Roll Call

Regarding Rep. Ryan's proposed fiscal policy strategy:

...Maya MacGuineas, president of Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, had high praise. "Comparing it to the current path we are on, it is a vast improvement, and comparing it to the other Congressional plans out there, well, there are none..." LINK (subscription required)

In recent years, America has lurched from one economic bubble to the next. Early this decade, the dot-com bubble burst, sending financial markets into a tailspin. As lower interest rates helped to ease the bursting of that bubble, we shifted to over-investing in housing -- again culminating in a tremendous misallocation of resources and economic losses, as we currently are seeing. Now, as we try to contend with the bursting of the housing bubble, we face what may be the… more

Moderate Graybeards Need a Top 10 Agenda (Roll Call) One possible model is the New America Foundation's proposed "progressive consumption tax," which would base taxes on the difference between income and savings, with rates rising with income. ...

The collapse of the Minnesota interstate bridge, coupled with the explosion of a steam tunnel in Manhattan, should arouse the country to the need for massive infrastructure investment -- and reform of the way it’s financed.

It’s a miracle that more people weren’t killed and injured in the two instances...

Urgent attention will be paid for a few weeks to America’s highway bridges -- 15 percent to 25 percent of which are believed to be structurally deficient -- because of the collapse… more

Crocodile tears are streaming down K Street and up Capitol Hill from bankers crying about the student loan subsidy rates Congress is poised to cut.But think tanks, the Congressional Budget Office and lawmakers such as Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) say lenders' complaints are a diversion to keep Congress from truly cutting into the profits of the $85 billion student-lending industry.The federal government guarantees banks, private lenders and Sallie Mae a profit on every student loan originated… more

Real health care reform is being held back by a false assumption, which is shared by practically everybody from patients to doctors to lawmakers. Most of us assume that more (and more expensive) medical care equals better care -- and better health. Two separate bills, one introduced by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and the other by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), cut through the noise and overturn this notion.

Yes, that's right, Hillary Clinton. But before you shoot the messenger,… more