The State Budget Squeeze
Low revenues and high costs plunge states into crisis
Post Tagged with: "federal government"
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
