TL;DR January 15, 2016
Here’s What You Need to Know
In his eighth and final State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, President Obama “offered a prescription, saying it’s about the process, not the people who are elected. Obama pitched the removal of legislatures from redistricting; a reduction of the influence of money in politics; and laws that make it easier to vote.”
Yet these proposals would address symptoms of the real problem, not the cause. The political rancor Obama discussed exists in large part due to the government encroaching on more and more areas of our lives; and Obama has pushed that expansion hard.
Flashback to his 2012 State of the Union Address, which Forbes described as “a speech about power — about increasing the scale and scope of government and the power of those who govern over the American people.”
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As long as government seeks to exert such a high level of control over a growing number of industries and individual choices, it will be impossible to stop the flow of money and revolving door between government and business.
Instead of bemoaning money in politics (we spend more money getting people to buy snack foods and sodas than on choosing a candidate), we ought to be asking what the appropriate role and level of government ought to be. Until then, we shouldn’t be surprised that companies exercise their Constitutional right to petition government and protect their ability to engage in commerce.
News You Can Use
BREXIT BREAKDOWN
With a referendum likely to be held this summer, two-thirds of Conservative MPs support Britain’s exit from the European Union while Prime Minster David Cameron wants the country to stay. The referendum itself has consequences, raising doubts as to the viability of the union of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and questioning the wider project of the European Union. Cameron insists he will stay on as prime minister regardless of the result, but he will likely face a challenge to his premiership either way.
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HILLARY MEETS THE BERN’S ARCHIVES
Opposition research FTW. On Wednesday, Bernie Sanders responded to the Clinton campaign’s attacks on his health care policy by tweeting a throwback photo with the handwritten caption: “To Bernie Sanders with thanks for your commitment to real health care access for all Americans and best wishes – Hillary Rodham Clinton, 1993.”
MILLENNIALS UP FOR GRABS
As USA Today reports, “A USA TODAY/Rock the Vote Millennial Poll finds an emerging generation that is more pragmatic than ideological and not yet firmly aligned with either political party.” Trump is ahead with Millennials Republicans and Sanders is winning with Millennial Democrats, especially Millennial women. Like the generations that came before them, the economy is their top issue; but, they are especially concerned with college affordability and student debt. “What is less certain, the national survey shows, is whether they’ll bother to vote in 2016, even in an election where they identify an agenda they call crucial.”
JUST LEAVE IT
As Fast Company predicts, 2016 will go down as the year of the parent and the year of paid family leave. Yet, “when it comes to benefits, Americans tend to bristle at federal solutions.” This coupled with Congressional gridlock means federally mandated paid leave is unlikely to be a thing any time soon. But, “for the first time, cities have begun to pick up the slack left by intransigent national legislators” and governors, state legislators, and mayors are taking paid parental leave policy into their own hands. Perhaps 2016 will also be the year of local policymaking.
FROM PARIS WITH LAWSUITS
“Countries backsliding on their pledges made at the Paris climate summit could soon get dragged into court by their own citizens … Environmentalists see litigation as their enforcement mechanism of choice if governments fall short of the agreement’s goals to curb global warming. Other than public shaming, it’s the only way to hold nations accountable,” legal experts tell Sara Stefanini at Politico.
MO’ RULES, MO’ PROBLEMS
A referee in Saturday’s Bengals-Steelers game took it upon himself to obliterate a team’s entire season, evidence that the number of new rules enacted by the NFL has led to “growth of hubris among the people tasked with enforcement.” Some might say NFL refs are starting to look like the government regulators who have more rules and power than ever before. Just like the referee, we can only expect an increase in power-plays among government regulators as “the legislature delegates more and more of its rulemaking to federal agencies and their all-too-human experts.”
WHAT THE FRACK?
Senior oil and gas analyst Fadel Gheit predicts that half of U.S shale oil producers could go bankrupt before the crude market reaches equilibrium. With oil prices down, U.S. drillers, many of whom rely on the more expensive fracking process, are spending more than they are making from their operations. Gheit describes the situation as unsustainable and posits that it will eventually force prices higher.
MESSAGE? SHE CARES.
The Hill reports “Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has divulged what she would do if she won the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot: She’d spend it on her campaign.”
FOIA FACELIFT
Fifty years after the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, both Republicans and Democrats in Congress support a bill that would streamline the process of requesting and receiving public information, including the creation of an online portal for requests. Faster FOIAs not only means better, more open and accountable Government. It also means faster intelligence gathering, leading to faster insights for public affairs strategies.
IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME
In the Middle East and in Syria, Obama failed to ask the question: what happens if we don’t act? “Had he known that not acting would produce a vacuum in which a humanitarian catastrophe, a terrible refugee crisis, a deepening proxy war and the rise of ISIL in Iraq and Syria would occur, his responses might have been different…that vacuum was filled by others: Iran, Hezbollah and Iran’s other Shia militia proxies; Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar; Russia; and ISIL.” And now, we are dealing with the consequences in the shape of the Iran-Saudi Arabia conflict. Continuing to treat the U.S.-Iran relationship as a top priority, the Obama Administration is abandoning decades old Middle Eastern alliances and standing by their new friend Iran, placing blame on the Saudis.
Mark Your Calendars
Sunday, January 17 – NBC News Democratic Primary Debate
Sunday, January 31 – FEC Year-End Reports
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