Republicans in Congress remind me of a bunch of 2-year-olds because it seems the only word they know how to say is, "No." Bailout of the giant troubled financial institutions? "No." Aid for America's ailing auto industry? "No." A stimulus package to help states, local governments, educational institutions and private industry put people back to work? "No." Health care reform? "No! No! No! No!"
Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and David Vitter (R-La.) no doubt thought they were being clever. They crafted an amendment that would force members of Congress to get their coverage through a public insurance plan, if the public option were included as part of health care reform. If it's good enough for American consumers, it should be good enough for their elected representatives, right? They had no idea how much Democrats agreed with the sentiment.... read more »
Arguably the single most farcical aspect of America's political discourse is listening to congressional Republicans talk about economic policy. We're talking about a group of people who've managed to be spectacularly wrong about practically every economic challenge in recent memory, but who are nevertheless convinced of their own self-righteous expertise. It's hard not to cringe. But yet, they keep talking, blissfully unaware of their track record of uninterrupted failure.... read more »
From now on, the headlines about Afghanistan will be slugged "Obama's War," and perhaps that is fair enough given the president's many endorsements of what he has called a war of necessity. It would be much less fair, however, to ignore the events that led us to this moment, when any choice offers no great guarantee of progress and no small prospect of trouble.... read more »
Conservative government during the past few years has failed—even some conservatives acknowledge that. But the problem is not just that conservatism has failed to live up to its promise; it is that conservatism cannot live up to its promiseread more »
Inherent ideological flaws cripple the ability of conservatives to govern:
Here are some basic facts behind our call for "real investment" in people, assembled from recent government and private studies. We've fallen behind as a nation, but making the right spending choices will yield lasting dividends.read more »
Financial institutions went on a binge; the cops on the street turned a blind eye. The bankers pocketed billions until the housing bubble burst. Americans are now paying dearly for the folly. Here are some facts you need to know and some ideas for change.read more »
Welcome to Palinland. Atop Palinland's Mount Rushmore are Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater. Palinland's Bill of Rights has been edited and redacted, reordered and revised with red ink: in Palinland, the Fifth and Sixth Amendments that ensure due process and the rights of the accused are merely suggestive measures to be administered based on the emotional whim of a carefully-harnessed fear and a fervently-stoked anger. And in Palinland, the Tenth Amendment's reservation of power for the individual states is paramount, a necessary protection for a people whose government is supposedly hell-bent on destroying them.read more »
Judging by Tim Tebow’s much-hyped Super Bowl ad, “choose life” remains conservatives’ favorite abortion shibboleth. But really, the phrase better captures the stakes in the Great Budget Wars of 2010. Plagued by deficits, communities everywhere must now decide between tax reform and public spending cuts — between economic life and death. And thanks to two Western bellwether states, we know what each choice means. Choosing death means mimicking Colorado Springs — a Republican red tattoo on Colorado’s purple heart.read more »
If you've ever wondered where conservative economic policies like permanent tax cuts for the wealthy, slashed social services and government spending are supposed to lead us, look no further than Colorado Springs.
David Sirota's description of what's happening to that conservative stronghold should serve as a cautionary tale. read more »
The GOP: Grand, Old and Preposterous
The GOP is unable and unwilling to have a serious conversation with Americans about the fix we are in. Instead the party's leaders posture and pose, as practiced as a Gregorian chorus in chanting their poll tested messaging that makes utterly no sense.
read more »Listening to conservatives squawk about deficits is a bit like taking parenting and/or relationship advice from Medea, the Gosselins or "Octomom." At best, they serve as an example of what not to do.
As it is with children, so it is with conservatives and deficits. People who are very good at making them aren't necessarily all that skilled in dealing with them.
And we know, during the previous decade, conservatives proved themselves quite adept a creating a deficit from a surplus.
read more »Eugene Robinson thinks maybe Michael Steele is crazy like a fox. I think he's just plain crazy (and only slightly crazier than the GOP for hiring him in the first place), for a number of reasons, the latest of which is a real humdinger.
And, no, I'm not talking about his apparent his temporal difficulties, or his inability to tell the difference between Trent Lott and HHarry Reid (something I'll get to in another post). Provided with an opportunity to perhaps win a modicum of credibility for himself and his party by taking on blatantly racist comments from Rush Limbaugh and downright bizarre comments from Pat Robertson in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Steele spoke up in defense of ... big banks?
I generally try to avoid watching political talk shows on TV because the lack of journalism is, much more often than not, infuriating. That wasn't exactly the case the other night on Hardball, however. read more »
Forget about "the Aughts." Never mind "the Naughts." The decade just passed — and which promises to leave a lingering, bitter aftertaste — deserves a far better, more descriptive name. So for what it's worth, I hereby dub the past ten years "The Uh-Ohs: A Decade of Conservative Failure."
Note: This is an extended version of a "Letter to the Editor" I emailed to Newsweek upon seeing their December 19th issue.
I know what was meant by it, but I couldn't help rolling my eyes when I read the subtitle of your December 19th issue: "People who matter, on what matters most." Frankly, that struck me as precisely our problem in this country, on so many levels.
The very idea of "people who matter" inevitably comes paired with the idea that there are "people who don't matter." It's the basis of what Robert Fuller calls "rankism" — which, instead of seeing the world in black and white, sees it populated with "somebodies and nobodies." Fuller writes, "'Somebodies' are sought after, given preference, lionized. 'Nobodies' get insulted, dissed, exploited, ignored."
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