What are Democrats proposing? What message about the 2011-2012 Congress are they putting forward? Saying “Republicans want to cut your Social Security benefits and privatize the program, and we’ll never privatize Social Security!” is completely unfulfilling and untrustworthy, and the fact that the stimulus expanded GDP and created jobs in the past says nothing about the future, when its impact will wane. Despite everything already done, the economy is suffering. What’s your plan?

As I said in a previous post this morning, from a political standpoint, you would think that Democrats and the White House would create a jobs platform and hold a referendum on it. They may be edging closer in that direction.

Call me crazy, but I don’t think Chris Dodd’s newfound concern about management experience stems from either the recognition that his past confirmation negligence led to failures at (in particular) SEC and OTS or his genuine concern that the CFPB wouldn’t effectively protect consumers’ interests if it were led by Elizabeth Warren.

Yesterday, California became the first state in the nation to pass the bills setting up insurance exchanges through the legislature. The exchanges would not come online until 2014, but the state now has four years to codify the rules.

Unfortunately, those exchanges are four years off, and in the meantime, California will see rates continue to skyrocket in the individual market.

I’ve previously posted on my research showing a very high correlation between the results in Washington State’s “top two” primary and the results in the general election. The system makes the “primary” more like the first round of the general election in a traditional runoff election system. Washington has a history of very high primary turnout–this year it was 40.63 percent–and because of the previous use of the “blanket primary,” voting for members of both parties in the primary was common. Assuming this correlation holds up this year, my analysis points to an extremely bad November for Democrats.

Today’s story comes from Jane Powell of Oakland, California. She’s spent 10 months waiting for just a trial modification, and the banks have used every request they could for more paperwork to finalize things. And GMAC has not been sanctioned in any way for this behavior from Treasury or any federal regulator. Homeowners are falling into a terrible trap.

Today’s the day of Democrats calling for firings, I guess. On top of Tom Perriello wanting Tim Geithner to step down, Elaine Marshall, the Senate candidate who is close to even in polls against Republican incumbent Richard Burr in North Carolina, announced in a speech today that Alan Simpson should resign as co-chair of the deficit commission.

The White House accepted Alan Simpson’s apology regarding the sexist, demeaning comments he made to Ashley Carson of the Older Women’s League, but apparently the Older Women’s League does not.

Sign the petition: Tell President Obama to Can the Catfood Commission

The nation’s stupidest woman to ever be a national party’s VP candidate tried to explain why it was that Massachusetts’ Republican Senator Scott Brown would use the leverage Senate Democrats give to the 60th vote to water down and corrupt otherwise useful legislation.

Jerold Nadler joins fellow Democratic members of Congress calling on President Obama to fire Alan Simpson from the Catfood Commission. But it’s not just Simpson. Rather, Simpson’s comments reflect the far deeper conflicts and illegitimacy of the commission itself. It’s a collaboration between corporate America, the executive branch and congress to create a body that will do something no politician wants to take responsibility for: cut Social Security benefits and drive seniors into poverty so that hedge fund billionaires like Pete Peterson won’t have to pay their taxes.

Sign the petition: Tell President Obama to Can the Catfood Commission

I want to go beyond the 300 million tits and focus on the substance of his arguments. Because Simpson keeps bringing something up in these emails, whether to OWL’s Ashley Carson or CEPR’s Dean Baker. He keeps mentioning Stephen Goss’ report to the cat food commission from May 12 of this year. I’ve obtained the slides from that speech, and I have to say, I don’t think Simpson knows enough about Social Security to even collect it, let alone head a commission devoted to its future.