National Politics
One would think that members of an editorial staff would offer each other the service of gently warning their coworkers when they near the deep end. Or perhaps Froma Harrop is firmly convinced of the approaching death of newspapers and is effectively auditioning for a part in the far-left blind heat machine. Granted, her tirade…
Yesterday, I gave some thought to shifts in government policy and in American culture that may ultimately be behind our economy’s failure to recover satisfactorily. Much like the productive people who have been leaving Rhode Island because they’ve assessed that the opposition to needed reforms is simply too powerful, many Americans know what must be…
Michael Walsh characterizes President Obama’s leadership style as “the permanent insurgency”: Do nothing, lie in wait, and then counter-attack. Never present a plan if you can possibly help it, but deal exclusively in bromides and platitudes as you stake out the moral “high ground” and get ready to ambush the other guy. Think of it…
Michelle Malkin’s opening paragraph about Congressman Wu’s announcement yesterday made posting her column irresistible. Wu-hoo! Welcome to another freaky ethics fiasco brought to you by the D.C. den of dysfunctional Democrats. This one comes clothed in a Tigger costume, wrapped in blinders and bathed in the fetid Beltway odor of eau de Pass le Buck.…
It would appear that the U.S. Senate is in need of some major upsets, the next election cycle: The plan, released this week by the bipartisan “Gang of Six” senators, punts on many of the most difficult issues, leaving it to congressional committees to fill in the details later. But supporters say it provides a…
It’s tedious to follow the debt ceiling/budget deficit wrangling, I know. Around here, we have the ProJo trumpeting tax increases as the “obvious fix” and telling the Republicans “to do what grownups do” while explaining that “the health-care reform law passed last year would have begun to kick in its projected savings for the government”…
Steve Malanga looks at the national problem of cities in over their heads (particularly because of pension promises) and uses Providence (and New Haven, CT) as examples: Cities are also running out of fiscal alternatives to deal with their deficits. Like states…many cities have used one-shot revenue deals, hidden borrowing, and other gimmicks to bolster…
You know they’re trying to hide something when they release a report on the Friday afternoon of a long holiday weekend. [T]he White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, a group of three economists who were all handpicked by Obama…reports that, using “mainstream estimates of economic multipliers for the effects of fiscal stimulus” (which it describes…
Apparently we’re at the point in Campaign 2012 where we play the game of dissecting political statements for “gotcha moments.” The pols have to be ready for the questions, so they should work to make sure they mitigate damage by reading up beforehand. That being said, of all the things to talk to a Presidential…
At least one motivation offered by local supporters of the the National Popular Vote compact, that NPV would lead to more attention for Rhode Island in Presidential elections, makes no sense at all. George Will explained in a column from about a decade ago how there is no improvement in the relative importance of small…