Think Tank West

Greg Mankiw speculates on the best alliterative description of the stimulus package: Instead of fiscal stimulus that is temporary, targeted, and timely, John Taylor suggests that it be permanent, pervasive, and predictable. What the Obama administration is aiming for, it seems, is helpful, hopeful, and humongous. Critics fear it might end up pointless, political, and [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

So Hillary Clinton is “on track” to be the nation’s top diplomat, huh?  Well, setting aside the wisdom of that decision — forget ideology; does she have both foreign policy expertise and a good working relationship with the President-elect? — it appears that there may be genuine constitutional problems with her expected nomination.  To wit, Article [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

The superintendent of the financially inept Miami-Dade Schools wants a federal bailout, and it’s hard to blame him for desiring a piece of Washington’s ever-bigger Ineptitude Rewards Programs. But, as I wrote a couple of months ago – and a professor echoes in the article about the Supt’s request — public schools are, essentially, constantly being bailed out. They live off of [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

He’s still months away from officially becoming president, but on education Barack Obama is already indicating that his brand of change is much more about high-flying rhetoric than sober reality. Whether it’s choosing a private school for his kids, or promising to expend billions to “modernize” public schools, so far Mr. Obama is turning out to [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

Jonah Goldberg finds “conservative complaints about Barack Obama’s public-schools hypocrisy…all a bit tedious.” Well, aside from my not having actually seen many conservatives complaining about Obama choosing a private school for his kids while telling the rest of us to support public schools, I find arguments like Goldberg’s main one tedious. Very tedious. Like, we-should-just-keep-trying-to-force-excellence-out-of-socialism tedious. Here’s the meat of Goldberg’s [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

So Hillary Clinton is “on track” to be the nation’s top diplomat, huh?  Well, setting aside the wisdom of that decision — forget ideology; does she have both foreign policy expertise and a good working relationship with the President-elect? — it appears that there may be genuine constitutional problems with her expected nomination.  To wit, Article [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

The 111th Congress and the new Obama administration should scrap “E-Verify.” The federal government’s inchoate immigration background check system is the culmination of 20 years’ failure to create a tolerable “internal enforcement” program for U.S. immigration law. Rather than building on past failure, the new Congress and president should pull the plug on E-Verify and [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

He’s still months away from officially becoming president, but on education Barack Obama is already indicating that his brand of change is much more about high-flying rhetoric than sober reality. Whether it’s choosing a private school for his kids, or promising to expend billions to “modernize” public schools, so far Mr. Obama is turning out to [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

Lots of scuttlebutt today involving the name “Richard Holbrooke.”  An emblem of the Democratic Party foreign policy establishment, Holbrooke is revered by some for his ruthlessness and ability to crack heads.  A dedicated global interventionist, Holbrooke is high on the list of “people antiwar Democrats don’t want involved in an Obama administration.”  In addition to [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

Last week Rahm Emanuel said to a prestigious audience, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do things you could not do before.” And that’s just the strategy that bestselling author Naomi Klein accuses right-wingers of employing. Weaving a convoluted yet superficially simple tale of world events, she [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »