Political Commentary

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                            April 5, 2013To Fight Inequality, It's Time to End the College Admissions Scam By Scott Rasmussen
There's a strong desire among many Americans today to address a growing problem of income inequality. That desire helped President Obama raise taxes on upper-income Americans a few months ago. It's reflected in the fact that just 35 percent believe the U.S. economy is fair to the middle class, and only 41 percent believe it's fair to those willing to work hard. Still, it's not really the inequality that bothers people. After all, 65 percent believe that it's fair for those who create very successful companies to become very rich. The problem comes when some people earn big bucks simply because they can game the system in ways that aren't available to most Americans.
April 4, 2013Stop Asking, 'How Did You Like ...' By Froma Harrop
I'm shopping for a sweater online, and as so often happens, up pops a "tell us what you think" box. Or I'm on social media, and another social media company hijacks the screen, trying to sell me another product. Then there's:
April 4, 2013Hard Targets? By Kyle Kondik
One needs little more than just fingers and toes to count the number of House members who represent districts won by the other party’s presidential candidate in 2012. As mentioned here previously, just 25 House members — nine Democrats and 16 Republicans — hold such “crossover” districts. Compare that to 2004, when there were 59 such seats, or 2008, when there were 83.
April 3, 2013Green Tyranny By John Stossel
Environmental activists and politicians would like you to think that we must love their regulations -- or hate trees and animals.
April 2, 2013Do Groups Really Foster Creativity? By Froma Harrop
We're not done with the Yahoo story yet. Much has been said about whether workers produce more at home and whether CEO Marissa Mayer had slowed women's progress by denying working mothers the opportunity to telecommute. That is not today's topic.    
April 1, 2013Why Freight Rail Pays and Passenger Trains Flunk By Michael Barone
Forty years ago, American railroads were in trouble. The Penn Central, the largest railroad, had recently gone bankrupt.
March 29, 2013Cats vs. Dingoes By Froma Harrop
The fight goes on. Whether cats are bird-killing machines or soft balls of love (for themselves, anyway) remains a subject of painful debate.    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 29, 2013What Happens After Immigrants Arrive Is Important, Too By Scott Rasmussen
Sixty-eight percent of voters believe that, when done legally, immigration is good for America. Most voters for years have favored a welcoming policy of immigration. Unlike many issues these days, there is virtually no partisan disagreement.
These facts raise a question that should make everyone in official Washington uncomfortable. If immigration is good for America and there is support across party lines, why can't the politicians figure out a way to come up with something that works?
March 28, 2013Without Fear or Favor: the Heresies and Vindications of Anthony Lewis, 1927 to 2013 By Joe Conason
Anthony Lewis, the former New York Times reporter and columnist who died Monday at the age of 86, shaped the American conscience on a broad range of issues, from civil liberties and civil rights to war and diplomacy, for almost 50 years. During his long career, Lewis won numerous awards and published several important books. Unlike many men of his generation who rose to high positions in journalism, he was a charming and thoughtful man who could listen as intently as he talked.   
March 28, 2013Republicans Grow Less Hawkish in Wake of Iraq War By Michael Barone
Are Republicans no longer the party more inclined to military interventions and an assertive foreign policy?
March 27, 2013Imperial Washington By John Stossel
The Senate did something this past weekend it hasn't done in four years: passed a budget. The law requires the Senate to pass a budget, but Congress often ignores its own laws. For most of Barack Obama's presidency, a series of continuing resolutions kept the money -- your money -- flowing. Now the Senate wants to add a trillion dollars of new taxes, even more than President Obama seeks. Despite our growing debt, the Senate wants to fund things like the Senate barbershop, which loses a third of a million dollars every year.
March 26, 2013Often You Don't Need a Doctor By Froma Harrop
You want a routine checkup. Or your throat is sore. It's probably nothing, but you're concerned. Do you need a full-fledged MD with all those certificates and perhaps a God complex?   
March 25, 2013New Census Data Show People Go Where the Money Is By Michael Barone
What parts of America have been growing during these years of sluggish economic growth?    
March 22, 2013Probing Intentions in the Cyber-fog By Froma Harrop
Two Ohio girls stand accused of saying vile, menacing things on Twitter --seriously accused. The high schoolers, ages 15 and 16, were arrested and face a possible six months in juvenile detention. They are charged with threatening a 16-year-old rape victim in the celebrated case involving Steubenville High School football stars. Two boys were convicted of the rape this week.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 22, 2013It's Time To Bust Up the Big Banks By Scott Rasmussen
Americans have a healthy respect for free market competition and are resistant to government interference -- even when they don't like what the market is up to. For example, 69 percent of Americans believe that large corporate executives are overpaid, but only 17 percent want the government to regulate their pay.
March 21, 2013Republicans Must Show Support for Hispanic Dreams By Michael Barone
Rarely does a political party issue a document so scathingly critical of itself and its most recent presidential nominee as the report of the five-member Growth and Opportunity Project of the Republican National Committee.   
March 21, 2013Multi-Member Districts:  Just A Thing of the Past? By Thomas F. Schaller
Given that at least a third of Americans identify strongly with neither major party, it seems anomalous that the two major parties boast all but two of the 535 members of Congress, 49 of 50 state governors, 99% of the nearly 7,400 state legislators nationwide and every American president for more than a century-and-a-half. Many third-party supporters are convinced that Democrats and Republicans at the state and national level collude to restrict third-party ballot access and make fundraising more difficult for third parties and their candidates.
March 21, 2013The Newsmaker Memo: an Interview With AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka By Joe Conason
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, recently spoke with The National Memo about the sequester's automatic budget cuts, the danger of cuts to Social Security, the Keystone XL pipeline, immigration reform, President Obama and how to defend labor in an era of attacks on the right to organize.  
March 20, 2013The Blob That Ate Children By John Stossel
Shortly after I did my first TV special on education, "Stupid in America," hundreds of union teachers showed up outside my office to yell at me. They were angry because I said union rules were a big reason American kids don't learn.    
March 19, 2013Comforting Words for Young Workers By Froma Harrop
Many speak of Gen X and Gen Y as "lost generations" destined to "not live as well" as their parents. A new Urban Institute study finds that young people up to the age of 40 haven't accumulated as much wealth as their parents did at their age. They face a bleak economic future, breaking a pattern of generational advancement.   