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

Legal versus Illegal Immigration

Some of you have wondered why I haven’t yet made much of an effort to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration. It’s a fair question. Let me share my thoughts with you about the two, and explain why my sentiments about immigration in general mean that I don’t worry much about the distinction between the […]

The Simpsons on Immigration

Simpsons aficionados among you already know that the Simpsons addressed the issue of immigration back in 1996, in the episode “Much Apu About Nothing”. Here’s a summary of the beginning of the episode, thanks to Wikipedia (Btw, I never would have guessed that Wikipedia contains entries on individual Simpsons episodes…) On an ordinary day, a […]

More Evidence Against the Laffer Curve

Brad DeLong uses his blog to publish more honesty from Bruce Bartlett: But how likely is it that the Laffer curve is causing revenues to rise, as opposed to normal operation of the business cycle? Not much, in my opinion. First of all, the Laffer curve came to prominence during a period when the top […]

Entitlement Spending Increases

Peggy Noonan is shocked that President Bush is not fiscally responsible. As she still worships St. Ronald Reagan, Ms. Noonan is not about the blame the tax cuts: This week’s column is a question, a brief one addressed with honest curiosity to Republicans. It is: When George W. Bush first came on the scene in […]

Social Security Privatization: a Crapo Proposal

Mike Crapo has joined James DeMint, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, and Tom Coburn with another spin on Social Security privatization that Phil Kerpen endorses: The DeMint-Crapo amendment puts the possibility of meaningful, pro-worker Social Security reform back into play. If the Democrats are smart they will latch onto it before the train leaves the station. […]

Neither Fiscal Restraint Nor National Security

Two of the most dishonest expressions among George Bush’s standard rants are “giving you your money back” and “priorities”. How else would one explain the following two stories. The AP reports: In both the House and Senate, Democrats have long pushed for more money for ports only to have the Republican-controlled Congress reject their efforts, […]

More on Feingold’s Censure Resolution

The good news is that Senator Harkin has a spine. As for the lack of support from other Democratic Senators, see the debate between Kevin Drum and Glenn Greenwald. I’m with Glenn on this one. Some of the left are rightfully blasting Senator Allard for this: Yesterday, in an interview for Fox News Radio, you […]

Feingold for President in 2008

Maybe it’s a little early but Max Sawicky just gave me two reasons to support Senator Feingold for President in 2008. The first: Feingold is bad on fiscal policy (he’s a budget balancer) Maybe Max does not wish a return to Rubinomics, but I do. The main point of Max’s post is to endorse the […]

Bush v. Reagan on the Size of Government

Let me just add my two cents to what PGL just wrote about whether Reagan was really a small-government conservative, and to what degree Bush has betrayed that legacy. To start with, let me repost a picture that I like from an old post entitled “Spending Growth in Context“: Firstly, I would agree that Reagan […]

The Reagan Era of Smaller Government?

Duncan Black’s post entitled Sully is a reaction to an article by Dana Milbank on a conference where Bruce Bartlett and Andrew Sullivan were doing some Bush bushing (also see Kash’s post). Sully and Bruce long for the days when President Reagan allegedly brought us a smaller government. Duncan writes: I know the myth of […]