Just Another Day in the Senate

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The LA Times reports on Ben Bernake’s confirmation hearings for a second term as Fed chairman:

Reflecting the antagonism Bernanke faces in Congress, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont placed a hold on the Fed chief’s nomination late Wednesday.

The move by Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Senate’s Democrats, isn’t expected to derail Bernanke’s confirmation.

Aside from my general dislike of the whole hold process, this is a pretty good example of a big specific problem with it: namely that I don’t think Sanders has even the slightest hope that his hold is genuinely going to keep Bernanke from being confirmed.  I mean, Paul Krugman and Dean Baker both favor his reappointment, for God’s sake.  So all this does is gum up the gears and force the Senate to spend time on Bernanke instead of the million other things it should be spending time on.

Alternatively, I suppose maybe Sanders is just using this to get leverage for something he wants.  I still think holds are a lousy way to do this, but I suppose some good could come out of it if it raises public awareness of the fact that the Fed is supposed to bear some responsibility for maintaining full employment, not just controlling inflation.  Unfortunately, it’s more likely to raise public awareness of cranky Ron Paul-esque Fed bashing, which doesn’t do anyone any good.  (Except for Ron Paul, of course.)  All in all, just another day in the Senate, the world’s worst legislative body.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate