Pay no attention to Republican euphoria over its gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey. Ignore Democratic delight at winning an upstate New York House seat for the first time in a very long time. This week’s results portend continuing problems for both parties and, frankly, for the rest of us because they presage more …
In late February, a week after signing the landmark $787 billion economic recovery bill into law, President Obama tried to change the focus of debate in Washington by shifting attention from the short-term necessity of reviving the economy to the long-term challenge of reducing soaring budget deficits. On Monday, February 23, he hosted a “fiscal …
A week from today, Washington will awaken to election results across America that reflect the state of our politics in 2009. Meanwhile, thousands of miles from here, radical forces will undoubtedly mark the anniversary of an event that symbolized our politics in a more troubled time – the Iran hostage crisis. It was on Nov. …
You might think the Obama Administration’s recent announcement that Washington just ran its largest-ever deficit in dollar terms, and its largest as a share of the economy since World War II, would discourage policymakers from giving more freebies to more Americans who don’t need them. Think again. This fall, the White House and Congress will …
Continue reading “Coming soon from Washington: More freebies, more red ink”
It took less than a decade, a mere blink of an eye in historical terms, for America‟s fiscal fortunes to plunge from surging budget surpluses to soaring debt, from fiscal responsibility to fiscal recklessness. In 1998, President Clinton and Congress balanced the federal budget for the first time in nearly 30 years. Their achievement reflected …
The philosopher George Santayana famously cautioned: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Here’s a corollary: Those who do not read history are doomed to ask the same question again and again. And so it is that in our books, magazines and journals, we are again debating the question, “Is America …
I had to smile! I came into the office this morning and my assistant had put this week’s issue of Newsweek right in the middle of my desk. And what’s the cover story? “After Iran Gets The Bomb.” Yes, after. I guess America’s media is accepting reality, even if its new president isn’t there yet. …