Road Trip

Lewie Lewie
President Obama’s nominee to lead the Treasury Department, Jacob J. Lew, got a $685,000 severance payment when he left a top post at New York University in 2006 to take a job at Citigroup.

The payment, which a university official acknowledged on Monday, is considered unusual by outside experts in benefits and raises questions about why a tax-exempt university would give a large exit bonus to an executive who was departing voluntarily. (NYT, 2/25/2013)

On the eve of the vote for his confirmation, the New York Times writes about funny money paid to nominee Lew, a story which was already old news having been previously reported by others. Of course it was too late to derail Lew - now confirmed - but it does give the Times the ability to check the box that shows that Lew was fully vetted by the Legitimate Media.

So the new Obama administration Treasury Secretary arrives mired in scandal replacing the previous Obama administration Treasury Secretary who - surprise! - also arrived mired in scandal. 

And a bonus from the Lew confirmation?:

Investment accounts in the Cayman Islands are no longer evil tax havens. Now they are a form of prudent investor diversification. (WSJ, 2/27/2013)


Sharp Instruments
Obama wants Americans to blame the GOP for this litany of disasters, but Republicans can solve that problem with one simple stroke: Pass a bill giving the president complete authority to allocate the automatic spending cuts as he sees fit. Replace the “meat cleaver” with a scalpel, put it Obama’s hands and tell him: Mr. President, you can’t decide if to cut, but you can decide where and how to cut.

If Obama chooses to cut funding for first-responders and our military while protecting his administration’s corrupt green-energy programs, that will be his choice — and Americans will know it. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 2/25/2013)

Good point from Thiessen. There's nothing we can cut from the budget BEFORE we lay off cops?


Obsessed
So why this obsession with deficits and debt? There are many factors, but central to it is a widespread elite consensus that this crisis provides a unique opportunity to “fix” — exact benefit cuts from — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, despite the opposition of broad majorities across the political spectrum. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 2/27/2013)

Dingbat vanden Heuvel rolls out a classic Liberal tactic in analyzing the sequester: make stuff up. Apparently there are "broad majorities across the political spectrum" who do NOT believe that we need entitlement reform. News to us. And who is pushing entitlement reform? Unnamed "elitists." 

Less Is Less
Liberals don't become more reasonable in their demands for spending increases when Republicans give them more revenues. They become much less so. (Stephen Moore, WSJ, 2/28/2013)

Timely reminder.