Once again, I’m perplexed by the inability of the Senate to do what has always been routine–extend unemployment benefits during a recession. I’m equally perplexed by the silence from the White House on the issue–Obama should be out there every day demanding that the benefits be extended, and chiding Republicans and recalcitrant Democrats for their [...]

I’ve been accused of blindly blaming the Republican Party for too many things. But this is one even my most conservative friends agree on. Both parties have always agreed to extend unemployment benefits during recessions. It makes economic sense, and it’s the most humane thing government can do when its citizens are economically stressed. First [...]

The one most important thing that almost everyone agreed that financial reform HAD to do was to break up the “too big to fail” banks, so that we taxpayers wouldn’t be forced to bail them out again if Wall Street continued its reckless ways. So, of course, that was the one thing the financial reform [...]

Surprise! It looks as though the lobbyists are going to win again. The long-delayed financial reform bill is finally taking shape, with a vastly weakened Volcker rule, which would have kept banks from investing their own money in risky bets on the market, and would have prohibited them from owning hedge funds and private equity [...]

It may be a bit premature to predict the outcome of todays’ midterm primary elections, but given the unending stream of bad economic and environmental news and the generally sour mood of the electorate, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that incumbents, even if they eke out victories, are in big [...]

The first round of primaries confirms that an anti-incumbent fervor, in part a result of the poor economy and inflamed by Tea Party rhetoric, is gripping the electorate. A word of caution here: turnout at primaries tends to be low, and the results don’t always reflect the broader mood of the voters. Rainy weather may [...]

I’m more optimistic now than when I drew this cartoon. The last 48 hours have seen a dramatic turnaround in the chances of the Democrats achieving their agenda. Victory has a way of leading to more victories, and this one may be next. The serious reforms of the banking system proposed by Senator Dodd don’t [...]

After more than sixty years of failed attempts, President Obama tomorrow will sign into law a sweeping reform of America’s health care system. It’s certainly not a perfect bill. I’d have preferred Medicare for all, with substantive changes in how reimbursements are made, but given the toxic political climate, that was not possible. I watched [...]

I heard a funny thing this morning. Republicans said that if the Democrats go ahead and pass health care reform by the process known as “reconciliation,” or, to us laymen, a majority vote, it would make bipartisan cooperation more difficult in the future. This from the party that has made partisan obstructionism its only strategy [...]

Here we go again. One more attempt at crafting a health care reform bill with the Republicans. The problem is that the GOP wants nothing to do with the main ideas the Democrats have put forth. Part of it is ideological–a reflexive rejection of anything but market-driven health care, (which has dismally failed either to [...]