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Like other progressives in the think tank arena, I've spent a lot of time envying how supportive conservative foundations and wealthy individuals have been of places like Cato and the Heritage Foundation. The huge impact of the conservative policy infrastructure stands as one of the greatest success stories of philanthropy in modern times -- with relatively small foundations like Bradley, Scaife, and Olin clearly moving the needle in key debates through their think tank investments.
"Obamacare." The right loves to hammer the Affordable Care Act with this tagline, and even the rest of us tend to us it. But we should not, for the label works at least partly as a racial provocation.
President Obama has taken a lot of flak for his race-neutral policies (including from me), but he deserves praise for following up on his pledge made just over a month ago during the State of the Union. Today, President Obama announced My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative aimed to make sure that young men of color are given a more equitable shot at success. It’s a moment that I’ve been waiting for for years. Since Philadelphia.
There's been a lot of back and forth about how much hardship and disruption is actually being caused by the Affordable Care Act, with tales of woe being swatted down even as other supposed horror stories pop up. But a different way to see things is that, yes, disruption is inevitable as the result of any large-scale health reform and that's simply a fact of life. Indeed, you could argue that if there's not a lot of disruption happening, then there probably hasn't been enough reform.
As we await a decision from the Supreme Court in the McCutcheon v. FEC money in politics case, the Justices themselves heard from a protester who rose in the courtroom to proclaim that “money is not speech, corporations are not people” and to urge the Court to “overturn Citizens United.”
NEW YORK—Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced the launch of a public-private initiative called My Brother’s Keeper aimed at creating opportunities for boys and young men of color. Today, Demos President Miles Rapoport released the following statement praising the project:
“All of us at Demos applaud President Obama and the partners in the philanthropic community who helped create the program launched yesterday at the White House.
Just when you think politics is hopelessly calcified and static, some new dynamic can come along that leads to a breakthrough. One such dynamic to watch closely right now is the growing alliance between liberals and libertarians, which is already shaking up the status quo.
Alliance is really too strong a word; more like a convergence. And this isn't entirely new. Liberals and libertarians have often collaborated together on civil liberties issues, such as the fight to stop the Patriot Act or other efforts to protect civil liberties.
The ink is barely dry on the report from President Obama’s election administration commission and states are already disregarding its blue-ribbon recommendations, namely around early voting. The endorsement of expanding the voting period before Election Day was one of the strongest components of the bipartisan commission’s report.
Through the Procurement Act, Congress centralized management of government contracts and gave the president license to use his judgment in setting federal contracting practices.