“Trumpcare is really a tax break for the rich, not a health care program,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said about the Republican House bill to decimate the Affordable Care Act. He was right. Sen. Rand Paul, meanwhile, panned the bill for not cutting those taxes fast enough. “It keeps the Obamacare taxes for […]
Op-Eds
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Being an American is life threatening
Call her Seo-yeon. She’s an infant, cute as could be, and she will be born in the city of Busan, South Korea, in the year 2030. When she emits her first cry, this statistical abstract will have a life expectancy of about 90. Maddison, on the other hand, born the same year but in, say, […]
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Cuomo's plan won't end poverty in Brooklyn
Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to spend $1.4 billion of New York’s resources to solve the persistent problem of poverty in central Brooklyn. If he wins legislative approval, Cuomo, a Democrat, intends to spend the money on affordable housing, job training, anti-violence programs, recreational space, even obesity. Some cynics suggest the proposal is targeted at boosting […]
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Should the Fed run the economy 'hot'?
WASHINGTON — Toward the end of 1942, Winston Churchill, in announcing a rare victory over the German army, uttered one of his more memorable phrases: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The same might be said today of […]
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Next steps for the Trump resistance
WASHINGTON — For opponents of President Trump, his first seven weeks in office went about as badly for the country as they expected. The pleasant surprise is their own capacity for resistance and political resilience. What some feared might be a Trump Juggernaut is instead the Trump Jalopy, a wheezing, unsightly contraption with grinding gears […]
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No defense for House Joint Resolution 69
WASHINGTON — In its zeal to repeal, the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to overturn a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule forbidding the baiting, trapping and “denning” of bears and wolves in Alaska’s national wildlife refuges. The Senate is poised to consider the resolution as soon as next week. Distilled to its essence, […]
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Funding cuts would damage hospitals
We are deeply concerned and distressed that the Legislature is once again debating additional Medicaid cuts to hospitals. The latest round of cuts proposed — totaling more than $60 million per year — is unsustainable. More importantly, they are unnecessary. We manage four hospitals in the relatively small Maine communities of Bridgton, Rumford, Norway and […]
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President Trump resembles Andrew Jackson
Upon taking office, President Donald Trump dusted off a portrait of Andrew Jackson and hung it above his desk in the Oval Office. He chose better than he knew. The most jaw-dropping furor of the early Trump administration — the Obama wiretapping allegation — was presaged in broad outline almost 200 years ago during Jackson’s […]
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Can we try reaching out to each other?
So this driver is stopped at an intersection. A pedestrian is dawdling in the crosswalk. Driver leans out the window and yells, “Get out of the street, you damned liberal!” It’s been years since I read that in a magazine. I can’t remember if it was a true story, though I think it was. But […]
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Cyberwarfare has become a very real danger to America
NEW YORK — Last week, we watched the perfect example of a country fighting the last war. The Trump administration has now devoted weeks of time, energy and political capital to rolling out its temporary travel ban against citizens of six Muslim-majority countries who, according to the libertarian Cato Institute, have not committed a single […]