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   During a recession, should college presidents face the same pay cuts as CEOs?
 Forty years of writing from Taylor Branch, James Fallows, Katherine Boo, Marjorie Williams, Joshua Micah Marshall, and more.
 With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off.
 The best recent memoir from republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something.
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October 14, 2008
IS MR. FREEZE THAWING OUT?.... When John McCain first announced his support for a spending freeze, he said he would exempt "the caring of veterans, national defense and several other vital issues." What counts as a "vital issue"? He didn't say. Yesterday, McCain reiterated his support for a spending freeze, adding that he would exempt "the most important programs like defense, veterans care, Social Security and health care." What other programs are "the most important"? He didn't say. I'm starting to get the impression, though, that the spending freeze plan is starting to thaw.
Wait, it gets better. Atrios reports:
So, what do we know at this point about McCain's proposal for a freeze on federal spending? It's going to be sweeping, except for the Pentagon, the V.A., entitlements, healthcare, scientific research, and job training. Oh, and anything else McCain decides is "important." There was a point a few months ago at which McCain said every earmark is awful and must be eliminated. He'd then make a campaign stop and laud some local industry, which existed thanks to an earmark. When pressed, McCain would in effect say, "Well, I didn't mean that earmark." This happened more than once. The moral of the story is, McCain is against earmarks except when he isn't, and he'll impose a spending freeze except when he won't. —Steve Benen 3:30 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (17)Comments
You know, these things matter only if they get covered in places other than liberal blogs. Posted by: John McCain: Worse than Bush on October 14, 2008 at 3:32 PM | PERMALINKMcCain would get around the Spending Freeze by calling exceptions "Extraordinary Exemptions." Posted by: gang green on October 14, 2008 at 3:34 PM | PERMALINK"Worker training." Right. Well, but I don't think it indicates anything about what the real priorities would be or that they're "thawing" on the whole idea. I mean, it would be silly to draw any deep conclusions or extrapolations from it. She just said the first thing that popped into her vacant cranium. Posted by: DrBB on October 14, 2008 at 3:35 PM | PERMALINK"America Love it or move to Alaska!"- Spending freeze goes way of polar ice cap. More at 11. Posted by: The Answer Is Green on October 14, 2008 at 3:45 PM | PERMALINKI am not sure but I would guess that a spending freeze right about now is not a good idea. That said, generally there is something to be said about eliminating wasteful spending where possible. Posted by: Ron Byers on October 14, 2008 at 3:48 PM | PERMALINKWater expands and floats when frozen. McCain's spending freeze is doing the same, expanding while he floats more ideas about what should/shouldn't be frozen. I wouldn't call it a thaw. Posted by: Tom Nicholson on October 14, 2008 at 3:57 PM | PERMALINKDoes the thaw include his ice cube wife? My guess is that she's had more face work than Joan Rivers, if that's possible. And another thing, why hasn't anyone rammed home the Wicked Witch from the North's guilty finding? Can anyone imagine if Biden had been slapped with that finding what the neocon dorks would do with it? Democrats are too nice. I'd ram this one right down McAce's throat and out his arse. What fun... Posted by: stevio on October 14, 2008 at 4:01 PM | PERMALINKRetraining would be the first thing he would eliminate. As for earmarks, today he ridiculed Obama for not thinking 18 million is a significant number. Oh, well, at least he seems to finally agree on what earmarks represent. Posted by: Danp on October 14, 2008 at 4:10 PM | PERMALINKNavin R. Johnson: Well I'm gonna go then. And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need you. I don't need anything except this ashtray. And that's it and that's the only thing I need, is this. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddle ball. And this lamp. The ashtray, this paddle game and the remote control and the lamp and that's all I need. And that's all I need, too. I don't need one other thing, not one - I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. And this. And that's all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, this magazine and the chair. And I don't need one other thing, except my dog. [dog barks] I don't need my dog. In federal and state government practice, a 'freeze' for a program can mean a couple of different things: So this concept is pretty flexible. The details matter. I'm reminded of the line from Monty Python's Life of Brian: But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?Posted by: stand on October 14, 2008 at 4:23 PM | PERMALINK And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need you. I don't need anything except this. And that's it and that's the only thing I need, is this. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddle ball. And this lamp. The ashtray, this paddle game and the remote control and the lamp and that's all I need. And that's all I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one - I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. And this. And that's all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, this magazine and the chair. Posted by: Bret on October 14, 2008 at 4:42 PM | PERMALINK The Non-Suspension Suspension Worker retraining? Isn't that one of the First Dude's main interests? Sounds like a job for the Dude and a Priority Numero Uno for McCain spending to me. Posted by: Gideon Ross on October 14, 2008 at 5:01 PM | PERMALINKMcCain reiterated his support for a spending freeze, adding that he would exempt "the most important programs like defense, veterans care, Social Security and health care." So outside of roughly 90% of the federal budget, McCain will freeze spending -- maybe. Are even conservatives dumb enough to buy this? Posted by: Peter Principle on October 14, 2008 at 5:25 PM | PERMALINKDoes that $300 billion for all the bad mortgages count as "most important"? Posted by: Erik in Maine on October 14, 2008 at 8:03 PM | PERMALINK
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