WASHINGTON — Just how far have budget deficits drifted off the radar screen of presidential politics? Here’s one indicator: Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued its annual “Budget and Economic Outlook” report — a detailed examination of White House and congressional policies — and hardly anyone paid heed. The inattention is striking […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds
Tax conformity is critically important
I am aware that long, drawn-out debates over tax conformity and Maine’s tax code typically causes people’s eyes to glaze over. It is one of those issues that we, your elected representatives in the Maine Legislature, are supposed to just take care of for you. Unfortunately, if the Legislature drags its feet on this issue, […]
advertisement
Posted inOp-Eds
Voters muddled about our country’s future
URBANDALE, Iowa — Politics sometimes moves with lightning speed and in a clear direction. The rise of the New Deal coalition in the midst of the Great Depression is an example of how fast things can change. But often, currents of anxiety and rage swirl below the surface. Citizens, stunned by large events and torn […]
Posted inOp-Eds
GOP establishment joining Trump
Few expected Donald Trump would be in a dominant position days before the Iowa caucuses. Fewer still expected the Republican establishment would be among the mogul’s deluded enablers. As if to validate every insult ever hurled at it, the GOP elite is putting on a display of fecklessness that has to surprise even its most […]
Posted inOp-Eds
With Iran, it’s strictly business
For anyone whose knowledge of history extends beyond the current season of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” or the latest instant replay of an NFL game, the four days of meetings involving Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani, European leaders and businesses should remind people we have seen this show before. Rouhani’s state visit, the first by […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Justice seldom gets more poetic
“A lie can get halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” That nugget of wisdom dates from the 1800s, i.e., decades before anyone ever heard of the Internet — much less Fox “News.” If a lie traveled that fast in the 19th century, you can only imagine its speed […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Conservatives’ double-barreled revolt
NEW YORK — To understand why the current conservative crackup so confounds and confuses the Republican establishment, you have to recognize that the party is facing two separate revolts taking place simultaneously: one led by Ted Cruz, the other by Donald Trump. The first is well described by E.J. Dionne in his important new book, […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Repupblicans face trading a century of conservatism for Trumpism
WASHINGTON — It’s hard to believe that the United States, having resisted the siren song of socialism during its entire 20th-century heyday (the only major democracy to do so), should suddenly succumb to its charms a generation after its intellectual demise. Indeed, the prospect of socialist Bernie Sanders, whatever his current momentum, winning the Democratic […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Tax reforms saving people money
The New Year offers an occasion to reflect on the past 12 months, and look forward to what 2016 has to offer. Maybe you made a resolution. Maybe you didn’t. Either way, you probably didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about how the changing calendar would immediately save you money. That makes sense. The […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Iowa a test for evangelical Christians
KEOSAUQUA, Iowa — “Awaken the body of Christ that we might pull back from this abyss.” When Sen. Ted Cruz closed his prayerful plea to a crowd of about 150 people here late Tuesday night, the “abyss” he had in mind was something larger than the prospect of a Donald Trump victory in Monday’s caucuses. […]