Noem One Of The Poorest Members Of Congress

At least financially.

According to this Washington Post slide show, Noem had net worth of -$111,996 in 2010.

I Ask 20 Political Questions (Part 1)

For the Tea Party

1. You claim that your founding principle is love of freedom and states rights.  Where were you when the Patriot Act, the biggest legislative threat to individual liberty of the 20th Century was passed?  I heard no outcry then.  The same question goes for NCLB which threatens states rights in the same way the Patriot Act threatens political liberty.

2. If you reach your goal of reducing the federal government to the level that it was before the Civil War, what's your plan to deal with corporate power? 

3. Have you forgotten that corporations performed the actions that lead to the Great Recession?  You do remember that we now live in a world where some corporations are now too big to fail?  Does it ever scare you that that fact probably means corporations' success may be as toxic to the common person as their failure was?

4. Why are your leaders such jerks?  I'm thinking about Eric Cantor in particular, but a large number of your national spokespeople remind me of drunken louts sitting in fine restaurants and ruining the meals of other patrons through boorish behavior.

5. Have you read Animal Farm?  You do realize that the allegory applies not only to the Soviet Union but to any group that claims to provide political salvation.  The symbolic pigs who take over any movement eventually become the corrupt men that they expel from the metaphoric farm paradise.  You do know that?  Are you taking any steps to try to prevent that from happening to your movement should you achieve success?

For the Democrats

6. You claim that Republicans and Tea Party members are anti-science and anti-intellectual.  In short, you claim they are foolish, but they cleaned your political clocks in the debt ceiling fight.  If I may paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi, who's the bigger fool, the fool or the fool who loses political fights with the fool?

7. President Obama, you do realize that the ends don't justify the means, don't you?  Do you understand that driving a dictator from power doesn't justify ignoring the Constitution or the War Powers Act?

8.  On the subject of Libya, do you remember what happened to your predecessor when he hung out the "Mission Accomplished" banner a wee bit early?  Can you avoid that mistake even though you couldn't avoid the temptation to not follow the Constitution?

9. South Dakota Democrats, you do realize that Will Rogers was joking when he said that he wasn't part of any organized party; he was a Democrat?  You do understand that if you're going to defeat Noem who is going to get at least two-thirds of the West River vote, you need to get a really strong candidate?

For Republicans

10.  You don't want to close tax loopholes that favor corporations or let the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire, but you seem willing to let the payroll tax break expire at the end of the this year.  Why are you willing to end tax breaks for the common people but not the rich?

All answers need to be done in complete sentences.  Neatness counts.  Part 2 will be assigned later in the week.

How They See Us: Gawker Ranks South Dakota

Gawker writers, who in the main live in New York, are ranking the 50 worst US states.  South Dakota comes in as the 16th worst.  Congressperson Noem does little to help our reputation.

16. South Dakota

The Mount Rushmore State is beautiful and strange, a quiet and vaguely menacing place with more bison than people (or at least it seems that way).
The Good: The whole Badlands/Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore stretch of the state is very pretty. Wild and faraway-feeling, it's like standing in a history book about the pioneer days, but also like standing on the moon. On the way into the Badlands you may pass by, oh say a million or so signs for Mitchell, SD's fabulous Corn Palace, a kitschy tourist trap that's worth the drive just to say you've been. Wind Cave National Park is cool and creepy too, a mysterious place where the main attraction is underground and everything up top is strange prairie grass on low rolling hills, waving in the wind. Shivers!

The Bad: There's nothing there. Nothing! When your most cosmopolitan city is Sioux Falls, you've got a problem. Also, South Dakota boasts the United States congressperson with the worst hair in all of Washington. Look at that hair! Kristi, girl. Choose one look and go with that. You can't have the Rachel and the Monica at the same time. In general, South Dakota's politics tend to trend towards the batshit bonkers side, so beware. Also, the Corn Palace? It's nothing special. Or at least it doesn't justify the fifty million signs that advertise its proximity. I'd be more interested in seeing Kristi Noem's hair salon. And burning it down

Final Score: 4.45

Our neighbors fare a bit better.  North Dakota is 20.  Wyoming is 19.  Montana is 18.  Nebraska is 17.  Minnesota is 45 even with Michele Bachmann. Iowa is 27; the news about deep fried butter improved its rating.

If I am interpreting these ratings correctly, the rest of the world believes that Kristi Noem  is such a liability that even Mount Rushmore cannot overcome her deleterious effects.  Oh well, at least the rating wasn't scientific.

Literature And Politics Mix: Edmund Ross and Everyman

I suppose the current House of Representative membership would consider Profiles in Courage a leftist tract because it lists John F. Kennedy as the author.  In the current political climate, everyone might be better served if Theodore Sorensen, the man most responsible for the book, had his name on the cover.

The profile I remember most is the one about Edmund G. Ross.  Ross famously cast the vote that allowed President Andrew Johnson to remain in office.  Ross know the ramifications of his vote.

Later in life he wrote of the vote, “I almost literally looked down into my open grave.  Friendships, position, fortune, everything that makes life desirable to an ambitious man were about to be swept away by the breath of my mouth, perhaps forever.  It is not strange that my answer was carried waveringly over the air and failed to reach the limits of the audience, or that repetition was called for by distant Senators on the opposite side of the Chamber."

He immediately faced vitriolic attacks.  I do have to admire the style that American writing has lost.

After the vote, Kansas Supreme Court Justice L.D. Bailey sent a telegram to Ross, "the rope with which Judas Iscariot hanged himself is lost, but Jim Lane’s pistol is at your service."  A Kansas newspaper editorial read, “On Saturday last Edmund G. Ross, United States Senator from Kansas, sold himself, and betrayed his constituents; stultified his own record, basely lied to his friends, shamefully violated his solemn pledge and to the utmost of his poor ability signed the death warrant of his country’s liberty.  This act was done deliberately, because the traitor, like Benedict Arnold, loved money better than he did principle, friends, honor, and his country, all combined.  Poor, pitiful, shriveled wretch, with a soul so small that a little pelf would outweigh all things else that dignify or ennoble manhood.”

Ross was far from perfect; in fact, he was something of a political scoundrel. Still he did the right thing for the country in the face of radical opposition.

I don't expect Representative Kristi Noem to emulate Ross and do the right thing to prevent default.  My doubts don't spring from the fact that she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful people in Washington.  I doubt her ability to do the right thing because of these two explanatory paragraphs.

Last fall’s campaign, in which she defeated Democratic incumbent and 50 Most Beautiful People alumna Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, was rife with images of Noem with gently mussed hair near a bale of hay or leaning against a fence post in the pasture.

Noem quickly became a star in Washington, having been asked by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his advisers to join the GOP leadership team before even getting into town.

 In short, Noem used her looks to get elected and get a leadership position for which she had not proven herself.  That cynical use of one's physical features reminds me of the allegory Everyman.  In the play, Beauty, as a character, tells Everyman, "Here at your will be we all ready. / What will ye that we should do?"  At the conclusion of the play, Beauty leaves Everyman at the sight of the grave. 

Beauty.

What—into this grave! Alas! Woe is me!(795)

Everyman.

Yea, there shall ye consume utterly.

Beauty.

And what,—must I smother here?

Everyman.

Yea, by my faith, and never more appear! In this world we shall live no more at all, But in heaven before the highest lord of all.(800)

Beauty.

I cross out all this! Adieu, by Saint John! I take “my tap in my lap” and am gone.

Everyman.

What, Beauty!—whither go ye ?

Beauty.

Peace! I am deaf, I look not behind me, Not if thou wouldest give me all the gold in thy chest.(805)

[Beauty goes, followed by the others, as they speak in turn.

At the sight of a her political open grave, I expect Noem will follow Beauty's example and leave ordinary citizens to deal with the ramifications of default.

Kristi Noem Should Have Gone To Hogwarts Instead Of Interning

Bear with me here because this information gets a little complicated.

According to the Harry Potter Wiki, Charms is a required class.

Charms is a required subject for all students in their first five years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The spells learned in Charms class are taken from textbooks. Students are taught specific wand movements and proper pronounciation. Often students partner up in class to experiment on one another. Charms was Hermione Granger's favourite subject until she started Arithmancy in 1993.

The class "specialises in the teaching of charms."  The wiki explains,

A charm is one of the four known spell types. Charms are distinguished from transfigurations (the two major spell types) in that a charm focuses on altering what the object does as opposed to what the object is.

J.K. Rowling, the woman who famously chronicles Harry Potter's adventures at Hogwarts, claims,

"I see Charms as a slightly lighter subject than transfiguration which is very hard work. With Charms there would be a little more leeway for a little more personal creativity – transfiguration you have to get it exactly right, transfiguration is more scientific." [italics in original]

Today's Argus Leader reports,

As the stalemate over how the nation's debt crisis should be tackled drags on, Rep. Kristi Noem weighed in Thursday.

The state's lone representative in the House said she will not back any proposal that does not "change the spending-spree culture in Washington," put the country on a path to economic recovery or promise not to raise taxes.

This statement seems to imply that the current budget woes are not caused by the current tax policy, and that the everything would be fine if Congress cut spending.  It also seems to indicate that culture is a thing that can be changed.

Culture is a rather abstract concept to be called an object, but if Representative Noem believes it can be changed, I'll consider it an object that can be altered by a charm.  If that's the case, then other amorphous elements should be susceptible to charms.

It seems, therefore, that if someone had spent five years taking a "lighter subject" that "focuses on altering what the object does," one should be able to take an object--say a Bush Tax Cut--and change it from a major cause of the nation's debt to a revenue producer by 2019.

That little bit of magic doesn't appear to be happening.  According to this chart, the Bush Tax Cuts are the biggest drivers of debt.

 

Maybe Representative Noem can try to pass her O.W.L.s after her internship is over.

What Hath ALEC Wrought?

The Los Angeles Times reports on

. . . .a relatively little-known, Washington-based nonprofit group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. Composed of more than 1,500 conservative state legislators and executives of some of the nation's biggest corporations, ALEC collects millions of dollars in corporate contributions to generate a steady stream of bills and resolutions for state action.

The Center for Media and Democracy reports that ALEC differs radically from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) may appear on the surface to mimic the bipartisan educational archetype of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), but ALEC's corporate governance structure, near total reliance on corporate funding, and strong ties to legislators from predominantly one political party make it distinctly different.

The LA Times reports that officials "from every state are members of ALEC, many of them top GOP officials who champion the group's causes."

In South Dakota, Kristi Noem is an ALEC alumna.  Secretary of State Jason Gant serves on the organization's Public Safety and Elections Task Force.  State Senator Deb Peters and State Representative Valentine Rausch serve as the group's state chairpersons.

Let's be clear.  ALEC is not the Illuminati or some other secret group set out to destroy the country.  That being said, I think this group is further proof that corporate power permeates America's political system in an unhealthy way.

Further, I am curious about the following:

• I haven't gone through the list of bills proposed in South Dakota and list of ALEC written bills, but it would be good to know how many South Dakota laws and regulations emanate from ALEC.
• It would also be interesting to know how many regulations have been eliminated through the organization's influence
• How many other South Dakota legislators have participated in the group's conferences?
• Also, there's no list of members of the South Dakota Legislative Research Council who may have attended ALEC conferences.  It would be interesting to know if any member of the LRC has had used the group's templates.
• In a small state, it seems that local media should be able to keep track of what informs legislation.  Why hasn't the media checked this group out?  Why do I have to read about it in the Los Angeles Times?
• Conservatives claim that the states are laboratories of democracy.  I'm curious why conservatives want states to have universal legislation but don't want the federal government to have national mandates.

Is Kristi Noem Playing Political Poker With My Money?

One of poker's most basic unwritten rules is never bet more than you can afford to lose. The only exception to that rule is when one is betting with someone else's money. Today's Mitchell Republic reports,

U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., said any budget deal will need to include “trillions” in budget cuts before she would vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

“In order for me to vote to raise the debt ceiling, we need to cut trillions and change the way we spend money in Washington, D.C. That’s what I’ll be looking for,” Noem told reporters Thursday.

In short, Noem is willing to risk default.  Most of the debate about the effects of a US government default has been theoretical.  Today, however, Kevin Drum points to a case study and its results.

Here's an interesting factlet from Bruce Bartlett. He's addressing the question of whether a "technical" default — i.e., one in which the Treasury Department misses payments to bondholders for just a few days — would affect interest rates. It turns out that we actually have a case study on just this question:

Some may think that a rise in rates would be temporary. But there was a case back in 1979 when a combination of a failure to increase the debt limit in time and a breakdown of Treasury’s machines for printing checks caused a two-week default. A 1989 academic study found that it raised interest rates by six-tenths of a percentage point for years afterward.

Six-tenths of one percent interest rate hikes sound like trouble to me especially given the current job crisis and the rising cost of food and fuel.  Drum does a little math to drive the point home.

My back-of-the-envelope chicken scratching suggests that if this happens again it would cost the government something like $50-100 billion per year. In other words, no matter what debt ceiling deal we reach, upwards of half of it could be wiped out by higher interest costs if it comes too late to prevent default on the debt.

Looking at Drum's numbers, default will cost at least $1 trillion, wiping out one-third to one-half of the cuts Noem claims she wants.  Plus, no one knows the full economic effect of rising interest rates.  If rising rates cause another economic downturn, the deficit will probably increase even with Noem's desired "trillions" in cuts.

(HT @coralhei for Mitchell Republic link)

What Will Kristi Do?

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader opines

It's a good sign that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has indicated that he will work with schools through this limbo created by the stalling of the NCLB reauthorization. He predicted that without changes, more than 80 percent of U.S. schools would be labeled failing next year. No matter what the good intentions of the NCLB law, that sort of failure rate is certainly an unintended consequence.

Congress needs to move quickly to at least put the yearly proficiency ratings standard aside while the next round of education legislation is worked out. Rep. Kristi Noem, who sits on the House Education Committee, is in position to take a lead role in moving this discussion forward. She should do that. [emphasis mine]

Last week KELO reported,

Associated School Boards has discussed the concerns with Representative Kristi Noem, who's on the education committee. She agrees something more needs to be done.

"Just loosening some requirements doesn't really get us more progress down the road that's better for our kids,” Noem said. “We really need to head back to the reauthorization process and fix things that are wrong with the law.". . . .

Noem says she'd like to see new NCLB provisions give more local control to districts, to improve and enhance where they see fit.

South Dakota's most widely circulated paper and the state's school board association believe the state needs some immediate relief from NCLB.  Meanwhile, the New York Times reports,

In a sharp rebuke to the Obama administration, the Republican chairman of the House education committee on Thursday challenged plans by the education secretary to override provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Law, and he said he would use a House rewrite of it this year to rein in the secretary’s influence on America’s schools.

Responding to Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s promise to grant states waivers to the education law’s most onerous provisions if Congress failed to rewrite it, the committee chairman, Representative John Kline of Minnesota, sent Mr. Duncan a letter on Thursday demanding that he explain by July 1 the legal authority that he believed he had to issue the waivers.

Mr. Kline went further in a conference call with reporters, criticizing the administration’s use of the $5 billion Race to the Top grant competition to get states to adopt its reform agenda.

“He’s not the nation’s superintendent,” Mr. Kline said of Mr. Duncan, who assumed powers greater than any of his predecessors when, in 2009, Congress voted $100 billion in economic stimulus money for the nation’s school systems and allowed the secretary to decide how much of it should be spent.  

It seems that House Republicans want to rein in Duncan before they fix NCLB.  Noem seems to be being pulled in opposite directions.

The fact is both goals need to be met.  Duncan needs to be reined in and Congress needs to repair some of NCLB's stupid requirements.  Whatever his faults, Duncan correctly asserts "unless the law is rewritten quickly, 80,000 of the nation’s 100,000 public schools could be declared failing this fall, demoralizing educators and paralyzing administrators with red tape."

NCLB will be a key test for Representative Noem who has shown little talent for anything except raising money.  Can she use her position on the committee to rein in Duncan and fix NCLB before September?

I'm not sanguine about the prospects, but I'll let oddsmakers set the line in the comments.

Debt Ceiling Questions

I was unable to attend Congresswoman's Noem's Yankton appearance.  This David Bell post at the Frum Forum makes me wish I had been there.

According to the Yankton Press & Dakotan coverage, "Noem . . . fielded audience questions on a number of subjects."  One of her responses was described thusly.

An audience member asked how the federal government could hit its debt limit of $14 trillion yet continue operating until August. Noem explained that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner used what he termed “extraordinary measures” such as delaying payments to keep the federal government afloat.

The answer may be fine as far as it goes, but  Bell has a whole list of questions that he wants politicians to answer.

*ask the next Senator you see about the Credit Default Swap situation;

*ask the next Congressman you run across at a fund-raiser about the size of the global derivatives market;

*ask the next Washington, D.C. politician you meet how many swaps and derivatives contracts he or she has personally arranged.

I have to admit that I generally use "derivative" as an adjective meaning "lacking originality."  Were I to use the word in a sentence, I would say "Congresswoman Noem's statements were derivative of John Boehner's talking points."  I'm glad, therefore, that Bell concludes with this less technical question.

And, the coup de grace, just ask anyone if they think it is wise to test a theory about marketplace behavior when failure of that test could severely undermine the confidence of markets all over the world about the reliability and judgment of United States policymakers.

I would have loved to hear Noem's answer to that one.