GENERAL GOP UPDATE: Last week, I was being sort of tongue-in-cheek when I declared Herman Cain the new GOP frontrunner. Turns out I was actually just prescient: A new NBC/WSJ poll shows Cain in the lead, coming in as the first choice for 27 percent of Republicans (Romney comes in at 23% and Perry at 16%). PPP has Cain over Romney 30-22% in Iowa, and 30-22% nationally. Equally striking about these polls is Perry’s dramatic downfall. He’s lost nearly half his support from September to October, according to PPP; NBC/WSJ show him losing 20 points since August. And those numbers lead to yet another shocking realization: Almost none of Perry’s former supporters have moved to Romney, whose support has barely moved in the last few months, stuck around 20ish percent. I think GOP voters really, really don’t like Romney -- and who can blame them? He was strikingly liberal in his past life, he has switched his position on every conceivable issue item, he is slick and huckster-like, and he’s filthy rich while still parading around saying he’s part of the middle class.
Part of Cain’s success -- and certainly part of Perry’s massive decline -- can be attributed to the debates. There was another one this week, hosted by Charlie Rose (who moved from genuine puzzlement to exasperation as it slowly dawned on him that the people seated around his debate table exist in a completely alternate universe). The best (and by best, I mean most forehead-onto-the-table-inducing) was this Rick Perry gem, in response to a question about China and trade policies: “What we need to be focused on in this country today is not whether or not we are going to have this policy or that policy. … We don't need any plan to pass Congress.” Policies? Passable plans? Who needs ‘em when you can have a big strong cowboy president who shoots puppies with handguns?! In a two hour debate, I think I saw Perry speak maybe 5 or 6 times; most of the time he was slumped back in his chair, looking either bemused or sleepy, depending on the camera angle.
Other highlights: First, and most disappointing, was Jon “Reasonable Man” Huntsman’s parroting the absurd, long-debunked right-wing rumor that health reform entails the hiring of 20,000 new IRS agents. You had Newt Gingrich insisting in the first 5 minutes that Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd should be thrown in jail. You have Cain saying his economic advice comes from an “economist” from Cleveland who’s actually just a guy with a college degree in accounting. You had Michelle Bachmann claiming to have spent her “whole life in the private sector,” minutes before claiming to be a federal tax lawyer (“That’s what I do for a living”) -- all while apparently forgetting that what she actually does for a living is serve in the House of Representatives. You have Rick Santorum declaring “I want to go to war with China!” Oh, and we can’t forget Perry blaming America’s massive, decades-in-the-making income inequality on -- I kid you not -- Barack Obama. (Santorum chimed in to say that the blame is also on the rise of single mothers.)
MOVEMENT ON AMERICAN JOBS ACT?: This week, Obama’s jobs bill came up for a vote in the Senate, where the GOP successfully blocked its full consideration (ie, voting to filibuster). Enragingly, two Democrats (Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana) joined the filibuster, thereby denying the Democrats a united front and allowing the GOP to claim bipartisan opposition to the bill. (Their explanations for their defection are wholly, pathetically unconvincing.)This is enraging not just because these people need to get in f-ing line but also because this bill is INSANELY popular. When the provisions of the bill are explained, 63% approve; 64% say it’s “a good idea” to raise taxes on the wealthy. A separate poll found 68% -- including 53% of Republicans -- support raising taxes on those making more than a quarter million dollars. The White House feels it has a winning political issue here, so it plans to keep bringing up elements of the bill and forcing Republicans to show where they stand. More importantly, Obama’s team is now directly calling out GOP obstructionism for what it is: economic sabotage aimed at political gain. In an email to supporters this week, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina was explicit about the Republican Party: “Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake of what they think will be a political victory. They think that the more folks see Washington taking no action to create jobs, the better their chances in the next election. So they’re doing everything in their power to make sure nothing gets done.” This is aggressive, unprecedented -- and true.
GOP REMAINS LASER FOCUSED: Remember when Republicans ran in the midterms on a “jobs” agenda? “Where are the jobs” was their annoyingly cloy campaign tagline. And so it only made sense that the first bill the new GOP majority in the House introduced was...an abortion bill. Republicans have introduced at least 40 abortion bills since January. And while claiming they have no time to take up Obama’s jobs bill, the House spent today voting on yet another abortion-restriction bill, one that would allow any hospital to turn away a pregnant woman seeking an abortion -- even if it were an emergency and even if the hospital’s refusal could mean the woman would die. NARAL runs down the GOP’s laser focus on restricting abortion rights.
THE BUFFET RULE ADDRESSES AN ACTUAL REAL PROBLEM: A few weeks ago, Obama introduced an idea he called “the Buffet rule,” premised on the idea that billionaire Warren Buffet pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, because most of his income comes through investments that are taxed at a lower rate than wages. The right immediately dismissed this as a canard (David Brooks was particularly apoplectic). But a study released today lends weight to the idea that our tax code is, in very real ways, massively skewed to favor the uber-rich. The Congressional Research Service finds that about 25% of the nation’s millionaires -- nearly 100,000 people -- pay a lower tax rate than about 10.5 million middle class Americans. Most millionaires do indeed pay more than most middle class Americans. But the chunk that violate the Buffet Rule is hardly negligible. (The regressiveness of the tax code would, of course, be dramatically worse if Cain’s 9-9-9 plan -- just endorsed by Haley Barbour and supposed budget whiz Paul Ryan -- were enacted.)
Funny Joke of the Week: A public union employee, a Tea Party guy, and a bank CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the Tea Partier and says, “Watch out for that union guy; he wants your cookie.” (HT: Steve Benen)
Charts of the Week: This is why the 99% is getting angry. (Look through the whole thing.)
