From Stark

On Friday, House Republicans voted almost unanimously for a budget proposal that would phase out Medicare for people under 55.

“Either the normal rules of American politics have changed, or Republicans have walked into an electoral buzz saw,” NBC’s Mark Murray says on the network’s First Read blog.

Murray cites poll data that seems to demonstrate a lot of public support for Medicare, and public wariness over plans that would shift senior citizens back into full reliance on private insurance plans.

What do you think?

From Stark

Bipartisanship is much-discussed but seldom on display in the nation’s capital. Today, we see a significant exception. A U.S. Senate panel has issued a report that accuses Goldman Sachs and other major financial players of self-dealing in the runup to the financial crisis that shook the global economy. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, and Carl Levin, D-Mich., issued a joint press release on their findings.

The LA Times reports.

You can also get to the full report of more than 600 pages by following the links listed here, on the website of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

While news accounts of this report tend to focus on Goldman, there is also a lot of unflattering post-mortem on Washington Mutual, the giant mortgage lender that became one of the biggest casualties of the real estate bust. The report underlines WaMu’s risky mortgage lending practices, and the failure of federal regulators to curb those practices, even though people within the bank itself were trying to warn top management about the danger.

Levin  also accused some financial executives of making misleading statements when they testified before the panel. Roger Clemens is awaiting trial on similar charges.

From Paben

A Sehome High School graduate is sitting with the First Lady in her box during the State of the Union address tonight.

Zach Davis attended Bellingham Cooperative School and Fairhaven Middle School before graduating from Sehome in 1995. After graduating, he attended the University of Washington and Dominican University in California.

He will sit in Michelle Obama’s box. He and his business partner, Kendra Baker, were invoted to sit because they own and operate a business, The Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz, Calif., that was started with help from a loan from the economic stimulus bill.

Click here to see the article by the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Here is a video from the White House about a video Davis and Baker made to say thanks for the loan they got (There’s some cheese factor here):

From Paben

Here is what President Obama is going to say tonight during the State of the Union address.

From Jared Paben

The U.S. Census Bureau next Tuesday will launch a new version of the American FactFinder, the online tool you can use to look up specific types of data from the Census.

The release of the new version, which includes new tools (I don’t have specifics yet) is timed to come out before the bureau starts releasing local-level data from the 2010 Census in February. State government uses the local data for drawing legislative district boundaries. I’ll use the data for articles to show how the county has changed over the years.

As you know, under the Constitution a nationwide Census is taken every decade, so the estimates we’ve gotten each year since 2000 have been just that: estimates. That’s not to say the census is perfect either, but it’ll be interesting to compare the population figures for the county and its cities from the state estimates with the census release. Click here to see tutorials on how to use the new version.

I’ve been somewhat officially designated the Census reporter for this year, although, with all the data coming out, I’m sure I’ll need some help.

I’ll participate in a nationwide conference call with reporters next Tuesday to show us about using the new factfinder.

Click here to see the existing American FactFinder.

From Sam Taylor

Via Politico.com this morning:

Republicans kicked off the first day of congressional proceedings to overturn health reform with unwelcome news: a Congressional Budget Office estimate that repeal would increase the deficit by $230 billion by 2021.

The nonpartisan CBO’s preliminary analysis of the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, released Thursday morning, bolstered Democrats’ claims that overturning the health law would wreak havoc on the deficit. The CBO score on the Affordable Care Act has it decreasing the deficit by $143 billion over 10 years. But that figure is disputed by Republicans.

*UPDATE* - The full story, over here (thanks to Davesix for the catch on the lack of link).

Q: Thoughts?

From Jared Paben

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was sworn in today by Vice President Joe Biden as the 112th Congress begins.

Following is a statement from her office:

“I am proud and humbled to have received the support of families across Washington state to continue fighting for them in the United States Senate. I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting back to work for the families across our state who continue to struggle in this tough economy.

“I am going to keep fighting to create jobs, support the middle class, and make sure Washington state workers continue to lead the way in the 21st century economy. I’ll also be focusing on making sure our students receive a high-quality education that allows them to transition smoothly into the workforce and contribute to our great state. And I will never stop fighting to make sure the veterans who have sacrificed so much for our country get the support, services, and jobs they deserve when they come home.

“I was sent back to the United States Senate to fight for Washington state families and small business owners. I will never forget the people who sent me here and I will always put Washington state priorities first.”

From Sam Taylor

Via the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the first acts of the new Republican-controlled House is to take away the floor voting rights of six delegates representing areas such as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa.

Five of those delegates are Democrats, while one, from the Northern Marianas Islands, is an independent.

The full story, over here.

Q: Do you think the residents of these American-controlled areas have a right to congressional representation that can vote or not?

From Jared Paben

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, says economic recovery and job growth are going to be his top priorities in the 112th Congress. He gets sworn in today for his sixth term in the House.

He’ll also address transportation investments for the Pacific Northwest, as well as ensuring Boeing lands the Air Force tanker contract.

Following was just sent from his office:

“My number one issue in the 112th Congress is getting the economy back on track and finding solutions that work in the Pacific Northwest.

“Mainstream economists on both sides of the aisle agree that our actions during the last session of Congress helped to rescue the economy and create jobs. But, too many people are still out of work and more needs to be done to reduce unemployment and grow the economy. (more…)

From Jared Paben

I just posted this post on the Traffic Talk blog about how U.S. House Republicans are taking steps toward less federal transportation spending the future. They want spending that’s more in line with existing revenues into the Highway Trust Fund.

It’s transportation, and it’s politics, so I thought I’d post to both blogs.

What do you think?

From Sam Taylor

U.S. House Democrats had their chance to implement these rules, but chose not to.

So today, as the House of Representatives is taken over by Republicans, they’re getting praise from open government watchdog the Sunlight Foundation for various transparency initiatives:

First and foremost, it looks like a 72 Hour Rule will be included in the House Rules. “In Electronic form” will be the way the online requirement is phrased, and all bills will need to be available to the public “in electronic form” for three calendar days before a vote. This will be a huge victory for the ReadtheBill movement, and for transparency in the way the House considers legislation.

Also, committees are going to be posting far more information online. It’s going to become much easier to follow along as committees pursue their work, and to know what’s going to happen, online, before it happens. Committees will be required to post notice of markups three days in advance, post committee votes online, post amendments online, post disclosures about witnesses who testify, and webcast hearings and markups.

Read the full blog post at the Sunlight Foundation, over here.

From John Stark

Count me among many Americans  suffering from a bit of Sarah Palin fatigue, regardless of personal political preferences.

But we don’t have the luxury of ignoring her on the politics blog, do we?

Kansas City Star writer E. Thomas McClanahan has an interesting post summarizing some of the potshots that Palin has been taking, from politicians and political writers on her own side of the spectrum. In his post, he describes himself as a “rightie.”  He also writes “desert” when he means “dessert.” We all make mistakes.

from Sam Taylor

Via Politico.com, President Obama is quoted at a live press conference on this interesting exchange:

On gay marriage: “My feelings about this are constantly evolving. I struggle with this. I have friends. I have people who work for me, who are in powerful, strong, long-lasting gay or lesbian unions. And they are extraordinary people. And this is something that means a lot to them, and they care deeply about. At this point, what I’ve said is that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have, and I think that’s the right thing to do. But I recognize that from their perspective, it is not enough.” He adds that he will “continue to wrestle” with it “going forward.”

Read the rest, over here.

In this Oct. 6, 2010 photo, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, left, talks with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right, as they attend the presentation of the Medal of Honor posthumously to the parent's of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. MTV’s college network, mtvU, has named Gates “Man of the Year,” the network announced Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

from Sam Taylor

Justin Bieber fans will be rioting in the streets. Please be on the look out for tween girls with crimped hair, braces-laden teeth and ugg boots on stomping around angrily downtown while mashing on the touch screens of their iPhone 4s.

MTVu - the college network run by MTV (just MTV these days, folks, it literally no longer means Music Television, for those who haven’t watched it in about a decade), has named Republican U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as “Man of the Year,” according to the Associated Press.

Said the AP:

Gates was given the honor because he “became a role model for public service, proving that it’s possible to work within an institution to impart change,” mtvU said in a statement Wednesday.

The network also commended the 67-year-old Republican for his focus on the youth, gender bias and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Q: Alright, let’s make this fun. If you were giving out a man or woman of the year award, who would it go to? Or, if you could give out both awards, who would relieve’em?

By Sam Taylor (Yes, oddly here in the office for one day of work this week in the middle of a long vacation).

The 2nd Congressional District has too many residents in it, to the tune of slightly more than 91,000, according to the handy map created by the Washington State Redistricting Commission’s staff.

That is, when it comes to how big congressional districts are preferred to be, the district has too many people. The target population of each district is 672,454, according to the commission.

Add up the “over-population” from each current district based on 10 years of growth and you get the target population of a bright, shiny new district the state will gain based on the newest census data.

Here’s a larger version of the map in PDF format.