Lost in the 21st Century

I predict this will only go up as the GOP side show begins to play out in the House…

It’s a far cry from the near 70% approval rating Obama enjoyed at the start of his presidency, but for the first time since last May, half of the country approves of of how he’s doing as president, according to Gallup.

In the latest Gallup poll, 50% of respondents said they approved of Obama’s job performance, versus 43% who said they disapproved. In results released yesterday, that split was a tad better for Obama, 50%-42%. Those findings mark the first time Obama’s approval has reached the symbolic 50% mark in Gallup’s poll since the end of May 2010.

via Gallup Poll: Obama Job Approval Hits 50% For First Time Since May | TPMDC.

From Vanity Fair.com…

When will people finally realize these guys are literally all talk and all show?

Think about it…Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger.  It’s a short hop from showbiz to the GOP:

As we reported this morning, House Republicans will kick-start the 112th Congress tomorrow with a spirited recitation of the Constitution, a document whose recent relevance is due largely to the ideological and sartorial interests of the Tea Party. It’s an opening act designed to herald the arrival of a new season of checks, balances, and financial cutbacks. As Politico’s nocturnal prophet Mike Allen reported, House Republicans plan to reduce Congress’s budget by $32.5 million—a savings reaped from cutting “the amount authorized for salaries and expenses of Member, committee, and leadership offices in 2011 and 2012.”

It would seem that in an era of Fiscal Responsibility™, a performative rendition of the Constitution might have been one such eliminated endeavor. For an estimate on just how much the Republicans would have saved if they had decided against the tedious exercise, VF Daily checked with Peter Keating, the co-author of “The Cost of No” and VF.com’s resident expert on Congressional wastefulness.

According to Keating:

“The amount I get is nearly $1.1 million. $1,071,872.87, to be exact, though of course this is more back-of-the-envelope than exact.

When one chamber of Congress is in session but not working, we the people still have to pay for members’ salaries and expenses, and for their police protection, and for keeping their lights and phones and coffee machines on. Even Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN) combined don’t blow enough hot air to heat the Capitol in January.”

“To get this estimate, I took the total FY 2011 costs for House salaries and expenses and House office buildings, then added half the costs of joint House-Senate expenses, the CBO, the Capitol Police and the Capitol power plant. Then I divided that sum by 205, the number of days the House was in session last year, then divided again by 24 (the number of hours in a day) and multiplied by 3 (the estimated length in hours of members reading the Constitution). It might not take three hours to read the document, but on the other hand, Congress is usually in session for considerably less than 205 days a year. Also, I didn’t include staff costs, since most aides will probably be working through the reading. But not all will be, so overall I think this is a conservative estimate.”

via Republicans to Spend $1.1 Million Reciting Constitution on House Floor | VF Daily | Vanity Fair.

Of course the new Republican Congress and most of the rest of the DC establishment will ignore this….

It’s also interesting that most respondents think Washington is the part of the world most in need of “fixing”– over the Middle East and Haiti.

Hat tip to Americablog.com where I first saw this mentioned…

(Reuters) – Most Americans think the United States should raise taxes for the rich to balance the budget, according to a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll released on Monday.

President Barack Obama last month signed into law a two-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for millions of Americans, including the wealthiest, in a compromise with Republicans.

Republicans, who this week take control of the House of Representatives, want to extend all Bush-era tax cuts “permanently” for the middle class and wealthier Americans. They are also demanding spending cuts to curb the $1.3 trillion deficit.

Sixty-one percent of Americans polled would rather see taxes for the wealthy increased as a first step to tackling the deficit, the poll showed.

The next most popular way — chosen by 20 percent — was to cut defense spending.

Four percent would cut the Medicare government health insurance program for the elderly, and 3 percent would cut the Social Security retirement program, the poll showed.

Asked which part of the world they would fix first, the largest proportion of respondents — 36 percent — chose Washington, compared with 23 percent who picked the Middle East and 14 percent who chose Haiti.

via Most Americans say tax rich to balance budget: poll | Reuters.