The death of Ambassador Chris Stevens at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the breaching of our embassy walls in Cairo, Egypt, might have unified our politicians in a common cause similar to the way they came together for the short time right after 9/11. Unfortunately, because this is a presidential election year, this was not the case. Instead, these tragic and terrible incidents have been made into the basis for political fodder and sloganeering by the Republican opposition to … [Read more...]

Redistribution is a bad thing because it moves wealth from the makers to the takers, right? Conservatives and libertarians would probably think that way. Progressives and liberals would probably not. This needs to move beyond an ideological or linguistic argument, however. Every now and then, facts should intervene. A standard definition of redistribution is that it is reallocating wealth to reduce inequalities in income. The current political argument has centered on the conception that it … [Read more...]

Whose side is God on in the presidential election? The Republicans -- both at and subsequent to their convention -- have actively laid claim to God's mantle and given the Almighty credit for most things American. The Democrats only begrudgingly acknowledged God in the platform at their convention -- after a contested three vote fight of the delegates. Still, we're of the opinion that God being omniscient, omnipotent and all-caring -- is on neither side and is upstairs rooting for the party … [Read more...]

Who is the good citizen and what does the good citizen do? That question is as old as and has been debated since Aristotle's Politics. President Barack Obama brought the issue of citizenship front and center in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention when he declared, "But we also believe in something called citizenship, a word at the very heart of our founding, at the very essence of our democracy; the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one … [Read more...]

Now that the Republican and Democratic national conventions are over, it's time to see what impact they had on the truly independent voter. And, the answer is very little. That's because most independent voters are "unconventional". They don't watch the conventions or only catch snippets when they are channel surfing and forget to hit the "change channels" button on their remote control quickly enough. Conventions are not what they once were. Today they serve three primary purposes: … [Read more...]

In Part 1 of this post we provided background and information on the Ryan Plan for Medicare highlighting reasons why it would neither protect nor strengthen Medicare. We concluded Part 1 as follows: It seems to us that there is little to no question that if the Ryan Plan were adapted it would mean dramatic changes to the way Medicare is delivered and would apparently have substantial negative cost and coverage consequences for many beneficiaries. There would still be a promise. But, it would … [Read more...]

It takes The Villages to raise many misconceptions regarding Medicare to national attention. It takes the Republican Party Convention to make them central to the national discussion. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, visited The Villages, a senior retirement community in Florida, on August 18 with his 78-year-old mother by his side. Jon Busdeker of the Orlando Sentinel opened his article on the visit by reporting that Ryan went there "to make a point about Medicare." … [Read more...]

"Look for the union label." That was one of the catch phrases for the union movement in happier times. It used to be labor unions were something that many working class Americans loved. It now appears that labor unions are something that many working class Americans hate. What is the status of labor unions as we approach Labor Day 2012? On January 27 of this year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its Union Members Summary for 2011 which showed that the union membership rate … [Read more...]