Tag Archives: legislative politics

“Remedy and Reaction”: Reactions

Posted on May 10, 2012 by

Generals are always fighting the last war is a standard political cliché, meaning that politicians have a tendency to overgeneralize from previous experience. Democrats who lost the 1993 health care reform fight vowed not to repeat the same apparent mistakes … Continue reading →

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Rolling Back the Submerged State

Posted on April 14, 2011 by

If you listened carefully to President Obama’s big policy speech on the national debt yesterday you may have heard this: “The tax code is also loaded up with spending on things like itemized deductions. And while I agree with the … Continue reading →

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Budgeting in Bad Faith

Posted on April 11, 2011 by

There’s an honest debate that needs to happen in the United States about reducing a large and growing national debt. Instead, we have major confusion at the moment, and most of the seeds have been sown by Representative Paul Ryan … Continue reading →

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No Deal: How the Tea Party Has Helped to Stall Obama’s New Deal

Posted on April 5, 2011 by

Charlotte Cavaille reports on a recent Harvard panel about the politics of the Tea Party and the Obama social agenda Commentators and political scientists trying to document the Obama presidency face the following puzzle: why, despite an impressive list of … Continue reading →

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Four Tidbits About the U.S. Economic Recovery

Posted on March 7, 2011 by

The Great Recession that began in late 2007 in the United States officially ended in June 2009, but anybody can plainly see that we are still miles from a full recovery. The February unemployment rate of 8.9 percent is considered … Continue reading →

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What Does the Public Think Unions Stand For? The Battle for Hearts and Minds in Wisconsin

Posted on February 21, 2011 by

Are public sector labor unions greedy leeches on the side of government, or are they the last bulwark of a national movement for working people? The battle to define American public sector labor unions, and the labor movement in general, … Continue reading →

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The Tax Deal with Republicans — Cui Bono?

Posted on December 14, 2010 by

There’s been a lot of hemming and hawing on the American left about President Obama’s deal to extend tax cuts for the rich (the Bush tax cuts) and the estate tax in exchange for tax credits for working families and … Continue reading →

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Change the Discourse, Don’t Change the Bill

Posted on November 4, 2010 by

“Repeal and replace Obamacare” was a rallying cry for Republican challengers on the campaign trail this fall. Now that Republicans have regained Governorships and Congressional districts across the country, the battle to save the health care law swings into full … Continue reading →

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Doobieous Politics: Will Legal Marijuana Help Minority Communities?

Posted on November 1, 2010 by

Proposition 19, the California ballot initiative that would decriminalize possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, has largely been an amusing sideshow in an otherwise nasty election season. Polls show that Californians are fairly split on the initiative, but … Continue reading →

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When There’s No More Fat to Trim: State Budgets and Public Opinion

Posted on October 24, 2010 by

When voters go to the polls on November 2nd, they won’t just be voting for national offices. Across the country there are many tightly contested state elections. While these races do not garner as much attention, they are arguably more … Continue reading →

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