I watched enough of the debates leading up to Iowa to conclude that the Republican candidates for president seem to live on a different planet than the rest of us, one where the only problem this country has is named Obama. Unemployment at 9 percent? Millions of homes foreclosed? The erosion of the middle class? [...]

You’ve got to love the thinking here. Obama proposes a hefty $450 billion jobs bill, containing many items that Republicans used to favor. The tab is to be paid by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to their pre-Bush tax cut levels. The Republicans (surprise) oppose asking the rich to pay for the jobs the [...]

The president, freed, at least temporarily, from the limit hostage crisis, has turned his attention, finally,  to jobs. His problem, and the nation’s, is that there’s almost nothing he can do to create more jobs. Having tied himself to deficit reduction, he can’t very well call for the stimulus necessary to shake the economy out [...]

Washington has zeroes in with laser-like focus on the most pressing issue of our day–the unacceptable level of unemployment. No, wait! Just kidding. It’s cutting the size of government, which of course, matters more than anything else to the millions of Americans who can’t find work, who have lost or are in are in danger [...]

I just returned from my son’s graduation from Boston University. It’s a big school, with thousands of graduates–so many that each department hands out the diplomas in a separate ceremony–and it’s only one of many colleges and universities in the area. Harvard, Tufts, MIT, Boston College, Northeastern, Brandeis, and so many others have graduations in [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Jobs is the number one issue for Americans, according to recent polling. Ever anxious to help, I am proposing a solution to the vexing problem of persistent unemployment. Even better, my resolution includes ending illegal immigration AND extending tax cuts, all in one elegant package!