Boehner's curious comments on Social Security

House Minority Leader John Boehner had some interesting things to say about Social Security at an interview yesterday with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.



From the article:

Boehner had praise, however, for Obama's troop surge in Afghanistan and stepped-up drone attacks in Pakistan. He declined to list any benchmarks he has for measuring progress in the nine-year war, at a time of increasing violence and Obama's replacement of Gen. Stanley McChrystal with Gen. David Petraeus.

Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country's entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he'd favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them.

"We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke," Boehner said. "If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why are we paying you at a time when we're broke? We just need to be honest with people."

I think Boehner raises a legitimate question in terms of whether the retirement age needs to increased. However, does Boehner really think this the rationale he offered - we need more money to fight an unpopular war - is one that is going to help his cause or hurt it?

Sadly, this happens ALL the time with the GOP. They have a reality they want to address, but then they tie it to something that's ridiculously unpopular. So we get messages like "we need to cut spending so that we can preserve tax cuts for rich people," or "we need to decrease our dependence on foreign oil while making it easier for foreigners to drill for oil off our shores." The first half of the sentence is right on target, and the second half leaves everyone slapping their foreheads.

Also interesting is that Boehner is effectively conceding what any pragmatist recognized long ago - that the only way we're saving Social Security in any meaningful way is to acknowledge that it's a social insurance program and not a government-run savings account. We need to look at changes to retirement age and investment options, to be sure. But as part of any fix, we also need to consider subjecting more income (including, for some high-end earners, passive income) to the Social Security tax and we also need to considering phasing the benefit out at a certain level of earnings.

TABOR: Taxpayers Bill of... Relief?

Apparently the new TABOR will allow legislators to pee indiscriminately in public:

We are proud to name former Wisconsin assemblyman and current state senate candidate Frank Lasee, who, according to one of our listeners, took a leak in the backyard of the home of a Chilton woman after leaving a campaign flier in her mailbox.

Funny that your Kings of TABOR are now a disgraced substance abuser and a has-been who's pissing in people's bushes. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

CERS and RACC both must be crapping themselves over their situation in Northeast Wisconsin. Frank Lasee is as big a train wreck as ever, and multiple sources tell me that Dave Hutchison has turned into the obnoxious, "I'm smarter than you Madison people and I don't need your help" candidate. Unfortunately, when it comes to providing manpower and intelligence to win races, those Madison people still have a way better track record than the motley of locals that these yahoos otherwise try to cobble together. Boldly asserting your independence from the machine is usually a good way to lose in the general.

What should be a safe hold for CERS is being made difficult because both candidates are proving to be impossible. The last thing you need on election night when you need two seats to regain the majority is to gain those two seats and then lose a seat you shouldn't lose.

And RACC? Well, RACC's got an always-squirrely hold in Garey Bies, and a real shot at a pickup in the 2nd against Ted Zigmunt (somewhat contingent upon getting the right candidate through the primary). The last thing they need is to have a guy effing everything all to hell just one race up on the ballot. And you can bet your bottom dollar that tying GOP Assembly candidates to Frank Lasee will be a popular Dem strategy should Lasee win the primary.

Who's your daddy?

In putting on the waders and mucking my way through Scott Walker's Facebook page tonight, I couldn't help but notice who's stepping up to the plate to defend Walker against the bloggers, the press, and the big bad garage monster...

That's right, it's the daughter of Walker's chief of staff! What, are Walker's own kids too busy to take this one?

I agree that everyone is allowed to have opinions, but perhaps it'd be better to find people to defend Walker whose blood relatives aren't part of Walker's inner circle. Whether it's coordinated on not, it makes you look desperate when kids/spouses/relatives/besties are out defending the boss.

Where's Waldo? How about Where's Walker?

Anyone seen Scott Walker since the O'Donnell garage debacle? Just wondering. He hasn't updated his Facebook since June 23, hasn't updated Twitter since the morning of the 24th, no press releases or news updates on his website. And this is from a guy whose campaign staff is pretty good about maintaining an online presence.

Is this Scott Walker's idea of crisis management? Hiding under a rock? Are he and his crack staff hoarding canned tuna and bottled water somewhere in an underground bunker and hoping that everyone will forget that a 15-year-old kid was viciously attacked last week by a Milwaukee County parking garage?

Meanwhile, as Walker's cowering in the corner, Tom Barrett is going to meet with President Obama to try and save 1,000 jobs at Bucyrus, which isn't even in the City of Milwaukee but hey, someone's gotta press the issue and Walker's apparently too busy clinging to his blankey and sucking his thumb in the corner.

For all you people who thought Mark Neumann sticking around was such a terrible thing for the GOP, you might end up being thankful that he's still here. And last I checked, Neumann's never had one of his homes fall on a kid. Just saying.

Recess Supervisor calls for bill to deport illegal apostrophes

And the first place to look is, as always, a Don Pridemore press release.

The bill will not address the major issue surrounding illegal immigration, which is the Federal Government’s responsibility of securing the border. Rep. Pridemore hopes that by taking the measures outlined above, the state of Wisconsin can show it’s support to the Federal Government to enforce their own laws, join the great state of Arizona who’s citizens are suffering the most while at the same time putting Wisconsin in a position of NOT being a magnet for attracting illegal’s leaving other states or countries and making Wisconsin their destination.

While we're at it, let's also deport staffers who can't comprehend basic rules of grammar.

O'Donnell garage kills 15-year-old boy, and Walker campaign with it?

This preliminary report from WTMJ seems pretty damning, and I'm guessing other journalists will take to today's tragedy like pigs to slop. Scott Walker's strategy of trying to defer county maintenance expenses until he could win a higher office might be coming home to roost in the worst possible way and at the worst possible time.

The bottom line: the O'Donnell garage operated by Milwaukee County Parks is in really bad shape. County leaders have known the specifics for at least six months and we have the evidence to prove it...

Nearly $600,000 deferred maintenance to the garage -- important repairs found by Department of Public Works inspectors last December as part of a county audit.

The list had seven repairs considered "critical," including water leaks, unsafe fire doors, and no sprinkler back-flow protection.

There were eight "potentially critical" issues, like problems with the systems that prevent stress cracks and keep pipes from freezing.

Plus, the list shows more than a dozen other "necessary" or "recommended repairs," like cracked concrete walls, cracks to the garage super-structure, rusting metalwork, water damage, and missing tiles.

At least the Zoo Interchange didn't kill anyone. Barrett Bypass? How about the Walker Wake?

According to the MJS, Walker says he knew of no report suggesting the ramp suffered from deferred maintenance. Hmmm, seems that county staff prepared a report - a pretty detailed report. So is Walker lying? Forgetful? Ignorant of what his own employees are doing? Or are all maintenance audits simply placed in a giant folder labeled "Things For The Next County Executive To Deal With"?

After giving family and friends time to mourn, it'll be interesting to see how and when Mark Neumann and Tom Barrett approach this, and more importantly, how the Walker campaign addresses what could become a very thorny issue.

Morgan's new job puts conservative undies in bundle

Wake me when there's something to see here.

The University of Wisconsin System president offered Gov. Jim Doyle's top aide a high-level job without reviewing his resume or conducting a background check, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Documents released under the public records law shed new light on the unusual and speedy process in which Administration Secretary Michael Morgan landed the $245,000-per-year job as the system's chief operating officer.

Records show Morgan was under consideration for the job starting in mid-May and was offered the position by UW System President Kevin Reilly on June 1. Hours later, Morgan submitted his resume by e-mail to Reilly aide Andy Richards.

So what you're telling me is that people are pissy because a guy who is an entirely known commodity and is completely qualified for a job is hired without spending a bunch of money on a job search that may well have led the UW System to hire him anyway.

If the UW System went through a comprehensive search and concluded that Morgan was the strongest candidate, twats like Steve Nass and Scott Suder would still complain about the outcome. These are people who would moan if we brought Marc Marotta back to file papers at DOA for eight bucks an hour because he didn't fill out the application on the WiscJobs website: "Well yeah, we know you've been DOA secretary and that you're Harvard educated, but we can't consider that information in the hiring process until you write it on a piece of paper and give it to us."

So either way they bitch, but one way saves you $100k. Looks to me like Kevin Reilly made the right call.

Abramoff's new gig

From influence peddler to pizza peddler. Marketing's marketing, I guess.

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, still serving a sentence for defrauding clients and conspiring to bribe public officials, has a new job: He's selling pizzas in Baltimore rather than influence in Washington.

Abramoff, recently released from a federal prison camp in Cumberland to a halfway house in Baltimore, began working Monday at Tov Pizza on Reisterstown Road.

"I think people get a second chance," said Ron Rosenbluth, owner of the shop, which boasts of the city's best kosher pizza — which means lots of veggie options but no meat. "If they do their time, they deserve a chance."

Abramoff's job, first reported by the Baltimore Jewish Times, will involve marketing, Rosenbluth said, "to get us more business."

Early reports are that when Abramoff brings you your drinks, he tells you that he can slip you free cheesy bread if only you'll get his parking validated for him.

Tea Party freaks as Johnson gets gun "chai" on constitutional issues

And here you thought the beverage jokes had to end with Dick Leinenkugel's departure. Silly.

So it turns out that the teabaggers might be a little miffed because their golden boy for U.S. Senate, Ron Johnson, might not be as batshit crazy as they are. How epic is that?

On Second Amendment rights, Johnson said he was not a gun owner and hadn't thought a lot about which "infringements" he would support on gun ownership. He said he absolutely backs the amendment, along with "minimal licensing" and the right to concealed carry...

Pressed to name federal agencies he considered unconstitutional, Johnson said he hadn't given thought to it.

He supported the Patriot Act but said potential civil-liberties concerns warranted reviewing it every couple years...

Johnson didn't take a stance on the constitutionality of the income tax system, but on taxes, Johnson said: "If you could eliminate the IRS that would be a wonderful thing, but is it practical, I don't know. We are so far from that point. You're going to have to do it in steps … I favor tax simplification and reductions, a flatter and fairer system."

Oh no! The teabaggers may accidentally have gotten behind the kind of pragmatic, pro-business fiscal conservative that anyone could've easily figured Johnson would be by, I don't know, reading his resume! You mean a successful businessman didn't get there by wearing a tinfoil hat, stocking bottled water and canned tuna in his bomb shelter, and drawing toothbrush mustaches on pictures of Barack Obama?!?!

If you can piss off these loons with your common sense pragmatism, Mr. Johnson, you might just have a chance to win this November!

Obama bumbles, BP stumbles

So the White House strategy on BP seems to be to issue vague threats towards the company that causes investors to panic and sell shares of BP. That uncertainty drives down the stock price. The lower the stock goes, the more people talk about bankruptcy, which drives the stock down even further. Bankruptcy (of any flavor) increases the likelihood that the good assets will be split off and sold and the government will be left holding the bag on the liabilities.

Also, considering that much of BP's wealth is in the ground, all this posturing about moratoriums and bans and restrictions on offshore drilling only lessens the value of those assets.

Obama wants BP to foot the bill on liability costs, yet everything Obama is doing right now only makes it less likely that BP will be able to do that. And that train wreck of an address last night won't help. Even Obama's boyfriends at MSNBC thought he laid an egg.

It would make way more sense for Obama to come out and say "hey, what BP did sucks and we expect them to make victims whole. But to do that we need BP to come out of this disaster as a strong and healthy company so that it can actually foot the bill and keep taxpayers from being hung out to dry."

Oh, and Mr. President, please tell your Democratic friends in Congress to shut the hell up. Their ridiculous posturing isn't helping either.

Mark Neumann finds his inner Rand Paul

As we've all learned from Rand Paul waxing nostalgic over segregated lunch counters, talking about what you'd like "in theory" is almost always a surefire way to get yourself into trouble.

Certainly, there are plenty of western nations out there that regulate independent speech, and their voters are not only better informed as citizens but also participate in their democracies in far greater numbers. When it comes to understanding their own government, there are also few countries where citizens exhibit less knowledge than ours. And absent a general understanding of the issues, I am not sure that giant piles of corporate money are really all that educational. Everyone who pays for campaign advertising is basically lying, either in content or in degree, and nobody has more incentive to lie than industries with large sums of business in front of the government.

But a candidate talking about this out loud is probably not the best idea. It's a complicated issue and far too easy for partisans to twist for their own benefit, just as what's happened with Rand Paul. Perhaps there's a balance to be found between Neumann's tendency to have a detailed opinion on everything and Scott Walker's ability to have a detailed opinion on nothing.

Walker campaign refines strategy for Barrett

It appears that it will involve a bunch of tired Republican lobbyists sending emails that say "aw, c'mon Tom, drop out. Please?"

This is how intense the Republican primary has gotten between former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker:

A private e-mail obtained by No Quarter shows Bill McCoshen, a top Wisconsin Republican, urging his party to take steps to knock the former congressman out of the race pronto.

McCoshen, a lobbyist and former top aide to ex-Gov. Tommy Thompson, sent the note to dozens of prominent Republicans - mainly, his fellow Thompson acolytes - last week. It came after GOP stalwart Jim Klauser, Thompson's campaign architect, sent a public letter to Neumann calling on him to drop out of the race.

"Well done, Jim," wrote McCoshen. "There are a couple more steps the party needs to take to end this nonsense."

Take a moment now to think about how many half-assed conservatives are out there complaining that the Democrats have cleared the field for their candidates and how undemocratic that is. And yet at the same time, their golden boy, the guy who supported concealed carry until he voted against it and then decided to support it again and who has been an avid hunter but just for the last few years, is clearly bent that he can't get rid of Neumann.

So isn't the real complaint here not that the Democrats cleared the field, but that the Republicans wanted to and couldn't?

More bad math from Walker

So Keith Gilkes thinks that it's good to leak an internal poll paid for by the Walker campaign that reveals the following:





What do we see?

- Scott Walker, a guy who has been running for governor for half a decade, still can't break 50% in a poll among likely GOP primary voters that was conducted by his own campaign and in which his campaign presumably got to clear the wording of the questions or poison the well with leading questions beforehand.

- According to Walker's own polling, he's made no progress whatsoever in his attempts to marginalize Mark Neumann's candidacy. All the whining from Jim Klauser and other Walker supporters about not wanting to run a contested primary apparently has no traction with voters. Gee, really?

I don't care if you support Walker or not. Only a fool would argue that his campaign has been well-executed to date. Walker won't talk issues. His people would rather complain about Neumann than run against him. And his strategy to date is a one-trick pony about taxes and a bunch of silly paper bags that were possibly cool twelve years ago when George Voinovich used them.

If this is Walker's strategy for the next five months, he better hope to God that Tom Barrett runs a campaign even worse than his.

Stupidity is bipartisan

Congratulations to the AFL-CIO, who just blew an eight-figure wad trying to beat Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln. I hope your immature hissyfit at least felt good. It sure didn't accomplish anything.

I get that you don't want to be taken for granted, but being the left-wing equivalent of the Tea Party - a group more interested in self-gratification than sustaining a majority - isn't going to get you what you want either. See the forest, not the trees.

Sincerely,
A dues-paying member

How did Sen. Blanche Lincoln pull victory from the jaws of defeat? As of Tuesday morning, her top consultants were privately predicting a loss. But Lincoln closed stronger than she thought. A last-minute campaign visit from Bill Clinton, along with radio ads from President Obama, energized the African American vote in key precincts. Across the state, Lincoln did better in almost every county compared to her performance in last month's go-round.

Inevitably, the $10 million that labor unions spent to teach Lincoln a lesson will be seen as wasted money by Democrats in Washington, who wonder whether the expenditures were worth it. Labor's interests were parochial: don't take us for granted, or we'll come after you, even in a state with low union density. And it is somewhat remarkable that a Southern Democrat nearly lost to a challenger who generally ran to her left.

So unions wanted to make an example out of Lincoln, and they made their point. Democrats are still going to have trouble in the fall; the White House is going to have some tough conversations with its labor allies about spending, and the financial regulatory bill -- Lincoln is a key player -- is not going to be much effected.

Note: Also good to see lefties like Kos saying things like "The GOP establishment tries to nominate electable candidates, and gets sabotaged by the teabaggers. We're trying to nominate electable candidates, and we get sabotaged by the Democratic Party establishment." Um, no Kos. You're just like the teabaggers. You didn't dislike Blanche Lincoln because she wasn't electable. You disliked her because she wasn't liberal enough for you.