Many of the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act have yet to be finalized.
When It Comes to Pay, All Feds Aren’t Created Equal
It comes as little surprise to hill watchers that House staff are underpaid compared to their Senate equivalents, let alone executive branch and private sector staff, but we decided to dig a bit deeper. Just in time for the holidays (and those non-existent public sector bonuses) here’s a comparison of key positions in the House, Senate, and executive branch. We admit that the data is a bit old, like the Ghost of the War on Christmas Past, but it’s the best we can do with what’s available.
Money in politics drives up U.S. corruption perception index
The United States scores worse than many of its partners in the developed world on this year’s Corruption Perception Index in part because of money in politics, the group that publishes the index said Wednesday.
Transparency International’s compilation of surveys by well known civic and business groups ranked the U.S. at 19 among 174 countries, with No. 1 being the country with the least perception of corruption (a ranking shared by Denmark, Finland and New Zealand) and No. 174 (Somalia) being the country perceived as the most corrupt. Among the nations getting a better ranking than than the U.S. were Singapore, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Japan.
Another reason for a fiscal cliff standstill: too many safe seats?
As “fiscal cliff” negotiations continue to slow to a standstill, Americans might be feeling frustrated about the inability of their representatives to reach a compromise. Wasn’t the election supposed to settle the argument?
There are many reasons to explain the intransigence. Last week, we documented the ubiquitous lobbying on tax and budget issues that will almost certainly complicate any attempt to reach a deal.
But there’s another factor to keep in mind: The majority of members of Congress have relatively homogenous constituencies. That means they’re probably hearing overwhelmingly from only one side of the argument back home, and facing limited pressure to find a compromise.
Regular Fix readers know that we are BIG fans of the Patchwork Nation project — an attempt to go beyond the simplistic geographic or socioeconomic categories by which we slice and dice voters and instead develop a richer (and more accurate) way to view the various subsets of our American electorate.
So, when we saw a map of the 2012 presidential election results split into the 12 Patchwork Nation voter categories on the WNYC website we had to have it. Thanks to their good will, it’s reproduced below.
Will lobbyists complicate “fiscal cliff” deal-making?
As the wheeling and dealing around the “fiscal cliff” continues to envelop Washington, thousands of lobbyists representing more than a billion dollars are watching, and getting ready to complicate any potential deal.
After all, any grand bargain on spending and revenue will go right at the heart of two of the most heavily-lobbied issues in Washington: budget and taxes. Pick any tax loophole or any budget line item, and there’s almost certainly a lobbyist there to pressure deal-makers to pick a different loophole or budget item. Pick that loophole or budget item, and, well, you get the idea…
Presidential Campaign 2012, By the Numbers
Join the Sunlight Foundation!
Follow the money from big Dem donors to super PACs to races
Big money won big on Election Day. That is, big money supporting Democrats.
In this year’s campaign, many wealthy individuals and groups with large campaign coffers were involved — directly with contributions to candidates or indirectly through outside spending. Sunlight decided to zero in on five mega-donors who gave the most to super PACs backing liberal candidates.
Check out the House and Presidential races.
Will Your Paycheck Fall Off The Fiscal Cliff?
The Fiscal Cliff is a collection of Federal tax and spending changes that will affect the tax liability of nearly everyone in America. In payroll, potential increases in withholding percentages and the number of allowances you can claim for your tax situation will directly affect your take home pay.
Plotting whitehouse.gov secession petitions
Outside spenders’ return on investment
Tuesday’s elections produced some big winners — and some really big losers — whose names never appeared on any ballot. After outside groups spent more than $1.3 billion in independent expenditures to influence the outcome of the election, we now get to see just what all that money bought them — or didn’t.
How America’s richest counties voted
There are six counties in the US with a median income of more than $100,000. Here’s the list. And here’s how they voted:
Loudoun County, Virginia: Obama 51.6%, Romney 47.2%
Falls Church, Virginia: Obama 69.1%, Romney 29.6%
Fairfax, Virginia: Obama 57.3%, Romney 41.1%
Los Alamos, New Mexico: Obama 48.7%, Romney 45.0%
Howard, Maryland: Obama 59.5%, Romney 38.3%
Hunterdon, New Jersey: Obama 40.0%, Romney 58.9%
Most of the nation shifted to the right in Tuesday’s vote, but not far enough to secure a win for Mitt Romney.
Nov. 6, 2012 poll closing times and key races
Below the fold is a list of key House, Senate, and gubernatorial races taking place on Nov. 6, 2012, arranged by poll closing times. States with multiple closing times are listed in order of their earliest closing, with the exception of Oregon (where most of the state is in the Pacific time zone). All times are Eastern, not local.
