Inequality-- The Conservative Way

Did you read Ken's post last night about Davos and economic inequality? If not, here's another chance. OK, so who doesn't love traveling by private jet? I mean, everyone knows how sucky airplane travel has become, right? Especially all the way to Davos! When I was president of Reprise, I had several awesome private jets at my disposal if I needed to fly to New York, which I did almost every month. I mean I did fly to New York. I didn't fly by private jet. You know how many times I asked my assistant to book me one of the jets? Never. Not once. A trip to New York on one of those babies was $50,000 then. (It's probably double that now.) I was always delighted to go on other people's private jets. But if I used it… that meant that was $50,000 that could have gone into artist development or promotion or marketing or signing a great new band. It was inconceivable for me to spend company money on that kind of luxury. So… not once.

And I don't drink. I never even tasted a beer in my whole life. I drink water-- without ice. So maybe you won't find this as outlandish as I did. But not far from where I live there's a new bar, the Powder Room on North Cahuenga Blvd. This is a blurb I found in a local magazine:

You know the recession is over when a $500 milkshake is on the menu. The one at this new Hollywood lounge comes spiked with high-end booze, edible gold leaf and a Swarovski Nirvana Montana crystal to keep.

The same magazine had an unrelated article on travel and was touting a place in Los Cabos, though not a place where Sammy Hagar fans in flip flops are likely to go for a drunken weekend:

Los Cabos has long been the go-to vacation spot for savvy travelers looking for sun, sea, spa and sport. But the recent opening of 12 lavish villas at Las Ventanas al Paraíso will no doubt make you want to extend your next stay. With clear vistas to the Sea of Cortez, each elegant villa has been designed to reflect Cabo’s vibrant coastal palette. A serene, neutral colorway echoes the desert, while handcrafted accents bring in pops of color and local flair. To take advantage of the Baja peninsula’s perfect weather, the villas were designed with indoor-outdoor living in mind: All have private infinity-edge pools and swim-up bars, plus open-air bathrooms equipped with steam and rain showers and infinity bathtubs for two. In addition to an oceanside massage upon arrival, each space (ranging from 4,500 to 5,700 square feet) comes with a dedicated 24-hour butler who delivers breakfast each morning and homemade guacamole and margaritas every afternoon. When you book a one-bedroom, you may opt for one with a media room (with an 80-inch TV theater screen) or a personalized wellness room-- for Pilates, yoga or whatever you fancy-- plus a trainer. If you feel like venturing out, the entire resort is your oyster, but if luxuriating at “home” is more your speed, the experienced staff, including an appointed director of romance, will make sure to keep every day as interesting, or as blissfully lazy, as you’d like. From $4,500 per night

What's a "director of romance?" A pimp? Fancy hotels have always had concierges who could help you find some female company for the evening. But they didn't advertise them. Still rooms that start at $4,500… well you gotta do something to make it worthwhile. Did you watch Chris Hayes' show last night? It was about a different kind of pimps. Watch:



John Terbush asserted this week, in The Week that "the midterm elections are starting to look a lot less favorable to the GOP" because there is a sleeper issue that could be a winner for Democrats-- the expansion of Medicaid.

Unlike the overall law, the expansion of Medicaid is actually quite popular with voters of all political stripes. Even in the Deep South, more than six in ten support expanding Medicaid, according to one survey last year; conservatives split almost evenly on the issue.

This presents the GOP with two interconnected problems.

First, it undermines part of the party's "repeal" crusade, since nixing ObamaCare would mean ending a popular policy that has already extended benefits to millions of Americans, many of them previously uninsured.

In red West Virginia, some 75,000 people have already enrolled in Medicaid, far higher than expected, according to the New York Times. As a result, the number of uninsured people in the state has plummeted by about a third.

From the Times:

Waitresses, fast food workers, security guards, and cleaners described feeling intense relief that they are now protected from the punishing medical bills that have punched holes in their family budgets. They spoke in interviews of reclaiming the dignity they had lost over years of being turned away from doctors' offices because they did not have insurance.

That's a perfect 2014 Democratic ad campaign right there: People are happy now that they're covered by Medicaid, and Republicans want to take it away.

Though voters are generally leery of ObamaCare as a whole, they like the Medicaid expansion because they support the idea of extending coverage to the needy. As the Washington Post's Greg Sargent notes, this gives Democratic candidates in red states some wiggle room.

They are not embracing ObamaCare. But they oppose repeal, and they are standing behind the general goal of expanding coverage to those who can't afford it. This is true of Michelle Nunn in Georgia (where 57 percent support the Medicaid expansion) and Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky, who wants the law fixed and supports making coverage available to hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, rather than throwing "the baby out with the bathwater."

None of these Dems were in Congress to vote for ObamaCare, so they are free not to embrace the law overall while supporting a part that's providing more and more coverage and security to people who lacked it.

On another level, the GOP may have shot itself in the foot by broadly opposing Medicaid expansion at the state level from the get-go.

Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, states are able to opt out of the Medicaid expansion. So even though the federal government will cover 100 percent of the added costs for the next three years, and 90 percent of the costs after that, 24 mostly GOP-controlled states have decided not to participate.

Virginia, under then-Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), is one of the states that opted out. However, McDonnell's would-be GOP successor, Ken Cuccinelli, lost last November's gubernatorial election after vowing to continue that policy. While Cuccinelli was a uniquely terrible candidate who lost for a host of reasons, it's likely that his position on Medicaid played a role, too. A recent Roanoke poll of Virginia voters shows that only one-quarter think Medicaid should not be expanded.

The refusal of some states to expand Medicaid has left an estimated eight million people with no access to affordable health care, all of whom would otherwise have been eligible under the program. Republicans have almost gone out of their way in fulfilling the Democrats' caricature of the GOP as a heartless "party of no."

Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that several GOP-led states are already beginning to reconsider accepting the expansion after all.

If Republicans continue to staunchly oppose the Medicaid expansion on principle, they'll be rejecting a widely popular policy and effectively advocating to push people off their new health care coverage. As we saw last year with Obama's broken "you can keep it" promise, stripping people of their existing health insurance doesn't go over so well.

Just don't call it economic equality. USAToday: Take bought off conservatives in Congress out of the equation and, "at a time when Republicans and Democrats disagree about almost everything, on this there is virtually no partisan gap: 61% of Republicans, 68% of Democrats and 67% of independents think economic inequality has been growing in the United States over the past decade."