Maybe Von Drehle is right. Maybe it’s silly to be irked that Republicans—after putting trillions of dollars in tax cuts, two wars, a prescription drug benefit and an unprecedented earmark spree on the Visa card—are threatening to force the U.S. into default if President Obama doesn’t adopt their agenda. After all, that hypocrite …
It’s risky to lend money to a guy who might not be able to pay it back. It’s also risky to lend money to a guy who might decide on a whim not to pay it back. The debt showdown, in which Republicans are threatening to force the Treasury into default unless Democrats agree to their budget priorities, has turned the U.S. into that …
Oh, well. Despite the efforts of Tea Party senator Rand Paul of Kentucky–and me!–the FAA just imposed civil penalties of up to $11,000 for bozos who point lasers at airplanes. I still think we should spend more time figuring out how to regulate complex industries like finance and nuclear energy to avoid national calamities, and less …
President Obama has chosen a new commerce secretary, former Edison International CEO John Bryson. He sounds like a good choice, a solid businessman with a public policy background and a strong green streak. But you know who would …
The latest from my insane Orwellian state : Florida Governor Rick Scott, now down to 29% in the polls, signed a budget on Thursday that slashed education spending, although not quite as dramatically as he had hoped. The sign on stage read: “Less Waste, More for Education.”
I’ve flagged the debt-limit negotiations as an obvious arbitrage opportunity for savvy investors who understand Washington Kabuki. Did that seem paranoid? Well, now comes Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota with a resolution barring members of Congress from trying to profit off this particular dance. But the rest of us can still …
I dissented from the old conventional wisdom that Paul Ryan’s budget plan was substantively courageous. But even after the Democrats won control of a Republican congressional district Tuesday night by bashing Ryan’s proposed Medicare cuts, I’m not quite ready to endorse the new conventional wisdom that his plan is politically …
As Swampland’s new South Beach correspondent, I plan to abuse my power every now and then to highlight the infuriating insanity of my adopted state. I kicked this off a couple weeks ago with a post on Florida’s more-booze-for-the-drunk approach to growth management. Today, to continue this auto-dependent, dumb-growth, …
The debt-limit debate is fascinating on many levels. It’s a big deal because a default by the U.S. government would create an unthinkable mess. It’s also a window into the Republican Party’s continuing efforts to defy …
The most important political story of the Obama era has been the Republican Party’s growing defiance of reality—its denial of climate science, its denunciations of Medicare cuts while proposing Medicare cuts, its …
SACRAMENTO—Forget the former California governor who’s once again a tabloid sensation. Let’s talk about the former California governor who’s once again a California governor. Jerry Brown, the Golden State’s 34th and 39th chief …
Jared Bernstein, the most prominent Manhattan School of Music alumnus on the White House economic team, has left his job as Vice President Biden’s chief economist. He was the most liberal member of the team, so it’s no …
Updated: 6/6/2011, 9:20 a.m.
The “serious” Republican candidates for President, apparently, are Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman. But none of these boring establishment guys represent the fire-breathing, …
