An Alternate Analogy for Health Care Reform

Much has been written comparing the present health care reform effort to prior struggles for the same thing.  But this week’s passage of the Senate’s version of Obamacare brought to mind another recent political circumstance that, for me, says more about the political risks in play than does the failure of Hillarycare in 1993.
I speak [...]

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Best Medicine Available to Obama: Put the Scalpel Down

One of the only fair defenses of the stimulus bill is its immediate psychological effect.  At the time it was passed, the nation was very, very scared. The general sense was that the government needed to “do something.”  Everyone knew that the new Democratic administration wasn’t about to cut taxes as a means of [...]

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On the Marque, 10/13/09

The word of the day is “decline”:

If you read nothing else for the rest of the year about the Obama presidency and the direction it is taking the country, read Krauthammer in this week’s Weekly Standard.  No, really – go read it.  I’ll wait.
Riffing on Krauthammer’s theme, Mark Steyn dishes up lugubrious drollery as only [...]

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Republicans Need to Convert the Negative to a Positive

Republicans on Capitol Hill have been remarkably successful at demonstrating that the current spendulous bill doesn’t stimulate anything.  The popularity of the bill has dropped from 45-34% to 37-43% in two weeks’ time.  Perhaps most troubling for Democrats is that, among independents, the bill is now supported by 27% and opposed by 50%.  Did it [...]

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The Politics of DOOM!11!1!!

What was that our new president said about ending the politics of fear?
And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.
That’s [...]

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Sometimes It’s Best to Just Stand and Applaud

I was going to write a post or posts today about Obama’s missed political opportunities with the stimulus bill, and the growing gap between his words and his deeds, and the fact that our current predicament needs solutions beyond the same old, same old.
But Peggy Noonan said it all already, and better than I ever [...]

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Inevitable Failure, Infinite Excuses

One of the more troubling aspects of the Obama stimulus package is its subtle and flexible rhetoric of infinite excuses.
The President claims that his $825 billion stimulus bill will “create or save 2.5 million jobs.” Sounds great, right? Makes you think that we’re going to get this economy going again by adding jobs [...]

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A Chart Everyone Needs to See

Not long ago, I read an article relating the fact that there were 70% more dollar bills in circulation on January 1, 2009 than on January 1, 2008.  That’s a rather stunning fact, if you know anything about our monetary system.  While the Fed has been busy buying insurance companies, flooding banks with cash, and [...]

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Nine Predictions for 2009

As so many blogs, periodicals, and other wags have done, so shall I make my predictions for the year to come.  Your own predictions are encouraged in the comments (as are your criticisms of the prognostications below).

The House, but not the Senate, votes on (and passes) the Employee Free Choice Act.   A surprisingly effective P.R. [...]

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Digression: Gas Prices

Recently, I was grousing about gas prices seeming to go down much more slowly than they went up with the price of oil.  Well, boy, was I wrong.  Take a look at this (unfortunately fuzzy) chart, compliments of GasBuddy:
What this shows is that, during the past year and a half, the spread between gas prices [...]

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