Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has released his budget, and as expected, school funding takes an enormous hit. Wisconsin is not alone in sacrificing education, and it’s not just Republican governors who are mortgaging our kids’ futures to balance today’s budgets. Colorado’s new Democratic governor, John  Hickenlooper, has called for drastic cuts, too. I don’t [...]

Funny, you’d think Wally Piper’s classic children’s book, The Little Engine That Could, would have been a rich source for cartoon metaphors, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever used it. The tragic oddity of the economic recovery now well underway is how few people are yet benefitting from it. Wall [...]

A little lighter fare for the holidays. I’ll be back to my nasty old self soon enough.

Corporate profits in the United States have reached an all-time high. Despite this, the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high; companies aren’t hiring, and wads of hoarded corporate cash so far have not translated into jobs (but executive bonuses are back to pre-recession levels). Can we now finally dispense with the trickle-down theory? Of course not. [...]

Yesterday’s midterm election was nothing short of a catastrophe for the Democratic party. The combination of the worst economy since the Great Depression, a  jobless rate stuck at 10%, a president and a majority party unable to make a coherent case for their agenda or to articulate their vision, and the surprising uprising of the [...]

The rescue of the miners trapped 2000 feet below ground is too good a metaphor to pass up. I suspect there will be a number of similar cartoons in the next few days. I’ve already seen one by my buddy Rob Rogers in Pittsburgh, and more are sure to follow.

I’m as perplexed as anyone by the lack of focus among Democrats running for office this election. It starts at the top, with a White House that has been unable to produce a coherent election message. It ought to be easy, especially for as gifted an orator as Obama, but he’s been bizarrely unable to [...]

Now that the stimulus spending is winding down (note to critics of stimulus spending, who said it didn’t do anything: if it didn’t do any good, why is the loss of it endangering the recovery?), the job market is looking grim again. For reasons I can’t quite fathom in this oddest of election years, neither [...]

Financial reform actually passed. Another victory for Obama, despite the furious objection of the other party and their Wall Street masters. Much too late, of course, and not strong enough, but at least they’re turning the Titanic slowly away from the deregulatory daze that got us into this mess in the first place. That’s little [...]