Author: Eric Lotke

Obama has introduced his budget, and people are hyperventilating about the deficit. Piling “debt on the backs of our kids and our grandkids,” declares House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). “Bloated,” exclaims Democrat Evan Bayh of Nebraska. With all the hyperventilating, we are forgetting what’s most important. Deficits aren’t necessarily bad. Sometimes deficits can be […]

Tax day is coming, and people are sad. But the problem isn’t taxes. The problem is fairness. Who pays taxes, and who gets the benefits. Today the Institute for America’s Future publishes a new report that documents what we already know. The tax code is unfair, tilted in favor of the rich, powerful and represented. […]

With all the fuss over Wall Street bailouts and AIG bonuses, one banking breakthrough is going unnoticed. Obama’s proposed budget completely eliminates an unnecessary, obsolete bank subsidy: College student loans – where the subsidy goes to the bank, not the student. It’s a stick in the eye of the banking industry, and the banks aren’t […]

There were no theatrics. No single women came in to protest life’s travails, no displaced workers told of the factory shut down. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Forum was government as it should be. Serious people hard at work. They didn’t sugar coat the problem. Former Secretary of Labor […]

Don’t fall for it. The Republicans are attacking President-elect Barack Obama’s nomination of Eric Holder as attorney general. There are “red flags,” says Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, starting with the pardon of financier Marc Rich. Don’t fall for it. Losing the election, lacking ideas about how to fix the Bush-era mess, and unsure how or […]

Two things happened yesterday. First, I published this major post about the role prisons play in the U.S. economy. Later yesterday evening, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released new data about people in prison. Any surprise? The number continued to rise. Yes, crime continues to decline; and yes, “soft on crime” was absent from this […]

China has opened a new subway system every y

Previous posts and our report have discussed how America is falling apart. Collapsing bridges, high unemployment, and so forth. In this post I discuss how we are falling behind. China recently announced an economic stimulus package worth $586 billion, roughly 7% of its gross domestic product and the largest in its history. The Washington Post […]

Everybody is saying the same thing. Stimulus plans don’t mean tax rebates worth a few tanks of gas and a restaurant dinner. Stimulus plans means new roads and bridges, aid to states so they won’t lay off nurses and teaching assistants, and a down payment on a new energy economy with windmills and commuter rail. […]

The email came from GOPUSA, whose mission is to “spread the conservative message throughout America.” The editorial, “Barack Obama’s Dream Cabinet”, caught my attention. I’m curious and thought they might have insight to offer. So I indulged a click. Here then are the predictions for cabinet. These are the prospects that I am supposed to […]