Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Why Spending/GDP is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Metric For Judging Obama’s Performance

A post like this really shouldn’t be necessary, but part of the right wing canard that Obama has been a profligate spender is based on spending as a percentage of GDP. It looks like this – Graph 1. Graph 1.  Fed Expenditures/GDP Sure enough, by the end of Clinton’s term the ratio had fallen from […]

A Quick Look at Federal Spending

Over at Plain Blog, an anonymous wing nut made this off-topic comment. Now, yes, Bill Clinton and his 2000 federal spending level of 18% of GDP doesn’t put him on the fringe, which makes it surprising that you lefties are celebrating him, even as you hysterically condemn anybody who resists the Left’s current massive spending […]

Clinton derangement syndrome

rdan Joe Conason of Salon gets this one right. Here was an effort that exemplified the best of America — a society that values the lives of its citizens enough to send a former head of state, with all the power of government behind him, to the aid of two women in distress. Here was […]

Welfare Reform not a Disaster, Interlude; or What Do We Mean When We Say Aid

Those of you who want to argue that something being “just symbolism” are invited to consider the fate of “Aid to Families with Dependent Children.” AFDC is clear and precise. It tells us that we are helping a specific set of people: Families with Dependent Children. Not just the father and the mother, but the […]

Experiment: How would you advise Sen. Clinton?

Twice now in this political session we have had the opportunity to move beyond the Carl Rove/Frank Luntz school and system of communication. The first was Sen. Obama’s speech on race. The second is this current statement discussed in PGL’s post. I understand the current structure of our MSM and their strategy to earning viewers […]

Ain’t been no progressiveness since 1980

In this post, Bruno commented and posted this link to reference this statement: In 2005, the top 1 percent of tax returns paid 39.4 percent of all federal individual income taxes and earned 21.2 percent of adjusted gross income, both of which are significantly higher than 2004 when the top 1 percent earned 19 percent […]