TheLoop21.com

By: Alyssa Giachino (Add to your loop)
Fri, 02/05/2010 - 01:00

Colin Powell came out in support of gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.

It's been a busy week with trillion dollar budgets, million dollar bonuses, and major car trouble. Here are five stories to keep you in The Loop.

1. Taking the budget to New Hampshire
President Obama presented his $3.8 trillion budget for 2011 with tax increases for households earning above $250,000, and a bigger tax burden for oil and gas companies. He’s got tax breaks for the middle class and small businesses, and also looks to cut the deficit in half by 2013, the end of his (first?) term.

Once the budget was out, Obama had a busy week of public appearances, a strategy to sell his proposals to the American public, skeptical Republicans, and slightly-less-skeptical Democrats.

His visit to Nashua, New Hampshire, gave Obama the opportunity to shed the jacket, roll up his shirtsleeves, and break down his proposals from wonky budget-speak to a more natural English. He explained his priority focus on jobs, small businesses and education.

Then he met with Democrats, basically pushing them to get up off the ground and keep fighting. He taught them how to count, with a reminder that 59 seats vs. 41 seats in the Senate is still a majority, and a historic one at that. He urged them to keep pushing for health care reform, and said their obligation to the American people is to get legislation passed, not moan about surprise upsets in Massachusetts.

The meeting with Democrats wasn’t as exciting as the debate with Republicans last Friday, where Obama took the opposition on with considerable poise, ricocheting GOP talking points back at them to force a real conversation on issues.

2. Demise of DADT?
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell just might be shelved, allowing gays and lesbians to finally come out of the closet. The highest ranking military officer in the nation, Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Adm. Mike Mullen testified before the Senate against the policy. In his words, “Allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do ... I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. For me personally, it comes down to integrity.”

His words are not quite satisfying, since they don’t result in action. Instead, the policy will still be in effect while a commission spends a year reviewing it.

But to add to the momentum, Retired Army Gen. Colin Powell spoke up a day later, throwing his weight behind a repeal. Since Powell was instrumental in getting DADT implemented in 1993, his reversal of opinion is pretty significant. He cited how the country has evolved in its views on homosexuality in the last generation as the reason for his change of opinion.

Of course, there was another significant reversal of opinion, in the other direction from Sen. John McCain. He previously said DADT should be repealed if the military's high command called for it, but now that they have, he decided it should stay in place.
 So there goes McCain, swimming upstream against the opinion of most Americans--polls over the last five years show a majority supports a repeal--not to mention his wife and daughter.

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3. Haiti’s good-will kidnappers
The group of Americans that swept in to rescue Haitian “orphans” were charged with abduction and criminal association. Driven by a Christian mission of good will, the group attempted to take 33 Haitian children to the United States for adoption, even though many of the children’s parents are perfectly alive.

It was a perfect example of the damage that can be wrought by misguided attempts by outsiders to solve what we think are Haiti’s problems. Let it serve as a lesson that the people within Haiti must have a voice and leverage in the rebuilding of their nation, not just wealthy do-gooders parachuting in.

Which is not to say outside aid isn’t needed. More than three weeks after the earthquake, basic needs of food and water are still not met. A new focus is on a public health campaign to get people vaccinated against communicable diseases -- just another effort at containing the damage already done. It’s not even about rebuilding yet.

The death toll has been registered at 200,000. Compare that to he horrific 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed at least 230,000 across 14 countries.

4. AIG still doesn’t get it
Public disgust at AIG grew even more this week, with the news that the company will dish out $100 million in bonuses to the very financial division that plunged Wall Street into the abyss. One year ago, the same group got $168 million in bonuses. So this year’s payments represent a significant cut, and we’re supposed to commend them for their frugality.

The problem is, AIG entered into legally-binding contracts with these employees to deliver such bonuses, and despite the billions of government dollars still propping up the company, federal pay czar Kenneth Feinberg is basically powerless to stop them. In a sign that AIG learned a little something after last year’s bonus scandal, 97 percent of the Financial Products division took a voluntary 10 percent reduction. And 35 percent took a 20 percent reduction for total concessions of $20 million. Now are you feeling more sympathy for them? Didn’t think so.

5. Toyota still skidding
The massive recalls that started last week were followed by Toyota announcing a fix on the faulty accelerators this week. Though it sounds too simple to be the final word, owners of the recalled models were encouraged to make appointments at their dealerships for a 30-minute mechanical fix on the gas pedal.

But wait, now there’s a problem with the brakes. It’s only on the Prius, and Toyota says the problem is related to the antilock brake system that causes the car to lose its ability to brake when driving over rough surfaces. It’s unclear whether the Prius will be recalled.

All those previous decades where Toyota has been revered for reliability and credibility have been pretty much erased in a couple of weeks. Now it’s hard to trust anything the company says. Do they really know what the problems are? Do they really know how to fix them?

Alyssa Giachino is an economics writer for TheLoop21.com. She has worked as a reporter in New York, New Jersey, Mexico City and California covering stories on labor, the environment, immigration and politics.

Should the U.S. commit to long-term rebuilding in Haiti?

Yes, it's our humanitarian obligation

Let private charities do the work

The U.S. will just meddle in politics

Let's focus on our own problems

I don't know