December 1, 2009

Playing Chicken With Republicans

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I’m as intrigued by an unusual bit of contrarianism as the next guy, but Tyler Cowen seriously jumps the shark here:

Another example of misleading good vs. evil thinking stems from the budget.  Many people believe:

3. “If the Republicans win, they will irresponsibly cut taxes and do nothing real to control spending.”  You may have even seen this view in the blogosphere.

One response to this is 4. “We should ensure that the Republicans do not win and criticize them every chance possible.”

An alternative response is 5. “Sooner or later the Republicans will in fact win and I cannot prevent that.  Right now the Democrats should spend less money, given the truth of #3.  In this regard the Republicans, although evil, are in fact correct in asking the Democrats to spend less money, if only to counterbalance their own depravity.”

I do not see many people entertaining #5.

No, I suppose not.  “I think we should rein in social spending in order to create some budget room for more tax cuts for the rich in 2017” really doesn’t seem like a very politically savvy suggestion.

Anyway, this is hardly something that we liberals haven’t thought about.  Just the opposite, actually: liberals are very keenly aware of Republican efforts to wreck the budget in order to prevent Democrats from ever spending money on their own priorities.  In fact, “keenly” understates things.  So this time around we’ve quite consciously decided not to let this stand in our way.  We’ll do our best to keep things like healthcare reform deficit neutral, and we’ll try to honor PAYGO rules, but beyond that we’re at least going to try to enact some liberal social policies.  The days of scrimping on food because Dad is threatening to blow a wad in Vegas the first time we let him out of our sight are over.

And if America eventually elects Dad to the White House anyway even though he hasn’t yet cleaned up his act?  Then America’s in big trouble.  But at least America will have better healthcare.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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