Tag Archives: Washington Post

Iran Nuclear Agreement: Disagreeing Over How To Disagree

Posted on by

Secretary of State John Kerry shook hands with Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Sharif on a nuclear agreement earlier this month. But the two don't agree on what they agreed to. [Credit:vocfm.com]

Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry shook hands with Iran For­eign Min­is­ter Moham­mad Javad Sharif on a nuclear agree­ment ear­li­er this month. But the two don’t agree on what they agreed to. [Credit:vocfm.com]

The par­ties to the Iran nuclear agree­ment don’t agree on what they agreed to.  Con­gress is strug­gling to agree on how to express its dis­agree­ment with the agreement.

Such is the debased state into which U.S. for­eign pol­i­cy and con­sti­tu­tion­al gov­er­nance have descend­ed. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

A Modest (And Potentially Bipartisan) Obamacare Proposal

Posted on by

Here are three changes Congress should make to Obamacare: 1) no cancellations; 2) no bailouts; 3) no tax on the uninsured. [Credit: thinkquest.org]

Here are three changes Con­gress should make to Oba­macare: 1) no can­cel­la­tions; 2) no bailouts; 3) no tax on the unin­sured. [Cred­it: thinkquest.org]

Here’s a crazy idea: Repub­li­cans and at least some Democ­rats say they sup­port mak­ing changes to Oba­macare; why doesn’t Con­gress give vot­ers a pleas­ant sur­prise and change it?

These changes would be polit­i­cal­ly pop­u­lar, rel­a­tive­ly mod­est and enjoy at least some bipar­ti­san sup­port. Although the pre­vail­ing polit­i­cal cli­mate makes it hard for law­mak­ers to do any­thing of sub­stance, mak­ing the health care law more friend­ly to con­sumers and less accom­mo­dat­ing to cor­po­rate inter­ests would appeal to vot­ers across the spec­trum. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

What Will The Poor Pay for Obamacare?

Posted on by

Credit Huffington Post

Mil­lions of unin­sured Amer­i­cans with low incomes will find that cov­er­age under Oba­macare isn’t free. How they react to that brac­ing bit of news will help deter­mine whether the law suc­ceeds. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma promised change.  Oba­macare will bring it.  But one of its most far-reach­ing changes has noth­ing to do with health care.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Immigration Reform: Will It Boost The Economy Or Hurt It?

Posted on by

Supporters of immigration reform say it will spur growth and raise living standards. Opponents disagree. Who's right? [Credit: ABCNews.go.com]

Sup­port­ers of immi­gra­tion reform say it will spur growth and raise liv­ing stan­dards. Oppo­nents dis­agree. Who’s right? [Cred­it: ABCNews.go.com]

“Immi­gra­tion Reform Would Boost Econ­o­my, CBO Report Finds,” ABC News report­ed last week.

Not exact­ly.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Why It’s a Bad Time to Hold on to Holder

Posted on by
AG Eric Holder may have to help POTUS dig out from under mounting scandals. Credit: theatlantic.com

AG Eric Hold­er may have to go to help POTUS dig out from under mount­ing scan­dals.
Cred­it: theatlantic.com

May 10 was sup­posed to be about health care and moms.  The White House mes­sage of the day was that the health care law is pro-moth­er­hood. The law’s detrac­tors, with their “polit­i­cal bick­er­ing,” “tall tales,” and “polit­i­cal games,” are, by impli­ca­tion, against motherhood.

The Pres­i­dent deliv­ered this mes­sage two days before Moth­ers Day at a White House event. But his mes­sage nev­er did get out. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Benghazi, the IRS and the Perils of Power

Posted on by

Pho­to cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post

What is it that makes sec­ond terms so polit­i­cal­ly treach­er­ous? Received wis­dom tells us that scan­dal is root­ed in hubris – a new­ly re-elect­ed Pres­i­dent, hav­ing stared down the threat of polit­i­cal extinc­tion, now thinks him­self invul­ner­a­ble, and soon enough is caught up in scandal.

But I think some­thing more fun­da­men­tal is at work. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Washington Post Inaccuracies

Posted on by
Black and white drawing of Pope Benedict IX

His scan­dalous res­ig­na­tion is often mis­rep­re­sent­ed and the Post fell into the trap of fail­ing to ful­ly research reli­able info.

The Feb­ru­ary 12 edi­tion of the Post includ­ed a piece by Max Fish­er, which stated:

“Pope Bene­dict IX, in 1045: At age 33 and about 10 years into his tumul­tuous term, the Rome-born pope resigned so that he could get mar­ried – and to col­lect some cash from his god­fa­ther, also Roman, who paid Bene­dict IX to step down so that he might replace him, accord­ing to British his­to­ri­an Regi­nald L. Poole’s defin­i­tive and much-cit­ed his­to­ry of the 11th century.”

Not quite. The twist­ed and still obscure events of the 11th cen­tu­ry are any­thing but clear, but this much is: Regi­nald Poole, writ­ing near­ly a cen­tu­ry ago, did not cred­it the idea that Bene­dict IX abdi­cat­ed the papa­cy in order to mar­ry. Con­tin­ue read­ing →