There exist a school of thought that Liberals should accept Social Security benefit cuts to get the issue off the table. Kevin Drum is one of its biggest proponents: Quite right. On Social Security, I continue to hold the unpopular view that liberals would be well served if they could make a deal. Raise the [...]

The one defense of President Obama I’ve found most annoying is the argument that Obama “only” had the largest Democratic majority in Congress in a generation for a short period, so it would be unreasonable to expect too much from him given Republican opposition. The latest example of this defense comes from Kevin Drum: So [...]

The Obama Administration has finally started to do something relatively serious about the housing crisis by using the tool of executive authority it has over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Unfortunately, the plan seems to depend heavily on enriching large corporate middlemen. The Wall Street Journal explains: One proposal would sell packages of hundreds or [...]

The word debt means simply to owe something, its definition is not just limited to official financial products such as bonds. Thinking the word debt only refers to financial products is what I believe is the core mistake with Kevin Drum‘s argument that the debt ceiling vote could be constitutional. Maybe I’m missing something here, [...]

Again, some of my darkest predictions about the new health care law are coming true. With businesses again clamoring for corporate tax reduction, the go-to in Pay-Go-obsessed Washington are the affordability subsidies for people who will be using the new health care exchanges. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared that he supported the House Republicans’ [...]

I don’t believe in getting people worked up when it’s not necessary. Energy is a finite resource, and when you don’t have a lot to work with anyway (especially relative to the opposition), the key to successful organizing is selectively applying carefully targeted effort to achieve maximum impact. It’s like the difference between hitting your [...]