Editorials
Republican Spending Plan
No Road Map Out of Fiscal Crisis
Elections, it is often said, have consequences.
The consequences of Republican successes in 1980 and 1984 can be seen in the so-called Reagan Revolution, the significant changes in budgets, taxes and regulatory policy that President Ronald Reagan signed into law beginning in 1981. [Read full story]
A Governor’s Pretext
Assaulting Unions While Trying to Be Tough
In a year when governors across the country are competing to show who’s toughest, no matter what the consequences, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin stands out as the first to bring his State Capitol to a halt. [Read full story]
Regulate Guns as Seriously as Toys?
Let’s Reframe Debate as a Public Health Challenge
NEW YORK--Jared Loughner was considered too mentally unstable to attend community college. He was rejected by the army.
Yet, buy a Glock handgun and a 33-round magazine?….No problem. [Read full story]
Even as Oklahomans Stand to Lose….
Our Congressmen Still Opposing Health Care Reform
Up to 1.6 million Oklahomans with pre-existing medical conditions could be denied insurance without the health-care reform law, the Obama administration warned Tuesday even as it dismissed Republican efforts to repeal such protections. [Read full story]
Just ‘Cause You Say It, Don’t Make It So!
Big Lie: Calling Health-Care Reform Law a ‘Job Killer’
In 2009, the Democrats who controlled Washington could see that voters’ top priority was job, jobs, jobs. So they focused on….health care reform.
In 2010, the Republicans took America’s pulse and concluded that voters still want jobs, jobs, jobs. [Read full story]
Time to Turn Down the Vitriol
‘Unspeakable’ Act of Violence Amidst Sea of Hate Speech
Saturday’s tragedy in Arizona was unspeakable, as President Barack Obama put it, but it was not unthinkable.
American history is blighted with assassinations and attempted assassinations of prominent figures, often by disturbed young men with motives that make sense only within their twisted minds. [Read full story]
An Assault on Everyone’s Safety
Let’s Blame the NRA, Gun Lobbyists, Too
The Glock 19 is a semiautomatic pistol so reliable that it is used by thousands of law enforcement agencies around the world to protect police and the public. [Read full story]
Guns and Responsibility
A Bloodbath and Politics
WASHINGTON--We may not be sure that the bloodbath in Tucson had anything to do with politics, but we know it had everything to do with our nation's insane refusal to impose reasonable controls on guns. [Read full story]
GOP Newcomers Setting Out to Undo
The Victories of Obama Administration
WASHINGTON--Soon after the 112th Congress convened Wednesday, Republicans in the House planned to make good on a campaign promise that helped vault many new members to victory: voting to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. [Read full story]
The Senate Surmounts Politics
President Prevails Over Narrow-Mindedness of McConnel
Wednesday of last week was not a good day for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (Rep., Ky.) single-minded project to make Barack Obama a one-term president.
Over the minority leader’s objections, 13 Republicans joined every Democratic senator to ratify the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia, reducing the size of the countries’ nuclear stockpiles and making the world a safer place. [Read full story]
A Step Toward Fairness
Undoing the Bush Administration Mess
This country continues to pay a high price in both security and reputation for the Bush administration’s many violations of international law at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After more than a year of review, the Obama administration is preparing an executive order intended to resolve the situation of four dozen prisoners in the prison there who are caught in a legal limbo [Read full story]
The Food Safety Act
Giving Long-Needed Power to FDA
The repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" wasn't the only landmark legislation to rise like a phoenix to passage during the lame-duck session.
The long-stalled Food Safety Modernization Act finally received congressional approval on Tuesday. Once the bill is signed into law by President Barack Obama, the Food & Drug
Administration will better be able to head off outbreaks of food-borne illness outbreaks. [Read full story]
News Worth Noting
Senate Ratifies U.S.-Russia Nuclear Weapons Treaty
WASHINGTON--The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a new nuclear arms-reduction treaty with Russia, the broadest such pact between the former Cold War foes in nearly two decades.
The Senate ratified the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START, by a vote of 71 to 26, easily clearing the threshold of two-thirds of senators present as required by the Constitution for treaty ratification.
The Tax Cut Endgame
Capitulating to….Not Compromising With
President Barack Obama’s deal with the Republicans to extend all the Bush-era income tax cuts is a win for the Republicans and their strategy of obstructionism and a disappointing retreat by the White House. [Read full story]
In Oklahoma
Religious Intolerance and the Law
For a few days in November, it was illegal in Oklahoma for a state judge to base a court decision on Islamic religious law or consider any form of international law.
It was a manufactured problem. [Read full story]
What the Secret Donors Want
Deceitfully Sowing Doubt and Distrust
According to tax records unearthed by Bloomberg News, the health insurance lobby secretly gave $86.2 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2009 to try to prevent the health care bill from becoming law. The huge contribution--40 percent of the chamber’s spending for that year--allowed the group to run ads against the bill without tainting the insurance industry, which was negotiating with Democrats on the bill at the same time. [Read full story]
GOP: Party of National Security?
Playing Politics at Nation’s, World’s Peril
The world’s nuclear wannabes, starting with Iran, should send a thank you note to U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (Rep., Ariz.).
After months of negotiations with the White House, he has decided to try to block the lame-duck Senate from ratifying the New START arms control treaty. [Read full story]
Some Fiscal Reality from Commission
Welcome Antidote to Low-Minded Political Debate
The draft proposal by the chairmen of President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction commission was a welcome antidote to the low-minded debate that dominated the midterm elections, in which politicians all vowed to reduce the deficit, but offered no credible plans. [Read full story]
Gridlock
Just Another Word for Lack of Leadership
After an election that swept Republicans into a House majority but left Democrats in control of the Senate, all the elements are in place for gridlock in Washington. And that, some say, is a good thing. [Read full story]
Sorting Out the Election
Don’t Discard Progress of Last Two Years
Last week’s election was, indeed, a “shellacking” for the Democrats, as President Barack Obama admitted after a long night of bad news, but it was hardly an order from the American people to discard the progress of the last two years and start over again. [Read full story]
The Next Campaign
A Redoubling of Virulent Spending: Do We Need It?
Trounced in last week’s elections, some Democratic leaders are already plotting a 2012 comeback based on the same brutal big-money tactics employed so effectively this year by Republicans. [Read full story]
The Day After the Day After
Notes from a Flooded Basement
NEW YORK--O.K., you poor little Democrats.
Stop sobbing. Lift up your little liberal heads and shout. There’s gonna be….
Umm.
Harry Reid! [Read full story]
Mr. President, Top Republicans:
Some Leadership, Please!
WASHINGTON--Last week, voters made a powerful statement about leadership: They'd like some, please.
So far, there's no evidence that either President Barack Obama or the top Republicans in Congress were paying the slightest attention. [Read full story]
For Resurgent GOP
‘Just Say No’ Won’t Cut It Anymore
After the elections two years ago, the Republican Party was a smoking ruin, ejected from the White House and left with weak House and Senate minorities that rendered it almost irrelevant in Congress. [Read full story]
….And, Now, for the Next Battle
You, Mr. President, Set the Agenda!
WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama allowed Republicans to define the terms of the nation's political argument for the past two years and permitted them to draw battle lines the way they wanted. [Read full story]
As Fewer Vote
Right-Wing, Left-Wing Fringes Dominate
ORLANDO--Three days before Election Day, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (Dem., Fla.) sent out an e-mail urging his supporters to place over 50,000 calls the next day to help him stave off defeat.[Read full story]
Coburn and Lankford
Allow Senator to Continue; Give New Man a Chance
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (Rep., Okla.), the ever-vigilant champion of and advocate for common-sense spending practices by the Senate, should be allowed to continue his sometimes Quixotic efforts for fiscal responsibility, and James Lankford, a Republican, could become Sen. Coburn’s counterpart in the House of Representatives if he is elected over his Democratic opponent on Tuesday, Nov. 2 [Read full story]
Countering Anonymous GOP Funding
Heavy Young White, Black, Hispanic Turnout Needed
WASHINGTON--As I watched President Barack Obama walk alone across the South Lawn of the White House to his waiting helicopter, I had something of a political awakening.
It was in that moment, following the president’s one-hour meeting with me and nine other Black columnists, that I understood the campaign strategy Republicans have cleverly crafted and their Democratic counterparts are struggling to counter. [Read full story]
Be Ye Warned
More Obstruction If GOP Wins
WASHINGTON--I'm cautious about the conventional wisdom that the Democratic Party is about to get flattened by a Republican steamroller.
Pollsters are less certain than they'd like you to believe about who's a "likely voter" and who isn't. [Read full story]
For Unpopular Rulings
Judges in Some States Face Reprisals
Most people go to court looking for a fair shake, but some special interest groups think they have a better idea: ensuring they’ll win in court by spending big money to elect judges who agree with them and to oust those who don’t.
Over the past decade, the groups’ efforts to buy justice have corroded scores of state high court races from Alabama to Illinois and beyond. [Read full story]
President Rises to the Occasion
Let’s Start Now Rebuilding Our Infrastructure
On Labor Day afternoon in Milwaukee, President Barack Obama finally began to vigorously push the kind of high-profile, rebuild-America infrastructure campaign that is absolutely essential if there is to be any real hope of putting Americans back to work and getting the economy back into reasonable shape over the next few years. [Read full story]
Ecclesiastical Pyramid Schemes
Black Church and Prosperity Gospel
NEW YORK--The scandals surrounding Atlanta’s “Bishop” Eddie L. Long now center on allegations of sexual immorality put forth by four young men who had been teenagers under his ministry. [Read full story]
Advice to Progressives:
How to Fight Tea Party’s Faux Populism
Progressives are an impatient bunch.
They fight for people who have waited too long already: for health care, for educational opportunity, for jobs to keep them in the middle-class [Read full story]
Lonely Plan in Congress
Proposal Highlights Tough Choices for Both Parties
In the two years since U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (Rep., Wisc.) first floated a proposal to control runaway government spending, simplify the tax code and balance the budget, here is what has happened: not much. [Read full story]
Who’s the Con Man?
Intellectualism on the Right?
WASHINGTON--Harry Reid tweets Lady Gaga while Newt Gingrich is truly gaga.
The 67-year-old former speaker, who has a talent for overreaching, is more unbridled than ever. [Read full story]
