Robert Kagan and Michele Dunne
3/7/2011

Egypt is a pivotal nation in the Arab world, and while a heavy-handed approach would be inappropriate, the authors point out specific ways the United States could offer support. First and foremost, the US could provide economic assistance uniquely suited for the current situation (the US is presently slated to give the same aid to Egypt that it always has). In addition, the authors cite various other means of US support, including debt forgiveness, free trade, private investment, and the appointment of a “transition czar” to administer these plans. The success of the Arab Spring does not depend on the United States, but it is important that the US show it is committed to helping others enjoy the freedoms that we do.

Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes a monthly column for The Post. Dunne is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They are co-chairs of the Working Group on Egypt.

Link to full text in primary source.

E.J. Dionne Jr.
3/7/2011

John Boehner has adopted Richard Nixon’s “madman strategy” in his approach to budget negotiations with Democrats in Congress and the executive branch. By proposing such a large and diverse group of budget cuts–ostensibly to placate the more vociferous members of his own party–Boehner places the onus on Democrats to compete among and between themselves for favored programs’ survival. By positing the threat of a government shutdown as a real possibility, Republicans rachet up the pressure on their Democratic counterparts to make real and costly concessions.

Dionne is a twice-weekly columnist for The Post, writing on national policy and politics.

Link to full text in primary source.

Ruth Marcus
2/16/2011

Marcus cites recent examples of House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama failing to lead effectively. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Boehner dodged questions about his role in leading Republicans toward the facts about Obama’s citizenship and religion. Boehner claimed it was not his job to tell Americans what to think, yet Marcus contends that he tells citizens what to think about other issues, such as Obamacare. As for President Obama, his leadership failure comes in the form of a hands-off approach to the budget. The president would not directly confront the tax code or entitlement spending, leaving the issues hanging and sending the message that discussions would not resume until 2013. Apparently, the “cowardly state of politics” in modern America is not exclusive to any political party.

Marcus is an editorial writer for The Post, specializing in American politics, campaign finance, the federal budget and taxes, and other domestic issues.

Link to full text in primary source.

Charles Krauthammer
2/18/2011

Despite Obama’s claims that he is imposing “painful cuts” on spending, Krauthammer runs the numbers to reveal that these cuts actually result in government spending on “stratospheric levels.” The cuts themselves come from an emergency-level, inflated base, and the amount of the cuts ($1.1 trillion over the next decade) is accompanied by $7.2 trillion in new spending (with $2 trillion of that coming from tax increases) over the same amount of time. At the end of the decade, the US will be burdened with a deficit three times the level it was when Obama took office. Yet the president continues to ignore entitlement spending and proposals of tax reform and presents a “cynical” budget that forfeits the future while setting Obama up for re-election.

Krauthammer is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign and domestic policy and politics.

Link to full text in primary source.

Michael Medved
2/14/2011

Some conservatives call the president the political equivalent of a suicide bomber: so consumed with hatred that he’s willing to blow himself up in order to inflict casualties on a society he loathes. Against this, Medved says the White House record of more than 200 years shows plenty of bad decisions but no bad men. For all their foibles, no president ever displayed disloyal or treasonous intent. He criticizes Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin for hyperbole in criticizing Obama. For 2012, Medved says Republicans face a daunting challenge in running against the president, which becomes impossible if they’re also perceived as running against the presidency.

Medved hosts a daily, nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of “The 5 Big Lies About American Business” (recently out in paperback by Three Rivers Press).

Link to full text in primary source.

Joseph Nye
2/14/2011

Nye reflects on whether the US is in decline. He considers the rising power of China and other future challengers to American hegemony. America, he writes, is likely to remain more powerful than any single state in the coming decades. At the same time, it will certainly face a rise in the power resources of states and nonstate actors. America’s capacity to maintain alliances and create networks will be an important dimension of its hard and soft power. What it needs now is a vision that combines domestic reforms with smart strategies for the international deployment of its power in an information age.

Nye is a professor at Harvard and author of “The Future of Power” (Public Affairs, 2011).

Link to full text in primary source.

Paul Krugman
2/14/2011

A new survey released by the Pew Center reveals that Americans want more, not less, spending on education and Medicare, and are divided about spending on defense. Yet Republicans insist the last election was about spending cuts, not unemployment, and are determined to slash the budget even though they do not have a mandate for that. As a result, to keep people happy now, the party is making cuts for the future, allowing them to appease their Tea Party factions without imposing immediate pain on voters without forcing them to admit they are wrong about not raising taxes and only harming the nation down the road.

Krugman is a New York Times columnist.

Link to full text in primary source.

David Abraham
2/11/2011

Late last month, Japanese PM Kan proclaimed 2011 to be the “third opening of Japan”, equating his agenda to the great waves of transformation that swept the country in the mid-19th century and in the years after World War II. That will sound hyperbolic to anyone familiar with economically moribund, politically fragmented Japan, but his aspirations should not be dismissed out of hand. Kan can reopen his nation’s economy–the world’s third largest–to competition, and Kan has shown that he understands Japan’s competitiveness problem and has managed to push forward some substantive changes. This suggests that Kan has at least some capacity to address it.

Abraham is a Hitachi international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and previously worked as a sovereign analyst at Lehman Brothers.

Link to full text in primary source.

Daine Coyle
2/8/2011

Bankers are once again doing well in the financial sector but businesses and consumers are not, which is leading to popular anger, especially as the bonus round is about to be paid. Coyle says that Project Merlin, which the British government hopes will smooth relations between the country’s banks, politicians, and the electorate, does not address the fundamental problem that Britain’s banks are uncompetitive. Competition reform, along with replacement of the complex regulations that act as barriers to entry, are now the only ways forward for the banking industry. Coyle says we need a healthy undergrowth of smaller financial institutions to balance the existing monoculture of vulnerable giants, but Project Merlin will not deliver this.

Link to full text in primary source.