GoProFan
209 posts
My term as Medpac chair ended last month. It was an incredible honor to serve with the exceptional staff and commissioners. (I am told I served with 61 of the past 65 commissioners). I have a few broad takeaways
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@adlm_adlm @tomaskenn Alright so at least we share some baseline assumptions - no unlimited dollars. Now we're talking about tradeoffs. Money for transit is unavailable for childcare subsidies. Or something else. If we want big progressive wins in transit or anywhere else, we have to sweat the cents.
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@GoProFan383051 @tomaskenn No one has proposed unlimited dollars, simply that his basic argument is inconsistent, biased, and makes the kind of assumptions you should expect from a lay person who just learned about public budgets the same day they were tasked with this assignment.
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You can’t build cohesive and functional public infrastructure and spaces with this guy’s worldview. It’s selfish, antisocial, and unworkable.
Washington Post Opinions@PostOpinions
In Washington D.C., taxpayers who don’t take the train or bus are increasingly subsidizing those who do, and it’s not sustainable. @DominicJPino explains why. 🔗 Read more: wapo.st/42nR9Ok
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@politacole @mattyglesias be unapologetic all you want, but run candidates that can win in red and purple states.
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@mattyglesias You're slowing being forced to accept your entire theory of politics is wrong. Calibrated moderation, cooked up by DC insiders like Third Way, alienates a real portion of Dem voters (which you never acknowledge) *and* doesn't peel off incoherent/ignorant normies or MAGA diehards.
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Voters do tend to have slightly weird mishmashes of views compared to elites who think in more ideological terms, but it's not like their views are random or unpredictable or incompehensable.
slowboring.com/p/shmoderation…
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@bscholl @mattyglesias you cannot in fact solve political problems in the US by simply abstracting away all of the underlying politics and driving a definitionally unpopular agenda
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Stop deficit spending and inflation will end as if by magic. This isn’t hard, except getting Congress to make the necessary cuts.
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@bal_english @PostOpinions @DominicJPino I think MPD was just a metric for comparison - the issue is the sustainability of the relative growth trajectory and the changes in transit labor force which go largely unmentioned by transit advocates but def matter in terms of the affordability of the system overall.
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@GoProFan383051 @PostOpinions @DominicJPino but the video makes no claims about MPD being underfunded. If it at all implies these tax $ would be better spent elsewhere, it is only a light implication AT MOST. It is a poorly constructed argument that does nothing to support the idea that MPD is a good metric for comparison
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In Washington D.C., taxpayers who don’t take the train or bus are increasingly subsidizing those who do, and it’s not sustainable. @DominicJPino explains why.
🔗 Read more: wapo.st/42nR9Ok
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@theHillisHome We've got to get rid of this 'punch down' metaphor - it's remarkably lazy. Who's the subordinate party in this situation being punched down to? Transit unions? I think they can handle a robust debate about the right level of labor intensity.
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WaPo opinions continue to punch down and say demonically bad things under the guise of levelheaded, common sense observations. Happy May Day, labor unions— gah, why do we have to employ so many people 🙄
Washington Post Opinions@PostOpinions
In Washington D.C., taxpayers who don’t take the train or bus are increasingly subsidizing those who do, and it’s not sustainable. @DominicJPino explains why. 🔗 Read more: wapo.st/42nR9Ok
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@bal_english @PostOpinions @DominicJPino Because tax revenue is finite and we have to make efficient use of scarce resources. If wmata subsidies swallow DC's budget, it means we have fewer resources to invest in other public goods (be it police, parks, social programming, whatever).
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@PostOpinions @DominicJPino this video takes one or two important ideas, and completely extrapolates them into points that are nonsensical and poorly articulated.
> "DC now spends more on WMATA than it does on police."
Why is this relevant in any way?? Why are police budgets the basis for comparison??
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@danielschuman @PostOpinions @DominicJPino I don't think he's arguing that point - he's raising the valid question of labor intensity and generating efficient returns for public investment. As Klein argues in Abundance, the capacity of the state to drive progressive solutions rests in part on asking tough questions.
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@PostOpinions @DominicJPino This proceeds from the wrong starting point. Taxpayers without kids subsidize public schools . Taxpayers who use fire services subsidize those whose houses catch fire. Taxpayers subsidize those who drive a lot.
Public transit is a public good.
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@JohnGonzalesLA1 @mattyglesias Curious - do you like those anonymous, cookie cutter modern alternatives? Obv from the comments, many of us don't. What appeals to you?
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@mattyglesias I think you are missing the fact that what seems to appeal to you IS an anti-massing technique. It’s not the type that has as dramatic a geometric effect as largely offset planes, but it IS use of the sort of anti-massing techniques referred to in design standards.
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New development across the street from the jail has actually done the thing of trying to look like separate buildings with mostly traditiinal façades rather than weird “anti-massing” features.
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I do not think people outside politics fully understand how insane what Virginia Democrats did actually was. They redrew the map so that five congressional districts effectively originate in Fairfax, which is packed with left wing government workers, and then stretch outward across the state like tentacles.
Sean Davis@seanmdav
Hard to overstate how much Virginia’s insanity, led by Democrat Louise Lucas, pushed multiple red states to redistrict. The Callais decision from SCOTUS was obviously important, but by itself it wouldn’t have led to TN or AL redistricting. The insanely corrupt Democrat overreach in Virginia is what tipped the scales for a lot of red state Republican legislators who were on the fence.
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@maustermuhle keeping it real - this dc elite vibe of open contempt for often red state people who make different choices is why we keep losing elections.
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Morning scene: A guy driving a Ford F-250 with a “No Elec” license plate pulls into a D.C. gas station where a gallon starts at $4.59. (The F-250 comes standard with a 34-gallon tank.)
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@GreatReplacer @mattyglesias Ideally doing a lot of work in that sentence.
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@mattyglesias I don't have a problem with moderates and centrists. I have a problem with people who preach bipartisanship with a Republican Party that has no interest in compromise. Ideally, we would have compromises between moderates and leftists, ignoring conservatives.
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this is a story about a man who drowned in tar
Chronicle editors assigned it to Sondra Hernandez, thus guaranteeing it would be incompetently reported
let's take a look
Houston Chronicle@HoustonChron
A worker died after a tar spill buried him at a South Houston Martin Resource Management plant, prompting an investigation. houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
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What could it be, what could the cause be. Unfortunately, we'll never know. It'll be a mystery, like Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster.
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@mfcannon @washingtonpost @LizFowler_ Respect both you and Liz but let me get this straight - you want dems to embrace a proposal that will score as a tax increase and invite comparisons to 'you can keep your doctor if you want to', and R's are supposed to buck the hospital and insurance lobbies to save money. Doubt
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@washingtonpost @LizFowler_ I have been spending a lot of time shopping to both Republican and Democratic health wonks a hybrid strategy for reform of the exclusion that I call Universal Health Accounts. Our oped lays out the basic idea.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…
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Today, the @washingtonpost published my oped with former Baucus/Obama/Biden health advisor @LizFowler_ on THE most important issue in health policy.
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@HankThomasDC A few good acts playing Wolf Trap this summer. Sometimes you can see good bands at the Warner or the 9:30. Wharf is pretty good, few thousand capacity. Agree big picture - bands tend to tour Cali, a few NE states and parts of the south (Charlotte not too bad).
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So many bands skip DC now. Wild that the nation’s capital has become a flyover city for live music. Too many nearby substitutes - Tours can hit Baltimore, Philadelphia, or Richmond and still draw fans from the broader DMV without paying DC costs.
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@WillCJohns @ehaspel @mattyglesias Exactly - it would be even MORE beneficial if child care were provided exclusively by pediatricians and harvard-educated phds with training in early childhood development. And Elliot could still accomplish that with the public financing mechanism he's already endorsed.
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@ehaspel @mattyglesias Probably everything below. These can be things people care about but it's just not true that you have to. Childcare can also just be about custodial care of children so parents can utilize comparative advantage and engage in more productive activities.
x.com/ehaspel/status…
Elliot Haspel@ehaspel
Child care is so, so much more than just the custodial act of keeping a young child safe. The relationship between a young child and their caregiver(s) quite literally shapes brain development. To say nothing of the ways in which child care providers can be trusted sources of advice, connection, and frequently partner with families to improve the day-to-day experience of childhood and parenthood. This is simply not a place where you want low wages, acute caregiver stress, and sky-high turnover! Is child care very much subject to Baumol's Cost Disease? Of course. But there is another option: it's called public funding!
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@mattyglesias @ewwilkins @nytimes Exactly. All governance is a trade off, but leavers are concluding that high costs, stifling reg environment, and public safety/school quality are a deal killer. Fix that and people will stay.
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The @nytimes wanted to talk about why blue states are losing population to red states. Besides getting the story wrong, the question misses the point: We should be asking what kind of policy and governance can deliver on the lives people want to lead?
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