Edward Lazear
9/27/2010

Limiting spending increases to inflation minus 1% would balance the budget in less than a decade, writes Lazear. The inflation-minus-one rule would allow us to grow our way out of our fiscal problems without taxing a higher proportion of GDP. Eventually the deficit would vanish and with taxes remaining at historic levels, there would be no impediment to economic growth. Calling for a rigid rule may seem wishful thinking, but the alternative is a dangerous false choice between high deficits and high taxes. Failing to take a stand now, Lazear argues, will condemn subsequent generations to lower living standards and fewer opportunities.

Lazear, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2006-2009, is a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a Hoover Institution fellow.

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Gail Collins
9/23/2010

The Senate failed to override a Republican filibuster of a defense authorization bill based on elements of procedure, which Collins says sets a new record for dysfunction. As a result, now it has failed to pay the Army. Collins notes that procedural arguments will make people crazy, and those who claim to be voting on the basis of procedure are “fibbing, delusional, or crazy” when it comes to their real motives.

Collins is a New York Times columnist.

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Jacob S. Hacker and Carl DeTorres
9/23/2010

The authors use a chart format to grade how the government has progressed in building the foundation for and rolling out the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is six months old today. They look at the rollout, public reactions, and results to date. Overall they give the effort a B.

Hacker is a professor of political science at Yale and the co-author of “Winner-Take-All Politics.” DeTorres is a graphic designer.

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David Axelrod
9/23/2010

Thanks to a January Supreme Court ruling, corporate special interests are able to campaign ruthlessly against their mostly-Democrat opponents without publicly revealing their identities or their donors’ identities. These “stealth front groups” may be secretive, but Axelrod cites published records indicating the Republican and corporate identities behind the campaign messages. The Obama administration has fought strongly to protect Americans against corporate interests from mortgage lenders to health insurance companies, but Republicans apparently want to put special interests back in charge.

The writer is a senior adviser to President Obama.

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Thomas L. Friedman
9/22/2010

Friedman praises China’s progress and infrastructure not because he wants America to emulate their system but because he is worried about America. He wants us to invest in our future and quit abusing our system. Toxic partisanship and a money-corrupted political class are keeping America from getting things done so that it can remain powerful. We should look at China’s successes objectively and look at ways to cooperate with them while also finding a way to pull ourselves together and find a way to get things done.

Friedman is a New York Times columnist.

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Maureen Dowd
9/22/2010

Dowd looks at the presidency of Jimmy Carter and compares it to that of President Obama, who is also subject to antigovernment frenzy. President Carter says Obama has it worse than he did because today there is cable news and the use of faith as a political ploy. In an interview with Carter, Dowd finds that Carter believes that a series of mishaps disrupted his attempt to rescue the American hostages in Iran during his presidency and we should continue to have diplomatic relations with Iran on principle, as it is best to do so with countries with whose opinions we differ.

Dowd is a New York Times columnist.

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Kathleen Parker
9/22/2010

A new electoral ad, “Mourning in America,” plays smartly off Reagan’s classic “Morning in America” ad. Rather than continue to raise the volume on partisan shouting, the ad taps into the fundamental sadness of a nation stressed and broken by the difficulties of the past few years. Financial crises and the increasingly combative tone over health care, immigration, and other legislative issues have left Americans uncertain and spiritually exhausted. The ad seeks to place responsibility for the current malaise squarely at the feet of the president.

Parker started her column in 1987 when she was a staff writer for The Orlando Sentinel.

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Mortimer Zuckerman
9/21/2010

Zuckerman considers how American families are confronting the decline in the value of their homes and the broader effects of this on the economy. It is not too difficult to understand why demand for housing has declined and will not revive anytime soon given that home ownership is no longer seen as the great, long-term buildup in equity value. This is a disturbing development for those who believe that housing is going to lead America to an economic recovery as it did during the Great Depression and every recession since. Zuckerman argues that the more the government tries to prevent prices from finding an equilibrium, the longer it will take for the economy to begin growing again.

Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of US News & World Report.

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Richard Cohen
9/21/2010

Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware confessed to having experimented with witchcraft. Cohen says the entire party appears as though under a spell. Newt Gingrich’s pronouncement of the president’s “anti-colonial” perspective and the growing misperception of the president as a Muslim both defy logic, as do partisan attacks on President Obama after his actions drew banking and investment industries–traditionally conservative structures–back from the brink. But the national mood is such that this irrational behavior may still result in strong electoral gains in November.

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

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