Earlier this week I was having dinner with a noted pollster when the topic turned (naturally) to Obama and the Democrats — how bad was November looking? I argued that the hype over the coming Democratic debacle was both totally premature and wildly overblown. Surprisingly my polling pundit agreed. We both understood two things about the electorate — they have very short memories (Bush’s approval ratings are back up!) and care almost exclusively about one thing: their pocket books. And so, November is a lot farther away than the …

 
Amidst the more than half a billion Federal dollars to be spent as stimulus (and another $287 million in tax breaks), there is great news for Amtrak but maybe not so great news for the people who ride it most — those in the Northeast Corridor.
The final stimulus bill will give Amtrak $850 million for capital projects — tracks, trains, stations — with an emphasis on projects that can be started quickly thereby putting people to work. But there’s one final proviso: No more than 50% can be spent on projects …

Facts? Who needs facts when you can have Republicans and Democrats trading misleading charges about the stimulus plan? Republicans say the $825 billion plan is just a vast waste of money, filled with non-essential items that Democrats want to push through under the over of “crisis.” They add it will take way too long to effect the economy.
Democrats have a different take, defending every dollar as critical to the recovery. House leaders defended money for contraceptives as necessary to help states (45 of which are now running budget gaps) offset …

This Sunday morning’s chatterfest was filled with deep and informed discussions about the relative merits of cutting taxes versus spending tax money as a way to get the economy on track.
OK I’m lying. From one gasbag to the next politicians and their economic enablers were allowed to make rather grand statements without worry of being confronted with any facts about what history has shown to be most effective.
On Fox News Sunday Senator John McCain said, “We need to make tax cuts permanent, and we need to make a commitment that …