"You know who may not be fine? The jobless."
Top DC blogger Ezra Klein has risen quickly in influence and reach over the last decade, from blogging independently to labor-left magazine the American Prospect to the Washington Post, where he soon picked up an assistant and then a staff of bloggers. Klein has long been a big draw for those of us who folllow the intersection of politics and domestic policy; these days, his Wonkblog is absolutely indispensable.
Over the years Klein's writing has gotten more technocratic in emphasis and less stridently liberal. There's plenty that's good about this—Klein's the kind of person who follows the policy where it takes him rather than letting ideology map out the path—but I miss the populist fervor of some of his older work. So this week's post on the ridiculous flap over White House tours, which were canceled as a result of sequester cuts, was a breath of fresh air:
So, these kids come to town, they can’t get the tour they scheduled through their member of Congress, and now they’re not so happy with their member of Congress and the sequester. That means that member of Congress now has a problem with some of their constituents — and with the kinds of constituents who are likely to contact their member of Congress when their kid goes to Washington.
That’s what makes the outrage over White House tours a bit gross... Those folks are going to be fine without their White House tour. You know who may not be fine? The jobless, who are seeing their unemployment checks cut by almost 10 percent [under the sequester].
