Politico has a reasonable article this morning on the emerging Republican presidential field, focusing on the issues that divide and distinguish the candidates. James Hohmann highlights immigration, NSA eavesdropping, Medicaid expansion, Common Core, and gay marriage as the key fault lines. He takes those issues and splices them through a potential field of: Jeb Bush […]
Archives
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GOP in 2016: The Field and the Issues
02 Dec 2014
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This year’s election results have not caused Democrats to reconsider their approach, and its not just Mr. Obama who is doubling down. Part of this is the result of the election; the vulnerable red state Democratic senators that lost the election were the more moderate members of their party. The election has resulted in an […]
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Obama’s Decision Puts GOP in a Box
21 Nov 2014
President Obama’s Executive Order (which essentially places about five million illegal immigrants beyond the reach of federal law enforcement) is now, it seems, a matter of history. The media have, for a while, fixated on how the decision might influence current political dynamics, as opposed to examining the propriety of the act itself. Now that […]
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Immigration: “Fixing” a “Broken” Government?
20 Nov 2014
President Obama has announced, via Facebook and other outlets, that he is going to issue an executive order that will, if sources are correct, shield at least five million illegal immigrants from law enforcement. The President, and others, are floating several justifications for the action. In his own video, Obama claims he is going to […]
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What are Republicans Saying? Nothing Much Yet.
11 Nov 2014
Something was missing from the recent Republican campaign efforts. Though they did retake the Senate and several governor’s mansions, most were strangely silent on what might have been some winning issues. These included Obamacare, school reform and reforming bureaucracy and regulation. Obamacare did receive some attention, which is good, and all the new senators vowed […]
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The Walls Came Down
09 Nov 2014
Imagine a government so twisted and evil it had to build a wall to keep “citizens” from fleeing. Imagine next what it was like to watch the Berlin Wall come down. The moment was emotional for all Cold War Kids, of which I was one, but I cannot imagine the impact for those who grew […]
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Coke vs. Pepsi V
09 Nov 2014
The debate between the economists reminds me of a long-past humorous saying about the dismal practitioners (only teasing there): “If you laid all the economists of the world end-to-end they would never reach a conclusion.” I guess they still haven’t regarding this question of whether the Republicans and Democrats are essentially different or the same. […]
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Coke vs. Pepsi IV
07 Nov 2014
There are few things more fun than sitting back and watching economists fight. My good colleagues Drs. Wheeler and Haymond are in the midst of a tussle over the differences, or lack of differences, between our political parties. Their back and forth is worth a read. In some ways, this is the argument between those […]
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Mandate for Republicans?
05 Nov 2014
The Grand Old Party had an excellent night. As of now, Republicans have tightened their grip on the U.S. House, 246-181 with 8 races undetermined, and stormed the gates of the U.S. Senate, picking up at least seven seats with a good possibility of two still pending in Alaska and Louisiana (which will go to […]
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Mid-Term Elections
03 Nov 2014
Let’s run through the basics. As of now, the Republicans control the House (233-199) and the Democrats control the Senate (55-45). There is little doubt the GOP will hang onto the House (most people think they will pick up some seats there), but the Senate could go either direction. There are 36 Senate seats being […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach