Bob Greenstein
If Only Tom Friedman Had a Newspaper Column
I may be a card-carrying member of the liberal blogging guild, but I'm not a Tom Friedman hater. Seriously, I respect his body of work, going back to his days when he was reporting from Lebanon for the New York Times. I appreciate the breadth of his knowledge, which surely exceeds mine. And I admire his ability to produce columns for as long as he has been doing it. Opinion writing isn’t as easy as it looks. READ MORE >>
Why the Stimulus Was Smaller Than It Looked
The Washington Post had a nice piece out Monday on the way state spending cuts have crimped the economy these past few years, and on the difficulties Obama encountered trying to mitigate that problem. As the piece reports: READ MORE >>
Washington’s Most Powerful, Least Famous People
Boehner's Radicalism, Boehner's Dilemma
Bob Greenstein lays out just how radical John Boehner's debt ceiling plan is: READ MORE >>
When Conservatives Loved Keynes
While researching an item from earlier this morning -- yes, I do research, I just try to avoid talking to people -- I came across a fascinating exchange about the concept of economic stimulus. In 2001, the economy was undergoing a mild slowdown. Liberals generally argued that the scale of the problem was small enough for the Federal Reserve to handle with monetary policy, and didn't require a Keynesian fiscal stimulus. Conservatives took the opposite position. READ MORE >>
Obama Makes His Stand
President Obama's speech today was about policy and politics. But it was also about principles, as Obama made clear early in his remarks: From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America’s wealth and prosperity. More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government. READ MORE >>
Take the Deal
The tentative deal on taxes and Obama's defense of it deserves additional analysis. Jon Chait has some over at his blog. I hope to provide some more here, as well. For now, I thought I'd point readers to a statement from Bob Greenstein, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. There is nobody I trust more on these matters than him: READ MORE >>
Endorsements That Matter
When people talk about important endorsements, they usually mean endorsements from interest groups, politicians, or maybe editorial pages. But the endorsements that matter most to me are the ones that come from people who understand public policy and share my values. And nobody fits that description better than Bob Greenstein, head of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. READ MORE >>
A Change for the Better
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his allies have addressed, at least in part, a major weakness of the Senate Finance bill: The role of employers. To review, both the Senate HELP and House bills contained relatively traditional "employer mandates." Under their terms, firms with more than 50 employees would have to offer their employees insurance coverage or pay a modest fee. READ MORE >>
