For your consideration, some of the more ridiculous, immoderate statements and actions of the last 2 months: Obama nominated Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That’s not the ridiculous action – Cordray is actually more moderate and less divisive than Elizabeth Warren, who basically crafted the bureau from start to finish. The…
Congress is Broken
By now you’ve likely run across a post/article/op-ed suggesting that Congress was actually designed to be a logjam of obstructionism and inaction. The author likely trotted out the usual evidence: two chambers; layers of subcommittees, committees, chairmen, speakers and majority leaders all able to block legislation; the veto power; and don’t even get me started…
The Debt Ceiling Agreement
Well, the president and congressional leaders have all agreed to a framework for the debt agreement. Actually getting the law written and passed in time to avoid missed payments will take a set of behind the scenes miracles. But there’s a good chance the agreement will pass tomorrow and become the law of the land….
Budget Gut Checks
As we draw closer to the deadline for a deal to avert federal government insolvency, I think two questions get to the heart of conservative Republicans’ true motivations. 1. Why not end the Bush tax cuts as part of this deal? Those tax cuts, originally passed as a temporary stimulus measure, have now cost us…
A Roosevelt for Our Day
In popular imagination, Theodore Roosevelt is remembered as swashbuckling hero, a trust buster and champion of American greatness. In 1900, while serving as governor of New York and running for the Vice Presidency, he published a collection of speeches and articles in The Strenuous Life, a title designed to capture the forcefulness of the former…
Pundits, Part II
In contrast to George F. Will, I continue to enjoy David Brooks. I appreciate his Hamiltonian conservatism and his commitment to moderation in our politics. His latest column is no exception. In contrast to Will’s goal of a political victory, Brooks’s goals is a governance victory. The question he poses to Republicans is not “How…
Pundits, Part I
There was a time when I really enjoyed reading George F. Will. His regular Newsweek columns challenged me to think more deeply about my political views. Though we don’t generally share a perspective, he sometimes convinced me of his position. In many ways, he seemed to be the model of the politically engaged intellectual. This…
Gov. Perry, Cowboy Conservative
What this Republican presidential field lacks so far is a cowboy. And by “cowboy” I mean a conservative Republican from the Southwest. For the last half century, it has been the land the Republican presidential candidates. All four Republican presidents since Dwight Eisenhower (with the unique exception of Gerald Ford) have come from California and…
More on the Budget
I remain optimistic about the budget negotiations, not because I think default would be too catastrophic to come to pass but because those in power seem to have reached this conclusion, too. One very encouraging (and I think astute) move by House Republican Leaders was their decision to have Rep. Paul Ryan educate caucus members…
Capitalism, Community, and Citizenship
Sunday’s episode of This American Life provided plenty of food for thought. The hour was devoted to stories about various fights about extracting the natural gas from the Marcellus shale below Pennsylvania. Several points in the broadcast led me to reflect upon citizenship, capitalism, and community. During the first act of the program, a politician…