Our American Discourse, Ep. 7: Citizens Can't Get No Satisfaction
Americans are fed up. The government is not living up to their expectations. Trust is deteriorating every year. In this episode, we question these perceptions -- and the solutions they imply -- with Gregg Van Ryzin.
Our American Discourse, Ep. 4: The Ethics of Governing
Planners and policymakers have to balance competing needs, never more so than in today’s polarized environment. How do they do the right thing? In this episode, we find sagacity and even humor in the hard work of ethical governing with Lisa Schweitzer.
The Grand Republican Strategy: We Win, You Pay!
No longer can a Republican run for president without admitting that the government must do something about our nation's most pressing problems -- but neither can he ask his friends in the One Percent to pay for it. Thus is born a new slogan: We win, you pay!
New Data Settles the Debate: Obamacare Is Making Health Insurance More Affordable, Not Less
What have we learned since last time? Were the naysayers proven right, or did Obamacare really make health insurance more affordable, as was intended?
The Minimum Wage Shows Why (and How) We Should Vote Today
For today is Election Day, and on this day, we will elect 36 governors. This is no time to stay home when the polling places are open. This is a time to choose leaders who will act where Washington has not.
How Obama Cut the Deficit in Half -- and Made Us Pay the Price
Barack Obama deserves credit for delivering on his promise to shrink the deficit -- a promise that Mitt Romney and his tax cuts would surely have violated -- but Americans have to ask themselves whether they really want a smaller government.
Guess Who Tried to Prevent the VA Crisis -- and Who Stood in Their Way!
While the Bush administration plunged us into two wars and cut taxes on the rich, Republicans in Congress were blocking every Democratic attempt to give the VA the funding they needed to give our veterans the medical care they were promised.
Yes, Obamacare Critics, Health Insurance Does Make You Healthier
Barone and Krauthammer claim that the Medicaid group did not have better health than the uninsured group, proving the futility of health insurance, but their conclusion is based on a very narrow, selective reading of the evidence.
Does Obamacare Infringe on Our Liberty? Or Does It Give Us Even More Freedom?
Freedom requires more than the absence of laws and taxes. True freedom of choice requires the capability to make that choice -- and the free market doesn't always give us that capability.
The Poor Don't Lie and Cheat Any More Than the Rest of Us
The notion that the poor are uniquely morally deficient, it turns out, is completely backward. They're actually more virtuous, on average, than the rich.
Staying in Afghanistan Is a Recipe for More Terrorism
Barack Obama is daring the terrorists. He's standing in their front yard. He's calling them out.
Obamacare Is Not a Reason to Give Up on Government Programs
The biggest myth of the Obamacare debate goes like this: The failures of Obamacare prove that the government can't be trusted to run our health care system.
Those Obamacare Stories Aren’t as Scary as They Sound
So, yes, you can keep your old plan. Unless the insurance company changes it. In which case it isn't your old plan anymore.
Even the Shutdown Can't Kill Old Republican Fallacies
Since the government started collecting economic data around World War II, we have accumulated plenty of evidence to measure each party's success at "dealing with the economy" -- and none of it makes Republicans look good.
Great Nations Pay Their Bills
Today's debate may be polarized, but no one seriously expects half the nation to secede because of it. And yet, in the early days of the American experiment, that’s how controversial the national debt was.
Four Myths -- and the Truth! -- About the Individual Mandate
The individual mandate was a Republican invention from a time when it was not yet heresy for a Republican politician to advocate providing affordable health insurance to every American without a government takeover of the industry.
The Republican Riddle: What the States Know That the Feds Don't
At the state level, Republicans are cynically and diabolically riding to victory on the wings of a big federal government while claiming to be doing the exact opposite.