP Governor-elect Scott Walker has cost his state $810 million.  That billion plus will go to states who actually want infrastructure and jobs as the federal government has made good on their threat to yank the cash and give it to states smart enough to take it.

Neither Ohio nor Wisconsin were getting high-speed trains. They were simply getting new train routes that the federal government hoped would form the basis of a new national network of trains, which could eventually be upgraded to high-speed rail. But the new governors-elect questioned who would ride the new, not-terribly-fast trains.

Scott Walker, the governor-elect of Wisconsin, who vowed to stop the train in a campaign commercial, said that the train from Milwaukee to Madison would cost too much money, take the same amount of time as driving and leave many passengers needing cars anyway to get around at both ends.

Mr. Walker worried that the new $810 million train route would leave the state with subsidies of $7 million to $10 million a year to run the trains. Exasperated train supporters, who saw a lucrative jobs project and an environmentally friendly way to travel, complained that Mr. Walker’s position was analogous to turning down a free new car, simply because it would cost money for gas and insurance.

John Kasich, the governor-elect of Ohio, declared “this train is dead” after being elected, and mocked the slow speeds the train was expected to travel.

Both men expressed interest in using the stimulus money to fix and maintain highways and roads in their states instead. But the money was part of $8 billion in the stimulus bill that was directed for building trains and paving the way for high-speed rail in the United States.

Now they are about to find out if the electorate that supported their antirail platforms will still support them, now that it has cost their states $1.2 billion. 

We'll find out a lot sooner than 2014, my guess.  Better hope unemployment goes down, boys...because the Democrats already have the campaign commercials planned for you.   If you don't want to use the money for what it was intended for but still want the handout, well gosh, I thought Republicans called that sort of thing fraud.

Good luck with that whole recovery thing.

Holding Tea And No Tea At The Same Time

And of course to do this, you need to remove the common sense particle inside your own mind.  Michele Bachmann did this some time ago as she demonstrates that cutting the estate tax costs nothing because tax cuts are giving money back to people, but payroll tax cuts are unacceptable because they lower government revenue, and she comes up with this in roughly a two minute span.

BACHMANN:[W]e’re pleased to see that we’re looking at a two percent reduction in the payroll tax, what we normally call the Social Security tax for employees. … What this will mean is a decrease in revenue for the Social Security Trust Fund. That will, again, add to the deficit going forward. So both of these measures that President Obama is proposing will actually have a cost towards increasing the deficit.

KELLY: Is it worth it to you though, to give the president the things that he’s asked for, like the extension of unemployment benefits, in order to preserve tax cuts for all Americans? [...]

BACHMANN: It’s curious to me that they say there’s a cost involved when people are allowed to keep their own money. And they’re talking about Americans being able to keep $700 billion of their own money. The cost is to the Treasury, but really it’s a cost out of the American peopeles’ pockets. So that’s a definition of terms.

The real cost will be in the outlay of unemployment benefits and in the reduction to the treasury in the Social Security taxes.

So there's a cost, but there's not a cost, so tax cuts don't really cost anything, but if you don't pay those taxes it will, but it only applies to not being a cost if the person whose money is being saved is rich enough not to really notice the saved money because it doesn't matter...cost...no cost...error...*head explodes*

Sorry about that.  The woman is exasperating in the density of her ignorance.  It's the mental equivalent of neutronium fruit cake.  Best part:  before she became The Country's Dumbest Congressperson(tm), she was The Country's Worst Tax Lawyer(tm).

On the other hand, scientists are thrilled at this exciting discovery in Quantum Bachmathenomics and are wondering if we can use it to power the Infinite Improbability Drive, and there's even hope that this discovery may surpass bistromathics in its applications.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pass Repeal

And following through on their threat, Senate Republicans have now finished killing the entire lame duck agenda with the death of repealing DADT.  In the end Republicans Brown and Murkowski all voted no, showing they are just as bigoted and hate-filled as the rest of their homophobic asshole Republican buddies (and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, you get to be my replacement for Evan F'ckin Bayh for the next two years.)

When it was clear that the filibuster could not be beaten, Susan Collins then voted yes.  Final vote, 57-40.

Guess it's up to the President to deal with it now.  Will he?  He has the power.

Will he use it?

New tag.  Joe F'ckin Manchin.

[UPDATE]  Remember, two-thirds of America wants to repeal DADT.   The same Republicans who howled about Democrats violating THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE on health care reform do not give a damn when those people are talking about the LGBT community.

[UPDATE 2] Via Igor Volsky comes DADT Kabuki Theater:



There is talk of a stand-alone measure version of DADT coming up for a vote at some point in the next few days.  This too will fail, and Republicans will continue to be soulless bigots.

You're Watching The FOX Still Not News Channel!

Via Steve Benen, yet more proof that FOX News is nothing more than the corporate propaganda arm of the GOP.

At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News' controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network's journalists not to use the phrase "public option."

Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox's reporters should use "government option" and similar phrases -- wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats' reform efforts.

We report the GOP talking points, you decide that they still have objective credibility. Steve Benen notes this is part of a larger pattern:

Sammon's email had a subject line that read, "friendly reminder: let's not slip back into calling it the 'public option.'" He urged the network's on-air staff to "use the term 'government-run health insurance' or, when brevity is a concern, 'government option,' whenever possible. He added that if it's "necessary" to refer to the public option by name, Fox News staffers should "use the qualifier 'so-called,' as in 'the so-called public option.'"

And since Sammon's edict was a "reminder" to the staff, it seems likely Fox News employees had been told about using Republican-preferred rhetoric before.

So yes, here we have some pretty damning evidence that FOX News exists to push GOP talking points.  This is their news division, mind you, not the opinion show stuff.  It doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to Roger Ailes and friends, however.

They just think you're too stupid to notice.

A DREAM Deferred, And A Taxing Loss

The DREAM Act has died as Republicans have killed it.

Senate Republicans opposed the bill, standing by their pledge to block any legislation during the lame duck session until the chamber approves bills to extend the Bush tax cuts and fund the government.

The so-called Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would have affected immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children under the age of 16 and have lived in the country for at least five years. Other requirements include graduating from high-school or obtaining a General Education Development diploma and demonstrating "good moral character."

They killed it in retaliation for the House Dems blowing up the tax cut deal as predicted.  I figured the Senate Republicans would kill this too, but Nancy Pelosi used her gavel one last time.  I was hoping the Senate Republicans would kill it to avoid headlines like these:

House Democrats voted Thursday not to bring up a tax package that President Barack Obama negotiated with Republicans, raising questions over the president's influence in his own party.


"This message today is very simple. That in the form that it was negotiated, it is not acceptable to the House Democratic caucus," said Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen. "It's as simple as that."

Short version, the Dems will never accept the estate tax cut for the wealthy...

Two years ago the estate tax was 55%, with the first $1 million exempt. Then, in 2010, the rate fell temporarily to zero. But on January 1st, it's slated to become 35% on any amount over $5 million. And just because President Obama and the Republican leadership have arrived at a compromise, of course, doesn't mean it will find the votes to become law.

Indeed, a number of House Democrats told ABC News after their members caucused Tuesday night, that the estate tax provision is the element that is causing the most resistance to the tax cut compromise endorsed by President Obama and Congressional Republicans. 

...and the GOP will never accept the payroll tax cut for the working class.

Republicans acknowledged that the expiration of the tax holiday will be treated as a tax increase. "Once something like this goes into place, a year from now, when it expires, it'll be portrayed as a tax increase," said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). So in a body like Congress, precedents matter and this is setting a precedent. I think that certainly is going to create some problems down the road if it passes."

Given that Congress, under Democratic control, can't gather itself to let tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire, members of both parties are convinced that letting the payroll tax rate revert back to its current spot will be near impossible.

"Once you bring a rate down, if it goes back up, people will feel that. They'll feel their paycheck being less and that argument" -- that letting it expire amounts to a tax hike -- "eventually is bound to be made," said Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.).

"There's always a tendency to continue those things... Once something comes in, it's very difficult to change it," said Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio.) He then volunteered, without prompting, that "It would be detrimental to the Social Security system, especially when it's in bad shape."

So again, Mr. President...what's Plan B?  I've seen some ideas, but the White House is acting like this is the only option in town and that if it doesn't pass, we're all screwed.

President Obama warned his fellow Democrats on Wednesday that they risk plunging the country into a double-dip recession if they reject his tax-cut deal with Republicans.

Got news for you, ace.  We're already there.  We lost $1.7 trillion from the country's real estate wealth just this year.  Housing is already in a double dip as a result.  The rest of the country is following housing back down into the abyss.  I understand we need to try, but threatening a double dip recession if this isn't passed is too much for even me to take:  we're going to end up there anyway.

That was already a guarantee.  What's Plan B then?  Because your Plan A just blew up in your face.

Don't say you weren't warned.  All that remains now is for Senate Republicans to kill DADT repeal and we've got a big fat back to square one situation.

[UPDATE]  Greg Sargent echoes my own warning that the deal that will eventually pass now will almost certainly be far, far worse.

[UPDATE 2]  Steve M. wants to know what Plan B is, True Progressives Who Have A Better Plan Than Obama.  Let's see what you've got...

[UPDATE 3]  AP with the winning lede:

House Democrats voted Thursday to reject President Barack Obama's tax deal with Republicans in its current form, but it was unclear how significantly the package might need to be changed.

Well that's because the plan so far is:

1. Reject Obama's SELLOUT of the middle class!
2. ????
3. Enduring progressive majority!

Step 2 I'm thinking involves Ralph Nader.

Also They Are Responsible For Unimaginably Horrendous Cootie Rampages

Congress really does need to pass some sort of law that selects an American in a process like jury duty and gives them a foam bat to smack the hell out of people when they say completely moronic crap like this.

Bryan Fischer, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the conservative Christian group the American Family Association, wrote on his blog this week that gays -- not Julian Assange -- are responsible for the thousands of government documents released by Assange's WikiLeaks.

More specifically, Fischer assumes that the alleged WikiLeaks source Private Bradley Manning was "at minimum" seriously confused about his sexuality. He then really stretches things when he suggests that Manning leaked the documents to wage war on the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

In Fischer's own words:

Regardless, he is a one-man argument for keeping open homosexuals from serving in the military in the first place. If the 1993 law - which flatly prohibits homosexuals from a place in the armed services - had been followed, there would be no PFC Bradley Manning and no WikiLeaks.

Apparently Fischer isn't the only one who feels this way. Ann Coulter also wrote last week that Manning's supposed homosexuality is to blame for his alleged decision to leak the documents, calling him a "poster boy" for Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

To recap, the only possible motive Bradley Manning could have to leak things to Julian Assange and company is...he's gay.  Because everyone who thinks DADT should be repealed is secretly gay, obviously.

You know, two-thirds of America. All of them, closet cases.

Also, cooties that can completely disable the most powerful military on earth.

The mind of a wingnut is a frightening place.  That probably explains why they work so hard to change the world around them to match.  I'm really kind of disappointed it wasn't somehow our seekrit mooslim Kenyan dictator's fault, you know?

Republicans Give Flat COLA

Hey Tea Party "Don't Tread On Me" seniors, here's what your Republicans really think about you.

House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday thwarted Democratic efforts to award $250 checks to Social Security recipients facing a second consecutive year without a cost-of-living increase.


President Barack Obama and Democrats have urged approval of the one-time payment, saying seniors barely getting by on their Social Security checks face undue hardships without the COLA increase.

But most Republicans contended that the nation couldn't afford the estimated $14 billion cost of the payment, and that the COLA freezes in 2010 and 2011 come after seniors received a significant boost in 2009.

The measure was brought up under a fast-track procedure in the House that required a two-thirds majority for passage. The 254-153 vote in favor of the bill fell short of that. 

Republicans can afford $60 billion for lowering the estate tax for millionaires, but $14 billion to help America's seniors, well they can go to hell.  Gotta love GOP math.  If it helps anyone worth less than six figures, America can't afford it.

And this was before you guys put more Republicans in Congress to make more cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

If It's Thursday...

New jobless claims down 17k to 421k, but continuing claims dropped like a rock, some 191,000 people fell off the continuing claims cliff.

But the real story is that some 600,000 plus Americans lost their jobless benefits as they were unable to apply for new ones after 26 weeks of unemployment as the numbers for the Republican hostage-taking start to come in.

Just in time for Christmas.