memeorandum: Is Health Care Special? (Uwe E. Reinhardt/Economix)

11:00 AM ET, August 6, 2010

Top Items:

Private Growth Is Tepid as U.S. Economy Sheds Jobs Overall — With the American economic recovery hanging in the balance, private employers added 71,000 jobs in July, up from a downwardly revised 31,000 in June but below the consensus forecast of 90,000. The unemployment rate stayed steady at 9.5 percent.

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Atlantic Online, Calculated Risk, The Moderate Voice, Economix, BBC, Free exchange, Guardian, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Daily Kos, NewsBusters.org, Outside the Beltway, The Other McCain and Left Coast Rebel

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Employers Shed Jobs — Unemployment Rate Held Steady at 9.5% in July — WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy shed more jobs than expected in July while the unemployment rate held steady at 9.5%, a further sign the economic recovery may be losing momentum.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Caucus, Gateway Pundit, Real Time Economics and Don Surber

CNBC:

Jobs Picture Worsens With 131,000 Losses; 9.5% Rate — U.S. employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery. — Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Townhall.com, Scared Monkeys and New York Magazine

Ezra Klein:

Jobs report: Public sector loses 202,000 jobs; private sector gains 71,000 — The July jobs report is bad news for jobs, but tepidly good news for recovery. Another 143,000 census positions expired, contributing to a total public sector job loss of more than 200,000 jobs.

Discussion: gopleader.gov and Eschaton

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:

Jobs Report Terrible, Again — The economy lost 131,000 jobs in July, all of them in the government. Private payrolls added north of 70,000 workers—anemic in the face of our current unemployment rate, but hey, at least it's something. But government jobs fell by 200,000, mostly …

Discussion: The Daily Dish and Weekly Standard

Christopher S. Rugaber / Associated Press:
Companies hire at slow pace for 3rd straight month

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Plum Line

Kirk Victor / Hotline On Call:

Romer To Leave White House — Christina Romer, chairwoman of Pres. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, has decided to resign, according to a source familiar with her plans. — Romer, an economics professor at the University of California (Berkeley) before taking the key admin post, did not respond to repeated calls to her office.

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

Christina Romer, chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, to resign — Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, has resigned her post to return to her old job as an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, the White House said Thursday.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic Online, Reuters, Ezra Klein, Wonk Room, The New Republic and Greg Mankiw's Blog

CNN:

Republicans slam White House over new jobs report — Washington (CNN) - Congressional Republicans are using the release of July's jobs report to criticize the Obama administration's economic policies. — The Labor Department reports Friday that the unemployment rate stayed steady …

Discussion: The Politico

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Top Obama Adviser on Economics to Step Down

Discussion: Free exchange and National Review

Shane D'Aprile / Ballot Box: Boehner: Dem ethics troubles won't have big impact on elections

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Flimflam Man — One depressing aspect of American politics is the susceptibility of the political and media establishment to charlatans. You might have thought, given past experience, that D.C. insiders would be on their guard against conservatives with grandiose plans.

Discussion: Clusterstock, Paul Krugman, TalkLeft, AmSpecBlog, Daily Kos, Prairie Weather, Hullabaloo, Economist's View and Balloon Juice

Manu Raju / The Politico:

McConnell to Franken: This isn't ‘SNL’ — When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laid out his opposition to Elena Kagan's Supreme Court nomination, someone in the chamber appeared to be moving around in his chair, gasping and rolling his eyes. — It was Sen. Al Franken.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Doug Ross, The Note, New York Magazine, USA Today and Don Surber

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell scolds Franken for making faces from dais during his speech

Discussion: Power Line, The Caucus, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Politico, WHAS and Wall Street Journal

Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Senate Votes to Confirm Elena Kagan for U.S. Supreme Court

Discussion: City Room, Los Angeles Times, Law Blog, CNN, Wall Street Journal, The TrogloPundit, Washington Post, RHRealityCheck.org, ACS Blog, The Reaction, Open Congress, msnbc.com, The Hill, Indecision Forever, The Impolitic, MyDD and The Confluence

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

Scalia Was Right — Why the same-sex marriage ruling will stand. — For the first time, a federal judge has held that the Constitution mandates the legal redefinition of marriage. The California Supreme Court had reached a similar conclusion in 2008, and voters responded by amending …

Discussion: Betsy's Page, American Spectator, The BLT, neo-neocon, RedState, Sadly, No!, PostPartisan and Althouse

Jesse McKinley / New York Times:
Gay Marriage Ruling a Challenge for Both Parties

Discussion: Law Blog, The BLT and KRLD-AM

Gretchen Morgenson / New York Times:

Exotic Deals Put Denver Schools Deeper in Debt — In the spring of 2008, the Denver public school system needed to plug a $400 million hole in its pension fund. Bankers at JPMorgan Chase offered what seemed to be a perfect solution. — The bankers said that the school system …

Discussion: The Spot, The Fix, The Washington Independent, Open Left, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Hotline On Call

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

IGNORING AN ALARM.... In light of the latest discouraging jobs report — the third consecutive month in which the job totals were disappointing — there's an obvious course ahead. Heidi Shierholz, an economist from the Economic Policy Institute, said, “The economic case for more government action …

Discussion: Eschaton

Richard E. Cohen / The Politico:
State aid bill a gamble for Dems

Discussion: The Page

Oleoleolson / AlterNet Blogs:

Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered — A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives.

Discussion: Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Truth Wins Out, Balloon Juice, Gawker, Firedoglake, Guardian, ReadWriteWeb, The BRAD BLOG and Newshoggers.com, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Guest List for Rangel's Birthday Celebration Shrinks — One New York representative said he could not make it because he had to march in a local firefighters' parade. Another said that, as much as she wanted to go, she had to visit family out of town. Yet another just sent his regrets …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and New York Magazine

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Charlie Rangel won't ‘plea bargain’

Discussion: Gothamist, AmSpecBlog, The Daily Politics, The Hill and The Page

Walter Alarkon / The Hill:

Old Washington hands break with GOP leaders on Bush-era tax cuts — A number of old Republican hands warning of a deficit crisis have split with the GOP leadership over extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts. — Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), President Reagan's budget chief David Stockman …

Discussion: The Politico and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Aaron Blake / The Fix:

Bill Haslam wins GOP nomination for governor in Tennessee — Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam ran away with the Republican nomination for governor of Tennessee on Thursday, beating a field that included Rep. Zach Wamp and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. — With 6 percent of precincts reporting, Haslam led second-place Wamp 52 percent to 27 percent.

Discussion: CNN, Scared Monkeys and The Page

Sean J. Miller / Ballot Box:
Rep. Wamp loses gov. primary to Mayor Haslam

Discussion: The Politico and MyDD

Kenzaburo Oe / New York Times:

Hiroshima and the Art of Outrage — THE Futenma Marine Corps Air Station on Okinawa, one of the largest United States military bases in East Asia, is in the center of a crowded city. The American and Japanese governments acknowledge the dangers of this situation, and they agreed nearly 15 years ago …

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Questions and Observations and American Power

Eric Lipton / New York Times:

Current or Former Lawmakers Linked to Endowments Made by Corporations — WASHINGTON — Nearly a dozen current or former lawmakers have been honored by university endowments financed in part by corporations with business before Congress, posing some potential conflicts like that attributed …

Discussion: TPMMuckraker and Cynthia Tucker

Keach Hagey / The Politico:

The RNC's least favorite reporter — One Times scribe has made the infighting within the Republican National Committee his beat. Reuters — The Republican National Committee, embroiled in an internal squabble over the leadership of chairman Michael Steele, is leaking like a sieve.

Discussion: The Washington Independent

Walter Shapiro / Politics Daily:

Nancy Pelosi's Fate Could Be Decided Here: The View From Oregon — WEST LINN, Oregon — Bullseye Coffee — a café, a yarn shop and a postal box rental center all in one homey room with local art (all for sale) on the walls — is a prime spot to chart how the economic doldrums are shaping this election year.

Discussion: The Eye

Nelson D. Schwartz / New York Times:

2 Top Economists Differ Sharply on Risk of Deflation — When the latest unemployment figures are announced on Friday, all of Wall Street will be watching. But for Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley and Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs, the results will be more than just another marker in an avalanche of data.

Discussion: Vox Popoli