Tag: New York Times
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Don’t Rely on the Altruism of Baby Boomers
David Brooks must have thought yesterday was April Fools Day – that or he thinks he’s getting old so he decided to pen a column painting a rosy picture for seniors by coming to a senile conclusion. In The Geezers’ Crusade he comes to this wildly impossible conclusion: It now seems clear that the only…
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An Affordable Health Care System
On Sunday, July 5, Paul Krugamn laid out his argument that affordable health care for everyone was an achievable goal.[quote] Many people would be surprised to learn that I agree with him on that. He correctly argues that we already cover the bulk of the most expensive health care patients by covering the elderly under…
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Economic Contradiction
Paul Krugman and I agree on little politically (I have at times agreed with him when he was arguing that TARP was a bad idea – although we disagreed on the reasons why) and despite the fact that my assumptions about the nature of sound economics differ from his most of the time I recognize…
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Banks Giving Back
While it is good news that 10 banks will be allowed to repay billions in bailout funds I would be much more excited if I didn’t already know what was likely to happen as a result. The banks were deemed strong enough to leave the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, after months of lobbying…
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Change Done Right
With the news yesterday that New Hampshire passed a law to allow gay marriage I sincerely hope that the proponents of gay marriage may begin to see the right way to bring the change they seek – especially when put in context next to Vermont’s legalization of gay marriage, Maine’s legalization, the setback in the…
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GM Surprise (or not)
Back at the end of March David Brooks made a prediction for GM in the New York Times that came due today. I have been waiting to check in on that. He started with this background of the situation as it stood that day: The Bush advisers decided in December that bankruptcy without preparation would…
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U.S. and CA Supreme Court News
The news came last week that the California Supreme Court would issue their ruling related to Proposition 8 so I expected to have a reaction to that news today. I saw news this morning that President Obama would make his nomination for a new judge to replace Justice Souter – that news surprised me. Obama…
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Judicial Appointment
Yesterday I wrote about the president’s power to nominate people for important positions in government. Today we get the news that Justice David Souter will be retiring. (This is doubly convenient as the remaining federalist papers deal with the judicial branch of our government.) I don’t intend to speculate on who the president will nominate…
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An Unbiased Perspective
Admittedly I am a person who does not believe that anyone is unbiased – and I’m fine with that. The closest a person comes to unbiased is when they can state a position which contradicts their biases or while acknowledging how that position does not support their biases. When President Obama said that $100 Million…
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Accountability Now
MoveOn.org has proven that they can be a political force, so has The Daily Kos, and long before either of them existed labor unions were already very influential in politics. That made me very interested to read that those three were teaming up to form a new political action committee called Accountability Now. Their stated…