NEWS FLASH

GOP Proposes Cutting Twenty ‘Wasteful’ Programs That Combined Cost Less Than The Corporate Jet Owner Tax Loophole | Republicans yesterday, in an email blasted around by House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), identified “twenty wasteful spending programs” that they have proposed cutting in the new federal spending bill released this week. The GOP claims that it’s using the bill to “make hard but necessary cuts to help reduce the nation’s deficit.” However, all 20 of the programs combined cost less than the tax loophole that allows corporate jet owners to write off the cost of their jet over five years (as opposed to seven years for a commercial passenger jet). The 20 programs the GOP wants to cut cost $456 million, while maintaining the corporate jet loophole costs $460 million, for a cost of about $4.6 billion over a ten year budget window.

As Sean Pool and Lauren Simenauer at Science Progress explained, the GOP’s bill “would have a negative impact first and foremost on jobs. It would also inhibit critical agricultural and industrial science research, food safety monitoring systems, science education, healthy food access in schools, violence prevention programs, drug trafficking enforcement, rural innovation and economic development, coastal development, and efficient, low-carbon urban transit systems.” All for the price of preserving one loophole for corporate jet owners.

NEWS FLASH

Study: Restructuring Medicare’s Benefit Structure Would Increase Costs For Seniors | Several deficit reduction plans have proposed restructuring Medicare’s benefit design by combining the Medicare Part A and Part B deductibles (hospitals and doctors) that seniors currently pay separately and establishing a co-insurance requirement for all services up to an annual limit. A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation modeled the effects of such proposals — a $550 deductible for Parts A and B, a 20 percent coinsurance on all services up to a $5,500 annual limit — “nearly three-fourths (71 percent) of the 41 million beneficiaries in the fee-for-service Medicare program would have higher out-of-pocket spending,” “5 percent would have lower out-of-pocket spending, and 24 percent would have a nominal or no change in spending.”

NEWS FLASH

Cain’s Latest Gaffe: Thinks ‘Cuban’ Is A Language | Onetime GOP presidential front-runner Herman Cain has been stumbling recently from a series of scandals and foreign policy gaffes. Campaigning today in Miami’s little Havana, Cain asked the crowd, “how do you say delicious in Cuban?” National Confidential points out the obvious: there is no “Cuban” language. Cubans speak Spanish. Perhaps more importantly, Cain was totally unfamiliar with the U.S.’s immigration policy towards Cuba. The so-called “wet foot, dry foot” policy dictates that Cubans can stay in the U.S. if they make it to dry land, while those caught at sea are returned, but he seemed to have no knowledge of it. Watch it:

NEWS FLASH

University Of Texas College GOP President: Obama Assassination ‘Tempting’ | After police arrested a man who allegedly shot at the White House, the president of the University of Texas College Republicans tweeted that the idea of killing President Obama was “tempting.” “Y’all as tempting as it may be, don’t shoot Obama,” wrote Lauren Pierce. In an interview with ABC News, she said the comment was a “joke,” but said an attempted assassination would “only make the situation worse.” The group’s vice president, Cassie Wright, acknowledged that Pierce’s comment perhaps “shouldn’t be said,” but also offered a defense, saying, “she’s made a positive statement in a way.” Later, Pierce apologized: “I apologize for my previous tweet. It was in poor taste and and should never have been written.” Earlier this month, she tweeted a picture of a sign that read, “zoo has African lion, White House has a lyin’ African.”