Using Census Bureau data, researchers Patrick Fagan and Nicholas Zill have determined that only 4 in 10 Oklahoma teenagers (ages 15 to 17) have grown up in an intact married family (i.e., with both their birth mother and their biological father legally married to one another since before or around the time of the teenager’s […]
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Payback politics?
Credit: Brad Gregg Even as recovery operations began May 20, Roll Call quoted Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, as saying disaster spending should be offset with spending cuts elsewhere, dredging up ugly memories of the earlier struggle to pass disaster relief spending for Hurricane Sandy victims. The GOP was accused of cold-heartedness after House Speaker John […]
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Miracle on 23rd Street: a tax cut
The long-expected agreement on this year’s scheme proposes to drop Oklahoma’s personal income tax rate from 5.25 percent to 5 percent effective Jan. 1, 2015. The net effect will be to provide a family of four earning about $40,000 an additional 50 cents a day in their pockets. This is not even “trickledown” economics, it’s […]
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Don’t bet on it
However, if more money is needed, the solution is easy. The gaming venues in our state annually send nearly $200 million in direct tax revenues to the Capitol for legislators to spend. Most men and women serving in that hallowed and falling-down building are Republicans, members of the same party that voted almost unanimously against […]
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Marriage equality is up for grabs
The Supreme Court justices (in that very same Supreme Court building) are presently considering California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage. They are also considering the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Interestingly, attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies jointly filed the federal lawsuit that brought […]
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Whole lotta crazy going on
How about this simple analogy: Republicans, with super majorities in the House and Senate, are like children who suddenly find themselves in a free candy store. They’re gorging. “Will it eventually make them sick?” ask hopeful progressives. Democrats call it a whole lot of crazy going on. “Excuse us,” argue Republicans. “Aren’t we simply fulfilling […]
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Frank gets clubbed
Credit: Brad Gregg Last week, the organization issued a “Primary My Congressman” list of nine RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) that the group wants defeated in their next primary elections. So why did Lucas make the list? According to Club for Growth, the 11thterm congressman “has a long record of voting against cutting spending” and […]
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Here comes the judge
President Barack Obama selected Bacharach in January 2012 to fill the position vacated by Robert Henry in 2010. Despite widespread bipartisan backing, the nomination languished as Senate Republicans slow-played it in hopes that the GOP would take the White House in the presidential election and subsequently allow a President Romney to make such appointments. Even […]
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Cliff hanger
“He was pilloried by many within his own party who said that taking Cole’s approach amounted to surrendering before the fight had even started. More than a month later … it turns out that Cole was, in the main, right,” wrote The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza. “It’s the difference between tactics (a series of one-off […]
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Over the cliff
There has been much speculation that an 11th-hour agreement is likely, given what going over the cliff would mean for jobs, the economy, investments, and credit ratings. What one needs to remember is that in Washington everything is politics. And going over the cliff is very good politics. Here’s why: On Jan. 1, the Bush […]