Health care bill: very imperfect, yet very needed

March 19, 2010

There are a lot of things wrong with the 2009/10 version of Health Care reform. The process was horrific: backroom deals for votes in exchange for “favors,” a glaring absence of tort reform, no true drug pricing pressure, and it’s still unclear whether insurance companies will actually have to truly compete. A complete lack of [...]

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Making Washington Right

March 5, 2010

One of my favorite Senators, Michael Bennet (Colorado), has an absolutely phenomenal proposal to reform Washington. I wholeheartedly endorse it. Here’s a link. We have so many challenges to face as a country. Yet, as an institution, the legislative branch has lost the faith of the American people. We need to take strong action to [...]

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Why the Senate needs change

February 22, 2010

Evan Bayh, senator from Indiana, recently announced he would not seek reelection. Apparently this has freed him to now say what he thinks and potentially become an extraordinary senator in his remaining 11 months. I suspect if he continues to not demonize and instead speak out with common sense against the obstructionist and harmful policies [...]

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Losing our democracy

February 15, 2010

We, the people, are losing our democracy. I’ve covered the recent Citizens United campaign finance ruling previously here. I want to talk a little bit more about why this is so important and what we need to do going forward. The most common question I hear is something close to “Why doesn’t government work?” This [...]

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Can we make progress?

February 7, 2010

Why can’t we get anything done? Well extreme partisanship is certainly one of the reasons. News that a “hold” has been placed on 70 of the President’s nominees is certainly disappointing. Even more so when you note that the same Senator issued this in a press release in 2005: As a U.S. Senator, I believe [...]

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Reclaiming Democracy

February 4, 2010

“There will be no change, until we change Congress.” Lawrence Lessig who I’ve posted about previously, just released an amazing article about the ills of Washington. I agree with much, if not all of it. The very fundamentals of our democracy are in danger and as our problems mount and our inability to address them [...]

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Financial Reform

February 2, 2010

It looks like the only thing Congress might be able to get done any time soon will be some kind of financial reform. In an election year, it will be really interesting to see who has the gall to side with big banks (despite being the biggest contributor in Washington) over reigning reckless risk-taking. The [...]

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Nuclear energy

February 1, 2010

Good news for Pike County?

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Type of economy

January 31, 2010

For the past decade or so we’ve chosen to have an economy driven by financial alchemy and debt. Our government gave in to the wishes of the financial services industry and essentially let them write their own regulatory laws. The effects of which we are living with today. Now that we seemed to have, for [...]

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Indigestion from cake

January 30, 2010

This article in the Washington Post certainly seems like an example of banks wanting to have their cake and eat it too. Here’s the choice part: Currently, they can choose between direct lending and a federal program that guarantees student loans made by private banks. The bill would not affect nonfederal loans. By cutting banks [...]

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