Public Policy and Governance

The Scariest Thing About Mitt Romney

This morning’s New York Times asked an important question: is there a “Romney Doctrine”? The article detailed the multiple ways in which Romney has ignored the advice of seasoned members of his foreign policy team, and rejected the more nuanced positions that Bush junior came to embrace in his second term (after learning lessons the [...]

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The Marketplace of Ideas

The theory behind freedom of speech was pretty simple: a robust consideration and debate of all ideas will lead to adoption of the better ones. When all points of view can be examined, people will opt for those that are best for that society. The history of civil rights in the U.S. would seem to [...]

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Sorry, Ericka–It Isn’t Change Indy Is Spurning

I generally like Ericka Smith’s columns–indeed, she and Matt Tully generally write the only things worth reading in what used to be a real newspaper. But she got this one really, really wrong. I know a fair number of police officers, and a significantly larger number of politicians. I also have several colleagues who work [...]

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Priorities, People!

Well, I see that Congressional Republicans bowed to the inevitable–aka looming voter outrage–and passed an extension of the measure to keep student loan interest rates at their current levels. The rates would have doubled without congressional action, and while the Tea Party faction supported letting the rates increase (who cares about those snotty little elitists [...]

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The Buffet Rule and the Self-Made Myth

Predictably, the Buffet Rule–which would have raised tax rates on those making a million dollars or more a year–failed for lack of the 60 votes needed to break a Republican filibuster. The GOP defended its position as necessary to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation, despite literally mountains of data disproving the link between lower taxes [...]

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