Blog
Blog
New Afghanistan Strategy in the Offing
10.28.2009
It looks like the White House is circling in on a new strategy in Afghanistan that focuses on protecting major population centers like Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, Herat, Jalalabad, and a few other large villages. If endorsed, it would adopt the major elements of General McChrystal’s proposed counterinsurgency strategy, albeit on a more limited scale…
Build This: A Real Infrastructure Policy for America
10.27.2009
Imagine boarding a sleek new bullet train and rocketing from Washington, D.C. to Richmond, VA in under an hour. Imagine creating thousands of durable new blue-collar jobs to build and maintain railways, construct and fine-tune railcars, and help design the electrical grid that would support high-speed rail. Imagine a new architecture for concentrating development around…
At State, a New Budgeting Plan Takes Shape
10.27.2009
The State Department is involved in a massive project — the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review — that is designed to address a serious “funding imbalance” between the civilian and military institutions involved in American national security. Says Anne-Marie Slaughter, Director of Policy and Planning at the State Department and in charge of the review:…
The Good Health Reform Idea That Everyone’s Ignoring
10.27.2009
Writing in The Hill’s Congress Blog, Joseph Minarik of the business group Committee for Economic Development brings up an idea that unfortunately has been largely passed over in the health care debate: Short of starting over with a fundamentally different bill, CED believes that the most constructive change to the current legislation would be the…
Labor and the Excise Tax on Insurers
10.26.2009
From today’s The Hill comes word that the AFL-CIO has fired another volley across the bow of Senate Democrats on the issue of the excise tax for high-cost health plans: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned Senate Democratic leaders not to include a tax on high-cost healthcare plans in a bill that is expected to reach…
Reframing Climate Change
10.26.2009
A recently released Pew poll on Americans’ views on climate change should worry progressives. According to the survey, there has been a significant drop in the percentage of Americans who believe that there is proof that manmade global warming is happening. Also worrisome is the decline in the percentage of people who think that climate…
GOP Obstructionism Threatens the Courts
10.26.2009
A recurring theme in the first year of the Obama administration has been the refusal of the Republican Party to work in good faith with President Obama and the Democratic Congress. A new article by Doug Kendall in Slate points out another area in which Republican obstructionism has wreaked havoc on not just Democratic plans…
The Best Hour You’ll Ever Spend on Insurance
10.23.2009
The radio show This American Life is a staple in every progressive’s listening schedule, and I’m no different. While occasionally there’s a show that I end up fast-forwarding through, more often than not it’s better to just pop some popcorn and listen. This past week’s episode was the second of a two-part series the…
Education Reform Under the Radar
10.23.2009
In today’s New York Times, David Brooks writes about one of the Obama administration’s quiet successes: Over the past few days I’ve spoken to people ranging from Bill Gates to Jeb Bush and various education reformers. They are all impressed by how gritty and effective the Obama administration has been in holding the line and…
The Right Way to Curb Executive Pay
10.22.2009
Yesterday, word was leaked that after telling Bank of America head honcho Ken Lewis to expect a goose-egg in salary for 2009, the Obama administration pay czar Ken Feinberg was going to give pay cuts to chief executives at four other financial firms, including Citigroup and AIG, and the automakers GM and Chrysler. While no…
Russian Involvement Key in Iran Nuke Deal
10.22.2009
Though Iranian negotiators accepted a nuclear deal this week in Vienna, we should contain our excitement until the mullahs back in Tehran approve of it and the thing is actually executed. Here are the logistics: Iran is running low on uranium-derived fuel used in medical facilities (for MRIs, among other things). The country has enough uranium, but…
Deeds Undone by Obama? No.
10.22.2009
It’s too early to write off the gubernatorial aspirations of Creigh Deeds in Virginia, but if he doesn’t overcome a consistent lead by Republican Bob McDonnell in the next twelve days, you can be sure many pundits will attribute his defeat to Barack Obama. There’s only one problem with this hypothesis: despite his extraordinary unpopularity in…