The WonkLine: April 7, 2011

President Obama said yesterday that having the government shut down would be “inexcusable, given the relatively narrow differences when it comes to numbers between the two parties.”

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) said yesterday that “he believes he has the votes to pass legislation delaying a controversial Federal Reserve Board rule capping debit-card fees.”

The AFL-CIO on the Columbia free trade pact announced yesterday: “We have no doubt that if 51 CEOs had been murdered in Colombia last year, this deal would be on a very slow track indeed.”

With Saudi troops in Bahrain supporting the government there against pro-democracy demonstrators, the tiny island nation in the Persian Gulf “has taken on the likeness of a police state” — with mass arrests and reports of torture.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that some U.S. troops may remain in Iraq after their planned withdrawal at the end of the year. “We are willing to have a presence beyond” Dec. 31, 2011, he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that protests for democracy sweeping the Middle East are making it harder for Israel to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Global warming has forced NASA to add hot pink to its global temperature anomaly maps, as the Arctic was more than 10°C (18°F) warmer than the historical average this winter.

“Arguments over the agenda that have stalled U.N. climate talks in Bangkok this week show that some nations are trying to row back from hard-won agreements reached last December.”

Oklahoma, the home state of Senate climate denier king Jim Inhofe (R), has been “drier in the four months following Thanksgiving than it has been in any similar period since 1921,” worse even than the Dust Bowl years.

Despite a recent Supreme Court decision throwing a lifeline to corporate criminals like former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, a court of appeals held yesterday that Skilling’s conviction is still valid.

Wisconsin Republicans are already touting false theories of imagined voter fraud in order to undermine JoAnne Kloppenburg’s narrow victory over incumbent conservative Justice David Prosser in the first vote counting in their election.

A Michigan judge struck down a pay cut for that state’s teachers as unconstitutional.

“Remember all those allegations from Republicans that the Affordable Care Act would inevitably lead to health care rationing? It turns out the same might be true of the House GOP budget plan for Medicare.”

“In an interview with the Family Research Council (FRC) on Tuesday evening, Rep. Michele Bachmann admitted that the new health care law won’t be defunded in 2011.”

“The U.S. health care system is in need of a major overhaul, according to 72 percent of American adults who took part in a national survey.”

The same Tea Party forces “that swept conservative candidates into office on the congressional and state levels appear to be working their way down” to local school board races.

Legislators in Maryland gave final approval yesterday “to legislation that would ramp up regulation of for-profit colleges that operate in the state, phasing out financial aid to their students and imposing other restrictions.”

Four recommendations for reforming the Elementary and Secondary Education Act from Ulrich Boser and Robin Chait.

Arizona state Senate President Russell Pearce (R) is going to make one last bid to persuade Republican colleagues to approve new state laws aimed at undocumented immigrants by “scaling back the scope of his effort.”

A boat carrying as many as 300 migrants from Libya to Italy capsized early Wednesday in rough seas.

Maryland lawmakers advanced a bill to grant in-state tuition rates at Maryland colleges to undocumented immigrants.

A new report shows that 3.5% of the population identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, but as many as 11% acknowledge at least some same-sex sexual attraction.

Former University of Michigan Student Body President, Chris Armstrong, is suing former Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell for stalking and harassment.

Today’s House Armed Services Committee hearing will likely include a discussion of rescinding the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

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