Visiting family in New York for Thanksgiving, scanning the New York Daily News for a dish of local sports, I came upon the latest obsession of Big Apple scribes and fans – contract talks between the New York Yankees and their iconic shortstop, Derek Jeter, whose 10-year, $189 million contact ends this year. Tis often …
Henry Kissinger famously asked whether Iran sees itself as a “nation” with a role in the international system or a “cause” that seeks to overturn the system through a global populist revolution. Iran’s activities not just in its own backyard but also south of our border – specifically, in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua – …
Continue reading “Iran’s expanding alliance with Latin America must be nipped”
Some things are as predictable as winter snow in Buffalo, and one of them is a column on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page about the evils of taxation whenever important people in Washington start talking about raising taxes. In this case, the important people are the co-chairs of President Obama’s fiscal commission, a task …
Continue reading “Silly and Selective Arguments Against Tax Hikes”
Question: What was the most telling development on the fiscal front over the last week? Was it: A: The plan from the co-chairs of President Obama’s fiscal commission, former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson; or B: The plan from the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Debt Reduction …
Policymaking is a zero-sum game. Officials weigh policy proposals not in a vacuum but against the status quo. Implicit in the question “should we do this?” is a second one: “how does it compare to doing nothing?” That’s what was wrong not only with this week’s efforts by the co-chairs of President Obama’s fiscal commission …
The nation’s elected leaders will soon begin their next round of debate over one of Washington’s more irrational and, indeed, dangerous processes – enacting legislation to raise the limit on federal debt. Let’s be clear: a vote to raise the debt limit is not a vote to change fiscal policy. It’s not a vote to …
Continue reading “One Man’s Debt Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor”
President Obama begins an important new phase of his tenure on Wednesday morning. After surveying the political damage of Election Day – which likely will bring a new Republican controlled House and a more closely divided Senate (even if Democrats retain control of it) – he will have to interpret the results and decide how …