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The Medicare for All Red Herring
Some pundits have taken to warning supporters of Medicare for All that it is a gift to Republicans in the general election. Supposedly, Medicare for All would dismay the vast majority of Americans who are broadly satisfied with their employer-provided insurance. And as Representative John Delaney declared in the first of the two Democratic debates, […]
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The House Border Supplemental Debacle
While we’ve spent the past two days watching candidates who want to win the next election, we’ve neglected a disaster from the winners of the last election. For the past week, the House has been working on a $4.5 billion emergency border supplemental appropriation, responding to the inhumane conditions in migrant holding cells. Progressives wanted […]
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When the Grown-Up in the Room is Trump
For two years, the grown-ups in the room restrained Trump. He managed to get rid of all of them—an attorney general in Jeff Sessions who wasn’t willing to do all of Trump’s bidding; some White House chiefs of staff such as Reince Priebus who acted to protect him from himself; the traditional generals who served […]
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Why Willie Sutton Is a Sounder Guide to Taxing Wealth Than Chuck Lane
Today, the Economic Policy Institute and the Institute for Policy Studies are holding a conference entitled “Taxing the (Very) Rich,” featuring such luminaries as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, author Barbara Ehrenreich, Senator Chris Van Hollen, Congresswomen Pramila Jayapal and Jan Schakowsky, and a veritable minyan of economists. Moreover, a number of certifiable gazillionaires, […]
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Trump: The Wrong Version of the Right Policy, Take Two
As we’ve seen, Trump has moved into the vacuum on trade policy left by globalist Democrats and Republicans who care more about corporate interests than about working Americans. Trump has also made far more of an issue of China’s abusive mercantilism than previous administrations of either party. The trouble is that Trump is royally screwing […]
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Iran War Justification: Repurposing an Old Lie
It’s not just Donald Trump’s ongoing rants about Hillary Clinton’s emails—which featured prominently in his declaration of candidacy for re-election earlier this week in Orlando—that suggest a president and administration waging the battles of yore. Now, their rationalizations for going to war against Iran are the same spurious ones that the George W. Bush administration […]
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The China End-Game
We are now familiar with Trump’s signature style: Create a Trumped-up crisis, pull back from the brink at the 11th hour, and pose as the hero who saved the day. There is only one thing wrong with this method. When applied to genuinely thorny policy challenges, it only simulates progress and leaves genuine problems unresolved, […]
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To the Barricades! How to Counter Trump’s New Deportation Orders
Inasmuch as virtually every policy Donald Trump implements is grotesque, it’s a good thing he telegraphs his punches. Last night, the Tweeter-in-Chief gleefully tweeted that his immigration goons would begin deporting “millions” of undocumented immigrants next week. The Supreme Three-Year-Old isn’t much for keeping secrets; be thankful he wasn’t president on the eve of D-Day. […]
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Facebook World Domination Announcement Set for Tuesday
Tomorrow, Facebook is set to unveil its own currency, because that’s a thing companies do now. It’s a throwback to 19th-century coal and lumber companies that would pay workers in scrip. But in this case, Facebook has 2.5 billion users instead of a few thousand laborers, giving it the potential to dominate the payment system. […]
