Asian markets okay with recent disappointing American jobs report and Yellen's appointment.

[No Elephants]

The investor class has come to terms with both. What a relief!


http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-markets-global-idUSBRE96S00E20140210

[Enthusiast]

1. Yellen said she was thrilled with the results of NAFTA.

I guess President Obama considers the working class as an enemy while he speaks a different tune.

[No Elephants]

2. Did she? I missed that.

In fairness, if I were Yellen, I might be thrilled, too.

Did she also say how thrilled she was with the results of repeal of Glass Steagall, too?

What does she think about cuts to fuel subsidies for the poor and cuts to food stamps?


Damn Reagan and Dummya to hell!

[No Elephants]

3. In a possibly related story: No shoes, no shirt, no job, no problem.

Remember the CBO? That is the government office populated by the only people in the US, maybe the world, who are non-partisan and who will report the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even if the Party running Congress at the time hates what the CBO has to say. In turn, our elected officials and our media will tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what the CBO told them because they all know full well that most Americans are not going to read the CBO report.



In 2009, Democrats controlled both Houses and the Oval Office and Obamacare had not yet passed. In 2009, we heard how much money the CBO said the ACA was going to save everyone. Yeaayyyyy for the CBO!

But, now, in an election year while Republicans control the House, we heard from the CBO that Obamacare is going to cost the nation over two million more job losses.

Democrats protested. So the totally nonpartisan CBO came back with "The job losses may not all be involuntary." (Not exact words, despite my use of quotation marks.)

Democrats then spun it as though all the job losses from the ACA would not only be wholly voluntary, but would actually be all positive for the USA, allowing poor people who did not want to work anyway the freedom to stay at home with their families. Of course, that does spin right into the right wing notion that the poor at looking for ways to get out of working, but never mind that.

I rather suspect that the truth lies somewhere in between the Republican version and the Democratic version and always did. But no one wanted to us the truth. Apparently, they feel we can't handle the truth. And, judging by some things I hear from Republicans, they're correct. Also, judging by some that I hear from Democrats, they're correct. Not only can't we handle the truth, we get pissed off when we hear it.

[Enthusiast]

4. I DO NOT suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.

The Republicans never tell the truth about the ACA. Once again, I am hearing that old false equivalency claim. Not that I fully trust the Democrats. But when it comes to the ACA the Republicans are the party of, "They're going to pull the plug on granny."

I don't think the CBO "came back with". The Democrats simply looked at the report, interpreted the results differently than Republicans, Republicans that absolutely cannot be trusted on any issue let alone and especially the ACA. I do not understand you not recognizing this, No Elephants. You think the Republican interpretation is as trustworthy as the Democrats? Really? Since the inception of the ACA the GOP has made every ridiculous claim their ugly little imaginations could conjure up.

[No Elephants]

5. You may have misread my post.

We got one statement, mostly all rosy, about the supposedly impartial CBO rating of Obamacare originally--back in 2009, when the Democrats controlled the House. Now that Republicans are in control of the House, we have a less rosy statement from the CBO.


My points in mentioning that were (1) the CBO is probably not as impartial as both Democratic and Republicans in Congress would like us to believe; and (2) poor workers are not dying to stop working and stay home forever. Point 2 is a story that Republicans have been trying to sell for decades, the story Romney used about half of America. And now, Democrats are confirming it in an attempt to defend both Obamacare and Obama's handling of the Main Street economy. However, Point 1 was not the main thrust of my post, but an aside. Point 2 was the main point.

Don't really know why saying that I don't believe either the Democratic story or the Republican story means that I believe the Republicans more. Even if my wording had been ambiguous--and I don't think it was--I don't really know why you would think, after all this time, that I am buying the Republican version as opposed to realizing that I don't buy either the Republican version or the Democratic version.


If that's a false equivalency, so be it. Trusting one side's bullshit propaganda over the other hasn't helped the 99% of voters/taxpayers so far; and that's really the only side in whose benefit I am interested.

[Enthusiast]

6. Good post. I especially like this.

"Trusting one side's bullshit propaganda over the other hasn't helped the 99% of voters/taxpayers so far; and that's really the only side in whose benefit I am interested."