Category Archives: Politics

Crafting More Effective Stimulus Legislation, Part 3: Why don’t President Obama’s fiscal policies work?

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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Fiscal policy is the use of government spending and taxation to influence the economy. Increases in government spending can create jobs that are needed to produce the goods and services the government buys, and then some through what are called “multiplier effects.” Reducing tax rates, to businesses and people, gives them more disposable income to spend. The more goods and services they buy, the more people that will be needed to make those things. That’s it in a nutshell.

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Crafting More Effective Stimulus Legislation, Part 2: The Impotence of Monetary Policy

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Ben Bernanke, 14th Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Ben Bernanke, 14th Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Thursday, August 9, 2012

The really great thing about writing your own blog is the boldness of it, the way you can say things – talk about big, important ideas that other people, professional politicians in this case, and their advisors, have spent all matter of time thinking about – as if you really know what you’re talking about. I love it, and I do. …Actually, I’m nowhere nearly as confident as what I write sometimes sounds. My primary objective is to get our elected representatives and their challengers thinking, to open up their minds and focus on solving problems rather than just bickering about them. If I make some headway toward that end, then I did good and “The Next Contestant” wasn’t a waste of time.

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“Unnamed sources have told me that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is an idiot.”

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Friday, August 3, 2012

As you may have already heard, Senator Harry Reid told the Huffington Post the other day that an unnamed Bain Capital investor told him that Mitt Romney has not paid taxes for 10 years. That, according to Senator Reid, is why Mr. Romney doesn’t want to release his tax returns prior to 2010. Mr. Romney has vehemently denied the story and has challenged Senator Reid today, in no uncertain terms, to “put up,” the name of the informant, “or shut up.”

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So just who, exactly, do our 9 incumbents represent?

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Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

In three months, we Maryland voters have the option of re-electing or replacing all 8 of our Representatives and one of our Senators. Elections being a really big deal, I thought it appropriate to ask myself, “To what extent is it necessary for someone to be representative of the people who elected him or her in order to represent them?”

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Negative Advertising, December 26, 1990

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Monday, July 9, 2012

In recent weeks I’ve written about the appropriateness, about the essential nature of negative advertising.* The simple reality is that incumbents aren’t going to tell you why they don’t deserve to be re-elected. Unfortunately, the media in our day and age is more likely to react to what candidates say than to take a pro-active, watchdog roll to educate the voting public.

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Earmarks: Incumbent business as usual in Washington.

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Sunday, June 10, 2012

We elect our Congressmen/women and Senators to represent us when they legislate in the national interest. Unfortunately, that’s not all they do. A good deal of their time, and a great deal of our money is spent devising “earmarks” to benefit us locally. Not incidentally, these dollars legislators get for local causes improve their prospects for re-election.

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Negative Advertising: Changing voters’ minds.

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Yesterday, I wrote an article entitled, “Negative Advertising: An essential means of voter education.” This piece looks at the flip side of negative advertising. From the campaign’s point of view, it’s as essential to winning as money. In fact, funding negative advertising may just be the primary reason the candidate needs money.

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Negative Advertising: An essential means of voter education.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hi. This is the first of two articles that I’m writing about “negative advertising,” a concept that I believe has been given a bad rap by the media and, most importantly, by the form of it that many well-funded candidates and their political action committees have chosen. This first piece is about its definition and essential role. (As usual, I’m going to write like I know what I’m talking about, leaving it to your comments to help me get it right.)

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