The nation’s unemployment rate rose from 7.6 percent in January to 8.1 percent in February, the highest rate in more than 25 years. The number of jobs lost last month was 651,000. According to new revised numbers, 1.99 million jobs have disappeared in the past three months.
“The Obama budget is more than just the sum of its parts,” David Brooks wrote in a column calling on moderate Republicans and Democrats to rise up. “There is, entailed in it, a promiscuous unwillingness to set priorities and accept trade-offs. There is evidence of a party swept up in its own revolutionary fervor — caught up in the self-flattering belief that history has called upon it to solve all problems at once. So programs are piled on top of each other and we wind up with a gargantuan $3.6 trillion budget. We end up with deficits that, when considered realistically, are $1 trillion a year and stretch as far as the eye can see. We end up with an agenda that is unexceptional in its parts but that, when taken as a whole, represents a social-engineering experiment that is entirely new.”
Good for the Senate Judiciary Committee for thinking better of its earlier vote to shelve the proposed repeal of the death penalty for the session. Thursday’s 6-5 vote means the full Senate will have an opportunity to debate the repeal after all. Maybe the main motivation behind the bill — saving money for the state — isn’t the best reason to abolish the state’s 15-year-old but unused death penalty. But it’s not too much to expect state lawmakers to re-examine and vote on this important issue at least once a decade.
On Newsweek.com, Daniel Stone summarizes then-Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius’ nervy denial of for-profit Anthem’s attempted 2002 takeover Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, because she believed that it would be costly for business and policyholders. He concluded: “Her tenacity in Kansas seems to show she has what it takes to go up against The Man and win. But on the federal playing field, the man is usually bigger, better funded and has a lot more friends.”
“I have been getting so much encouragement. In fact, just before I went on, Rush Limbaugh called me up and said he wants me to fail.” — Jimmy Fallon, on the new “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon”
“It was this week in 1854 that the Republican Party was founded with only a handful of true believers. Just like today.” — Jay Leno
“Barack Obama announced he’s bringing home troops from Iraq. That’s right. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get them direct flights home. They have a two-year layover in Afghanistan.” — Fallon
“Cold in New York City today, where it was 24 degrees outside. Wait a minute. I’m sorry. That was the Dow Jones Average.” — David Letterman
