Here’s House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explaining to Politico why she wants to lift the income level at which the proposed surtax to pay for a government takeover of health care would kick in: “I’d like it to go higher than it is,” Pelosi said Friday. The speaker would like the trigger raised to $500,000 for individuals and […]
The Obama White House is learning the limits of communications. According to Rasmussen, the President’s approval rating have shrunk to about where they were on Election Day: 52 percent favorable, 47 percent unfavorable. The difference between Mr. Obama’s highly favorable number and highly unfavorable is now negative seven percent. Looking at the charts of public […]
I’m not surprised that Paul articulated my point about the wider implication of the Miller/Obama student loan proposal even better than I could. As Paul says, the federal government has long paid a subsidy to private loan providers in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program. That’s because banks incur costs when they originate and […]
New Haven firefighters Frank Ricci and Ben Vargas spoke at Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing Thursday. But why? Commentators across the board remarked that Ricci’s and Vargas’s statements were moving and emotional. Surely everyone could empathize with their situation — denied promotions they deserved and initially denied redress in the courts. But I thought we […]
More from my West Wing Writers colleague David Litt: Our more cultured readers will recognize the title as the tagline from the 2004 classic, Alien vs. Predator. But it’s also what popped into my head when I thought about the public debate over Supreme Court justices. Here’s why. When George W. Bush was president, he […]
Twenty years ago, I was able to go to college thanks to student loans, Pell Grants, and parents who worked really hard to help me become the first person in our family to go to college. One of my favorite memories of Washington is the time I got to thank former Senator Clairborne Pell […]
I don’t want to scare anyone, but if you really believe President Obama’s government-run health care option is just a benign attempt to inject some competition into the health care system (I’m lookin’ at you, Paul and Robert Reich), take a look at what Congressman George Miller is proposing for the student loan industry. In […]
Ruth Levine of the Center for Global Development (a fabulous organization, for anyone who cares about development issues) offers her take on President Obama’s recent speech in Ghana, and the reasoning he offers for U.S. support for public health in Africa and beyond: America will support these efforts through a comprehensive, global health strategy, because […]
Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing began today and the end of the process is about as foregone a conclusion as you’re likely to find in politics. Which is probably good. Judge Sotomayor has three crucial qualities going for her: (1) The president wants her to be the newest justice of the Supreme Court (and he […]
How did we get by without him? Example number 487, from Sunday’s Politico Playbook by Mike Allen, quoting “senior White House officials” on health reform: “This is probably the most difficult legislation attempted by anybody, EVER. We’ve never been closer on health care, in 50 years.” Seriously? Over the last 50 years, the federal government gave birth […]
A shout out to my friend and former Clinton foreign policy speechwriting colleague Daniel Benjamin, who had his formal swearing-in ceremony last week as Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department. Dan came to the White House in 1994 after serving as a foreign correspondent for TIME magazine and the Wall Street Journal, […]
A guest post today from my colleague David Litt: The era of bipartisanship seems to have ended before it began. Republicans want Democrats to own any potential failures. Democrats think that when push comes to shove, Republicans simply don’t believe in compromise. That’s why it was refreshing to see a recent report on immigration reform […]
Before she met and married her wonderful husband, Dave, my partner Vinca LaFleur was known as Vinca Showalter. I write because it is a big month in the Showalter family. Vinca’s mom, Elaine Showalter, is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, a leading writer on social and cultural issues, […]
Interesting that Vinca and Julia picked up on that workout metaphor offered by President Obama last week. I also noticed it, and it got under my skin – not because it’s sporty, but because it’s condescending. “This is a town where there was just a belief that nothing could get done…. Folks have been sitting […]
By this point, America is probably about Sarah-Palined out, at least for this round. Everyone has an opinion on her announcement, and her future. I find the most interesting pieces over the past few days have come from women — like Ruth Marcus and Amanda Fortini — while wishing Peggy Noonan had weighed in, as […]
