Flickr/Sanofi Pasteur If you had asked me six months ago what I thought the first big issue dividing the 2016 Republican presidential candidates would be, I would have said, “Vaccines for childhood diseases, of course.” Yesterday I went off on Chris Christie for his remarks on the topic, and particularly for noting that he vaccinated […]
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Posted inEconomic Policy
Photo of the Day, Budget Madness Edition
View image | gettyimages.com You aren’t going to get much more Washington than this. That’s President Obama’s new budget (and yes, they still print them out on paper), and it seems as though the assembled crowd of photojournalists is anticipating that any second, the documents are going to burst into tiny fireworks, out of which […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Scott Walker Meets the Spotlight
At the end of last week, I wrote that the media were suddenly fascinated with Scott Walker, despite the fact that the Republican electorate wasn’t yet aware of it. Well hold on to your hats, because in a new Des Moines Register poll, Walker has rocketed to the front of the pack! He now leads […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Reefer Sanity
The Republican presidential nominating contest has barely begun, and already we’re talking about marijuana. This is yet another issue most Republicans would just as soon not discuss, since public opinion is moving away from them and they haven’t quite figured out how fast they should follow after it. But at the moment, Jeb Bush can […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Liberal Media Suddenly Very Interested in Scott Walker
View image | gettyimages.com Can the media make Scott Walker the Next Big Thing in Republican presidential politics? With Mitt Romney announcing today that he’s breaking my heart by not running, the race is in need of a new storyline. And in the wake of a good performance at the Iowa Freedom Summit-which I submit […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Some Parties Just Want To Watch The World Burn
Later this year, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in King v. Burwell, and if the Republican plaintiffs are successful in their “moops” argument, approximately 6 million middle-class people in the 37 states using the federal health insurance exchange will lose the subsidies that allowed them to afford health insurance. As gleeful as Republicans are […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
News From Elsewhere
In my column today at The Week, I wonder if we can finally dispense with the ritual in which presidential candidates say that they can bring Republicans and Democrats together to solve problems: So imagine if a candidate in the general election, or a president in his inaugural speech, said, “This is my program. I […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Why We Need to Know More About All the Presidential Candidates’ Religious Beliefs
View image | gettyimages.com Among the things we’re learning about the New Romney, concerned for the downtrodden and bristling with authenticity, is that he’ll be talking more about his religion. I think this is a fine thing for him to do-in fact, I want to hear from other candidates about the subject, too. Not only […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Photo of the Day – Nomination Hearing Edition
View image | gettyimages.com This is from the confirmation hearings for Loretta Lynch to be Attorney General; that’s her in the center. I think Cruz is saying to himself, “Can I be president and serve on the Supreme Court at the same time? I don’t think the Constitution says otherwise. Yeah, that’d be real nice…”
Posted inEducation in America
The Terrifying Political Power of the Upper Middle Class
Today’s Plum Line post concerns the plan to eliminate the tax benefit of 529 plans, which the Obama administration proposed and then withdrew in the face of opposition from both Republicans and Democrats: The Republicans who are crowing about the White House’s retreat ought to remind themselves that this is yet another illustration of a […]
