Ezra Klein

Unsurprisingly, the United States Travel Association has issued a statement asking unnamed officials to “resist inflammatory comments on Swine Flu.” Comments like this one, from the Vice President, mayhaps? I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not that you’re going to […]

I don’t think press conferences are terribly useful mediums. The assembled reporters haven’t settled on a theory of what they’re trying to accomplish. Some, like Ed Henry with his question on abortion, are looking to elicit a moment of spontaneous embarrassment or a flash of unexpected controversy. Some, like Andre Showell and his question on […]

Obama’s digression into the meaning of bipartisanship last night was important for two reasons. The first was obvious: It’s important to understand how the president defines the concept. And he was pretty clear. “I can’t sort of define bipartisanship as simply being willing to accept certain theories of theirs that we tried for eight years […]

When Arlen Specter originally switched parties, I didn’t think it meant much for health reform. So far as Republicans went, Specter was a likely get. His switch to the Democratic side made him yet likelier. But it was hard to say anything more definitive than that. Since then, Barack Obama and Arlen Specter have both […]

I’m with Ben Miller and Frank Bruni: Restaurants should charge for bread. As Bruni argues, there’s no such thing as “free bread.” Rather, there’s such a thing as “slightly more expensive entrees.” And that’s the thing people are getting when they think they’re getting free bread. That might all be fine if the amount of […]

The Finance Committee is going to be releasing a series of three documents on health policy options. One will deal with delivery system reform, another will cover financing, and the third will detail mechanisms for coverage expansion. Yesterday, the Committee released the delivery reform options, and put them up for download here. This is the […]

I’ve remarked before that the columnist with the best access to the Obama administration is, far and away, David Brooks. That’s an odd state of affairs. He is, after all, likely to prove a relentless, if thoughtful, opponent of virtually every major initiative touted by the administration. Brooks might have a soft spot for their […]

I think this result, from the Pew Research Center, should actually concern supporters of cap and trade: One of the quirks of the elite political debate is that it tends to occur in dense cities with extremely impressive transportation infrastructures. DC. New York. Places where cars are more of a luxury item. But that, as […]

The GDP numbers today verged on the obscene: January, February, and March saw a 6.1 percent contraction in gross domestic product. That’s the worst reading in since the 1950s, and significantly more dire than than the 4.7 percent predicted by economists. The chart above comes from the fine folks at the Economic Policy Institute and […]

Kathleen Sebelius mustered 65 votes in the Senate yesterday. That’s something of a victory for Anti-abortion zealots managed to muster fairly — though not totally — united opposition among Republicans. Matt Yglesias looks at this and says, “if you can only get 65 votes for what should be an uncontroversial HHS appointment, then the odds […]