Mark Schmitt

The Obstacles to Real Health-Care Reform

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:17:00 -0400

American presidents have tried seven times to bring us into the community of nations that provide health care to all citizens. Seven times the effort failed. More accurately, it was blocked. In the 1940s, the anti-reform movement was led by doctors, through the American Medical Association. In the 1990s, it was led by the insurance and small-business lobbies.

My Model City

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:05:00 -0400

New Haven, Connecticut, at the tail end of the 1970s was a pretty good place for a precocious kid to get a political education. The city contains all the ethnic and social dynamics of New York City or Philadelphia in microcosm. But it's small enough that a 15-year-old with a ten-speed could get to any neighborhood to knock on strangers' doors before an election or a primary, of which there were dozens. The city loved politics and was then embroiled in a fierce battle between "the reformers" and "the machine."

Opposite Day

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:36:00 -0400

Every Democratic presidency since Lyndon Johnson's (that is, both of them) has followed a pattern: A fresh face enters the White House bringing new hope and big ideas, delivers his agenda to Congress, and quickly gets the back of the hand from the contemptuous grandees of his own party. With little accomplished, congressional Democrats suffer major losses in the midterm elections. Over the next two years, even less progress is made.

A New Agenda for Tough Times

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:26:00 -0400

It has been 13 years since a Democratic president's signature on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 eliminated a flawed program that also provided the only protection against destitution. Yet that act also brought an end to the welfare wars, a long and debilitating period in which poor people were the focus of political conflict and racially loaded demagoguery, exemplified by former Sen. Phil Gramm's image of a society divided between those "pulling the wagon" and those "riding in the wagon." Even

Left Without Labor

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:15:00 -0400

Several years ago, I spoke on a panel where an audience member posed the rhetorical question, "Can any of you envision a robust progressive movement that doesn't have organized labor at the center of it?"

Master of Opportunity

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:22:00 -0400

There are two battling story lines about the career of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy: Here at the Prospect, we recall the Lion of Liberalism, treating his 1980 convention speech as the hinge of his long career. Meanwhile, on cable news, or in the hands of Dan Balz at The Washington Post, he is the icon of bipartisan compromise, whose close working partnership with Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah among others was legendary. Earlier this week, a number of Republicans including Hatch invoked a disingenuous, "if only Teddy

The Optimist

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:19:00 -0400

The occasions on which President Barack Obama says something simply preposterous are rare enough that they ought to attract some attention. Yet it passed almost without notice when, in his May 21 speech on national security, Obama explained that he is opposed to creating a commission to explore the abuses of the Bush years "because I believe that our existing democratic institutions are strong enough to deliver accountability." He continued, "The Congress can review abuses of our values, and ... the Department of Justice and our courts can work

Political Money as a Force for Good

adminn — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:45:00 -0400

Early in 2007, campaign finance experts and editorial writers, looking toward the looming presidential campaign, began to talk of a "billion dollar election." In a February 2007 editorial, the New York Times invoked Watergate to warn that such a sum spent on an election would represent a breakdown of campaign finance regulation and mark a return to the corruption of the Nixon era. If Sen. Hillary Clinton was looking for a clever

Expert Advice

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:14:00 -0400

On June 11, 1962, John F. Kennedy delivered the commencement address at Yale. After some Harvard-Yale jocularity, he put forward the most memorable definition of that triumphal moment in what historians now call the era of liberal consensus: "What is at stake in our economic decisions today is not some grand warfare of rival ideologies ... but the practical management of a modern economy." Economic problems of the 1960s, Kennedy said, are "subtle challenges for which technical answers, not political answers, must be provided."

It's Time to Rethink the Problem

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:00:00 -0400

If there's one thing the financial crisis has taught us, its' that we grossly misjudged the risk we were taking on. We offer five perspectives on rethinking risk -- on everything from finance to housing to social policy--in the hopes of stopping the next major meltdown before it starts.

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