WASHINGTON — Tax “reform,” starting with taxes on business, seems to be on everyone’s agenda, and it may be a place where the incoming Trump administration and its Democratic critics find common ground. But it’s still going to be a slog, and one reason is so-called “pass-through” businesses whose taxes are levied at personal income […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds
Unrest in Kosovo continues to brew
This week, Kosovo accused Serbia of preparing to emulate “the Crimea model” and annex a predominantly ethnic Serb enclave within Kosovo. The accusation reflected a surge of nationalist anger in both countries and stirred legitimate fear of rekindled war. “Crimea model” refers to the 2014 Russian invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula — the […]
advertisement
Posted inOp-Eds
Proud to be maladjusted to Donald Trump
Sometimes, you’ve got to go through it to get to it. That’s a personal motto with which I have occasionally consoled myself since I was a teenager. It means that for as much as we naturally seek to avoid the unpleasant situation, to find a way over or around it, there are times in this […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Would be nice if Trump could act presidential
WASHINGTON — Just days before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump got into a verbal battle with Georgia Rep. John Lewis, one of America’s greatest living heroes and an icon of the civil rights movement. As all surely know by now, Lewis said that Trump isn’t a legitimate president, to which Trump retorted that Lewis is: […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Dr. Ben Carson — a role model to follow
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development-designate, told a story. He said his mother was a domestic who cleaned beautiful homes. One day she asked him if he would rather live in those nice houses or the house in which he and his brother lived in Detroit. She […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Sen. Collins must stand against Pruitt
When it was announced that Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Maine’s U.S. Sen. Susan Collins reportedly said, “I don’t know who he is. I truly know nothing about him or his views. I didn’t even know his name.” It wouldn’t take Collins very long to […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Some thoughts on Obama’s presidency
WASHINGTON — It is far too early to render final judgment on the Obama presidency. All the chatter about his “legacy” overlooks two obvious realities. The significance of Obama will depend heavily on events that have not yet happened (for starters, the fate of the Iranian nuclear deal) and comparisons, for better or worse, with […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Trump thrives off media’s hostility
The best thing that happened to Donald Trump last week is that BuzzFeed published the raw Russia dossier about him. It can’t be pleasant for anyone to see his name associated with prostitutes and a bizarre sex act in print — the principle that all publicity is good publicity can be taken too far even […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Journalists need to advocate for their profession
Well, that was quite the spectacle. In his first news conference since July, President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday likened the U.S. intelligence community to Nazi Germany, talked about himself in the third person as he described Vladimir Putin’s affection for him and attacked not one but two news organizations. He refused to take a question […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Trump presidency a boost to China
NEW YORK — Donald Trump has perhaps attacked no country as consistently as he has China. During his campaign, he thundered that China was “raping” the United States, “killing” it on trade and artificially depressing its currency to make its goods cheap. Since being elected, he has spoken to the leader of Taiwan and continued […]