Alexander Hamilton and the policies he pursued as America’s first treasury secretary set the US on a course of national unity. That’s just what Europe needs today.
The US EPA’s Clean Power Plan will cut power sector emissions 32% by 2030.
EPA/Justin Lane/AAP
President Obama’s new targets for emissions from electricity are a crucial step towards a credible US climate policy. And where the United States leads, others are more likely to follow.
Republicans and Democrats have a hard time agreeing on anything, but the issue of trade seems to defy party affiliation.
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The fierce debate in the US Congress that almost derailed the president’s trade agenda is likely to replay itself in many of the 11 other capitals that are party to the deal.
The president’s last ditch effort to woo House Democrats and their leader, Nancy Pelosi, failed.
Reuters
President Obama pulled out all the stops in recent days, but it wasn’t enough to convince House Democrats that he would negotiate a fair trade deal in the Pacific.
The fight over fast-track trade authority increasingly resembles a Shakespearean tragedy.
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Events in Washington this week on the proposed historic 12-member Trans-Pacific trade agreement have had all the key elements of a Shakespearean tragedy. A resolute, noble and well-intentioned ruler (played…
Power of the pen: Obama signs executive order to reduce greenhouse gases from government.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The EPA said it will regulate emissions from airplanes – the latest in a string of environmental and climate regulations Obama has used to bypass the Republican-led Congress.
President Obama wants to get on the fast track. Will Congress give it to him?
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When Republicans took over Congress, many observers predicted a goodbye to gridlock. Not so fast, however. Politicians say they hate filibusters – until they want to use them.
Implementing monetary policy is like treating a patient. A central bank needs the freedom to choose which instrument will work best.
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In his recent budget announcement, President Obama staked out a negotiating position with Congressional Republicans by offering a sense of symmetry: a 7% increase in the military budget to balance out…
Hot off the presses: the CBO plays a pivotal role determining the price tag of measures in the budget and other legislation.
Reuters
Deborah Lucas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Congress created the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) 40 years ago to provide lawmakers with information independent of the influence of the executive branch. The CBO’s most important job…
Congressman Henry Waxman: relieved to be going after 40 years?
Gary Cameron/Reuters
An era has ended. The last of the “Watergate Babies” has left the Congress. The nickname was applied to the class of House Democratic freshmen elected in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal. There…
How well this lot can get along may depend most on the growing group of politicians hoping to sit in the president’s chair in two years.
Reuters
Given the contentiousness of recent fiscal negotiations, the prelude to the budget passed by the Senate last month was surprisingly placid. Will a uniquely unproductive Congress be followed by a more conciliatory…
Direct negotiations between top leaders may be the best and only way to get significant trade deals done, which requires fast-track authority.
Reuters
With the resounding Republican victory in November’s midterm elections, most pundits are despairing that Congress and President Barack Obama will find any areas for cooperation in the coming two years…
Closing the thousands of loopholes that riddle the US tax code is a rare area of bipartisan agreement in Congress. So why is it so hard to end them?
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The thousands of tax loopholes that litter the corporate tax code in the United States are frequent targets of criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Outgoing Republican Senator Tom Coburn released…
Congress raised the cap on how much an individual can donate to political parties in its spending bill that just passed last week, giving wealthy Americans a greater voice in elections.
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The political system’s indifference to the needs of the American people could not have been made clearer in recent days. At a time when economic inequality is increasing and the US racial divide is ever…
Wind farms like this one probably wouldn’t exist if the government didn’t provide a hefty subsidy.
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Congress passed the wind production tax credit (PTC) more than two decades ago to spur development in an industry still in its infancy. The wind sector has since matured into adulthood, prompting thousands…