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Economy remains top political issue

Republicans are licking their wounds after this Tuesday’s ballot box defeats. But there is a lesson to be learned here. The various elections in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia, viewed collectively, reminded us yet again of a perennial political truth: Americans still care first and foremost about their wallets. Culture war-type issues often generate the most salacious headlines – and many of the Trump administration’s fights on these fronts, such as immigration enforcement and higher education reform, are just and necessary. Still, the economy remains the top political ...

Will Supreme Court permit Trump’s power grab?

I think the Supreme Court will rule against President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs. That said, it’s just remarkable that the vote will not be 9-0. Trump is claiming sweeping powers to impose (and rescind and reimpose and re-rescind) tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), which was a revised version of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA). The question for the Court was whether IEEPA actually grants the president power to impose tariffs – though the word “tariff” does not appear in the text of the law and no president ...

‘Emergency’ label magic key in Washington

In Washington today, the word “emergency” is a magic key; it unlocks powers Congress never granted, suspends the discipline of regular order and decorates bloated bills with provisions too dubious to pass on their own. What was once meant to be a narrow exception for genuine crises has become a routine pretext for government overreach — a means of inflating executive power and corroding the nation’s fiscal credibility. Start with the most brazen claim, and one soon to be scrutinized by the Supreme Court: that a president may impose sweeping tariffs under the International ...

Hunger games need to make changes

There are an estimated 42 million people receiving food aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. The figure represents 12.3 percent of the U.S. population, according to the USDA. In the richest nation on Earth that is not something to brag about. It is, or ought to be, a disgrace. SNAP is a casualty of the government “shutdown,” though two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to restore funds to the program. On Monday, President Trump said he will use a contingency fund to cover only 50 percent of SNAP benefits ...

Cultural, social, fiscal problems go hand in hand

One big word worth learning is “schadenfreude.” Schadenfreude is “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.” Nothing better captures the perverse pleasure that Democrats are deriving from the pain inflicted on our country caused by the government shutdown. Democrats precipitated this shutdown to force Republicans to back off efforts to turn around our suicidal growth of government spending and debt. House Republicans passed a continuing resolution ready for the president’s signature to fund the government, but Democrats said no. They refuse to ...

Bill Gates gets mugged by reality

You’ve probably heard by now the blockbuster news that Microsoft founder Bill Gates, one of the richest people to ever walk the planet, has had a change of heart on climate change. For several decades, Gates poured billions of dollars into the climate-industrial complex and was howling that the end is nigh unless we stop using fossil fuels, cars, air conditioning and general anesthesia. Now he says he rejects the “doomsday” predictions of the more extreme global warming prophets. Some conservatives have snuffed that Gates has shifted his position on climate change because he ...