May 4, 2017

Here it comes: Hot link to House vote on AHCA.

From the folks who helped give us this mess!

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/05/04/watch_live_house_debates_voties_on_gop_health_bill.html

May 3, 2017

Let's never talk about a government shutdown - ever again

Remember - the Treasury is already taking "extraordinary measures" as we went over the debt ceiling in March.

Source: The Hill, by Jeff Reeves

*****

But even now, with Republicans in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, we still have to do this song and dance.

*****

Why not an annual fight about entitlement reform, with both sides frothing at the mouth over Social Security eligibility ages or cost-of-living increases? Why not a war about removing the $118,500 cap on Social Security taxes that allows top earners to avoid truly paying their fair share into the system?

*****

If Congress had any stones, they wouldn’t settle for a stopgap fix this year as they have so many times before. They’d do as Mitch McConnell boldly proposed in 2011 – with a Democrat in the White House no less! – and kill this debt ceiling nonsense once and for all.

But they won’t. So instead, expect to hear fuss about another government shutdown again in the near future, regardless of any headlines about bipartisan agreements in the near term.

Read it all at: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/economy-budget/331050-lets-never-talk-about-a-government-shutdown-ever-again

May 3, 2017

'Billions: Golden Frog Time' *SPOILERS*

This battle between the two prime adversaries just took an M. Night Shyamalan turn.

Now, THAT was a twist!

Just a quick comment from NYT's Scott Tobias' review:

It’s a wonderful feeling to be hoodwinked by masterly plotting, and this episode is the long-term play that creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who wrote it, have been cooking up all season long. Our assumption that Chuck’s winning streak will have to end figures into it, along with the succession of losers Paul Giamatti has played throughout his career. (The triumphant reprise of Tom Petty’s “Even the Losers” is a laugh-out-loud moment.) But what really sells the twist is the way Koppelman and Levien have already gone to astonishing lengths to reveal the sophistication of Axe’s effort to sabotage the Ice Juice initial public offering. There’s no reasonable expectation that any counterplotting by Chuck would or could be in the offing. There was plenty to admire in Axe’s handiwork, to say nothing of the script’s expert machinations.

Dare I say - brilliant?