Features

Last year, when the editor of another magazine asked me to write about the progress of welfare reform in America, I called around to see which state was leading the way. I ended up in Wisconsin. Under the direction of Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin had begun cutting its rolls earlier than most […]

ACROSS: 1 I(M)PLICATION (politician anag.); 8 TREASON (anag.); 9 LOWER (2 defs.); 10 OMANI (hidden); 11 A + TONING; 12 RE + SIGN; 14 SPIRAL (L.A. + rips rev.); 17 G + REATLY (realty anag.); 19 (m)ORGAN; 22 TAINT (2 defs.); 23 TI(E RA)CK; 24 F(ELICIT)ATED DOWN: 1 INT(R)O; 2 PIE + TA (at rev.); […]

ACROSS: 1 SO-S + O; 3 TE(THERE)D; 8 RâS + V.P.; 9 ENTRAINS (anag.); 11 PERS(UAS + I)ON (USA anag.); 14 IN + SECT; 15 S(I)MILE; 17 BEL(L)YACHES (by Chelsea anag.); 20 FUR + LOUGH; 21 LIAR (rev.); 22 RIGHTING (writing hom.); 23 A(GE)D (e.g. rev.) DOWN: 1 SERAP + HIM (spare anag.); 2 S […]

I’ve always wondered where the money goes when I pay extra to the U.S. Post Office for a sheet of breast cancer stamps, when I buy daffodils from the American Cancer Society, or when I pledge a donation to someone running a race for the cure. Or, for that matter, when I give money to […]

With clinical trials now underway, it is natural to expect that a safe and effective vaccine against HIV will soon spell the end of AIDS in this country. But consider a more likely scenario: Immediately after the Food and Drug Administration licenses the vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend the immunization […]

The Cabinet met with the president in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on a sultry day in the summer of 1996. Many of us recommended that he not sign the welfare bill that the Republican Congress had sent him (the third one it had sent, only slightly less punitive than the first two, […]

I like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) a lot. I also really like brownies with gobs of vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. But I don’t have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The EITC–a refundable tax credit that subsidizes the wages of low-income workers–is everyone’s darling. New Democrats love it. President Clinton expanded […]

The stage is set for Vice President Al Gore. There’s a lectern at center stage with the vice presidential seal. Off to the left is an antique television, which Gore will later tell us is a vintage 1946 model. This is in the auditorium of the Herbert C. Hoover Building, which houses the United States […]

With Bill Bradley out of the presidential race, Vice President Gore’s proposal to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) remains the one comprehensive proposal on the table in the presidential election to address the plight of the 44 million Americans who lack health insurance. But CHIP is far from an ideal foundation for expanding […]

Hazel Dews is slightly embarrassed when you ask about her salary. She pauses and then confesses that after 25 years cleaning the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington five nights a week, she makes barely $22,000 a year. That’s not what really bothers her, though. What irks her is that men who do the same […]