WASHINGTON — It isn’t often that economics raises the most profound questions of human existence, but recent work of economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton (husband and wife, both of Princeton University) comes close. You may recall that a few years ago, Case and Deaton reported the startling finding that the death rates of non-Hispanic […]
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Former congressman acknowledges current Congressional dysfunction
Tony Hall served in Congress for nearly 24 years, representing Ohio’s 3rd District. The Democrat left in 2002 to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, appointed by President George W. Bush. Hall laments how corrosive contemporary politics has become and tells me he couldn’t get elected in […]
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Working class forgotten unless it can be used as a front
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Whatever happened to the interests of the working class? Weren’t they supposed to be front and center in the Trump administration? Here’s one clue: When a policy that helps some corporate sector can be repackaged to make it look like a pro-worker move, President Trump will always hide his real purpose behind […]
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Freecom caucus loses chance to govern
By Marc A. Thiessen Special to The Washington Post A few days before the House Freedom Caucus brought down the American Health Care Act, Rep. Mark Meadows laid out the stakes for his group: “This is a defining moment for our nation, but it’s also a defining moment for the Freedom Caucus.” The North Carolina […]
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Trump’s gamble on health care failed
WASHINGTON — In a week that felt like a month, Americans got a clear view of Donald Trump’s governing style and also of his fabled dealmaking approach. Or rather, I should say, Trump got a good sense of what governing is like — hard, hard, hard. And it’s bound to get more difficult given the […]
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What about protection from illegal immigrants?
A rough translation of Maryland’s state motto is “Strong Deeds, Gentle Words.” In the case of a 14-year-old girl who was recently raped and sodomized in a restroom at Rockville High School by two males students, both immigrants, one facing a deportation hearing, that motto in practice has been reversed. The police report of the […]
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U.S. Constitution’s checks and balances are working nicely
WASHINGTON — Under the dark gray cloud, amid the general gloom, allow me to offer a ray of sunshine. The last two months have brought a pleasant surprise: Turns out the much feared, much predicted withering of our democratic institutions has been grossly exaggerated. The system lives. Let me explain. Donald Trump’s triumph last year […]
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Florida governor leading mob mentality
It’s a scene you’ve seen a hundred times. The angry rabble advances on the jail, meaning to seize the prisoner and hang him from the nearest tree. The sheriff, a lone defender of the rule of law, stands them off, refusing to give in to the mob’s demand for extralegal justice. Granted, no one is […]
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Neil Gorsuch's convenient untruth
WASHINGTON — With a shrewdly calculated innocence, Judge Neil Gorsuch told a big fat lie at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday. Because it was a lie everyone expected, nobody called it that. “There’s no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge,” Gorsuch said. Gorsuch, the amiable veteran of many Republican campaigns, is […]
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Diplomacy didn't stop N. Korea's nuclear quest
More than five decades ago, the wry British humor magazine, Punch, observed that “Idealists maintain that all nations should share the atomic bomb. Pessimists maintain that they will.” Nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea’s hereditary Communist dictatorship vindicate the pessimists. Yes, a hereditary Communist dictatorship. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is the […]