The Food Issue December 16, 2011March 26, 2017 THIS TWO-MINUTE YOUTUBE WILL CHANGE (AND EXTEND) YOUR LIFE Seriously. IF IT DOESN’T SMELL BAD, IT’S PROBABLY SAFE TO EAT Mark Lefler: “Ever return from a trip with the clocks blinking 12:00 and wondered how long the power was off and if the food in the fridge was still safe to eat? A simple, free solution in my video.” (Cooking Like a Guy™ Executive Summary of Mark’s Good Video: Put a plastic cup of ice cubes in the freezer. If they’ve melted and refrozen as a solid lump, you know the power must have been off a long time. Cooking Like a Guy™ Lower Tech System: What do you think your nose is for?) COOKING CARROTS LIKE A GUY Healthy, cheap, horses like them . . . and here’s the thing most people don’t seem to know: You don’t need to scrape (or “pare”) – let alone cook – them. Just rinse and eat. (Salt or whinny if you like.) FORKS OVER KNIVES The two-minute clip I led off with is the trailer to this documentary. Seriously: watch it.
Would You Like Another $13,000 A Year In Your Pocket? December 15, 2011March 26, 2017 Nick Hanauer – very rich himself – explains that the rich are not the job creators. From Bloomberg Businessweek: Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators by Nick Hanauer December 07, 2011, 10:22 AM EST . . . I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also the first non-family investor in Amazon.com Inc. Even so, I’ve never been a ‘job creator.’ I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate. That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be. . . . If the average American family still got the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would have an astounding $13,000 more in their pockets a year. It’s worth pausing to consider what our economy would be like today if middle-class consumers had that additional income to spend. It is mathematically impossible to invest enough in our economy and our country to sustain the middle class (our customers) without taxing the top 1 percent at reasonable levels again. Shifting the burden from the 99 percent to the 1 percent is the surest and best way to get our consumer-based economy rolling again. Significant tax increases on the about $1.5 trillion in collective income of those of us in the top 1 percent could create hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in our economy, rather than letting it pile up in a few bank accounts like a huge clot in our nation’s economic circulatory system. . . . ☞ Lowering the capital gains rate to zero as Professor Gingrich would so confidently do (is there nothing he’s not sure of at any given moment?) or keeping it rock bottom as Governor Romney has pledged to do (he would also eliminate the estate tax) is exactly backwards. What we need to do . . . other than moving back toward a balance that would begin getting that $13,000 a year into middle-class pockets . . . is to put Americans to work modernizing our infrastructure with projects that will serve us well for 20 and 50 and 100 years. Projects that can be financed cheaply now, when the cost of borrowing is low and contractors are eager for work. And all that stands in the way are the Republicans. [Two related articles here and here.]
Corporate Carols December 14, 2011March 26, 2017 I’M STARTING TO GET EXCITED Jerry Garrett: “In the past, you have always gotten so excited when the days begin to get longer. That happens on December 22. However, the earliest sunset occurs about two weeks earlier. In fact, last week. Check out this website for a zip code probably near you.” HALLELUJAH For the record, I like corporations, in the main. But this is fun – and beautiful to behear. ANOTHER VIEW FROM ABROAD Erich Almasy: “Tabatha Southey writes a weekend column in the Toronto Globe and Mail called ‘Tart.’ This one [skewering the Republican field] is from just before Cain suspended his campaign and I thought it was perfect.” ☞ Perfect, indeed. Or at least fun. Last week’s Der Spiegel post was more serious. (With regard to that one, Bill Spencer wrote: “It’s always fun to read or hear someone else reinforce your own opinions, but does it help? Most Republicans I know would scoff at the Der Spiegel article. They are in denial.” Fair enough. And yet, even so, there may be (a) a place for fun; (b) some room to move those now only marginally still comfortable with the Republicans; (c) something useful in reinforcing our own resolve.)
Newt’s Zero Percent Cap Gains Tax for the Wealthy Is He Nuts? (Well, Click That Link, Too) December 13, 2011March 26, 2017 IS NEWT NUTS? Arch an eyebrow at armchair psycho-diagnosis, but acknowledge the importance of a leader’s temperament. (Take McCain: a great American, yet – given a lifelong recklessness, including four plane crashes – not perhaps the best pilot for the the nation. Yet look how close he came to being handed the controls.) This analysis concludes that “messianism has been the one constant refrain in Newt’s shifting intellectual and ideological repertoire.” Worth the read. HIS 0% CAPITAL GAINS TAX From his temperament to his economic savvy, or lack thereof . . . currently, Newt advocates a 0% tax on capital gains – here. He feels this is a good idea because . . . what? If the wealthiest Americans aren’t given even lower tax rates on capital gains, they will . . . what? Not try to get richer? The long-term capital gains rate was 36% in the Forties and Fifties, 28% for much of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties – and yet rich people invested mightily. What else were they going to do if they hoped to get richer? Does anyone today not start a company because he’ll make only $7.5 billion after tax, if it becomes the next Facebook, instead of the full $10 billion? Were the high rates why Jobs and Wozniak didn’t start Apple? Why Fred Smith didn’t start FedEx? Why no one would venture the capital to get them started? Oh wait . . . they did. This is just so silly, yet here we are: the Republican frontrunner proposing a zero capital gains tax rate for the already ultra-wealthy. SPEAKING OF ZERO-PERCENT CAP GAINS TAX PROPOSALS For the record, I’ve long advocated a zero capital gains rate on investments in newly issued securities – for example, in this 1990 Time Magazine column. That’s as opposed to the capital gains that come from trading in the secondary market – which is most of the gains. I’m not sure how much incremental investment my proposal would spur, either – some, I imagine, as it tilted the incentive from buying already-issued stock to buying the new shares that fund new enterprise – but it would, in any event, exact a small fraction of the price in lost tax revenue. In the Plus Ça Change Department, I offer that earlier column (feel free to jump straight to the paragraphs I’ve bolded): Money Angles: A Tax Cut That May Truly Cost Nothing By Andrew Tobias TIME MAGAZINE Monday, Feb. 12, 1990 Suddenly there are a lot of tax proposals back on the table. This is too bad, because changing the tax law every five minutes enriches accountants and attorneys but just confuses everyone else. So there’s a lot to be said for leaving things alone. That’s certainly the case if the alternative is the President’s broad capital-gains cut. A focused capital-gains cut would cost far less and accomplish as much or more, and without the paperwork. But first a little background: — A Texas millionaire in 1981, at the dawn of the Reagan/Bush era, was in the 70% marginal tax bracket. Of the next $1,000 he earned, $700 went to the Federal Government. Today he’s in the 28% tax bracket. — By contrast, the rich Texan’s plumber, self-employed and earning $30,000, was in about the 40% marginal tax bracket. Of the next $1,000 he earned, $400 went to the government — $100 or so to Social Security, $300 to income tax. Today he’s in the 43% bracket. Into this breach rides Mr. Bush [The First] with a plan to cut the capital-gains tax as much as 30%. Oh, sure, the wealthy would reap 90% of the cash benefit. But those who’ve pegged the plan a giveaway to the rich Mr. Bush calls “demagogues.” All of which would be fine — really — if the plan met its stated goal: to encourage investment and thus help America grow. But it doesn’t. The rich already invest most of their money. What else are they going to do with it? Mr. Bush’s broad capital-gains cut would not persuade the rich — or anyone else — to forgo a second VCR and invest that $300 instead. Yet that’s exactly the kind of persuasion America needs these days: less consumption, more investment. Under Mr. Bush’s plan, the great middle class would supposedly be lured to invest because after that $300 had grown by $200, say, the tax on the gain would be $15 or $20 lower. “Honey! Forget the VCR! The President says that if things work out with our investment, we could save $20 on our 1996 taxes!” (Bush’s other proposal — the family-savings plan — would mainly encourage people to move money from their current savings accounts into these new ones.) Liberalizing the limits on Individual Retirement Account contributions, by contrast, would give the typical middle-class taxpayer an immediate $85-to- $115 tax break for choosing the IRA over the VCR, depending on local tax savings, if any. Either plan — a broad capital-gains cut or liberalized IRA deduction — would cost a fortune. (A bargain capital-gains tax rate would shake loose revenues at first as investors sold to take advantage of it but in the long run come back to bite us.) So it may be that given the deficit, we can afford neither. Yet if the goal is truly to spur investment, there’s an efficient, inexpensive way to do it: cut the capital-gains tax drastically, but apply the cut only to founder’s stock (anyone who starts or invests in a new company) and to securities purchased in a public offering (for example, when a new company goes public or when GM issues $1 billion in new securities to modernize its factories). And don’t make the cut retroactive, as the President inexplicably would. How does that help spur future investment? Just apply it to investments made from now on. A focused capital-gains tax break would cost little, or nothing if it fostered growth, because it would not apply to most transactions — barely 1% of all stock-trading volume represents purchase of new shares — or to profits on real estate, art, gold or the like. Yet precisely because it would be focused, it would skew investment toward the things we need even more than new malls: new businesses and the expansion and modernization of existing ones. Focused or not, two things any capital-gains tax cut should not include are provisions for indexing and a holding period. Indexing gains to inflation introduces a whole new level of complication and paperwork at a time when taxes are, to put it mildly, complicated enough. And it protects the wealthy who have assets to protect from inflation, but not the average family, with little in the way of assets besides its house (already largely sheltered from capital-gains taxation) and its retirement funds (sheltered as well). A long-term holding period would lead investors back to the old days of basing decisions on tax strategy instead of economics. And it would put a chill on trading, which means less liquid markets, especially in small stocks. Liquid markets are a prime U.S. asset. A long-term holding period would do little or nothing to cure management’s short-term perspective, since the big market action comes from pension funds and others not subject to tax at all. And there are already big incentives to holding investments for the long term. You minimize commissions and pay zero tax until you sell. Your money can compound tax free for decades. Finally, one must mention the onerous Social Security tax. As all but the rich know, it is onerous. But now, with the nation running a large deficit, is not the time to cut it. (Let alone privatize it, which makes no sense at all. You’d just have to pass a new “emergency net” for the millions who, despite good intentions, would not manage to save for their old age — which was all that Social Security was intended to be in the first place.) Cutting the Social Security tax would just mean a larger deficit and, on the margin, the purchase of more VCRs. Now is not the time for increased consumer spending. But Senator Moynihan is quite right: in light of the Social Security tax burden, it would be outrageous to give rich folks yet another broad tax break. It’s mind boggling that this actually passed the House last term, to be kept from enactment only by the Senate. One hopes the Senate, led on this issue by the likes of Senators Bradley, Bentsen and Moynihan, will show the same good sense again. ☞ Nearly 22 years later those three senators are gone but the issues remain. And if the tax-breaks-for-the-rich being proposed by Bush 41 seemed outrageous, it’s nothing short of other-worldly what Bush 43 did and what the Republicans now do in voting down even a small tax hike on income above $1 million a year. Newt hopes to lower their capital gains rate to zero. ALXA Guru: “So by a vote of 9-8, ALXA technically got a vote of approval. BUT it’s a hollow victory as the risk management program and limited use call into question what kind of commercial launch this will have. And the FDA is perfectly free to issue a rejection letter anyway. I suspect they will approve it under these extremely restrictive conditions. If someone still owns ALXA, probably best to sell on the news.” YMI Guru: “Data look quite good. Across all doses, 54% become transfusion independent, median duration not reached (longest patient out 506 days). At highest dose, 300 mg QD, anemia response is 65%. Efficacy on spleen, constitutional symptoms (what the FDA used to approve INCY) appears to be identical to INCY. INCY’s drug ‘causes’ anemia, so this data do look better than the INCY data. Will start a Phase III next year and will have to raise money, but this looks like a solid second entrant into the market with a significant differentiating factor, namely the ability to take people off of transfusions. Such an endpoint has been used by the FDA to approve EPO, so could be the basis for a Phase III trial.”
The Health Issue Including a Tool to Assess Your Own December 12, 2011March 26, 2017 SMALLPOX Up 30% Friday, SIGA may (or may not) be starting its bounce back. Read all about it. The company statement strikes me as particularly strong. (Did you know that smallpox has killed more people than all history’s wars combined? And that the Brits, in an early example of bio-warfare, gave smallpox-laden blankets to native Americans? Not, perhaps, Amherst’s proudest legacy.) SHINGLES Erich: “Cynthia and I watched her father battle shingles and it was simply awful. It took away his energy and almost his life. At our 40th Harvard College Reunion earlier this year, Cynthia rose at the public meeting to urge everyone to get the shot. Thanks for publicizing this last week.” OBAMA CARES From the LA Times and a woman named Spike Dolomite Ward, who runs a nonprofit that’s restoring the arts to public schools: I want to apologize to President Obama. But first, some background. I found out three weeks ago I have cancer. I’m 49 years old, have been married for almost 20 years and have two kids. My husband has his own small computer business, and I run a small nonprofit in the San Fernando Valley. . . . With the recession, both of our businesses took a huge hit — my husband’s income was cut in half, and the foundations that had supported my small nonprofit were going through their own tough times. We had to start using a home equity line of credit to pay for our health insurance premiums (which by that point cost as much as our monthly mortgage). When the bank capped our home equity line, we were forced to cash in my husband’s IRA. The time finally came when we had to make a choice between paying our mortgage or paying for health insurance. We chose to keep our house. We made a nerve-racking gamble, and we lost. . . . ☞ Except guess what? A provision in the Affordable Care Act has made all the difference. . . . Fortunately for me, I’ve been saved by the federal government’s Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, something I had never heard of before needing it. It’s part of President Obama’s healthcare plan, one of the things that has already kicked in, and it guarantees access to insurance for U.S. citizens with preexisting conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months. The application was short, the premiums are affordable, and I have found the people who work in the administration office to be quite compassionate (nothing like the people I have dealt with over the years at other insurance companies.) It’s not perfect, of course, and it still leaves many people in need out in the cold. But it’s a start, and for me it’s been a lifesaver — perhaps literally. Which brings me to my apology. I was pretty mad at Obama before I learned about this new insurance plan. I had changed my registration from Democrat to Independent, and I had blacked out the top of the “h” on my Obama bumper sticker, so that it read, “Got nope” instead of “got hope.” I felt like he had let down the struggling middle class. My son and I had campaigned for him, but since he took office, we felt he had let us down. So this is my public apology. I’m sorry I didn’t do enough of my own research to find out what promises the president has made good on. I’m sorry I didn’t realize that he really has stood up for me and my family, and for so many others like us. I’m getting a new bumper sticker to cover the one that says “Got nope.” It will say “Obama Cares.” ☞ I’m quite certain the President seeks no apologies. But he does seek the chance to keep pushing the country forward, pushing for the middle class . . . something the opposition has been fighting every step of the way. ASSESS YOUR HEALTH Tom Anthony: “Use this site to find your future risk of heart attack, stroke, cancers of various sorts and diabetes and what if anything you can do to reduce your risk. The risk factors for some diseases are well established but are less well defined for other ones as you can see from the number of questions asked for each case. There are some risk factors that you can control, e.g. smoking, and others that you cannot, e.g. your age & family history. If you take all of the tests in one session (~ 15 minutes total), the answers on one test are transferred to similar questions on the other tests so you can finish faster.”
Rick, Newt, Mitt, Teddy December 9, 2011March 26, 2017 GAY-BASHING LOSING ITS APPEAL? Rick Perry’s recent 30-second spot has now been viewed on YouTube a great many times. Last I checked, it had 340,059 dislikes and 7,901 likes – encouraging to those of us who believe Rick Perry is on the wrong side of history, like those who once used the Bible to support slavery or deny women the vote. NEWT In case you missed Maureen Dowd last week: . . . His mind is a jumble, an amateurish mess lacking impulse control. He plays air guitar with ideas, producing air ideas. He ejaculates concepts, notions and theories that are as inconsistent as his behavior. He didn’t get whiplash being a serial adulterer while impeaching another serial adulterer, a lobbyist for Freddie Mac while attacking Freddie Mac, a self-professed fiscal conservative with a whopping Tiffany’s credit line, and an anti-Communist Army brat who supported the Vietnam War but dodged it . . . MITT From the Washington Post: The Romney camp’s indifference to the truth By Greg Sargent This morning I noted that an anonymous top Romney campaign operative is now defending that false ad attacking Obama by claiming that all political ads take things out of context, and that by definition all political ads are ‘manipulative’ and ‘propaganda.’ . . . . . . Romney top adviser Eric Fehnstrom told Dave Weigel on the record that the controversy generated by the ad’s use of Obama’s words was ‘all deliberate’ and ‘very intentional.’ A second Romney adviser, Stuart Stevens, justified the plainly misleading use of Obama footage by claiming that, hey, Obama did say those words, right? And Romney’s New Hampshire adviser said the same thing, and even added that increased media attention to the ad’s dishonesty was a positive for the Romney campaign. Now we have a top Romney operative stating flatly that they view political ads as ‘propaganda,’ in effect suggesting there are no reasonable standards of fairness and accuracy that can be applied to them. Yes, this latest comes from an anonymous operative. But is there any doubt at this point that this is exactly how the Romney team sees things? Maybe it’s just me, but the broader pattern here seems kind of newsworthy. BRAIN STRUCTURE: LIBERALS VERSUS CONSERVATIVES Mike Elwood: ‘I don’t know if this explains why so many people vote against their own interests, but it’s a start: ‘Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear, said the study on Thursday in Current Biology . . .‘ ‘ ☞ Ugh. Just the sort of elitist, science-based snootery that leads some to fear we’re out to make Medicare a government program and confiscate their guns. QUOTING TEDDY Mike Martin: ‘It was nice hearing President Obama quoting [Republican] Teddy Roosevelt, but it seems he omitted the most apt quotations. The Occupy Wall Street crowd would be attracted by quoting Roosevelt: ‘Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people. From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare they have become the tools of corrupt interests, which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.’ President Obama would gain a lot by listening to Teddy Roosevelt: ‘The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.’ ‘ ☞ That first quotation could not be more apt today as regards one of our two political parties, I think; the one closely identified with corporate interests. Not so much to the other. The second quotation conforms to the conventional liberal wisdom (that the President should be tougher), but I’d say, first, that – as to our enemies abroad – he has not hit softly: 22 of Al-Qaeda’s top 30 operatives have been eliminated. Second, that ‘shock and awe’ is not always the best course – compare Bush’s management of Saddam with Obama’s of Qaddafi. Third, that – here at home – hitting Republican Senators harder would not necessarily have changed any of their votes. This is a longer discussion, but the President may yet wind up winning the long game, as regards many of his domestic priorities. ALXA Guru: ‘I’m afraid the FDA is really torpedoing ALXA’s pulmonary safety and ALXA did hide the extent and details of the pulmonary data. (The published studies we reviewed last year said there were no significant changes in lung function.) Based on what I’m reading of the FDA comments today, doesn’t look like this is going to get an approval without a lot more lung function tests. ALXA is in a catch-22: they are saying that the fact that loxapine makes you somewhat sleepy (a good thing for a patient with schizophrenia who is agitated) also makes it look like there is some compromise in lung function (sleepy healthy volunteers won’t be able to blow as hard as non-sleepy ones) and the FDA is saying this propensity to induce sleepiness may be additive to other issues that could cause bronchospasm and may be masking the underlying lung effects of the product. The same arguments could be made for ANY form of loxapine delivery: the intramuscular would make you sleepy, so you probably would have “lung function” problems, but since ALXA is delivering loxapine to the lungs, there appears to be more of a concern. IF ALXA had done more trials to show a clinical superiority to intramuscular loxapine AND no difference in lung function, THEN they would have a great argument, BUT they did not. BOTTOM line: I’m not optimistic. Cash is 0.39/share. I thought a couple of puffs of a well-known treatment for schizophrenic agitation would not be a big deal. It’s not like they are inhaling this daily for weeks and weeks – where you could worry about chronic lung irritation. But I was clearly VERY out of synch with the FDA on this one. Of course, it is possible, the panel will not agree with the FDA, but they have put five pulmonary experts on the panel as temporary voting members. I’d imagine they will agree with the FDA’s concerns and since the company doesn’t have data that shows this medically essential, I’m not sure they can convince the psychiatrists on the panel to vote yes. I have spoken to a couple of psychiatrists who were really enthusiastic, but they aren’t the FDA.’
The President’s Speech December 8, 2011March 26, 2017 Did you have a chance to read or watch the President’s speech, posted here yesterday? I know it’s long and we’re all busy – I felt a special bond with Alec Baldwin when I learned American Airlines was impeding our common work flow – but Robert Reich rightly calls it “the most important economic speech of his presidency” (and presents the highlights with his own very interesting annotations – so that might be another good way to process it). OVER 50? I got to go to a high-level medical briefing Tuesday and – to my surprise – came away with an action step. It turns out that a great many more people than you might imagine get “shingles” (also known as herpes zoster) . . . half of all those living to age 85 . . . it is definitely not something you ever want to get, not least because it can do terrible damage to your eyes . . . and there is a vaccine that cuts by half or more the chance you will one day be stricken. If you are over 50, check with your doctor about getting this shot – even if you’ve already had shingles. (Here’s the Center for Disease Controls on this topic.) SIGA Shingles come from the chickenpox virus that 90% of us carry around. Epidemic death comes from smallpox, a disease eradicated in 1980, but that our homeland security folks would like to be prepared for just in case. The latest developments in this story will be of interest only to those of us who bought SIGA at higher prices, watched it climb to $16, and then perhaps bought more last week around $2. (Only, it strains the long-time reader’s patience to be told, with money we could truly afford to lose.)
Yesterday December 7, 2011March 26, 2017 Yesterday was remarkable. Our President gave a defining speech in Kansas on behalf of the middle class, evoking Teddy Roosevelt. Our Secretary of State called on the nations of the world to afford gays dignity and equality. Watch Secretary Clinton here. Watch President Obama here. Or, if you’re pressed for time: Remarks by the President on the Economy Osawatomie High School Osawatomie, Kansas December 6, 2011 12:59 P.M. CST . . . This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. Because what’s at stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, secure their retirement. Now, in the midst of this debate, there are some who seem to be suffering from a kind of collective amnesia. After all that’s happened, after the worst economic crisis, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, they want to return to the same practices that got us into this mess. In fact, they want to go back to the same policies that stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for way too many years. And their philosophy is simple: We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules. I am here to say they are wrong. (Applause.) I’m here in Kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we’re greater together than we are on our own. I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules. (Applause.) These aren’t Democratic values or Republican values. These aren’t 1 percent values or 99 percent values. They’re American values. And we have to reclaim them. (Applause.) You see, this isn’t the first time America has faced this choice. At the turn of the last century, when a nation of farmers was transitioning to become the world’s industrial giant, we had to decide: Would we settle for a country where most of the new railroads and factories were being controlled by a few giant monopolies that kept prices high and wages low? Would we allow our citizens and even our children to work ungodly hours in conditions that were unsafe and unsanitary? Would we restrict education to the privileged few? Because there were people who thought massive inequality and exploitation of people was just the price you pay for progress. Theodore Roosevelt disagreed. He was the Republican son of a wealthy family. He praised what the titans of industry had done to create jobs and grow the economy. He believed then what we know is true today, that the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history. It’s led to a prosperity and a standard of living unmatched by the rest of the world. But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you can from whomever you can. (Applause.) He understood the free market only works when there are rules of the road that ensure competition is fair and open and honest. And so he busted up monopolies, forcing those companies to compete for consumers with better services and better prices. And today, they still must. He fought to make sure businesses couldn’t profit by exploiting children or selling food or medicine that wasn’t safe. And today, they still can’t. And in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here to Osawatomie and he laid out his vision for what he called a New Nationalism. ‘Our country,’ he said, ‘…means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy…of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.” (Applause.) Now, for this, Roosevelt was called a radical. He was called a socialist — (laughter) — even a communist. But today, we are a richer nation and a stronger democracy because of what he fought for in his last campaign: an eight-hour work day and a minimum wage for women — (applause) — insurance for the unemployed and for the elderly, and those with disabilities; political reform and a progressive income tax. (Applause.) Today, over 100 years later, our economy has gone through another transformation. Over the last few decades, huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less, and it’s made it easier for them to set up shop and hire workers anywhere they want in the world. And many of you know firsthand the painful disruptions this has caused for a lot of Americans. Factories where people thought they would retire suddenly picked up and went overseas, where workers were cheaper. Steel mills that needed 100 — or 1,000 employees are now able to do the same work with 100 employees, so layoffs too often became permanent, not just a temporary part of the business cycle. And these changes didn’t just affect blue-collar workers. If you were a bank teller or a phone operator or a travel agent, you saw many in your profession replaced by ATMs and the Internet. Today, even higher-skilled jobs, like accountants and middle management can be outsourced to countries like China or India. And if you’re somebody whose job can be done cheaper by a computer or someone in another country, you don’t have a lot of leverage with your employer when it comes to asking for better wages or better benefits, especially since fewer Americans today are part of a union. Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes — especially for the wealthy — our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty. Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. (Applause.) I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory. Remember in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history. And what did it get us? The slowest job growth in half a century. Massive deficits that have made it much harder to pay for the investments that built this country and provided the basic security that helped millions of Americans reach and stay in the middle class — things like education and infrastructure, science and technology, Medicare and Social Security. Remember that in those same years, thanks to some of the same folks who are now running Congress, we had weak regulation, we had little oversight, and what did it get us? Insurance companies that jacked up people’s premiums with impunity and denied care to patients who were sick, mortgage lenders that tricked families into buying homes they couldn’t afford, a financial sector where irresponsibility and lack of basic oversight nearly destroyed our entire economy. We simply cannot return to this brand of “you’re on your own” economics if we’re serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country. (Applause.) We know that it doesn’t result in a strong economy. It results in an economy that invests too little in its people and in its future. We know it doesn’t result in a prosperity that trickles down. It results in a prosperity that’s enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens. Look at the statistics. In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1 percent has gone up by more than 250 percent to $1.2 million per year. I’m not talking about millionaires, people who have a million dollars. I’m saying people who make a million dollars every single year. For the top one hundredth of 1 percent, the average income is now $27 million per year. The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 times more than his or her worker now earns 110 times more. And yet, over the last decade the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about 6 percent. Now, this kind of inequality — a level that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression — hurts us all. When middle-class families can no longer afford to buy the goods and services that businesses are selling, when people are slipping out of the middle class, it drags down the entire economy from top to bottom. America was built on the idea of broad-based prosperity, of strong consumers all across the country. That’s why a CEO like Henry Ford made it his mission to pay his workers enough so that they could buy the cars he made. It’s also why a recent study showed that countries with less inequality tend to have stronger and steadier economic growth over the long run. Inequality also distorts our democracy. It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions, and it runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder. (Applause.) It leaves everyone else rightly suspicious that the system in Washington is rigged against them, that our elected representatives aren’t looking out for the interests of most Americans. But there’s an even more fundamental issue at stake. This kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promise that’s at the very heart of America: that this is a place where you can make it if you try. We tell people — we tell our kids — that in this country, even if you’re born with nothing, work hard and you can get into the middle class. We tell them that your children will have a chance to do even better than you do. That’s why immigrants from around the world historically have flocked to our shores. And yet, over the last few decades, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity have grown farther and farther apart, and the middle class has shrunk. You know, a few years after World War II, a child who was born into poverty had a slightly better than 50-50 chance of becoming middle class as an adult. By 1980, that chance had fallen to around 40 percent. And if the trend of rising inequality over the last few decades continues, it’s estimated that a child born today will only have a one-in-three chance of making it to the middle class — 33 percent. It’s heartbreaking enough that there are millions of working families in this country who are now forced to take their children to food banks for a decent meal. But the idea that those children might not have a chance to climb out of that situation and back into the middle class, no matter how hard they work? That’s inexcusable. It is wrong. (Applause.) It flies in the face of everything that we stand for. (Applause.) Now, fortunately, that’s not a future that we have to accept, because there’s another view about how we build a strong middle class in this country — a view that’s truer to our history, a vision that’s been embraced in the past by people of both parties for more than 200 years. It’s not a view that we should somehow turn back technology or put up walls around America. It’s not a view that says we should punish profit or success or pretend that government knows how to fix all of society’s problems. It is a view that says in America we are greater together — when everyone engages in fair play and everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share. (Applause.) So what does that mean for restoring middle-class security in today’s economy? Well, it starts by making sure that everyone in America gets a fair shot at success. The truth is we’ll never be able to compete with other countries when it comes to who’s best at letting their businesses pay the lowest wages, who’s best at busting unions, who’s best at letting companies pollute as much as they want. That’s a race to the bottom that we can’t win, and we shouldn’t want to win that race. (Applause.) Those countries don’t have a strong middle class. They don’t have our standard of living. The race we want to win, the race we can win is a race to the top — the race for good jobs that pay well and offer middle-class security. Businesses will create those jobs in countries with the highest-skilled, highest-educated workers, the most advanced transportation and communication, the strongest commitment to research and technology. The world is shifting to an innovation economy and nobody does innovation better than America. Nobody does it better. (Applause.) No one has better colleges. Nobody has better universities. Nobody has a greater diversity of talent and ingenuity. No one’s workers or entrepreneurs are more driven or more daring. The things that have always been our strengths match up perfectly with the demands of the moment. But we need to meet the moment. We’ve got to up our game. We need to remember that we can only do that together. It starts by making education a national mission — a national mission. (Applause.) Government and businesses, parents and citizens. In this economy, a higher education is the surest route to the middle class. The unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. And their incomes are twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma. Which means we shouldn’t be laying off good teachers right now — we should be hiring them. (Applause.) We shouldn’t be expecting less of our schools –- we should be demanding more. (Applause.) We shouldn’t be making it harder to afford college — we should be a country where everyone has a chance to go and doesn’t rack up $100,000 of debt just because they went. (Applause.) In today’s innovation economy, we also need a world-class commitment to science and research, the next generation of high-tech manufacturing. Our factories and our workers shouldn’t be idle. We should be giving people the chance to get new skills and training at community colleges so they can learn how to make wind turbines and semiconductors and high-powered batteries. And by the way, if we don’t have an economy that’s built on bubbles and financial speculation, our best and brightest won’t all gravitate towards careers in banking and finance. (Applause.) Because if we want an economy that’s built to last, we need more of those young people in science and engineering. (Applause.) This country should not be known for bad debt and phony profits. We should be known for creating and selling products all around the world that are stamped with three proud words: Made in America. (Applause.) Today, manufacturers and other companies are setting up shop in the places with the best infrastructure to ship their products, move their workers, communicate with the rest of the world. And that’s why the over 1 million construction workers who lost their jobs when the housing market collapsed, they shouldn’t be sitting at home with nothing to do. They should be rebuilding our roads and our bridges, laying down faster railroads and broadband, modernizing our schools — (applause) — all the things other countries are already doing to attract good jobs and businesses to their shores. Yes, business, and not government, will always be the primary generator of good jobs with incomes that lift people into the middle class and keep them there. But as a nation, we’ve always come together, through our government, to help create the conditions where both workers and businesses can succeed. (Applause.) And historically, that hasn’t been a partisan idea. Franklin Roosevelt worked with Democrats and Republicans to give veterans of World War II — including my grandfather, Stanley Dunham — the chance to go to college on the G.I. Bill. It was a Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower, a proud son of Kansas — (applause) — who started the Interstate Highway System, and doubled down on science and research to stay ahead of the Soviets. Of course, those productive investments cost money. They’re not free. And so we’ve also paid for these investments by asking everybody to do their fair share. Look, if we had unlimited resources, no one would ever have to pay any taxes and we would never have to cut any spending. But we don’t have unlimited resources. And so we have to set priorities. If we want a strong middle class, then our tax code must reflect our values. We have to make choices. Today that choice is very clear. To reduce our deficit, I’ve already signed nearly $1 trillion of spending cuts into law and I’ve proposed trillions more, including reforms that would lower the cost of Medicare and Medicaid. (Applause.) But in order to structurally close the deficit, get our fiscal house in order, we have to decide what our priorities are. Now, most immediately, short term, we need to extend a payroll tax cut that’s set to expire at the end of this month. (Applause.) If we don’t do that, 160 million Americans, including most of the people here, will see their taxes go up by an average of $1,000 starting in January and it would badly weaken our recovery. That’s the short term. In the long term, we have to rethink our tax system more fundamentally. We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to make the investments we need in things like education and research and high-tech manufacturing — all those things that helped make us an economic superpower? Or do we want to keep in place the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans in our country? Because we can’t afford to do both. That is not politics. That’s just math. (Laughter and applause.) Now, so far, most of my Republican friends in Washington have refused under any circumstance to ask the wealthiest Americans to go to the same tax rate they were paying when Bill Clinton was president. So let’s just do a trip down memory lane here. Keep in mind, when President Clinton first proposed these tax increases, folks in Congress predicted they would kill jobs and lead to another recession. Instead, our economy created nearly 23 million jobs and we eliminated the deficit. (Applause.) Today, the wealthiest Americans are paying the lowest taxes in over half a century. This isn’t like in the early ‘50s, when the top tax rate was over 90 percent. This isn’t even like the early ‘80s, when the top tax rate was about 70 percent. Under President Clinton, the top rate was only about 39 percent. Today, thanks to loopholes and shelters, a quarter of all millionaires now pay lower tax rates than millions of you, millions of middle-class families. Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1 percent. One percent. That is the height of unfairness. It is wrong. (Applause.) It’s wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker, maybe earns $50,000 a year, should pay a higher tax rate than somebody raking in $50 million. (Applause.) It’s wrong for Warren Buffett’s secretary to pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. (Applause.) And by the way, Warren Buffett agrees with me. (Laughter.) So do most Americans — Democrats, independents and Republicans. And I know that many of our wealthiest citizens would agree to contribute a little more if it meant reducing the deficit and strengthening the economy that made their success possible. This isn’t about class warfare. This is about the nation’s welfare. It’s about making choices that benefit not just the people who’ve done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefits the middle class, and those fighting to get into the middle class, and the economy as a whole. Finally, a strong middle class can only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules, from Wall Street to Main Street. (Applause.) As infuriating as it was for all of us, we rescued our major banks from collapse, not only because a full-blown financial meltdown would have sent us into a second Depression, but because we need a strong, healthy financial sector in this country. But part of the deal was that we wouldn’t go back to business as usual. And that’s why last year we put in place new rules of the road that refocus the financial sector on what should be their core purpose: getting capital to the entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and financing millions of families who want to buy a home or send their kids to college. Now, we’re not all the way there yet, and the banks are fighting us every inch of the way. But already, some of these reforms are being implemented. If you’re a big bank or risky financial institution, you now have to write out a “living will” that details exactly how you’ll pay the bills if you fail, so that taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street’s mistakes. (Applause.) There are also limits on the size of banks and new abilities for regulators to dismantle a firm that is going under. The new law bans banks from making risky bets with their customers’ deposits, and it takes away big bonuses and paydays from failed CEOs, while giving shareholders a say on executive salaries. This is the law that we passed. We are in the process of implementing it now. All of this is being put in place as we speak. Now, unless you’re a financial institution whose business model is built on breaking the law, cheating consumers and making risky bets that could damage the entire economy, you should have nothing to fear from these new rules. Some of you may know, my grandmother worked as a banker for most of her life — worked her way up, started as a secretary, ended up being a vice president of a bank. And I know from her, and I know from all the people that I’ve come in contact with, that the vast majority of bankers and financial service professionals, they want to do right by their customers. They want to have rules in place that don’t put them at a disadvantage for doing the right thing. And yet, Republicans in Congress are fighting as hard as they can to make sure that these rules aren’t enforced. I’ll give you a specific example. For the first time in history, the reforms that we passed put in place a consumer watchdog who is charged with protecting everyday Americans from being taken advantage of by mortgage lenders or payday lenders or debt collectors. And the man we nominated for the post, Richard Cordray, is a former attorney general of Ohio who has the support of most attorney generals, both Democrat and Republican, throughout the country. Nobody claims he’s not qualified. But the Republicans in the Senate refuse to confirm him for the job; they refuse to let him do his job. Why? Does anybody here think that the problem that led to our financial crisis was too much oversight of mortgage lenders or debt collectors? AUDIENCE: No! THE PRESIDENT: Of course not. Every day we go without a consumer watchdog is another day when a student, or a senior citizen, or a member of our Armed Forces — because they are very vulnerable to some of this stuff — could be tricked into a loan that they can’t afford — something that happens all the time. And the fact is that financial institutions have plenty of lobbyists looking out for their interests. Consumers deserve to have someone whose job it is to look out for them. (Applause.) And I intend to make sure they do. (Applause.) And I want you to hear me, Kansas: I will veto any effort to delay or defund or dismantle the new rules that we put in place. (Applause.) We shouldn’t be weakening oversight and accountability. We should be strengthening oversight and accountability. I’ll give you another example. Too often, we’ve seen Wall Street firms violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there’s no price for being a repeat offender. No more. I’ll be calling for legislation that makes those penalties count so that firms don’t see punishment for breaking the law as just the price of doing business. (Applause.) The fact is this crisis has left a huge deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. And major banks that were rescued by the taxpayers have an obligation to go the extra mile in helping to close that deficit of trust. At minimum, they should be remedying past mortgage abuses that led to the financial crisis. They should be working to keep responsible homeowners in their home. We’re going to keep pushing them to provide more time for unemployed homeowners to look for work without having to worry about immediately losing their house. The big banks should increase access to refinancing opportunities to borrowers who haven’t yet benefited from historically low interest rates. And the big banks should recognize that precisely because these steps are in the interest of middle-class families and the broader economy, it will also be in the banks’ own long-term financial interest. What will be good for consumers over the long term will be good for the banks. (Applause.) Investing in things like education that give everybody a chance to succeed. A tax code that makes sure everybody pays their fair share. And laws that make sure everybody follows the rules. That’s what will transform our economy. That’s what will grow our middle class again. In the end, rebuilding this economy based on fair play, a fair shot, and a fair share will require all of us to see that we have a stake in each other’s success. And it will require all of us to take some responsibility. It will require parents to get more involved in their children’s education. It will require students to study harder. (Applause.) It will require some workers to start studying all over again. It will require greater responsibility from homeowners not to take out mortgages they can’t afford. They need to remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. It will require those of us in public service to make government more efficient and more effective, more consumer-friendly, more responsive to people’s needs. That’s why we’re cutting programs that we don’t need to pay for those we do. (Applause.) That’s why we’ve made hundreds of regulatory reforms that will save businesses billions of dollars. That’s why we’re not just throwing money at education, we’re challenging schools to come up with the most innovative reforms and the best results. And it will require American business leaders to understand that their obligations don’t just end with their shareholders. Andy Grove, the legendary former CEO of Intel, put it best. He said, “There is another obligation I feel personally, given that everything I’ve achieved in my career, and a lot of what Intel has achieved…were made possible by a climate of democracy, an economic climate and investment climate provided by the United States.” This broader obligation can take many forms. At a time when the cost of hiring workers in China is rising rapidly, it should mean more CEOs deciding that it’s time to bring jobs back to the United States — (applause) — not just because it’s good for business, but because it’s good for the country that made their business and their personal success possible. (Applause.) I think about the Big Three auto companies who, during recent negotiations, agreed to create more jobs and cars here in America, and then decided to give bonuses not just to their executives, but to all their employees, so that everyone was invested in the company’s success. (Applause.) I think about a company based in Warroad, Minnesota. It’s called Marvin Windows and Doors. During the recession, Marvin’s competitors closed dozens of plants, let hundreds of workers go. But Marvin’s did not lay off a single one of their 4,000 or so employees — not one. In fact, they’ve only laid off workers once in over a hundred years. Mr. Marvin’s grandfather even kept his eight employees during the Great Depression. Now, at Marvin’s when times get tough, the workers agree to give up some perks and some pay, and so do the owners. As one owner said, “You can’t grow if you’re cutting your lifeblood — and that’s the skills and experience your workforce delivers.” (Applause.) For the CEO of Marvin’s, it’s about the community. He said, “These are people we went to school with. We go to church with them. We see them in the same restaurants. Indeed, a lot of us have married local girls and boys. We could be anywhere, but we are in Warroad.” That’s how America was built. That’s why we’re the greatest nation on Earth. That’s what our greatest companies understand. Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s about building a nation where we’re all better off. We pull together. We pitch in. We do our part. We believe that hard work will pay off, that responsibility will be rewarded, and that our children will inherit a nation where those values live on. (Applause.) And it is that belief that rallied thousands of Americans to Osawatomie — (applause) — maybe even some of your ancestors — on a rain-soaked day more than a century ago. By train, by wagon, on buggy, bicycle, on foot, they came to hear the vision of a man who loved this country and was determined to perfect it. “We are all Americans,” Teddy Roosevelt told them that day. “Our common interests are as broad as the continent.” In the final years of his life, Roosevelt took that same message all across this country, from tiny Osawatomie to the heart of New York City, believing that no matter where he went, no matter who he was talking to, everybody would benefit from a country in which everyone gets a fair chance. (Applause.) And well into our third century as a nation, we have grown and we’ve changed in many ways since Roosevelt’s time. The world is faster and the playing field is larger and the challenges are more complex. But what hasn’t changed — what can never change — are the values that got us this far. We still have a stake in each other’s success. We still believe that this should be a place where you can make it if you try. And we still believe, in the words of the man who called for a New Nationalism all those years ago, “The fundamental rule of our national life,” he said, “the rule which underlies all others — is that, on the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together.” And I believe America is on the way up. (Applause.) Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)
Don Berwick With Chris Hayes December 6, 2011March 25, 2012 We have a superbly competent, decent man working to make health care better and more affordable . . . and we fire him. Watch Don Berwick’s interview on ‘UP with Chris Hayes’ and you’ll have a better sense of why (a) the Affordable Health Care Act is a good one; (b) how immensely dysfunctional is the opposition – that filibusters its own proposed bipartisan deficit reduction committee (once the President signs on); that manufactures the debt-ceiling crisis; and that now fires the best man for a job we urgently need done. Why are we doing this to ourselves?
The View From Abroad December 5, 2011March 26, 2017 Tomorrow, Don Berwick. Today, the view from abroad. But first . . . CHARLES UPDATE Did you see the spread on Charles in yesterday’s New York Times? Here! Meanwhile, Construction has begun on the Charles Nolan Reading Room at the High School of Fashion Industries, three blocks south of the Fashion Institute of Technology. We’ve also made a good start on the F.I.T. scholarship that will bear his name. And now . . . HOW DER SPIEGEL VIEWS THE RACE Here, from Germany’s leading news magazine (which may employ more fact-checkers than any other publication in the world – reportedly, 80 of them). It’s too good not to read in full (forgive my yellow highlights): Africa is a country. In Libya, the Taliban reigns. Muslims are terrorists; most immigrants are criminal; all Occupy protesters are dirty. And women who feel sexually harassed — well, they shouldn’t make such a big deal about it. Welcome to the wonderful world of the US Republicans. Or rather, to the twisted world of what they call their presidential campaigns. For months now, they’ve been traipsing around the country with their traveling circus, from one debate to the next, one scandal to another, putting themselves forward for what’s still the most powerful job in the world. As it turns out, there are no limits to how far they will stoop. It’s true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it’s just not that funny anymore. In fact, it’s utterly horrifying. It’s horrifying because these eight so-called, would-be candidates are eagerly ruining not only their own reputations and that of their party, the party of Lincoln lore. Worse: They’re ruining the reputation of the United States. ‘Freakshow’ They lie. They cheat. They exaggerate. They bluster. They say one idiotic, ignorant, outrageous thing after another. They’ve shown such stark lack of knowledge — political, economic, geographic, historical — that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein and even cause their fellow Republicans to cringe. “When did the GOP lose touch with reality?” wonders Bush’s former speechwriter David Frum in New York Magazine. In the New York Times, Kenneth Duberstein, Ronald Reagan’s former chief-of-staff, called this campaign season a “reality show,” while Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan confidante Peggy Noonan even spoke of a “freakshow.” That may be the most appropriate description. Tough times demand tough and smart minds. But all these dopes have to offer are ramblings that insult the intelligence of all Americans — no matter if they are Democrats, Republicans or neither of the above. Yet just like any freakshow, this one would be unthinkable without a stage (in this case, the media, strangling itself with all its misunderstood “political correctness” and “objectivity”) and an audience (the party base, which this year seems to have suffered a political lobotomy). Factually Challenged And so the farce continues. The more mind-boggling its incarnations, the happier the US media are to cheer first one clown and then the next, elevating and then eliminating “frontrunners” in reliable news cycles of about 45 days. Take Herman Cain, “businessman.” He sat out the first wave of sexual harassment claims against him by offering a peculiar argument: Most ladies he had encountered in his life, he said, had not complained. In the most recent twist, a woman accused Cain of having carried on a 13-year affair with her. That, too, he tried to casually wave off, but now, under pressure, he says he wants to “reassess” his campaign. If Cain indeed drops out, the campaign would lose its biggest caricature: He has been the most factually challenged of all these jesters. As CEO of the “Godfather’s” pizza chain, Cain killed jobs — but now poses as the job-creator-in-chief. Meanwhile, he seems to lack basic economic know-how, let alone a rudimentary grasp of politics or geography. Libya confounds him. He does not believe that China is a nuclear power. And all other, slightly more complicated questions get a stock answer: “Nine-nine-nine!” Remember? That’s Cain’s tax reduction plan that would actually raise taxes for 84 percent of Americans. Has any of that disrupted Cain’s popularity in the media or with his fan base? Far from it. Since Oct. 1, he has collected more than $9 million in campaign donations. Enough to plow through another onslaught of denouements. No Shortage of Chutzpah Then there’s Newt Gingrich, the current favorite. He’s a political dinosaur, dishonored and discredited. Or so we thought. Yet just because he studied history and speaks in more complex sentences than his rivals, the US media now reflexively hails him as a “Man of Ideas” (The Washington Post) — even though most of these ideas are lousy if not downright offensive, such as firing unionized school janitors, so poor children could do their jobs. Pompous and blustering, Gingrich gets away with this humdinger as well as with selling himself as a Washington outsider — despite having made millions of dollars as a lobbyist in Washington. At least the man’s got chutzpah. The hypocrisy doesn’t end here. Gingrich claims moral authority on issues such as the “sanctity of marriage,” yet he’s been divorced twice. He sprang the divorce on his first wife while she was sick with cancer. (His supporters’ excuse: It’s been 31 years, and she’s still alive.) He cheated on his second wife just as he was pressing ahead with Bill Clinton’s impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky affair, unaware of the irony. The woman he cheated with, by the way, was one of his House aides and 23 years his junior — and is now his perpetually smiling third wife. Americans have a short memory. They forget, too, that Gingrich was driven out of Congress in disgrace, the first speaker of the house to be disciplined for ethical wrongdoing. Or that he consistently flirts with racism when he speaks of Barack Obama. Or that he enjoyed a $500,000 credit line at Tiffany’s just as his campaign was financially in the toilet and he ranted about the national debt. Chutzpah, indeed. Yet the US media rewards him with a daily kowtow. And the Republicans reward him too, by having put him on top in the latest polls. Mr. Hypocrisy, the bearer of his party’s hope. “I think he’s doing well just because he’s thinking,” former President Clinton told the conservative online magazine NewsMax. “People are hungry for ideas that make some sense.” Sense? Apparently it’s not just the Republicans who have lost their minds here. The Eternal Runner-Up And what about the other candidates? Rick Perry‘s blunders are legendary. His “oops” moment in suburban Detroit. His frequently slurred speech, as if he was drunk. His TV commercials putting words in Obama’s mouth that he didn’t say (such as, “Americans are ‘lazy'”). His preposterous claim that as governor of Texas he created 1 million jobs, when the total was really just about 100,000. But what’s one digit? Elsewhere, Perry would have long ago been disqualified. But not here in the US. Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann has fallen off the wagon, although she’s still tolerated as if she’s a serious contender. Ron Paul’s fan club gets the more excited, the more puzzling his comments get. Jon Huntsman, the only one who occasionally makes some sort of sense, has been relegated to the poll doldrums ever since he showed sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. Which leaves Mitt Romney, the eternal flip-flopper and runner-up, who by now is almost guaranteed to clinch the nomination, even though no one in his party seems to like or want him. He stiffly delivers his talking points, which may or may not contradict his previous positions. After all, he’s been practicing this since 2008, when he failed to snag the nomination from John McCain. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. As an investor, Romney once raked in millions and, like Cain, killed jobs along the way. So now he says he’s the economy’s savior. To prove that, he has presented an economic plan that the usually quite conservative business magazine Forbes has labeled “dangerous,” asking incredulously, “About Mitt Romney, the Republicans can’t be serious.” Apparently they’re not, but he is, running TV spots against Obama already, teeming with falsehoods. Good for Ratings What a nice club that is. A club of liars, cheaters, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites and ignoramuses. “A starting point for a chronicle of American decline,” was how David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, described the current Republican race. The Tea Party would take issue with that assessment. They cheer the loudest for the worst, only to see them fail, as expected, one by one. Which goes to show that this “movement,” sponsored by Fox News, has never been interested in the actual business of governing or in the intelligence and intellect that requires. They are only interested in marketing themselves, for ratings and dollars. So the US elections are a reality show after all, a pseudo-political counterpart to the Paris Hiltons, Kim Kardashians and all the “American Idol” and “X Factor” contestants littering today’s TV. The cruder, the dumber, the more bizarre and outlandish — the more lucrative. Especially for Fox News, whose viewers were recently determined by Fairleigh Dickinson University to be far less informed than people who don’t watch TV news at all. Maybe that’s the solution: Just ignore it all, until election day. Good luck with that — this docudrama with its soap-opera twists is way too enthralling. The latest rumor du jour involves a certain candidate who long ago seemed to have disappeared from the radar. Now she may be back, or so it is said, to bring order into this chaos. Never mind that her name is synonymous with chaos: Sarah Palin.