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Clearing the Browser Tabs – Perry’s Plan Gets Numbers Wednesday Edition Posted: 26 Oct 2011 04:10 AM PDT Rick Perry’s economic plan has made the expected big splash and the smart folks like Jim Pethokoukis are already getting into the particulars. Jim got some information from the campaign about what sort of revenues we can expect, but the final number depends entirely on how it’s scored. If we use the normal CBO static scoring method, the government will get about $4.7 trillion less between now and 2020. Under the dynamic scoring method, though, that number is only about $1.7 trillion. If his spending cap works as planned, we’ll have a balanced budget by 2020, which is a very good thing. You can read the plan for yourself here. There are a lot of assumptions built into the score beyond the normal. Not only did the Perry campaign have to made a good guess about how much more quickly the economy would grow compared to the current forecast, it also had to estimate how many people opted out of the current system and used the flat tax option. That last number is critical. If few people take the flat tax option, the revenue numbers won’t move very far from the CBO’s original projections and, I believe, economic growth won’t rise nearly as quickly as the Perry people think. I haven’t seen a good estimate anywhere for what that number will be, so I can’t honestly tell you if Perry’s projections are in the neighborhood of plausibility or not. I’ll have my own thoughts on the plan a bit later in the day. I started a post last night, but it ran far too long for me to finish it and get to sleep at a reasonable hour. What I’ll say now is that I’m a bit disappointed that a man known for boldness offered us a plan that’s not all that bold. Last night’s show was a hoot. We had a special guest spokespuppet who filled us in on Occupy Whatever’s demands and got a little lesson on money and power. I’ll have that post up later tomorrow as well, as work and such allows. And now, links! If you’re the praying type, Turkey could use all you can spare. Remember how Candidate Obama didn’t like how George Bush used so much executive power? I wonder where that guy went. Student loans have done quite a bit of damage to this country, more, probably, than any of us fully realize. Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich have scheduled a debate of sorts on November 5th. The two of them will sit down and talk about our entitlement problems and how we might solve them before they swallow the entire federal budget. I think this is a brilliant idea. It’s what happens when politicians are more interested in being leaders than in being elected. Good for them. Wait a minute. I thought our President was the Most Intelligent Man Ever to Hold the Office. Why in the world can’t he do simple math? Yes, Herman Cain has the swag. He also has the lead even after his last debate performance, which a number of Very Smart Pundits told me would end his campaign. Paul Ryan is going to war against Barack Obama. Rick Perry, on the other hand, is going to war against Mitt Romney and Herman Cain (via memeorandum). Remember what I said about leading versus getting elected? I haven’t followed Adam Corolla’s career very closely, but maybe I should. He’s built a pretty impressive podcast despite a lot of discouragement.

Biden: Bring Me the Head of Jason Mattera! Posted: 25 Oct 2011 12:52 PM PDT Last week, Vice President Joe Biden summoned his decades of political experience and well-seasoned public relations acumen in support of President Obama’s jobs bill. In front of a friendly crowd in Flint, MI he said if you didn’t support President Obama’s job bill, you should be robbed or raped, preferably by a 200-pound man. Okay, he didn’t actually say that. What he really said is if you didn’t support the President’s bill, he wished that you would be robbed or raped by a 200-pound man. That’s better, right? As you can imagine, quite a few of us took umbrage with Biden’s wishes. There are many Americans, as it happens, who believes that while political dissent isn’t exactly the highest form of patriotism, it’s certainly no reason to be press-ganged into the role of Ned Beatty in the Joe Biden Players’ gala performance of Deliverance. Jason Mattera, editor of Human Events magazine was one of those who felt Biden’s remarks went over the line, and he went to the Senate building to ask the Vice President if he really meant what he said. What resulted would would have been the top story on every news cast on the planet if the Vice President’s name had been Cheney. As you can imagine, Biden was not happy with what happened and, like a petulant child, he went running to the nearest authority figure to demand that they punish his tormentor. No, seriously. He really did sic the Senate press gallery and the committee that oversees the gallery on Mattera. Joe Biden's office has complained to the Senate press gallery about a confrontation the vice president had with a conservative journalist last week on Capitol Hill. Biden aides asked whether Senate rules were broken in the wake of the contentious exchange between the vice president and the reporter. Biden's office has also contacted the standing committee of correspondents, which oversees the gallery, regarding whether Mattera broke the rules by ambushing him. Heather Rothman, the chairwoman of the gallery's standing committee, said the matter is under review. This is a whole lot of nothing to most of us, but it could carry career-damaging consequences to Mattera. The committee could pull his credentials, which would restrict his access to members of the Senate and damage his reputation as a journalist. Political reporting, moreso than many other types of journalism, relies on access to members of Congress. You could argue that Mattera, as the editor of Human Events, would have all the access to Republicans he could want, and you’d probably be right. However, good reporting requires access to both parties, especially the one that controls the Senate and the White House and without that credential, Mattera’s work will suffer. Biden is a loudmouthed churl who needs to realize he stepped in a big pile of gaffe and that his best bet is to shut up for a while. He won’t gain anything by running off and crying to the Senate press gallery except a petty and vicious feeling of glee that he used the power of the Vice Presidency to stomp on the career of a journalist. I guess that’s something he prizes, but it’s not something we should allow him to do free from consequences.

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