December 2009

I want to take a post Marcy Wheeler did yesterday and change it to reflect my revised FPL I did in the previous post.

301% of Poverty Level: $66,370

Federal Taxes (estimate from this page, includes FICA): $8,628 (13% of income)

State Taxes (using MI rates on $30,000 of income): $1,305 (2% of income)

Food (using “low-cost USDA plan” for family of four): $7,712 (12% of income)

Home (assume a straight 30% of income): $19,275 (30% of income)

Child care (average cost for just one pre-school child in MI): $6,216

Health insurance premium: $5,243 (7.9% of income, max amount before opt-out w/o penalty allowed)

Transportation (assume 2 cars, 12,000 miles each, @IRS deductible cost of $.55/mile): $13,200*

Heat, electricity, water: $1,500

Phone, cable, internet: $1,200

Total: $64,276 (97% of income)

Remainder (for health care out-of-pocket, debt, clothing, etc.): $2,091

First off some of Marcy’s numbers seem a little high and some seem a little low (I would love to pay that little for utilities), but over all I would say they come out pretty good.

So let’s go by my new multiplier strictly based off of the CPI-U and change the current FPL for a family of 4 to reflect that.

Ezra Klein interviewed Sen. Tom Harkin and this really caught my eye:

Tell me a bit about your reform bill. When you first introduced this, Joe Lieberman was your co-sponsor, right?

Well, I introduced that first in 1995, when we were in the minority. I'm going to reintroduce that again in January. And people are going to say I only worry about this because I'm in the majority. But I come with clean hands! I started when I was in the minority!

The idea is to give some time for extended debate but eventually allow a majority to work its will. I do believe there's some reason to have extended debate. If a group of senators filibusters a bill, you want to take their worries seriously. Make sure you're not missing something. My proposal will do that. It says that on the first vote, you need 60. Then you have to wait two days, and on the third day, you need 57 votes. And then you need to wait two days, and on the third day, it's 54 votes. And then you'd wait another two days, and on the third day, it would be 51 votes.

I really hope he is successful in this move, but I’m not too optimistic. The problem is that even Democrats in the majority realize that a time will come when they are in the minority again and will want the power of the filibuster. You also have a problem with people like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman. The power of the filibuster is what gave them so much leverage over health care, and I doubt they will want to get rid of that, despite the fact that Lieberman was the co-sponsor of this bill in 1995.

Still catching up on the news of the attempted airline terrorist attack from Christmas and this story really caught my eye:

Some airlines were telling passengers on Saturday that new government security regulations prohibit them from leaving their seats beginning an hour before landing

The regulations are a response to a suspected terrorism incident on Christmas Day.

Air Canada said in a statement that new rules imposed by the Transportation Security Administration limit on-board activities by passengers and crew in U.S. airspace. The airline said that during the final hour of flight passengers must remain seated. They won't be allowed access to carryon baggage or to have any items on their laps.

Flight attendants on some domestic flights are informing passengers of similar rules. Passengers on a flight from New York to Tampa Saturday morning were also told they must remain in their seats and couldn't have items in their laps, including laptops and pillows.

The TSA issued a security directive for U.S.-bound flights from overseas, according to a transportation security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.

And this doesn’t even sum it up right. On This Week they were talking with Robert Gibbs and the new rule being looked at is that those on international flights can have no personal items in their laps. In a global economy, think of someone doing an 8 hour flight from New York to London wanting to get some work done on their laptop. Well no more. I guess we really can’t get on troubled companies having corporate jets because now they have a great excuse.

I really like Chris Dodd and want him to start pushing his bill through to fix the FPL, but news like this really makes me angry with him too:

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Wednesday ripped the Senate's "newest members" for the lack of comity in the upper chamber.

In a floor speech Wednesday night, Dodd said there is "nothing wrong" with partisanship, but added he has "been deeply disturbed by some of the [healthcare] debate I have heard, usually from newer members, usually those who have been here one, two, three years, who do not have an appreciation of what this chamber means and how we work together."

The general feel is that he was talking about people like Al Franken, who wouldn’t let Joe Lieberman extend his floor time this week.

Dodd is one of the long time Senators who don’t seem to realize that the Senate today is not the same as the Senate in 1981, when Dodd first went in. Partisanship is very much the order of business in the Senate today, and that is with a big thanks to the Republicans. Did he really think giving this speech would make the Republicans stop lying and obstructing and embrace the Democrats in some big Kumbaya moment? Was he even awake during the summer when Republicans were out filling the people’s heads with bald faced lies like “death panels”?

We have seen key issues that the majority of this country wants and voted for head to extinction because of the minority. We have also seen some Democratic senators paid off just to get their support (ie: Ben Nelson). This represents a key failure of the Senate and the whole “work together” meme is nothing more than a pipe dream.