“When the United States sneezes, Mexico catches a cold” is the oft-cited phrase to capture the relationship of economic interdependence between the two countries. When the United States and its people are profoundly shaken by an unprecedented terrorist attack, there is perhaps no phrase to adequately capture the magnitude by which global policy trends […]
Tag: domestic policy
Our national debt is $14.2 trillion, which is more than our gross domestic product. Currently we borrow 43 cents of every dollar that we spend. Both Republicans and Democrats are concerned about our growing debt, yet both parties have exacerbated the problem. President Bush Jr. more than doubled military spending during his presidency, from […]
What if we could reduce CO2 emissions without raising taxes? What if a carbon-neutral source of renewable energy could be grown on American soil and generate all the power the United States needed? What if one plant could bolster the economy, provide nutritious food, bio-degradable plastics, durable fiber, carbon-neutral energy, and save the world from […]
On Friday, April 8, the U.S. Congress dodged a government shutdown by striking a budget compromise, undoubtedly crushing the dreams of the news outlets gleefully throwing countdown clocks and “what if?!” statements around. What the media have largely failed to cover, however, are the follow-up discussions that continue to adjust the budget. One of […]
There is something watching you. It can access your bank records, your credit records, who you texted on your cell phone, whether or not you are vaccinated … all without your knowledge. It isn’t an identity thief searching through your garbage, it is a highly sophisticated federally funded data center called a Fusion Center. […]
Frustrated by rising costs and stagnant achievement levels on standardized tests, American politicians and media-savvy education reformers have over the past several years pushed for a complete overhaul of this country’s public school system. The ways their frustration has been vented – from demonizing teacher unions to implementing punitive policies that look to evaluate […]
If Americans are confused about anything lately, it seems that climate change and global warming are probably somewhere at the top of that list. While Republicans are set up as the enemies of climate regulation and Democrats as the defenders of the environment, survey data shows that many Americans are skeptical about climate change, especially the […]
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Keeping Schools Out of the OR
As Texas legislators and education officials are scrambling to find ways to reduce school spending, a few of the politically savvy ones are spinning the budget crisis as a means to “reinvent public education in Texas.” However, the cost-saving measures they are proposing are simply more strongly-worded versions of the same complaints we’ve heard […]
In this, the age of budget deficits, no political party wants to be caught being the one without any budget cuts to advocate. President Obama handed down a budget that promised to cut troubled programs or programs that had not been able to deliver results, to achieve what one administration official told the Associated […]