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

Commentary on Commentary on Sanders’s Single Payer National Health Insurance Proposal

Bernie Sanders has proposed a federal national health insurance system which will provide no-deductible no copay insurance to all US legal residents. Needless to say, this will be expensive. Amazingly, Sanders focused on what taxes he proposes be increased to pay for the program. Kevin Drum is very favorably impressed by the (relatively) honest budgeting […]

Pre-Debate Contest: Guess which one of Sanders’ past or present policy positions or legislation he supported that Clinton will misrepresent most outlandishly tonight [Updated!]

UPDATE: To see the winning Clinton claim, read my my comment to Robert Waldmann’s post above.  —- Last week when Chelsea Clinton made he now-infamous statements about Sanders’ single-payer healthcare insurance plan—specifically, the one he proposed as a bill in 2013, but presumably a blueprint for the one he plans to propose—I wondered how Sanders […]

Why the “Proposed Koch gift to WCU is a Bad Idea”

About a week ago , I wrote about the events leading up to the dilemma faced by Western Carolina University faculty and administration with being offered a $2 million grant from a Koch Brothers foundation. What I did not mention is the recent domination of the North Carolina university system by Republican minded-administrators such as […]

Champion tax avoider GE gets subsidized relocation to Boston

On Wednesday, General Electric announced that it was going to relocate its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Boston beginning in 2016. Even without the headline, you probably already guessed that the relocation was subsidized — in this case, by both the state of Massachusetts ($120 million) and the city of Boston ($25 million). 800 jobs […]

Ted Cruz says that if one of his daughters as a young adult joins the Navy and her boat strays into the territorial waters of an unfriendly country whose own Navy then holds the boat and crew, he would want the president to torpedo diplomatic discussions for their release by speaking belligerently about it on national television hours after the incident began.*

I can’t remember which network I watched the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, but one of the post-speech commentators was Hugh Hewitt, a winger talk radio host whom I had never heard of until he participated as a questioner in one of the earlier Republican debates this cycle. Hewitt began his commentary […]