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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a contributing editor for the Prospect and the author of Being Right is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn From Conservative Success.

Recent Articles

There Is No Social Security Crisis

Critics of Social Security have long perpetuated the myth that the system will eventually go bankrupt. It's time to dispel that claim once and for all.

Paul WaldmanFeb 24, 2009

There's a time-tested way to curry favor with the permanent Washington establishment. That is, having David Broder praise you for being "responsible" and being considered a Very Serious Person by the Sunday shows. All you need to do is proclaim ominously that entitlements are a ticking time bomb, a looming storm on the horizon, a hungry beast ready to devour our nation's finances, or whatever metaphor you find most frightening. The more unpleasant the solution you propose -- tax increases are good, but benefit cuts are even better -- the more the Beltway Brahmins will approve.

The Tyranny of the Centrists

You'd think passing a $787 billion stimulus bill would count as a victory for Obama. But it was the centrists who got what they wanted from the stimulus bill, and what they wanted was for the entire nation to beseech them for their favor.

Paul WaldmanFeb 17, 2009
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, talk about the Senate's work to pass the economic stimulus bill Friday, Feb. 6, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

If six months ago you had said that within three weeks of taking office, President Obama would pass a $787 billion stimulus bill with billions of dollars for food stamps and schools, infrastructure and energy modernization, health care and broadband, anyone would have said it would be an extraordinary victory for the president, his party and his ideology. Yet now that it has actually happened, the administration is hardly acting triumphal, while some other people are imagining themselves the true winners.

Good Work, If You Can Get It

Every national politician, in good times and bad, will talk about "jobs." But as the current debate on the stimulus has shown, not everybody has the same understanding of what a "job" is.

Paul WaldmanFeb 10, 2009
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

Every national politician, in good times and bad, will talk about "jobs" -- creating jobs, building jobs, saving jobs, bringing jobs. Or as they sometimes put it, "jobs, jobs, jobs." But as the current debate on the Obama administration's stimulus package has shown, not everybody has the same understanding of what a "job" is. The problem is that philosophy is getting in the way of reality.

Limbaugh vs. Obama

With a new Democratic administration and Democratic majorities in Congress, Limbaugh is right back where he wants to be -- on the outside.

Paul WaldmanFeb 03, 2009
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

At a giddy Capitol Hill ceremony in December 1994, Rush Limbaugh was declared an honorary member of the 104th Congress, so grateful were its ascendant Republicans for the radio host's assistance in winning majorities of both houses. Limbaugh told the assembled members to remain "rock-ribbed devoted in almost a militant way to your principles." And indeed they did.

With God On Our Side?

President Obama acknowledged nonreligious Americans in his Inaugural Address. Will his administration re-separate church and state?

Paul WaldmanJan 27, 2009

We know that Barack Obama is all about inclusion. Still, it was a little surprising to hear him give a nod in his Inaugural Address to a group that has been one of America's most disdained, particularly when it comes to politics. "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers," he said, no doubt bringing a smile to millions of faces around the country, and a scowl to millions more.

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