Beyond the fact that this bill could literally collapse the individual health insurance market in South Carolina, it is also a tribute to fiscal irresponsibility. By giving a tax deduction to South Carolinians who do not carry insurance, the state is essentially paying people to free ride. That’s money, by the way, that will not go to hiring teachers or putting cops on the streets or building schools because it is being diverted to this crusade against Obamacare.

The good news is that this misguided scheme is likely to be struck down in federal court. Under longstanding constitutional law, federal law invalidates state laws that “stand … as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.” Since the sole purpose of this South Carolina bill is to undermine a federal health care law, it should be struck down by the courts.

Even if this scheme is eventually struck down, however, it could do a great deal of damage in the interim. If the bill becomes law, it will mistakenly lead many South Carolinians to believe that they can forgo insurance without consequence. As a result, the cycle of healthy people dropping insurance coverage until they are sick will begin and could continue for months or even years until a final court decision strikes the law down.

Where Did the Debt Come From? (by seeprogress)

President Obama Discusses Growing the Economy and Reducing the Deficit (by whitehouse)

Weekly Address: Extending Middle Class Tax Cuts to Grow the Economy (by whitehouse)

.@SherrodBrown sets record straight about Senate passing the budget (by CAPcongress)

President Clinton: Romney’s Hiding The Truth From The American People (by DNCClips)

Small Business Voices: Small Businesses Aren’t Impacted by Expiration of Bush Tax Cuts (by seeprogress)

Biden: We immediately rescued General Motors. Romney said, “No, let Detroit go bankrupt.” (by OFAClips)

Complete Vice Presidential Debate 2012: Joe Biden vs. Paul Ryan - Oct 11, 2012 - Elections 2012 (by TheNewYorkTimes)

“After facing months of criticism about whether he could successfully provide a 20 percent, across-the-board tax cut to all Americans while not adding to the debt, not giving the rich a tax cut, and not raising taxes on the middle class, Mitt Romney has finally admitted that he would need “flexibility” to make his plan work.”

“After watching Wednesday’s debate, it’s obvious that the time has come to move to the next phase of the debate over Mitt Romney’s tax cut. His tax cut plan remains a massive liability, but it’s time to dismantle it using political jujitsu by turning the force of Romney’s own words and arguments against him. And it can be done with a simple two-part plan.

First, focus primarily on the fact that Romney is proposing to cut taxes by 20 percent on everybody—including the top one percent. When Mitt Romney talks about his tax plan, he calls it an across the board 20 percent tax cut for everybody, including the top one percent. When Democrats and the Obama campaign talk about it, they generally call it a $5 trillion tax cut. Because the total cost of Romney’s tax cut adds up to $5 trillion, that’s an accurate line of attack, but Mitt Romney never uses the $5 trillion figure. As we saw on Wednesday, that allows him to muddy the waters.”

The outcome of the senate race between Tim Kaine and George Allen will reverberate far beyond the state’s borders.

That is as clear a statement of priorities as you could want. Ryan admits that even if the math in their plan can’t work, that even if the tax cuts cannot be paid for by ending loopholes and deductions on the wealthy, he and Ryan would not scale back their planned tax cuts on the rich one penny. And don’t worry, this won’t explode the deficit, because just trust us, the revenues generated by the growth unleashed by the tax cuts will ultimately pay for the plan.

The consensus among many mainstream economists is that this is a “fantasy,” and as Jonathan Bernstein has noted, the same promise by previous GOP presidents has proven it to be magical thinking. Romney himself has admitted under questioning that such thinking is his fallback, too. But yesterday Ryan went considerably further, by explicitly confirming tax cuts are to be prioritized over revenue-neutrality.

The Romney tax plan promises everyone an across the board tax cut, which would be paid for by ending loopholes and deductions, beginning with those enjoyed by the rich. Romney promises that the plan would be revenue neutral. The Tax Policy Center found, however, that it’s mathematically impossible to keep all these promises — the only way to pay for all those tax cuts is to target loopholes enjoyed by the middle class, ultimately hiking their tax burden. Romney sometimes deals with this by insisting the study is wrong and vaguely promising that he will, in fact, make the math work somehow, through negotiations with Congress — after he is elected president, of course.

But here Ryan allowed that even if the math explicitly indicates that the tax cuts cannot be paid for without raising middle class taxes — the conditional Wallace laid down — the Romney administration would proceed with the tax cuts, anyway. Cutting taxes is a more important short term policy goal in Romney’s plan than having it pay for itself. Indeed, Ryan’s claims, by any reasonable measure, represent a confirmed disavowal of the notion that the plan will be “revenue neutral,” if by “revenue neutral” we mean that the plan can be demonstrated to pay for itself up front.

Good to know. Hopefully the priorities on display here will be exposed during the debates.

‘As for Reid’s assessment of the state of Senate races, he told HuffPo that “We feel comfortable in the Senate,” but said the growing influence of independent political groups could tip the balance of power toward the Republicans.

“Where the problem is, is this: Because of the Citizens United decision, Karl Rove and the Republicans are looking forward to a breakfast the day after the election,” Reid said. “They are going to assemble 17 angry old white men for breakfast, some of them will slobber in their food, some will have scrambled eggs, some will have oatmeal, their teeth are gone. But these 17 angry old white men will say, ‘Hey, we just bought America. Wasn’t so bad. We still have a whole lot of money left.’”’