Why My Republican Friends Aren’t Democrats May 13, 2015May 16, 2015 During the 12 Bush years, net private-sector job creation totaled just 747,000 — versus 19.6 million during the Clinton years and 8 million so far under Obama. (Or 12.3 million if you don’t count the first few horrific months he inherited.) So that’s 747,000 under the 12 most recent years of Republican leadership, as deficits ballooned (including the $1.5 trillion “2009” deficit for the fiscal year that began four months before Obama even took office); 30 million under the 14 most recent years of Democratic leadership, as deficits were brought back under control. (Clinton left Bush a surplus. And under Obama the deficit has been cut more than two-thirds, such that the National Debt is back to shrinking relative to GDP.) I just laugh (and cry) when my Republican friends explain that they’re “socially liberal but fiscally conservative.” That should make them gung-ho Democrats! We’re the ones who shrink the debt relative to the economy as a whole. Being wealthy, for the most part, what they really care about, I think, are their taxes — and I get that. Being a little bit wealthy myself, I care about mine, too. But I’d rather pay a higher rate on more income in a healthy, successful economy than a lower rate on less income as I watch my country’s infrastructure crumble and investments in a brighter future blocked. Please send this to your Republican uncle. His Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, has told us that “by any standard, Barack Obama had been a disaster for our country.” But the facts — and the balance of your uncle’s own 401K — tell a different story. And the truth is — and you can tell him I said so — your uncle’s views (if not his votes) have been about right all along! Here’s why: The whole political landscape has shifted dramatically to the right. Democrats these days govern from “the sensible center,” or maybe a click to the left. Republicans used to govern from about the same place, a click to the right — about where your uncle is. (Remember Dwight Eisenhower? Richard Nixon? Nelson Rockefeller? Teddy Roosevelt? Abe Lincoln?) But now, in the inimitable words of my friend Barney Frank, “we’re not perfect, but they’re nuts” . . . denying science, refusing compromise, shutting down the government, threatening default on debts that they themselves racked up — and this is not really where your uncle is. Please let him know he has a temporary home with us (and a warm welcome) until he gets his party back. He may even like it well enough to stay.
Escape The Room May 12, 2015 CLOCKY I am probably the last one in the world to hear about this thing and have zero need for it — my biggest luxury is not having to get out of bed until I want to. But I want one anyway. This is the greatest thing ever. Hit the snooze button more than once and it jumps of the table and starts skittering around the room so you have to catch it to shut it up. I’ve ordered two. It comes in colors. ESCAPE You and six or a dozen friends or co-workers pay $28 each (give or take) to be locked in a room — an office or a small theater or an apartment — with an hour to figure out how to escape. You’re fed clues by a Cluemaster watching via closed-circuit TV, but the clues are hard. If you fail, you’re allowed out anyway; and either way you then get a debriefing from your Cluemaster, showing you how it all works and what you got right and wrong. People love it. As the New York Times reports: . . . After years of popularity in Asia and, more recently, on the West Coast, escape rooms have arrived in New York with increasing frequency. Escape the Room NYC began an open-ended run in February not far from the Empire State Building. The Real Escape Game, which says that it invented the phenomenon in 2007 in Japan, came to Webster Hall in the East Village over the weekend and has plans to return this year. Trapped NYC is scheduled to open on the Lower East Side on the same weekend this month that The Purge: Breakout, a promotion for the horror film “The Purge: Anarchy” heads to Coney Island. Add it to your list? I’ve added it to mine.
Four More Years May 9, 2015May 9, 2015 One of the crazier themes afloat is that Hillary, if she’s the nominee, will need to distance herself from the President, lest she be slammed as “four more years of Obama.” Really? Like that would be bad? Who wouldn’t want four more years of continuous private-sector job growth? Of increasing energy independence, low energy prices, and ever more-competitive energy alternatives? Of low inflation, healthy home prices, and falling foreclosures — and a Dow nearly triple its March, 2009 bottom? Of record-high high school graduation rates? Of the lowest health care inflation in more than 50 years? That’s the one place — Obamacare — Republicans have succeeded at selling their negativity . . . because that’s the one place hard to measure. Anyone can see what it costs to fill the gas tank, where the Dow is, or how many fewer servicemen and women are dying each week . . . all standards of performance that make Mitch McConnell’s ridiculous assertion — “by any standard, Barack Obama has been a disaster for our country” — entirely ludicrous. (And entirely telling — but about McConnell, not Obama.) Harder to assess is the success of the Affordable Care Act. People know that millions more are now covered — but how do they assess its impact on their own lives? In some cases, it’s obvious — they’ve found something about it they hate; or (in other cases) it saved their lives. But for a great many people, it’s not as clear, and the 880,000 TV spots its opponents have spent $445 million to air since the law passed, to make it unpopular, have taken their toll. Yet consider a key piece of Obamacare: It taxes a few to provide coverage, subsidies, and enhanced benefits for a great many. That may or may not strike you as fair — a $380,000 surtax on every extra $10 million in dividends or capital gains you rake in, a $90,000 surtax on every extra $10 million in earned income — but it’s pretty hard to see it not being good for the 320 million of us who, for example, are more secure not having to worry we will someday lose coverage because of a lifetime cap or pre-existing condition. (You can say fire insurance is worthless unless your house burns down — but most people recognize it’s valuable because their house might burn down. Well, the same here: You can say the removal of lifetime caps is worthless unless you or your kids are hit with some awful injury or disease — but people need to know it’s valuable because they might. How about spending $445 million on ads stressing that? Even more so with pre-existing conditions, which tens of millions of us already have and tens of millions more will surely develop.) And there’s more. Obamacare provides incentives to improve efficiency and quality of outcomes going forward. Did you read the original Atul Gawande piece in the New Yorker about the two contrasting Texas cities, McCallen and El Paso? Here’s a compelling follow-up: McAllen, Texas, used to be everything wrong with American health care. Not anymore. . . . [Gawande’s] article ran in the summer of 2009, when Congress was in the throes of the health reform debate. And McAllen became a stand-in for everything wrong with American health care: doctors ordering more tests just for the heck of it, but not actually helping anyone get healthier. President Obama brought up the article in private meetings and public speeches. It was, as one headline put it, “The Texas Town at the Center of the Healthcare Debate.” This year, Gawande went back to McAllen and found something surprising: in the aftermath of the article, the Texas city had dramatically reduced health spending. And nobody seems to have gotten any sicker; they just got rid of the care that wasn’t doing any good. . . . But this is also, in a way, a national story: as Gawande notes, Medicare spending has grown particularly slowly over the past five years. . . . A good thing, no? Also good that the free market is working, as per the Washington Post last fall: . . . [T]he number of insurers offering coverage through the exchanges is set to increase by 25 percent next year. In some states, the number of participating insurers will double. For every insurer that has dropped out, five more have joined. . . . This increased competition should help keep premium hikes down, since as any free marketeer will tell you, that’s what competition does. . . . And good that preventive care is now free and that the Medicare “doughnut” hole your beloved seniors have had to fill with their own cash will be closed by 2020. Yes, Hillary or Bernie Sanders or whoever gets the Democratic nomination should, for sure, pledge to improve parts of the Affordable Care Act that need improvement. Let Medicare negotiate drug prices! But the Republican approach, voting over and over to cancel the surtax and take away all the added coverage, benefits, and security it pays for — I doubt that’s what most voters want. With unemployment already down to 5.4% versus the 6% Mitt Romney hoped to achieve by 2017 if we elected him . . . with the headline-dominating death toll of Ebola contracted here held to . . . zero . . . (and Liberia, thanks in part to our leadership, now declared Ebola-free) . . . with millions of LGBT Americans and their loved ones leading happier lives . . . with Pell grants up and bank profits removed from the federal student-loan programs . . . with a Credit Card Bill of Rights enacted and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched . . . with impediments to stem cell research lifted and progressive judges and Justices appointed . . . with Detroit thriving, Bin Laden dead, net neutrality preserved, a China climate agreement reached . . . and on and on and on . . . Democrats have a great deal to be proud of looking back on the Obama years — despite unprecedented Republican efforts to assure failure. Let’s trumpet that, not distance ourselves from it. Okay. I’ll stop. Four more years on this trajectory? Yes, please.
The Reviews Are In May 7, 2015 I like when my friends do well: I. CHARLES Did you see the fight? Me, either. But my friend Charles Harbison won on points: ELLE: “Beyoncé Wore A Majestic Caped Jumpsuit To The Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight” Lots of celebrities and athletes turned out to watch Saturday night’s hotly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao but none looked so regal as Beyoncé in a fire engine red custom caped jumpsuit by Harbison. VOGUE: “Beyoncé and Mary J. Blige Were the Fashion Heavyweights” Beyoncé opted for a Studio 5—style cardinal red Harbison jumpsuit with a blazer, providing a dramatic cape-like effect: Overall the look was a stylish alternative to the traditional evening dress. Thinking along similar lines was Mary J. Blige, who showed a hint of skin with an asymmetric jumpsuit from Valentino with a jaunty scarf-like accent. VANITY FAIR: “Beyoncé Looked Ready to Join the Avengers at the Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight” Not to knock Nicki Minaj, her fiancé Meek Mill, or an exquisitely tuxedoed Jay Z, but if you’re going to show up to the “fight of the century” on Avengers: Age of Ultron opening weekend not wearing a bright-red cape that could shame almighty Thor’s, then, well, you’re going to be upstaged by Beyoncé. Before you pipe up, yes, that is a cape and not, as you might have guessed, a coat. Mere mortals wear coats; Beyoncé and the Avengers wear capes. Straight from the mouth of designer Harbison, the outfit is described as a “custom vermillion red Trompe L’oeil Caped Jumpsuit.” If there’s anything more superheroic than a cape, it’s a bright-red jumpsuit. We’re pretty sure Scarlet Witch is jealous and she’s probably not the only one. II. PARVEZ My friend Parvez Sharma’s “A Sinner In Mecca” premiered at Toronto’s HotDocs film festival last week, where it was the hot doc. All three screenings sold out, with scores turned away. Its trailer seems to be going viral — up another 12,000 hits since just yesterday — with views from all over the world. The Iranian government has denounced it on their propaganda website as an attack on Islam, but BBC Persian calls it “shocking and courageous.” Closer to home: The Hollywood Reporter: “Wrenching, gritty, surreal and transcendent; visceral and abstract — an undeniable act of courage and hope.” The Guardian: “[Told] with poetic simplicity…a delicately personal story and a call to action.” Screen International: “Unprecedented…surreal.” Indiewire: “Powerful, illuminating… a remarkable examination of contemporary Islam.” The Toronto Star: “A deeply personal film about faith and forgiveness.” Coming soon, we hope, to a TV or computer screen near you. III. SETH His third performance at 54 Below went so well, he’s been summoned to do a fourth. Liz Smith writes: I told you recently about a young man, Seth Sikes, who has appeared at the NYC nightspot 54 Below, singing the songs of Judy Garland. I was assured it wasn’t some campy evening of drag, nor did Seth attempt to “channel” Judy in any way. He just … sang. So I went off to see him last week and couldn’t have been more charmed. He’s young and handsome and enthusiastic. He doesn’t look Judy-ish (he’s blonde, for one thing) and he doesn’t try to duplicate her sound. He tells his tales of being attracted by early MGM musicals, Judy, and later overwhelmed by the lady alone onstage, at Carnegie Hall. Sikes has boundless energy and a true, strong voice, with just the right amount of throb and drive and melancholy, depending on the number. But not too much. He never, ever veers into caricature. He wrote a good deal of the beautifully melded patter and links between the songs. The place was packed, and one of the audience members was John Meyer, the songwriter who composed some of Garland’s better songs toward the end of her life. (Garland would announce, wryly “I’m going to sing a new song … and I haven’t learned a new song, since …” and she’d name some obscure vaudeville number.) Meyer’s songs were good, and were well within Garland’s limited range at the time. Seth sang John’s “It’s All For You.” And it was. Sikes is expected back at Below 54 sooner rather than later. June 10, in fact — Judy Garland’s birthday. The food and drinks are good, too.
Outrageous Drug Prices May 6, 2015May 5, 2015 I was prescribed a tube of cream for some white spots on my shin. “It’s expensive,” my new dermatologist cautioned, unaware of My Vast Fortune. “If your insurance doesn’t cover it or it’s too much at Publix, you might want to call this place and fax them the prescription instead.” She wrote down the info. There was a much cheaper version, she told me, but this one seemed to have fewer side effects and so is priced higher. I am so lucky not to have to worry about these things! I have Medicare! I have an American Express card! And it’s just a little tube of cream. But, no, the Publix pharmacist told me, Medicare doesn’t cover it — “No problem,” I bragged, proferring my Amex — and it costs $1,595. I pulled my card back so fast I dislocated my elbow. Well, not that hard — but $1,595? For a little tube of cream? I tried Walgreens — $2,200. I tried the phone number the place she had given me — $75. I went with that one.* It arrived a few days later, I applied it for a month, the white spots are mostly gone, and no discernable side effects. But how nuts is this? The whole drug pricing system is crazy, and getting worse — “For drug companies, price hikes offer an easy way to boost sales without years of costly, risky research to find new medicines,” reports the Wall Street Journal — and I was thus heartened to see Congressional Democrats and the Admnistration beginning to do something about it. (One of the criticisms of Obamacare was that, in order to secure passage, Big Pharma was given a pass on drug prices. But not, of course, forever.) First I saw this piece: “Generic Drug Price Sticker Shock Prompts Probe by Congress.” . . . The prices of more than 1,200 generic medications increased an average of 448 percent between July 2013 and July 2014, [Senator Bernie] Sanders said during the hearing, citing federal records. . . . And then this in yesterday’s New York Times: Runaway Drug Prices Guru: “In Europe, the national health system prevents these abuses of monopolistic practices — these are monopolies and should be regulated as such. We love to talk about ‘free markets,’ but so much of American capitalism is based on cryonyism and are not free market at all.” ☞ Now that we’ve passed the Affordable Care Act, which has already done a great deal of good, overall, let’s improve it! Sensible (not draconian) negotiation of drug prices would be a big part of that . . . and Democrats (and surely many Republicans) want to see it done. *Unfortunately, they handle only a relatively few specialty drugs, as I understand it.
Magic May 5, 2015May 4, 2015 FOOD I found myself craving creamed spinach. This doesn’t happen often (as the rest of my tale will confirm) but I found a box in the freezer and popped it into the microwave. “Are you crazy?” I heard Charles say from someplace in food heaven; “it can’t still be good” — it was dated October 27, 2007 — but I’m here to report it was fine. My overarching philosophy (after smelling anything first): waste not, want not.* FUN If you’ve not yet seen the iPad magician, take 4 minutes to watch. (Thanks, Mel!) Even better than last week’s dining dog. *It’s estimated that “in 2010 alone around 60 million tons of food waste was generated in the U.S.,” and that “25-40 percent of the food that is grown, processed and transported in the United States will never be consumed.”
Dogs and Donors May 4, 2015May 3, 2015 EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY Yes, another dog video — thanks again, Mel — but this one, from Vancouver, is only 42 seconds. A TALE OF TWO DONORS I love all donors. Realistically, I love some even more than others. I was thinking about that recently because two things happened within minutes of each other. The first thing was that a lawyer who works in Moscow and can rarely make it back for “events” but gives anyway emailed to ask what the new giving limit was this year. (It goes up every two years with inflation.) I told him, and four minutes later saw his credit card come through for $33,400. The millions of human-size contributions we get are ultimately even more important, and way more democratic. But facing $889 million in pledges already rounded up by the Koch brothers, every $33,400 I can grab is tremendous. So that was donor number one. Meanwhile, as that was going on, another email arrived from a guy I’ve known since the ’60s — a man of some means — whose help, over the last few years, I’ve been trying to enlist. He wrote: Subject: Hillary I know what you are going to say but I have to add my two cents. The Clintons seem incapable of adhering to the rule of law. The email situation at the State Department; and now the Clinton Foundation with its 1,100 foreign donations that were not properly accounted for. I understand that the Republicans would be worse but Hillary is not someone that I feel really good about. All the best . . . To which I replied: Hey, I know this comes from a good place, and am happy for a chance to answer it, but would push back on your two cents with two of my own: No laws were broken. NONE. Yes, because they said they would, they should have disclosed the donors fully and timely, but they’re doing it now. Here’s the website. Not sure it’s complete yet, but I see Saudi Arabia and Norway – have at it. Remember what we’re talking about: the Foundation has saved and/or improved TENS OF MILLIONS of lives here and around the world. Shouldn’t that count for something as you judge them? What have you or I done by comparison? Check out their annual reports. I think your standards are too high. In the last 20 years, F.E.C. records show, you’ve found just one candidate for President, House or Senate worthy of your support — $1,250 to Chuck Schumer in 1999. Chuck is swell, but he’s not the only one, let alone the one who most needed help. And I would argue that the urgency to help has become much greater since 1999, as Republicans have moved ever further right . . . even as your own capacity to help has, I hope, increased. (Under Obama, the S&P has more than doubled.) So surprise me: make a once-in-a-lifetime-size gift to help steer your country toward reason and inclusion, belief in science and all the rest. If you’d enjoy some “event” to go with that, terrific. But all I really want is to see the forces of progress win – and for that all I really need is your money. Your friend of long standing . . . Too much? I’m not holding my breath, but stranger things have happened.* *For example: I have an Amazon Echo. You can tell it, “Alexa: play the Grateful Dead,” and she will. You can say, “Alexa: what’s tomorrow’s weather?” and she’ll tell you. Well . . . a few nights ago, Alexa was playing something but the conversation was getting really focused and I wanted her to be a little quieter (there are 10 volume settings) so . . . and here’s the spooky part . . . stranger, even, than if my friend of 50 years decides to make a once-in-a-lifetime contribution (though perhaps only barely stranger) . . . are you ready? At the exact same instant as I said, “Alexa: volume four,” my friend said — so simultaneously you’d think we’d rehearsed — “Alexa: volume four.” The same instant. The same level. (Why not “volume three” or two or five or one or, “Alexa: softer” or “Alexa: stop,” all of which would have been reasonable and all of which we’ve said to Alexa before.) So — c’mon, Alan! Give me that credit card! What’s $33,400 when the next president may well get to replace four octogenarian Justices with 48-year-olds? The course of our nation is in your hands. “Alexa: make him do it! Play God Bless America!”
How Fast — And Slow — Things Change May 1, 2015April 29, 2015 These interactive charts from Bloomberg tell an interesting story about the pace of social change in America — everything from inter-racial marriage to women’s suffrage and the temperance movement to medical marijuana. And speaking of gay marriage, don’t forget to vote May 22 (if you’re Irish). Click here for a terrific little clip. Have a great weekend.