The most important lesson to be learned by Democrats from recent events in both the real and political worlds is that economic growth alone is not enough. Expansion of gross domestic product is a good thing, but 4 percent annual growth does not guarantee that Americans will see significant improvement in their own economic positions; […]
Barney Frank
Rep. Barney Frank was elected to the U.S House of Representatives in 1980 after seving in the Massachusetts state legislature for eight years. He is a member of the Judiciary Committee and the Banking and Financial Services Committee.
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Thanks, But No Thanks
In the September issue of the Prospect, Robert Reich offers several Democrats, myself specifically included, some entirely gratuitous advice. Not having spoken with me – nor, I think, with my colleagues — Mr. Reich lectures me that I must “resist (the) temptation” to spend most of my time in a series of shrill, wholly negative […]
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Repeal Bush’s Tax Cut:
One of the impressive feats of intellectual tenacityin recent times is the Republicans’ ability to sustain their faith in large taxcuts for the wealthy despite repeated battering from reality. When George W. Bush first proposed this early in 2000, his justification wasthat our economy was so strong that it was producing far more revenue than […]
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Taps for Caps
One problem the Republican leadership faces in boasting about the accomplishments of the 1999 congressional session is that one of them was the repudiation of the primary “success” they were trumpeting proudly in 1997. That was the year the Republican Congress passedand lamentably got Bill Clinton to signthe wildly misnamed Balanced Budget Act. It was […]
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Trigger Happy
T he Communist Manifesto exults over the “specter haunting Europe”–the growth of communism. Today, America’s ability to grow in a socially equitable manner confronts a serious threat from another economic theory, one that shares with Marx’s construct its devotees’ loyalty in the face of strong contradictory evidence. This danger can be even more appropriately labeled […]