The GDP release for the first quarter of the year, which ends on Thursday, will come out in a matter of weeks. And the same analysts who upgraded on the tax cut deal are now downgrading on this news. And that’s before the likely government shutdown on April 8, which will affect the second quarter.

General Electric is paying no taxes after making $14 billion in profits, and in fact is getting $3 billion in returns from the government. At the same time that the corporation isn’t giving one penny to the government for use of the commons, they are trying to exact wage and benefit cuts on their own workers.

For some reason, the GAO didn’t directly make reference to the most effective alternatives that would do an even better job than the individual mandate at decreasing the number of uninsured–single payer or a basic public plan that would enroll the uninsured by default.

My post on Democrats offering additional budget cuts for Fiscal Year 2011 was pretty down on what the ultimate solution would look like. But that made the perhaps incorrect assumption that there would be a solution at all.

Most of the folks running DC may not much care that our middle class has disappeared along with our manufacturing base. But convince them that our declining manufacturing base might imperil their cherished military might, and they might finally wake up.

A lot of polls have come out in the past couple days showing Scott Walker’s rising unfavorables in Wisconsin. But Walker won’t be on the ballot anytime soon. Just a week from tomorrow, Wisconsin voters will go to the polls in another statewide race for the state Supreme Court.

One of my least favorite genres of Beltway reporting is the “If only Political Party A could message Policy X better, voters would like them” piece, and we see a good example of it from Cillizza in today’s Washington Post.

Looking at the current political environment and gaming out the possible actions that could be taken it seems abundantly clear that progressives best course of action on Social Security is to simply refuse to even think about allowing any changes in the program. Progressives should also follow Harry Reid’s advice by sticking to this “just say no” position for decades to come.

I think it’s important that this is part of Michelle Rhee’s legacy, while I’m not necessarily holding her responsible. She put a premium on success at DC schools, and that pressure can lead to some dastardly things. Moreover, if the Noyes School is found to have cheated on standardized tests, it invalidates a lot of the results Rhee held up as a model in how to best teach students.

You could make a case that the first $10 billion didn’t have a huge impact, as they went to programs already scheduled to be cut (I don’t totally subscribe to that). But the low-hanging fruit is gone. This $20 billion will hurt.