With exuberant huzzahs, Democrats and Republicans are hailing a compromise reached Monday on a $17 billion veterans bill. It’s a demonstration of a new bipartisanship, they proclaim.

But the bipartisanship has brought forth a deeply flawed bill. That’s because it largely relies on emergency funding to cover the cost, rather than finding comparable savings elsewhere. Only $5 billion of the $17 billion is offset by other cuts.

That means $12 billion of the bill’s cost will be added to the obscene national debt, already over $17.5 trillion.

Politico characterized the compromise as a result of “knock-down, drag-out arguing.”

But in the end, the public acknowledgement of tooth-and-nail fighting was so much sturm and drang. The Republicans are where they said they’d never go. They have agreed to calling a failure of the VA system that has been building for years an emergency and joined with the Democrats in not bothering to pay for most of the fix.

It was a masterful performance on both sides, a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

In earlier versions of the VA legislation, the Senate wanted to pay the bill’s entire tab through emergency legislation, which meant the tab would be added to the federal deficit.

But the Republican-controlled House bill called for the cost to be covered by spending cuts from somewhere else in the federal budget.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, tried to cast the House Republicans insisting on budget discipline as folks who wanted to take food out of the mouths of the needy, medical care away from the infirm and quality education away from American children.

“I hope very much we can avoid once again having a major debate about cutting food stamps, education, roads and bridges in order to fund the VA,” Sanders said.

Politico reported today that Senator Ben Nelson (D – Fla) said failure to reach a deal on VA reform would have meant “a huge dagger in the backs of veterans who so desperately need to have the confidence that the VA system is going to be straightened out.”

Now, instead, we have a bill that is a dagger is in the back of American taxpayers and their children who will be burdened with even more national debt.

Sure, sure. Spend away. No budget discipline needed here.

Senator John Walsh (D-Montana) plagiarized about two-thirds of a 14 page thesis he submitted to receive his master’s degree at the prestigious U.S. Army War College, the New York Times has reported.

The War College’s handbook explicitly states that, “Directly quoting another author’s work without giving proper credit to the author,” is academic fraud and that, “Plagiarism is a serious form of cheating that carries serious consequences.”

Walsh was appointed to the seat early this year by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock after Democratic Sen. Max Baucus resigned to become U.S. ambassador to China, setting Walsh up to defend the seat as an incumbent. Walsh is now the Democratic nominee in the race for a full, six-year term this fall against Republican Rep. Steve Daines.

The response of Walsh, his party and liberal supporters to this grave ethical breach that propelled Walsh forward in his career?

We’re behind him 100%. He’s our guy. His election is going to help us keep control of the senate. He’ll vote the way we want.

Walsh tried to minimize the seriousness of his actions. “My record will be defined by (service in) the National Guard, not by a few citations that were unintentionally left out in a term paper,” he said Sunday.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman, Justin Barasky, called the disclosures “smears.”

“John Walsh is a decorated war hero, and it’s disgusting that Steve Daines and Washington Republicans are going to try denigrate John’s distinguished service after multiple polls show him gaining,” Barasky said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who highlighted Walsh earning a masters’s degree from the War College when he welcomed him to the Senate in Feb. 2014, said Walsh “…has distinguished himself as leader in the Senate…”

Senator John Tester (D-Montana) argued that Walsh’s actions were a minor mistake and that voters should overlook a relatively minor mistake when weighed against his military service in Iraq and career serving his country.

As Tester put it, “He’s a soldier, not an academic.”

The willingness of Democrats to avert their eyes from Walsh’s transgression, to so blithely excuse it, is an obscenity. It’s the kind of behavior that’s behind Congress’ dismal ratings in the eyes of the public. Behavior like Walsh’s matters, even if he’s in your party and voting your way.

“It goes right to his strength — his military record and his integrity,” Montana State University political science professor, David Parker, said to ABC News. “He was willing to take somebody’s words and make them his own. That’s a question of honor.”

Fifty percent of Oregonians don’t know Oregon has two U.S. senators.*

Maybe that’s because they read all their news online.

Think about how you read on the Internet.

You see an article, Are office politics destroying your career? and click on the link to read more. While you read, you are interrupted by an Instant Message from the boss that requires an immediate response. It only takes a minute to respond, but when you come back to the article a link to a Dilbert cartoon about work draws your attention. Then some high priority e-mails require attention. You take a few seconds to check on the latest news. Among the news items you see, Check out Emily Ratajkowski’s photos in the 2014 SI Swimsuit Issue, and take a look.

Where was I, you say to yourself.

Did you even get through the above paragraph uninterrupted?

People are reading more text than ever, but recalling less of it because they’re reading online, a Victoria Business School study on reading behavior has found.

The Impact of the Internet on Reading Behaviour, by Associate Professor Val Hooper and Master’s student Channa Herath, explores the online and offline reading behavior of individuals.

In general, online reading was found to have a negative impact on people’s cognition, with concentration, comprehension, absorption and recall rates when engaging with online material all much lower, principally because people are multitasking and scanning when reading online, not focusing.

“Multitasking when reading online was common, with activities such as reading emails, checking news, exploring hyperlinks and viewing video clips providing distractions,”says Dr Hooper.

Many of the study respondents verified the results, saying they were more likely to remember material they had read offline, which was also why they frequently printed material they really wanted to read closely.

Makes you wonder whether digital readers really absorb all the political messages candidates spend so much money on.

For that matter, I wonder how many people reading this online article will finish or remember it.

*2013 Oregon Values & Beliefs Survey. Executed by DHM Research and PolicyInteractive Research; Sponsored by Oregon Health & Science University, The Oregon Community Foundation, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Oregon State University.

 

Forget about budget discipline in D.C. It’s an emergency.

The Obama administration was caught unprepared by the onslaught of children coming across the southern border and illegally entering the U.S., so President Obama quickly pasted together a proposed response that would cost $3.7 billion.

Not satisfied to just deal with the immigration problems, Obama tacked on a request for $615 million for emergency wildfire suppression activities for FY 2014, and a new discretionary cap adjustment for wildfire suppression operations starting in FY 2015.

But he doesn’t want to pay for any of it. He’s fine with it being added to the already obscene national debt, already over $17.5 trillion.

Obama dismisses Republicans calling for the money to be offset by spending cuts to other programs.

Don’t you understand? This is an emergency, the White House says, ignoring that it’s own policies, in tandem with cynical politicians and law-breaking businesses, have been aggravating the illegal immigration problem for quite some time.

The Senate wants to jump on the “It’s an emergency” bandwagon with new Veterans Administration legislation, too.

In response to high publicity problems at VA hospitals, the Democrat-controlled Senate has passed legislation to address the problems. Part of the bill would provide funding for the VA to contract with private medical centers to help meet demand.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has warned that the contracting section would lead to an explosive growth in entitlement spending, which is already out of hand. And the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the contracting provision alone would increase federal spending by about $35 billion over the next 10 years.

“We need to resist the temptation to create more entitlements and more entitlements, which is one of the reasons we are heading recklessly toward fiscal crisis,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who voted against the bill.

The Senate wants to pay the bill’s entire tab through emergency legislation, which means the tab would be added to the federal deficit.

But the bill approved by the Republican-controlled House would require that the cost be covered by spending cuts from somewhere else in the federal budget.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has tried to cast the House Republicans as folks who want to take food out of the mouths of the needy, medical care away from the infirm and quality education away from American children.

“I hope very much that the House will agree with the Senate that we are in an emergency and that [it] is absolutely imperative we move as quickly as possible” to authorize funding, Sanders said. “I hope very much we can avoid once again having a major debate about cutting food stamps, education, roads and bridges in order to fund the VA.”

Sure, sure. Spend away. No budget discipline needed here.

As Will Rogers said, “This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when a baby gets hold of a hammer.”