FRIDAY’S FYI

***MISSOURI VOTED IN FAVOR OF PROP C this week, which would block the federal government from requiring Missourians to purchase health insurance — that is IF Prop C could pass Constitutional muster, because federal law takes precedence over state law.  The vote may have been skewed because Missouri had more competitive Republican primaries than Democratic ones, driving more Republicans to the polls.

***NEBRASKA CONSERV-A-DEM BEN NELSON votes with the Republican obstructionists more often than not, and seems to have no stabs of conscience about his policy hypocrisy.  He voted with the ‘party of no’ on refusing to extend $33 billion to the nation’s unemployed — because he didn’t want to add to the deficit, he claimed — then turned around and voted for the extension of the Bush tax cuts, that for one year alone would add $115 billion to the deficit!  Thursday Nelson voted with the Repubs again on 2 amendments offered by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, that would permanently extend the Bush tax cuts.  DeMint’s amendments would have added massively to the deficit, $3.1 trillion over the next 10 years, and would have made us one of the most lightly taxed industrialized countries on earth. 

***EPA TO REGULATE GREENHOUSE GASES in the absence of Senate action on legislation, and in light of the Supreme Court’s mandate which ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases could be regulated like other air pollutants.  The EPA will be regulating greenhouse gases factory by factory, in a cumbersome and unwieldy fashion instead of having a federal law to get the job done.

***TREASURY SECRETARY TIM GEITHNER SPOKE TO THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS and criticized the Right’s talking points claim that letting the Bush tax cuts lapse for the top 2% wealthiest Americans will hurt small businesses.  He said the Republican claim “is a political argument masquerading as substance.”  Secretary Geithner noted that fewer than 3% of small businesses would be affected.

***RIGHT-WING SENATOR TOM COBURN OF OKLAHOMA AND FORMER MODERATE JOHN MCCAIN COMPLAIN ABOUT FEDERAL DEBT DUE TO THE STIMULUS while blithely ignoring the debt caused by Bush’s tax cuts.  Stimulus debt is 488 times smaller than the impact of the Bush tax cuts.  The Senators highlight 100 supposedly questionable stimulus projects in a “report” their staffs had prepared.  White House Secretary Robert Gibbs replied yesterday, “the report is not credible.”  The alleged “wasteful” stimulus that the two Senators are soooo concerned about amounts to a mere $1.7 billion, compared to a $830 billion hit to the national debt in order to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich.  Check out Think Progess’ chart below.