Groundhog Day Open Thread

Filed in National by on February 2, 2010

Happy Groundhog Day! Do you feel like you’ve opened this thread before?

Groundhog Day is not really a holiday that I understand. According to weather records, Punxsutawney Phil has an accuracy rate of 39%. Hmmm….sounds like guessing.

FWIW, here’s the forecast, straight from Punxsutawney Phil’s very own website:

Phil’s official forecast as read February 2nd, 2009 at sunrise at Gobbler’s Knob:

Hear Ye Hear Ye Hear Ye

On Gobbler’s Knob on this glorious Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2010, Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators awoke to the call of President Bill Deeley and greeted his handlers, John Griffiths and Ben Hughes.

After casting a joyful eye towards thousands of his faithful followers, Phil proclaimed, “If you want to know what’s next, you must read my text. As the sky shines bright above me, my shadow I see beside me. So six more weeks of winter it will be.”

Republican fiscal logic:

You’ve no doubt seen this chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities or something similar before, but that doesn’t make it any less true. And what is it in the president’s proposed budget that the Republicans are aiming at? The plan to let the Bush tax cuts lapse for people making more than $250,000 per year. In other words, the problem with the Obama budget is that the deficits are too high, and the solution is to cut taxes. Huh?

Tags:

About the Author ()

Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (11)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. anon says:

    Reuters shenanigans:

    Advisory: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
    Reuters

    Mon Feb 1, 8:07 pm ET

    The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week.

    I noticed this first myself, then found it was picked up elsewhere.

    Did Reuters get called out on some bullshit? How long before wingnuts claim censorship?

    Never mind, the freepers were on it in 0.0 minutes. I’ll spare you the link.

  2. anon says:

    Working link to the Reuters article. The author is a founding member of WSJ Online:

    Mon Feb 1, 4:09 PM

    By Terri Cullen

    NEW YORK (Reuters.com) –The Obama administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.

    In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year — effectively a tax hike by stealth.

    While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases…

    I guess the article was pulled because it is an editorial mis-filed as a news story.

  3. cassandra m says:

    That is going to be the attempt to keep the unpaid-for Bush tax cuts — that they are a stealth tax increase. Which seems a fitting close to tax cuts that bankrupted the country. If BushCo wasn’t so busy trying to game the system he would have asked for permanent tax cuts.

  4. I also read that Republicans are going to represent the banking regulations as “bank bailouts.”

  5. anon says:

    That is going to be the attempt to keep the unpaid-for Bush tax cuts — that they are a stealth tax increase. Which seems a fitting close to tax cuts that bankrupted the country.

    Best strategy is to say “No, it’s not a stealth tax increase – I’m telling you right now we are raising taxes on the rich. You got a problem with that?”

    And them remind people the tax cuts are responsible for the deficit, just as CBO told us in 2001.

    If BushCo wasn’t so busy trying to game the system he would have asked for permanent tax cuts.

    Actually he did… they passed the tax cuts in reconciliation and the Byrd Rule kicked in… because CBO scored them as increasing the deficit for ten years out, Repubs had to sunset them at ten years to get around the Byrd Rule.

    Interesting note for those who question whether certain items can be passed in reconciliation: When Repubs were unhappy with reconciliation limits, they fired the Senate Parliamentarian.

  6. cassandra m says:

    Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Twitter right now:

    Stand by what I said: Allowing homosexuals to serve openly is the right thing to do. Comes down to integrity.

    Integrity is right. And all advocates for the removal of DADT need to remind lawmakers of this.

  7. cassandra m says:

    Another Birther — the Lt. Governor of Tennessee. How the heck do these people get elected?

  8. Lizard says:

    Largest-ever federal payroll to hit 2.15 million
    The Washington Times ^ | February 2, 2010 | Stephan Dinan

    The era of big government has returned with a vengeance, in the form of the largest federal work force in modern history.

    The Obama administration says the government will grow to 2.15 million employees this year, topping 2 million for the first time since President Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over” and joined forces with a Republican-led Congress in the 1990s to pare back the federal work force.

    Most of the increases are on the civilian side, which will grow by 153,000 workers, to 1.43 million people, in fiscal 2010.

  9. MJ says:

    Sixty-two years ago today, President Harry Truman ordered that the Armed Forces be desegregated. On the anniversary of this radical, progressive order, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1) admitted that he has served with gays since 1968 and (2) that DADT should be repealed. Unfortunately, John McCain was his usual douche-bag self in defending DADT.

  10. MJ says:

    @Lizard – the Federal workforce is going to grow because we are going to get rid of contractors and those jobs, which are inherently governmental, will be going back to government workers. This will actually bring the cost of government DOWN because there won’t be any contract overruns to pay.