President Obama’s announcement that the EPA will require power plants to reduce carbon emissions by 30% may prove to be the most important thing he has done. Cynical pundits say this will hurt Democrats in November, but the consensus of scientists is that we must start dealing with man-made climate change now. President Obama is the rare politician who does what’s right, not what’... »
Conventional wisdom is that President Obama had a “bad year” in 2013. You hear it on talk shows and read it in newspaper columns. People cite the government shutdown, problems with the Obamacare rollout, and disclosures about the NSA. But was it really a bad year? Consider these facts: 1. The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) went into effect October 1st, despite the determined effo... »
The New York Times published an extensively-researched article about the “blueprint for defunding Obamacare” created “shortly after President Obama started his second term.” The plan was devised by the usual right wing conspirators: Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, the Club for Growth, and Heritage Action. Where did the money come from? Charles a... »
Ezra Klein boiled down the current situation in one sentence: “The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics — it is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” He’s quoting Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein in their excellent book “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the ... »
Robert Creamer, progressive organizer and husband of Jan Schakowsky, hits the nail on the head in this Huffington Post article. GOP Desperate to Defund ObamaCare Now Because They Know Its Popularity Is About to Skyrocket | Robert Creamer. It’s the same reason they were desperate to stop social security: once people get it, they’ll never want to lose it. They’ll realize that the ... »
Robert Creamer’s article in The Huffington Post explains what President Obama has been doing with regard to chemical weapons in Syria. The US has no interest in getting involved in Syria’s civil war, but we do have an interest in keeping chemical weapons from being used. The threat of bombing has brought Assad to express his willingness to give up chemical weapons. Some say it will be ... »
Conventional wisdom is that the United States can never solve its problem of gun violence. But it was conventional wisdom that we’d never end slavery, allow women to vote, enact civil rights laws, reduce pollution, prohibit smoking in public, elect a Catholic or black President, or allow gay people to marry. Fundamental change often takes generations. We must do our part to advance the discu... »
The Daily Herald published my letter to the editor about the difference between President Obama’s proposal to narrow the budget deficit and the Republicans’ plan. Some of the comments posted on the Herald’s website are from the usual right-wing cranks, but there are some pretty intelligent ones, too. Feel free to add yours. http://ow.ly/g7VSU »
President Obama won reelection with 62% of the votes in the Electoral College. He won 26 states and the District of Columbia, representing 64% of the population. He won the popular vote by more than 4 million votes. He won more popular votes than any Democratic candidate in history (other than Obama in 2008). That’s a decisive victory. So if anyone tells you the election was “close,... »
The Supreme Court issued its decision this morning upholding almost all of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare). I haven’t read it all, but I’ve read major parts of it. Contrary to my prediction (see my blog post of June 26th), they upheld the individual mandate as a tax and not as regulation of interstate commerce, and Justice Kennedy joined the dissenters and not the maj... »
