As you’ve probably heard, today’s report on the December job market seems to suggest that the economy is finally turning a corner towards steady job creation again. Not so, mon frère: Campaigning in New Hampshire for Obama’s job, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum claimed credit for Republicans, suggesting the gains were tied to voter optimism that a … Continue reading
Last week I wrote that Clark Durant (a candidate running for the GOP nomination to face Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2012) was peddling a new brand of Reaganomics. I thought his enthusiasm for widening the gap between America’s rich and poor was a “serious conservative rhetorical innovation.” Conservatives have been pushing anti-middle-class, pro-wealthy policies for … Continue reading
One of the frustrating things about being a progressive is endlessly contending with the seemingly unslayable myth of Reaganomics. Empirics be damned, conservatives have convinced many Americans that cutting the government will lead to prosperity for all. Supply-side economists promise that public welfare programs for the wealthy (various tax loopholes, shelters, etc) will eventually be … Continue reading
The next news cycle is pretty much locked on 2008 media obsession Sarah Palin’s new bus tour. Want to save some time? Here, I’ll help. This is how it will go, rendered here in full-on media blitz incoherence: She’s on a bus! She has a movie out! Is she running for president? She’s polling at … Continue reading
I have a question for you, but first I have to tell you a story. Somewhere, deep in the hazy mists of the 1980s (a hazy time—see left), a specific branch of the American Right came up with a new politico-electoral strategy. See, it had turned out that Americans really liked Social Security and the … Continue reading
David Foster Wallace, The Pale King: “By the way, I do think that awareness is different from thinking. I am similar to most other people, I believe, in that I do not really do my most important thinking in large, intentional blocks where I sit down uninterrupted in a chair and know in advance what … Continue reading
What’s the largest political issue looming over the next few years (decades?) in the United States? It’s almost certainly the federal government’s fiscal health. So, right now, I’m remembering Ronald Reagan, the man who inaugurated “The Reagan Era” in American politics (hip name, no?). This was/is the era dominated by the “cut taxes while raising … Continue reading
“Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.”-Republican Vice President Dick Cheney “Fuzzy math.”-Republican President George W. Bush (who burned federal surpluses on tax cuts while dramatically increasing federal spending) What he did say [a paraphrase]: “While we may be planning on cutting taxes (read ‘revenue’) without cutting defense spending, we’re still credible fiscal hawks. Really! I … Continue reading
