Everyone’s talking about marriage this week. So it’s hard to blame speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives T. W. Shannon for wanting to get in on the action with a bill to divert federal funds for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to fund a series of public service announcements touting the benefits [...]
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“The Time is always right,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “to do the right thing.” Unfortunately, that’s not always true in Washington. Courage and conviction is too often in short supply in Washington. Those with the power to set in motion the kind of change that brings us closer to being the kind of [...]
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I was chatting with my neighbor this weekend, as we watched our children playing together, she brought up the subject of the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments for and against marriage equality today. We discussed the odds that the court will ultimately overturn the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 in the bargain. [...]
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With apologies to Victor Hugo, apparently nothing in Washington is as powerful as a bad idea whose time has come — or at least, a bad idea no one in Washington has the political will or ability to stop. The sequester is one such idea. Born from the ashes of the flameout of another bad idea [...]
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It’s somewhat fitting that a 30-foot geyser erupted from a broken water main practically around the corner from my home the night before the the American Society of Civil Engineers gave America a D+ on its 2013 infrastructure report card, and on the eve of a congressional vote on the only budget that includes the [...]
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After listening to National Economic Advisor to the President Gene Sperling this morning, I think I have a better understanding of at least one reason why we ended up in this sequestration mess, and why no one in Washington can seem to figure way out of it. The White House didn’t know who it was [...]
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It’s finally here. After a long week of teasing and hint-dropping that kept much of Washington wondering, Paul Ryan has released a new budget. Now, that we can finally see what’s in Ryan’s budget, it’s a bit of a let down. Ryan trots out most of the same old ideas, some of which have actually [...]
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As Robert Borosage wrote, “Too Big Too Fail” has become “Too Big To Jail.” According to attorney general, our big banks have gotten so big that bringing criminal charges against them for blatantly criminal acts “will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.” (Click here to tell Attorney General [...]
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It was only a matter of time. As the debate over the sequester’s damaging, “just plain dumb,” across-the-board cuts ramped up, I just knew someone on the right would attempt to draw the analogy between government spending and addiction. “Addiction specialist” and “Fox News medical A-Team” member Dr. Keith Albow came through when he told [...]
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Gimme an "S"! Gimme an "E"! Gimme a "Q"! Gimme a "U"! Gimme an "S, T, E, R"! What's that spell? That depends. If you're almost everyone else, the sequester spells an onslaught of unnecessary, painful, and "just plain dumb" spending cuts. If you're one of the GOP's "Sequester Cheerleaders," it spells sweet, sweet, victory.
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