Ezra Klein - Economic and Domestic Policy, and Lots of It - January 31, 2010

Tab dump

1) America held hostage: Day one. 2) A great illustration of what financial markets look like these days. 3) Theories of presidential agendas: The rifle vs. the shotgun. 4) An interview with Tory leader David Cameron on whether conservatives can...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 6:23 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)

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Obama: 'We've got to go ahead and move forward on a vote'

A lot of folks are reading pretty deep into some comments Barack Obama made at a fundraiser suggesting a way forward for health-care reform. Here they are: Now, those two bills weren't identical, so it was important for folks...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 5:02 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (52)
Categories: Health Reform
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Money in politics, cont'd.

Lawrence Lessig's cri de coeur against money in politics picks, I think, exactly the right target. "This is corruption," he says. "Not the corruption of bribes, or of any other crime known to Title 18 of the U.S. Code....

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 4:18 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)

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Whether vs. where

Speaking of Paul Ryan, I wanted to say a few words on a part of our interview that didn't attract much notice. Namely, this exchange: When you talk about making people more powerful, that brings up some questions about the...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 2:52 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Health Economics
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Rise of the czars

A good point from Kevin Willis in comments: Republicans complain about all the czars, but they are obligating Obama to appoint more czars than any president in history, because they filibuster all his actual appointments. Czars route around the filibustering...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 2:14 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Government
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Was the CBO too kind to Paul Ryan's budget?

Howard Gleckman thinks people -- myself included -- are overstating the CBO's score of Ryan's budget plan. All this confusion is due to a letter written on Jan. 27 from CBO director Doug Elmendorf to Ryan. In that 50-page document,...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 1:36 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Budget
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Lunch break

If Wes Anderson directed Spiderman: Whoever that blond guy is, he's got the Owen Wilson voice down....

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 1:03 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)

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Primary sources

A reader got his hands on the note that Richard Shelby delivered to Harry Reid informing him of the blanket hold. You can read it here. Shocking stuff....

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 12:32 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)

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Obama's deficit problem

In his column today, Paul Krugman wonders why short-term deficits have roared onto the political agenda with such force and fury. The answer, he says, is that "deficit fear-mongering has become a key part of Republican political strategy." I'm...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 12:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Budget
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Shelby in 2005: 'I firmly support changing the Senate rules to require that a simple majority be necessary to confirm all judicial nominees'

A source just sent along this link to a 2005 press release on Richard Shelby's official Senate Web site: As a U.S. Senator, I believe that the review of judicial nominations is one of the most important responsibilities of the...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 11:39 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Senate
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The economics of guest verses

From an old article on Lil Wayne: Wayne works quickly — he writes nothing down, records rhymes as soon as they pop into his head, and completes up to five songs a day. He can also knock out a...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 11:07 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Economics
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The Nelsonization of Richard Shelby

The e-mails I'm getting on Richard Shelby are a lot like the e-mails I got after Ben Nelson's deal worked its way into the news. For instance, reader CS writes: I have become disgusted with Congressional Members acting in their...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 10:44 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (23)

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What is a 'hold'?

The news of the day, as I mentioned earlier, is that Richard Shelby has decided to place a hold on everything that eats, breathes or moves unless Alabama gets a couple billion more in pork. Before we take a...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 10:37 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (40)
Categories: Senate
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Minority rules

Steve Pearlstein really goes to town on bipartisanship today: The most common misconception is that bipartisanship means finding common ground and focusing on the things most everyone agrees on. In reality, that turns out to be a pretty small set...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 9:13 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Congress
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The world's most ridiculous legislative body cont'd

Sen. Richard Shelby has put a hold on all of President Obama's nominees. Yes, you read that right. All of them. And it's not because they're all unqualified, or unwilling to answer the Alabaman's questions. It's because he wants the...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 8:02 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (25)

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What's Chris Dodd's game?

Earlier in the week, Chris Dodd annoyed some financial reformers by bemoaning the Volcker reforms as destabilizing to the delicate bipartisan consensus he was trying to work out with Sen. Richard Shelby. But by yesterday, Dodd was singing a...

By Ezra Klein | February 5, 2010; 7:42 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Financial Regulation
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Tab dump

1) This guy's been traveling Antarctica and blogging about it. 2) People who make more than $250,000 are rich and can handle higher tax rates. 3) If you read Lawrence Lessig's piece on congressional corruption today you'll have a leg...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 7:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (24)

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The asymetrically empowered executive

Matt Yglesias makes a point that needs to be made more often: Our government does not treat all presidential powers equally. Domestic policy is dominated by the legislature while foreign policy is run more or less autonomously by the...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 6:17 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Government
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It's just you, Democrats

There's been a lot about procedural impediments to moving forward on health-care reform: Can the Senate can pass a reconciliation bill before the House passes the Senate bill? Can Republicans delay reconciliation with amendments? Who should go first, House...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 4:38 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (43)
Categories: Health Reform
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A party without grown-ups

I don't have much to say about Doug Holtz-Eakin building a conservative answer to the Center for American Progress (which was, in turn, a liberal answer to the Heritage Foundation), but one difference between the two is instructive. The Center...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 3:34 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (16)

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More senators should curse out incrementalism

If there's any reason to be even slightly optimistic about cap-and-trade, that reason is Lindsey Graham....

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 3:03 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Why you can't leave health-care reform to the states

Julie Appleby has an important article listing all the cuts states are making in their health-care programs to deal with the recession. Among them: Washington: Basic Health — the first state-subsidized program of its kind when it began more than...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 2:51 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Health Reform
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The strange politics of Kent Conrad

The Wall Street Journal has an uncommonly probing article on Kent Conrad that contrasts the self-styled deficit hawk's rhetoric on spending with his stubborn insistence on bringing home billions in subsidies and pork for his state. This is the first...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 1:48 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Budget
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Lunch break

Super Bowl Sunday is coming up, so it's probably a good time to learn how to make boneless chicken wings....

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 1:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Chat transcript

Kansas City, Mo.: My nephew this week just lost his job with a large national corporation after twenty six years of employment, along with hundreds of others. He is married with two teenagers at home, has a mortgage and other...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 1:15 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)

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Money=Sleep?

The very rich are different from you and me. They're better rested....

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 11:51 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)

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Saving insurers

Speaking of Paul Ryan's health-care plan, Tyler Cowen voices a concern. I am very interested in voucher plans but here is one source of my unease. Let's say you are given a voucher for a health insurance plan and there...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 11:27 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Health Reform
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Live chat at noon today

You've got questions. I may or may not have answers. But we'll never find out if you don't submit your questions here....

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 11:22 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)

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The conservative compromise that is the Senate health-care bill

Take Rep. Paul Ryan's health-care plan -- described here and here -- as the conservative pole on this issue. Then take single-payer and place it on the other side of the spectrum. Where does the Senate bill fall? It's closer...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 10:51 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (50)
Categories: Health Reform
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The problem with the Gang of Six

Matthew Yglesias misunderstands my argument on the mistake that was the Gang of Six. In the context of the health-care process we actually had -- where conservative Democrats believed that Republicans would sign onto the bill, and members of...

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 9:34 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Congress
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More mathbell!

Ever thought to yourself, "you know, I like Ezra's posts on the tax subsidy for employer-based insurance, but I wish they contained way, way, way more math?" If so, Austin Frakt has you covered....

By Ezra Klein | February 4, 2010; 8:53 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

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Tab dump

1) One in eight Americans used a soup kitchen or a charitable pantry in 2009. 2) Does China need to democratize? 3) ”Lost,” as explained by people who've never seen the show. 4) John Sides doesn't think process is so...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 6:47 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Tom Campbell is baaaaaaaad

It's almost impossible for me to believe that this ad comparing fiscal conservatives to sheep -- but in a good way! -- is real. But it is! The problem with Tom Campbell, the ad says, is all of his independent...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 6:07 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: California
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Did internet kill the political star?

Robert Wright thinks the rise of the Internet has made legislating a whole lot harder. The new information technology doesn’t just create generation-3.0 special interests; it arms them with precision-guided munitions. The division of readers and viewers into demographically and...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 5:06 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)

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Obama the Progressive

John Judis argues it's his reconstruction of the regulatory state: These days, liberals don’t know whether to feel betrayed by or merely disappointed with Barack Obama. They have gone from decrying his willingness to remove the public option from his...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 4:04 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)

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The primacy of process

"Yesterday," Josh Marshall writes, "I did a handful of posts about how Hill Democrats seem much less adept at mixing politics and policy together than their Republican counterparts." This crystallized something I've been struggling to put into words. We...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 3:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Congress
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Celebrities: They're just like us, only prettier

The photograph above is of the Beatles. John Lennon is 16. Paul McCartney is 15. George Harrison is 14. It comes from this set of rare photos of famous people. Thanks to Alyssa Rosenberg for the pointer....

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 2:10 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)

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Thomas Friedman is not allowed to manage my money

"A simple rule of investing that has always served me well," says Thomas Friedman. "Never short a country with $2 trillion in foreign currency reserves." Sigh. As Felix Salmon points out, "if you decided to short only countries whose foreign...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 1:30 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Financial Crisis
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Obama: If Democrats don't pass health-care reform, 'I don't know what differentiates us from the other guys'

Today's televised session between Barack Obama and the Senate Democrats wasn't encouraging to those of us hoping the Democrats are spending their time worrying about how to pass the health care bill. There were questions on the deficit, on...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 1:05 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: Health Reform
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Lunch break

Well, that's certainly the first time I've seen an adorable 10-year-old humiliate Anthony Bourdain. That's pretty much the Ether of interviews with children....

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 12:34 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

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No more cheap Kindle books?

Steve Pearlstein describes how the Kindle's business model will probably fall in the face of Apple's challenge: Amazon's business model was, in fact, the reverse of the one used so successfully by Gillette, selling razors at little or no profit...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 12:20 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Books
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The social networks of the Senate

Andrew Odewahn has put together a fantastic set of slides showing the slow deterioration in Senate bipartisanship between 1991 and 2009. But keep an eye not just on the deterioration of cross-party cooperation, but the shifting blocs within both parties....

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 11:30 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Senate
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The C-SPAN mistake

Matt Yglesias explains why we don't televise all negotiations. Think about a family negotiation over whose house you spend the holidays at, or who goes to watch Billy’s soccer game on Saturday. At the end of the day, wouldn’t everyone...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 11:00 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Government
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A good message is not nearly as important as a fast process

"Democrats were too busy dealing [on the health-care bill] to come up with a counter story," sighs Harold Pollack. "Not just once, in a complicated speech, but every day and in ways that connect." My basic position on the...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 10:34 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (27)
Categories: Congress , Government
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Nancy Pelosi explains why you can't pare back the health-care bill

From a conference call yesterday: One of the most appealing pitches to the American people about health-care reform is never again will you be discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition, or if you've paid your premiums and you get...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 10:02 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)

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McCain flips on 'don't ask, don't tell'

John McCain's position on "don't ask, don't tell" used to be on the sensible end of the conservative spectrum. "The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,'...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 9:03 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (25)

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Poll: Americans prefer a non-terrible Democratic Party

A new poll shows that opinions of Democrats rise slightly if they pass a health-care bill. That's even truer among independents. The rise is well within the margin of error, but it's a rise nonetheless. More important, almost, is the...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 8:25 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Polls
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Why is the Obama administration supporting nuclear energy rather than bargaining with it?

Republicans have, in recent years, become full-throated promoters of nuclear energy. At the same time, many Democrats have softened their stance against the technology. This would suggest an obvious compromise: The Obama administration embraces nuclear energy in return for Republican...

By Ezra Klein | February 3, 2010; 7:14 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (30)
Categories: Climate Change
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Rep. Paul Ryan: 'Rationing happens today! The question is who will do it?'

Rep. Paul Ryan is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. His budget proposal, 'A Roadmap for America's Future,' was scored (pdf) by the Congressional Budget Office as erasing the long-term deficit entirely. I commented on it here....

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 6:30 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (74)
Categories: Interviews
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What Republicans believe about Barack Obama

DailyKos.com contracted the pollster Research 2000 to pull together a random survey of self-identified Republicans and test the prevalence of some of the stranger ideas floating around. The answer, sadly, is that these ideas are very prevalent. About 39...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 4:13 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (46)
Categories: Polls
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An idea all deficit hawks should support

Len Burman has a very good, but slightly opaque, op-ed on tax expenditures in today's Post. His point is important, though, so let me try and tease it out a bit. When the government spends $10,000 building a community health...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 3:34 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Taxes
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Why the majority never confronts the filibuster

A friend of James Fallows with long experience in national politics talks a bit more about the impossibility of bipartisanship: "I'm surprised at the number of people who say, in effect, 'But lots of bills have passed with Republican...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 2:56 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Senate
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What Susan Collins's explanations don't explain

It's telling, I think, that in an op-ed explaining why she doesn't support the Senate health bill, Susan Collins cherrypicks numbers from CMS, which make the bill seem like it costs a lot of money, rather than using the more...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 2:05 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)

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Policy compromise is easy. Political compromise is impossible.

If you want to see why bipartisan compromise on health-care reform is impossible, read this article by David Herszenhorn. The article's thesis, to be sure, is not that bipartisanship is impossible. In fact, its intention is to imagine how...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 1:42 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Health Reform
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White House predictions: Health-care reform passes, cap-and-trade doesn't

Last year's budget included space for both a health-care reform bill and a cap-and-trade bill. The revenues for cap-and-trade, in fact, paid for a substantial middle-class tax cut. But this year, the budget assumes that health-care reform passes and deletes...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 12:58 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)

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Lunch break

Michael Voltaggio explains what sous vide cooking is, and shows you how to do it in the microwave, without any water. "This one actually exploded. Which means it's done."...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 12:19 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)

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Marital inequality

Jessica Grose isn't impressed by the statistics in Lori Gottlieb's case for settling, which is based on the argument that there are tons of professional, single women unable to find a husband. The numbers, Grose says, show something very different:...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 11:44 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)

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Federal spending since 1962

A great graph from Catherine Rampell: The major trend here is health-care spending rising and defense spending falling....

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 11:10 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Charts and Graphs
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Lamar Alexander: If Obama can't govern with 59 votes, 'it's going to be a long four years'

I'm watching the Senate Budget Committee hearings, because that's just how I roll. At the moment, former astronaut Bill Nelson is not happy about the administration's cuts to NASA's spending on manned spaceflight. But a few minutes ago, Sen. Lamar...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 11:08 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Congress , Democrats , Government , Health , Health Coverage , Health Reform , Republicans , Senate
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In defense of seniors

In his column today, David Brooks says that seniors should stop ripping so much money from the federal till. You see this implication that the elderly have become greedy budget hogs in Robert Samuelson's columns, too. But it's worth making...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 10:53 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (55)

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Va. Senate votes to outlaw individual mandates

This reads like very bad news for health-care reform: Virginia's Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party's efforts in Washington to reform health...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 10:02 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Health Reform
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The spending freeze vs. health-care reform

In a post at the New York Times, Ross Douthat criticizes me for suggesting that the short-term discretionary freeze is meaningless from the perspective of deficits, while health-care reform is meaningful. Douthat's argument? That the freeze will save up...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 9:46 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Budget
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The budget and the bureaucracy

The Washington Post has a great piece breaking down the budget's impact on each federal agency. The big winners are the Energy Department, the Justice Department and the FDA. The big loser -- in fact, the only loser -- seems...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 9:27 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Budget
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Predictions are hard -- especially about the future

The New York Times has a cool feature today showing how rarely long-term budget forecasts get the picture right. The image above is a screenshot from it: The dark line is the deficit, while the silver threads shooting are...

By Ezra Klein | February 2, 2010; 8:04 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Budget , Charts and Graphs
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Tab dump

1) No, seriously, cancel Haiti's debt. 2) People shouldn't be termed "deficit hawks" unless they voted against the bills that blew up the deficit. 3) Jon Chait is hopeful on health care. 4) A letter from Haiti. 5) You clicked...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 6:40 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (14)

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Rep. Paul Ryan's daring budget proposal

The White House's 2011 budget is only the second-most interesting budget proposal released recently. First prize goes to Congressman Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, who's released a budget proposal that actually erases the massive long-term...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 5:10 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (74)
Categories: Budget
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Even Al Franken's got one

There sure are a lot of job-promoting tax-credit proposals out there....

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 4:17 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Return of the wine track?

"Candidate Obama’s pledge to change Washington, echoing reform-minded predecessors like Gary Hart and Bill Bradley, won applause from affluent Democrats and independents in the primaries," writes John Harwood in today's New York Times. But, uh, huh? I know the initial...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 3:48 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)

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Time to bet against gold?

This study suggesting that investors are more bullish when their party is in power and more bearish when the other party is in power has been making the rounds, and I'd hate for you to miss it. This paper shows...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 3:30 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)

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Oldies but goodies in the budget

Last year's budget had some good ideas that never quite got enacted. My personal favorite was the proposal to slightly reduce the advantage that rich taxpayers get when itemizing their deductions. Under the plan, a wealthy taxpayer trying to write...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 3:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Budget
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Getting real about Congress

"No single vote by any single senator could possibly illustrate everything that is wrong with Washington today," writes Fred Hiatt. "No single vote could embody the full cynicism and cowardice of our political elite at its worst, or explain...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 2:48 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Congress
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Tax cuts for jobs

Robb Mandelbaum offers some details on the administration's tax credit for new hiring: A firm that hires a new employee in 2010 would get up to a $5,000 credit against its income tax. Alternatively, a company that hands out raises...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 12:59 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)

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Money in politics versus money out of political decisions

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the health-care industry spent a whopping $648 million lobbying in 2009 -- and they probably spent even more than that, as some of the year's receipts are still outstanding. “It’s the most money...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 12:47 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Health Reform , Money in politics
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Lunch break

I try to make sure lunch break is something I can embed on this site. But this program that puts the universe in perspective by allowing you to zoom all the way from quantum foam out to the entire universe...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 12:30 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Barney Frank: Hero

There've been some depressing forecasts coming out of Davos: Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff kicked off the Wednesday discussion with a simple, depressing argument: The banking collapse is morphing into a long-term crisis of government debt. Instead of financial panic,...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 12:02 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Taxes
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All you ever wanted to know about the CFPA

Robert Kaiser has a detailed history of how Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Financial Protection Agency entered the policy discussion, got sold to the Democratic presidential campaigns, and got watered down when sent to Congress. That last, of course, is an ongoing...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 11:45 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Financial Regulation
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Obama's budget problem, and ours

The graph above -- click on it for a larger version -- tracks federal spending, revenues and deficits/surpluses all the way back to 1980. What you'll see is that the budgets for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 look...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 11:35 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Budget
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Happy budget day!

You can download the president's budget for fiscal 2011 here. More to come on this, as you might imagine....

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 10:42 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Plan B is terrible

According to David Herszenhorn, if Democrats do break up the health-care bill, the first piece they'll pursue is ending the antitrust exemption enjoyed by the insurance industry. This might be good politics, but let's be perfectly clear: It's useless, or...

By Ezra Klein | February 1, 2010; 10:38 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)

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Network News

Ezra Klein: January 31, 2010 - February 6, 2010