Post Tagged with: "federal government"

Daniel Backman / December 10, 2011 12:55 pm

The State Budget Squeeze

Low revenues and high costs plunge states into crisis

Danny Wilson / October 9, 2010 10:05 pm

Preliminary Spill Reports Rightfully Criticize Adminstration

On June 14th of this year, President Obama appointed a commission of seven men and women to evaluate the events that contributed to the Deepwater Horizon spill. The commission, organized less than two months after the spill began but a full month before the oil stopped flowing, released its initial reports this week. In one report, a working paper titled [...]

Max Novendstern / June 7, 2010 3:38 pm

Taking Stock of the Spill

Apparently, Obama’s BP Oil Spill performance has been a total disaster. Just check the news. He’s weak, aloof, unemotive, Maureen Down explains. “Mr. President, take command,” David Gergen urges on CNN. James Carville exhorts:  “This president needs to tell BP, “I’m your daddy.” And Peggy Noonan, writes, simply, for WSJ: “I don’t see how you politically survive this.” Count me among [...]

Neil Patel / June 1, 2010 11:57 am

Slimming Down America

To combat obesity and improve America’s health, change the food industry

Alexander Chen / June 1, 2010 11:51 am

The Tea Party: Past, Present, and Future

Explaining the right-wing movement

Peyton Miller / May 22, 2010 7:15 pm

Rand Paul a Racist? I Think Not.

Sam Barr’s most recent post makes the rather shocking claim that Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky being vacated by the retiring Jim Bunning, is a racist, or at least that he is not a non-racist. Sam deduces this from the fact that Mr. Paul is not a “consistent libertarian,” that he “picks and [...]

Sam Barr / May 20, 2010 10:17 am

Rand Paul: Against the Civil Rights Act

As I said yesterday, the Kentucky Senate race between Rand Paul and Jack Conway should be a real battle. Paul is probably not helping himself by insisting, as many libertarian ideologues but few Senate hopefuls do, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was wrong to ban racial discrimination in private establishments like restaurants and movie theaters. INTERVIEWER: Would you have [...]

Sam Barr / April 19, 2010 12:00 am

Weighing in on Robin Hood Again

Peyton has posted a rejoinder to Max, trying to buttress his initial claim that it is “inappropriate for 73 percent of federal income taxes to be paid by 10 percent of the American population.” I am struck by a few things from Peyton’s post, and I want to pull them out and talk about them directly. First, Peyton argues that [...]

Sam Barr / April 15, 2010 6:25 pm

Justice Stevens Lets Go — Better Hang On!

My Harvard Independent column for this week addresses the retirement of John Paul Stevens and the issue of picking his successor. Read the original here. If they made posters of Supreme Court Justices, I’d put John Paul Stevens on my bedroom wall. The man is a progressive hero — first and foremost, for his longevity. In 2006, the liberal radio [...]

Peyton Miller / April 10, 2010 5:03 am

Robin Hood Strikes Again

For nearly half of American households this year, April 15 will be no different from any other day. AP’s Stephen Ohlemacher reported on Thursday that, according to the Tax Policy Center in Washington, about 47 percent of Americans will pay no federal income taxes for FY2009, either because their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions, [...]

Jeremy Patashnik / April 7, 2010 11:00 am

The Doublespeak of Governor Bob McDonnell

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell decided to stir up some controversy when he declared April “Confederate History Month,” reviving a state tradition that his Democratic predecessors had ignored for the past eight years. Generally, I think our society has become too politically correct, and I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with having a Confederate History Month. (Indeed, there’s nothing wrong [...]

Alex Copulsky / March 25, 2010 5:04 pm

From the Department of Pathetic Rhetoric

There was really no justification for the status quo ante in the federal student loan program.  The model was this: Students applied for a loan from a private loan company, which loaned them money guaranteed by the federal government.  They pocketed the profits, and all risk was assumed by the federal government.  Students who had access to this program’s version [...]

Alexander Chen / March 8, 2010 3:03 pm

Midterm Madness

A Republican resurgence in the 2010 election?

Jonathan Yip / March 1, 2010 4:24 pm

Billions for Nothing

Richard Thaler wrote an extremely important piece in the New York Times this past weekend on wireless spectrum auctions. This may sound like the stuff of fantasy or boredom, take your pick, but selling off archaic TV spectrum could net the US government $100 billion: Professor Hazlett estimates that selling off this spectrum could raise at least $100 billion for [...]

Alex Sherbany / February 26, 2010 12:51 am

The Economist: Blame Obama, Not the System

Didn’t want to let this go by without comment. From the Feb. 18 edition (“What’s Wrong With Washington?”): Washington has its faults, some of which could easily be fixed. But much of the current fuss forgets the purpose of American government; and it lets current politicians (Mr Obama in particular) off the hook. America’s political structure was designed to make [...]

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