President Obama's plan to put the country on a sustainable fiscal path hinges on three huge bets. First, that the government can get health care costs under control even while expanding coverage. Second, that enacting a cap-and-trade emissions plan would generate revenue along with easing global warming. Third, that the looming expiration of the Bush tax cuts can be a forcing mechanism to write a saner tax code and bring in more revenue. ...more

February 26, 2009

I firmly believe the real reason for the recession is greed in the ranks of the politicians and the very rich. Honesty, integrity and ethics are absolutely not being practiced by them. Just for starters, I would like every one who reads this to send me an e-mail if they really believe that the two senators, who did not pay their taxes, really did not know they didn't. Wall Street, the financial banking biggies, and the list goes on, pulled a scam on the public and still some got their bonuses and very high salaries. The politicians are taking care of them with all the bailouts. ...more

February 10, 2009

President Barack Obama ran into the perfect ethical storm — probably due to a failure in his vetting process. ...more

February 7, 2009

I am old enough to know that it is more important to observe what a leader, or anyone for that matter, does rather than what he says, especially for politicians. ...more

February 7, 2009

A couple of years back, while visiting Praha (that's in the Czech Republic, Hillary), I attended a lecture in the ornate halls of the city's historic university. ...more

January 31, 2009

One of the first things Barack Obama did when he became president was order that no person who had worked as a lobbyist in the past two years could then work for a federal government agency he or she had previously lobbied. The executive order, issued Jan. 21, was a clear and decisive stand against "business as usual" in Washington. ...more

January 31, 2009

WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in his first full day on the job, is announcing new rules to limit special-interest influence on the government's $700 billion financial rescue program. ...more

January 27, 2009

Lorne H. Spence of Hudson says people need to vote in the 2010 mid-term elections in a way that will help President Barack Obama solve the nation's problems despite resistance from Republicans. ...more

January 10, 2009

Florida has outgrown the concept of the casual lawmaker. If the job is to be done right, that is, as righteously as humanly practical, serving in the Legislature should be a full-time job with one boss: the public. ...more

January 4, 2009

According to a News Service of Florida report, a lot of Florida business owners are holding their breath, waiting to see if legislators start cutting sales tax exemptions. We understand the anxiety, but that's exactly where they should look first when trying to figure out how to deal with a $2.3 billion and growing deficit. ...more

December 21, 2008