Robert Kuttner

George W. Bush faces a race between the ill-advised economic policies sown in the first half of his term and the bitter fruit that those policies are starting to bear. If the sour effects of his economic policies are evident by mid-2004, he is in deep political trouble. For now, at least, Bush can say […]

Item: The House passes legislation allowing consumers to import cheaper drugs from Canada. Item: IBM plans to move thousands of computer programming jobs to India. Question: Aren’t both events logical consequences of globalization of commerce? Answer: Not if you’re big business, which loves moving cheap jobs offshore but hates competing with cheaper imported drugs. India […]

After September 11, even George W. Bush’s harshest critics credited him for leading. Lately, Bush has been doing the opposite. What does it mean to lead? A real leader puts his own prestige on the line — to educate public opinion, to pursue necessary policies that are sometimes unpopular, and to take responsibility. Lyndon Johnson […]

Is the proposed Medicare drug benefit, now before the Senate, worth having? It covers only about one-fourth of seniors’ drug expenses. But is it a first step toward a comprehensive benefit, as Democrats hope and Republicans fear? Or is it the first step to privatized Medicare, as Republicans hope and Democrats fear? There’s also the […]

Heart disease runs in part of my family. A beloved uncle died at 50 of a heart attack. One grandmother died in her 60s of congestive heart failure; the other of high blood pressure. Others, happily, have lived into their 90s, and I hope I take after them. In those years, doctors could do little. […]

I’m glad that the press is finally making an issue of President Bush’s knowing use of a faked intelligence report on Iraq’s supposed nuclear weapons program. But most of the press keeps missing the larger story. Deception has become the hallmark of this president. Whether the issue is leaving no child behind or who actually […]

Will the economy be a big liability for President Bush’s reelection campaign, as it was for his father in 1992? Or will it turn up just in time, as it did for Ronald Reagan in 1984? And will the economy matter? First, the optimists’ case. The stock market, which enjoyed a good quarter, often leads […]

When push comes to shove, President Bush postures moderate, but delivers for his right-wing base. Consider two epic legislative struggles still playing out — whether to add a stripped-down drug benefit to Medicare and whether to extend tax relief to lower-income working families. Two other key players in this drama are the House majority leader, […]

The 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding narrowly crafted affirmative action programs is being celebrated by everyone from civil rights activists and university presidents to military officers and corporate CEOs. Tolerance and diversity are now mainstream values. Yet the survival of affirmative action could be short-lived. The Bush administration opposes both the Michigan admissions plan and […]