Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

John McCain’s No Good Very Bad Economic Plan

• Senator John McCain (R-AZ) readily admits “the issue of economics is not something [he’s] understood as well as [he] should.”
• Well, after taking a look at his economic plan, we agree.
• Imagine Bush..."but even crazier.” [Kevin Drum]
• Our friends at the Wonk Room took a good hard look at John McCain’s “bold solutions for economic prosperity.” Here’s what they found: [John McCain] [Wonk Room]
• Double Bush’s Tax Cuts: When Bush first proposed his tax cuts, McCain opposed them, saying they were “at the expense of lower- and middle-income Americans” and were too costly in a time of war. He’s since reversed his position. Bit time. Now he’s proposing tax cuts that would cost $2 trillion in their first decade, essentially doubling Bush’s tax cuts for rich.
• Leave Middle Class Americans Behind: “Only 12 percent of the tax cuts will go to the bottom 80 percent of households, while 58 percent will go to the top 1 percent of households.”
• Punish Work: McCain’s plan shifts the tax burden from corporations and wealthy financiers onto the backs of middle and lower class wage earners.
• Cut Programs: “McCain cannot pay for his tax cuts without massive reductions in Social Security, Medicare, or other key programs that benefit the vast majority of Americans.”
• Check out the full analysis here: [American Progress Action]

John McSame...but worse.

The Rich Get Richer, Live Longer

• A new study shows the gap in how long different groups of Americans live is getting wider and wider, “paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades.”
• The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. We knew that. But this new research shows that the rich are also now living longer. Poorer Americans? Not so much.
• One goal of the Department of Health and Human Services is to make sure all Americans get an equal shot at health and life. [NYT]
• Instead, a new HHS report shows the opposite, there is “widening socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy” at birth and at every age level.
• Stat Attack: In 1980, very rich people lived about 2.8 years longer than very poor people. In 2000, the very rich live 4.5 years longer than the poor.
• Stat Attack” Check out the extremes. In 2000, poor men died 10 years before rich women. Going even further, poor black men die about 14 years before rich white ladies.
• “Under federal law, officials must publish an annual report tracking health disparities. In the fifth annual report, issued this month, the Bush administration said, ‘Over all, disparities in quality and access for minority groups and poor populations have not been reduced’ since the first report, in 2003.”
• Here’s the really sick part – the gap keeps getting wider even though we know what the problems are. From the NYT:
• “Doctors can detect and treat many forms of cancer and heart disease because of advances in medical science and technology. People who are affluent and better educated are more likely to take advantage of these discoveries.”
• “Smoking has declined more rapidly among people with greater education and income.”
• “Lower-income people are more likely to live in unsafe neighborhoods, to engage in risky or unhealthy behavior and to eat unhealthy food.”
• “Lower-income people are less likely to have health insurance, so they are less likely to receive checkups, screenings, diagnostic tests, prescription drugs and other types of care.”

Think about this the next time Bush pushes those tax cuts for the superrich.

The U.S. Death Toll In Iraq: 4,000 And Counting

• While the Bush administration continues to argue that security in Iraq is improving and the surge is working, perhaps they should consider this news from the Associated Press: On Sunday, “Rockets and mortars pounded Baghdad’s U.S.-protected Green Zone and a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army post in the northern city of Mosul in a surge of attacks that killed at least 57 people nationwide.” [AP]
• The spike in violence underscores how fragile the security situation in Iraq truly is, and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups as the war enters its sixth year.
• And then there’s this: The U.S. death toll has reached 4,000 Americans. A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on Sunday, pushing the number of fatalities over the line. [AP]
• Attacks in Baghdad probably stemmed from rising tensions between rival Shiite groups _ some of whom may have been behind the Green Zone blasts. It was the most sustained assault in months against the nerve center of the U.S. mission.
• At least five people were injured in the Green Zone, a U.S. Embassy statement said without specifying nationalities. The zone includes the U.S. and British embassies as well as major Iraqi government offices.
• No group claimed responsibility for the Green Zone attacks, but suspicion fell on Shiite extremists based on the areas from which the weapons were fired.
• The attacks followed a series of clashes last week between U.S. and Iraqi forces and factions of the Mahdi Army, the biggest Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

How many more Americans have to die?

Good News, Bad News

Happy 50th Anniversary, Peace Symbol

Fifty years ago this Easter, Gerald Holtom, a British graphic designer and anti-nuclear activist created the peace symbol (an N and D in the naval language of semaphore with a circle around it, standing for Nuclear Disarmament). Since then, the symbol has become an iconic symbol of peace and friendship, rallying hippies, rock stars, and politicos alike. Happy anniversary? Well, here’s the trade-off: [CBS]

GOOD NEWS

Design consultant Richard Williams: “This isn’t a brand, this is much more than that. This is a movement and an attitude of mind.”

BAD NEWS

50 years after the creation of the peace symbol, we still need it.

Quote Of The Day

“We have lost over 900 dead Americans since the surge. Now if you want to dismiss that as ’success’ that would be your interpretation.”

—Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), one of the good guys [Think Progress]

Speed Round

WAR

At least 51 are killed in a series of attacks on Iraq military bases. The U.S.-held Green Zone also came under heavy mortar and rocket fire yesterday. [Washington Post]

YEAH, RIGHT

Whoops, the White House told the courts this weekend, not only did we destroy those missing e-mails we’re required to hand over, we also accidentally trashed the hard drive back-ups of those e-mails. [AP]

CHOKING ON HIS WINGTIPS

A Texas local Fox News affiliate reports that “Mustang Ridge City Council member Charles Laws referred to a proposed immigrant detention center as a ‘holding pen for wetbacks’ on the March 12 meeting agenda.” Asked about his comments, Laws explained: “I’m 74 years old, and that’s what we called them when I was growing up. I don’t care about political crap.” [Fox News]

THUG LIFE

“In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat.” [Washington Post]

STEM CELLS

Scientists trying to prove other kinds of stem cells work just as well as cloned embryonic stem cells instead find the opposite is true, especially in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. [Reuters]

$3.26

The current average price of gas in the United States. [AP]

TRAGEDY

4 people die after a boat begins sinking off the coast of Alaska. [AP]

BUILD AN ARK

After torrential rainfalls, rivers in Missouri rise to near-record levels, flooding freeways and destroying homes. [NY Times]

INEQUALITY FOR ALL

“New government research has found “large and growing” disparities in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades.” [NY TImes]

LOCAL HERO

Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas vetoes two bills to rebuild two coal power plants that produce up to 11 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions. [NY Times]

WRONG

“Before the war, McCain predicted a quick and easy victory, not a vicious insurgency. He issued dire warnings about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction but didn’t read the full 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that showed gaps in the intelligence.” [LA Times]

NO EXCEPTIONS

Washington Monthly has 37 writers, from Nancy Pelosi and Ted Sorenson to religious leaders and former interrogators, write essays agreeing that “it was a profound moral and strategic mistake for the United States to abandon long-standing policies of humane treatment of enemy captives. We should return to the rule of law and cease all forms of torture, with no exceptions for any agency.” [Washington Post]

PEACEMAKER WITH A PACEMAKER

VIce President Cheney, on a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, says achieving peace “will require tremendous effort at the negotiating table and painful concessions on both sides.” [Washington Post]

HEALTH CARE COSTS

The Washington Post reports what we all know: health care costs are rising, and cutting into the incomes of hard working middle class Americans. [Washington Post]