President Obama used his weekly video address to outline and reset the debate on health care reform.

“I will not sign on to any health plan that adds to our deficit over the next decade.”

This just in from Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence:

“After careful consideration and consultation with the Ranking Minority Member and other members of the Committee, I am announcing an official Committee investigation into possible violations of federal law, including the National Security Act of 1974.

“This investigation will focus on the core issues of how the congressional intelligence committees and Congress are kept fully and currently informed. To this end, the investigation will examine several issues, including the program discussed during [CIA] Director [Leon] Panetta’s June 24th notification and whether there was any official decision or direction to withold information from the Committee.”

The House Democrats appear to have no problem at all bucking the Obama administration, which, through Adm. Dennis Blair, the Chief of Intelligence, claimed that the CIA program was legal and didn’t need to be examined.

(h/t The Plum Line)

The Center for American Progress released a report by Ruy Teixeira this week, “The Coming End of the Culture Wars,” in which Teixeira examines the increasing impotence of social and cultural issues in today’s political debate.

The report makes a few conclusions that should be familiar to FM readers.

Teixeira views the ongoing millennial boom as one reason for the decline in the social issue’s prominence. Given the millennials’ socially liberal views on many traditionally contentious social issues, they don’t seem particularly “alarmed” when conservative concern trolls warn Americans of the country’s leftward shift.

CAP’s Progressive Studies Program’s ideology survey similarly found that 18- to 29-year old Millennials were the most progressive generation by far on a comprehensive 10-item progressive cultural index covering topics ranging from religion, abortion, and homosexuality to race, immigration, and the family. Each item on this index had a 0-10 point range, with the most progressive response on each item receiving 10 points and the most conservative response receiving zero points. Millennials scored 56.6 out of 100 on the index, compared to a range of 46.4 to 52.9 for older generations.

And as more millennials ascend into positions of power and, thus, control the debate, more substantive, quality of life issues will be prevalent, drowning out discussions on issues such as abortion.

Another strong cause for the decreased power of the culture wars is found in demographics.

…The culturally conservative white working class has been declining rapidly as a proportion of the electorate for years. Exit polls show that the proportion of white working-class voters—scoring just 46.3 out of a 100 on the Progressive Studies Program comprehensive 10-item progressive cultural index covering topics ranging from religion, abortion, and homosexuality to race, immigration, and the family—is down 15 points since 1988, while the proportion of far more culturally progressive white college graduate voters (53.3 on the index) is up 4 points, and the proportion of minority voters (54.7 on the index) is up 11 points. State after state since 1988 has replicated this general pattern—a sharp decline in the share of white working-class voters accompanied by increases in the shares of minority voters and, in most cases, of increasingly progressive white college graduate voters.

Along with the decline in white working class voters, the numbers of traditionally progressive portions of the population are on the rise. Single women and professionals headline this group.

It’s very important to point out that millennials aren’t more progressive due to their increased diversity. Teixeira’s report finds that white millennials are more progressive than many of their older siblings and parents.

But it is worth stressing that white Millennials, while not as culturally progressive as their minority counterparts, are still much more progressive than the overall population. Both white college graduate (56.1 on the PSP index) and white working-class Millennials (54.2) are more culturally progressive than older white college-graduate (53.5) and especially white working-class (45.6) adults. The difference between white working-class Millennials and older generations of the white working class is particularly important since it suggests that the white working class as a whole will become significantly less culturally conservative as culturally progressive white working-class Millennials replace conservative older white working-class voters in the electorate. This will severely undercut the popular appeal of culture wars politics, since this segment of the population has provided the bulk of support for such politics.

Teixera concludes by noting that conservatives will most likely continue to inject what they think are divisive issues into the political debate for political gain, though they’ll find these efforts to be less successful with time. With the millennials coming into power, the American political dialogue should change for the better thanks to a far more focused discussion of the issues that can drastically improve Americans’ quality of life.

An interesting tidbit on Political Wire today:

Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) “was one of a handful of Republican governors who refused some federal stimulus funds from President Obama’s economic recovery package on the grounds that there were too many strings attached to the money,” CBS News reports.

“Now that the state is dire straits, however, Perry is asking the federal government for a loan to cover the very expenses the rejected stimulus money would have paid for.”

If Governor Perry hadn’t been grandstanding, even hinting toward secession a few months ago, and was instead focused on governing his state to the best of his ability, perhaps he would have been insightful enough to gather that he could have used the stimulus money to cover those needs.

Instead, Texas is regrettably saddled with a governor intent on winning childish skirmishes and re-fighting battles that were settled nearly 150 years ago.

Rachel Krause, the intern at Future Majority, where I write on the weekends, has a great article posted at Campus Progress.  The article explains that youth violence is spiking across the country due to the poor economy, the resulting cuts in services, and the free time that goes with summer.

Go check it out.

Mark Penn, the chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, thought he might be able to get back into public political prognostication a year after his biggest professional failure. In a Politico piece, Penn predicts the reaction of Americans when unemployment hits ten percent, what he calls a “political tripwire.”

Unless some tough decisions are made soon, rising jobless figures will most likely hit what could be a public opinion and political tripwire: 10 percent unemployment.

If and when the country crosses that line, it will be the No. 1 news story for days, recent stock market gains could recede, and consumer confidence will fall. And whether or not the economic crisis is coming to an end, such a high unemployment level has the potential to undermine the hard-won confidence enjoyed by the Obama administration. The Republicans will quickly claim all we have is more debt and fewer jobs.

Let’s get something straight: unemployment will creep past ten percent. Even the Obama administration acknowledges this.

But let’s also examine Penn’s accuracy with previous predictions and success as a political consultant on the big stage. It’s not pretty.

1.) Penn’s strategy memo for Clinton, written on March 30, 2007, predicts the unelectability of Barack Obama due to his lack of American roots:

But he also called Obama “unelectable except perhaps against Attila the Hun,” and wrote, “I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.” Penn proposed targeting Obama’s “lack of American roots.”

2.) Josh Marshall points out in a 2008 post that Penn, quite frankly, sucks at advising Democratic presidential campaigns.

But some knowledgeable campaign watchers have now confirmed me in my impression that virtually every Democratic primary campaign Penn has run going back to 2000 or earlier has lost — Checchi, Blanchard, Cuomo, Lieberman, Deutsch. The guy has an absolutely terrible record.

Oh yeah – he lost in 2008 too.

As we examine the success or failure of the stimulus going forward, there are many people more qualified than Mark Penn to accurately and truthfully discuss its impact.

One of the bigger stories over the next few years among American youth will be the adjustments made in a struggling economy. 80 Million Strong has already done fantastic work on this issue.

The New York Times published a piece the other day on the millennials’ struggles to find summer employment and how they’re adjusting.

School’s out for summer 2009, and instead of getting a jump on the boundless futures that parents and colleges always promised them, students this year are receiving a reality check.

The well-paying summer jobs that in previous years seemed like a birthright have grown scarce, and pre-professional internships are disappearing as companies cut back across the board. Recession-strapped parents don’t always have the means or will to bankroll starter apartments or art tours of Tuscany.

So many college students and recent graduates are heading to where they least expected: back home, and facing an unfamiliar prospect: downtime, maybe too much of it. To a high-achieving generation whose schedules were once crammed with extracurricular activities meant to propel them into college, it feels like an empty summer — eerie, and a bit scary.

I don’t want to be too positive here, especially given the legitimate economic trauma hitting many youth now (the article eventually cites data showing that almost one in four sixteen to nineteen year olds is unemployed). I do think, though, that these difficult times that lay ahead could fortify this generation and put the finishing touches on a group of people that are eventually going to need to rebuild the United States. Resourcefulness — namely learning and practicing those still-useful skills taken for granted by our parents and grandparents — is something that’s gone by the wayside. While keeping up with cutting edge technology is our expertise, we often allow it to become a hindrance from developing other skills that we might value in the tough times ahead, like sewing, canning, and gardening, among other things.

There are major problems with the economy, and they’re disproportionately impacting youth. But the entirety of the experience doesn’t have to be negative. This summer of boredom could lead to unforeseen positives for those willing to explore.

Just some food for thought. Any comments?

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Hope you all enjoyed your Fourth!

Paul Krugman makes an interesting comparison at his blog:

Now the real thing has been scored — and it’s OK. Something like 97 percent coverage for people already legally here, at a total cost somewhere in the $1 trillion range. Bear in mind that the Bush tax cuts cost around $1.8 trillion over a decade. We can do this — and have no excuse for not doing it.

Tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires = $1.8 trillion.

Health care for everyone = $1 trillion, at most.

Last week Sarah at Future Majority wrote about the lasting negative impacts recessions can have on society, decimating a generation’s collective trust placed in important financial institutions and processes.

There’s another side to this recession coin, though. As cliche as it may be, one large opportunity we as Americans have is to re-examine what really matters to us. I’m not invoking that mushy stuff about “living like you’re dying,” or seizing the day, living as if every day is your last. Unfortunately deaths occur every day that reinforce the fragility of life. Recessions force us to get back to basics. We have to clean out our closets, separating the SWAG of life from the non-negotiables.

This perspective was reflected in last year’s presidential campaign. Barack Obama was lambasted by conservatives for refusing to wear a flag pin on his jacket’s lapel. The audacity! Then-candidate Obama would go on to explain that patriotism is more than whether or not one places a piece of metal on one’s coat.

“Somebody noticed I wasn’t wearing a flag lapel pin and I told folks, well you know what? I haven’t probably worn that pin in a very long time. I wore it right after 9/11. But after a while, you start noticing people wearing a lapel pin, but not acting very patriotic. Not voting to provide veterans with resources that they need. Not voting to make sure that disability payments were coming out on time.

“My attitude is that I’m less concerned about what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart. And you show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who served. You show your patriotism by being true to our values and our ideals and that’s what we have to lead with is our values and our ideals.”

Since September 2001, many a politician, with an eye on the patriotism market, donned those flag pins. They became a part of our culture. The conventional wisdom never questioned them. And I’d wager that if a candidate refused to wear a pin before the economy’s crumble, say John Kerry in 2004, the refusal would have been met with scorn and powerful attacks by the GOP on Kerry’s patriotism that would have stuck (the Swift Boat stuff could have been irrelevant). But Obama’s decision to shed the pin and explanation came too far into Bush’s term. By that point, the Bush administration’s complacency in dealing with Hurricane Katrina had already been well-noticed on the Gulf Coast and everywhere else. People had already sensed that families were losing their brave patriots in a war that shouldn’t have been fought. And signs of a faltering economy were already prevalent. Suddenly problem-solving mattered more than symbols. Before the chaos, symbolic warfare may have captivated Americans; following the storm, it didn’t matter.

The back-to-basics theme is relevant around a holiday like the Fourth of July, a day on which we commemorate the blood, sweat, tears, and everything else that coalesced into the United States of America. On a day that sees many customs observed, there is none bigger than fireworks. Unfortunately, even the most basic of customs comes with a hefty price tag. Paired with the worst economic climate in decades, the price is becoming too much for many communities to bear, setting up a “y” in the road: pay for an hour-long fireworks show, or retain jobs.

Average Americans have been able to enjoy past Independence Days, free from the burden of severe financial pressure and other things that a bad economy brings. Pleasant memories of these times yield some cognitive dissonance for these same Americans when presented with today’s fork in the road: fireworks or their troubled pursuit of happiness?

Euclid, Ohio, profiled in the Los Angeles Times this week, is one of many communities struggling with this very decision.

People have long considered the fireworks a treasure of this Cleveland suburb, where flags fly year-round in neighborhoods of bungalows and stores post signs for passersby to “support our troops.”

But the fireworks and singing along to “The Star-Spangled Banner” on a warm summer night — and the police and firefighters needed to manage the 30,000 people who turn out — don’t come cheap.

So this year, Euclid will have no fireworks. “I’m 55 years old and I can’t remember not going to one of these,” Cervenik said.

As the economic crisis has dragged on, city leaders around the country say fireworks are a luxury they can no longer afford. Big and small, urban and rural, the skies will remain dark over at least four dozen communities nationwide come July 4.

“It came down to this: Did we want to spend $150,000 on something that would be over in a few hours?” Cervenik said. “Or did we want to use that money to keep city workers employed?”

Fireworks don’t mean much when quality of life is seriously threatened, just as flag pins don’t carry the same value when the pursuit of happiness we treasure is in peril.

Euclid officials and the leaders of other communities choosing to sacrifice fireworks shows in the name of economic viability should be applauded. This choice, while wrenching, presents an opportunity to shine the spotlight on that which is really the most influential to our collective pursuits. It forces us to recognize that flag pins and fireworks exist because of something bigger. It forces us to separate that SWAG from the non-negotiables of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.