Economic Policy

« Previous Entries

Conservative Ideology Is A Debt Problem

Thursday, May 18th, 2023

For the first hundred years of American history, there was one cause of public debt: war.  The United States of America started in debt, and it paid its bills.  There wasn’t another spike in debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio until the American Civil War. At this point, you might ask what is the debt […]

Conservatism Is Expensive

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023

Fox News just agreed to pay $787.5 million for lying about Dominion voting machines.  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton offered to use $3.3 million of tax dollars to settle a whistleblower case.  Donald Trump paid nearly $300,000 to cover up his extramarital affairs. It must be nice to have millions of dollars to pay for […]

Liberty and Justice for All

Thursday, April 27th, 2023

The Pledge of Allegiance ends with six memorable words: “With Liberty and Justice for All.”  As we say these words, we are setting a standard for our own behavior.  We will fight for liberty and justice for all. These are very powerful words also embody my Christian faith.  On numerous occasions, priests and Pharisees tried […]

Keep the Vultures off Social Security and Medicare

Thursday, February 23rd, 2023

Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Liberals showed you who they are by creating and defending Social Security and Medicare.  Conservatives showed you who they were by opposing and undermining Social Security and Medicare.  In 1935 Franklin Delano Roosevelt championed Social Security during the Great Depression.  […]

A More Perfect Union

Thursday, February 9th, 2023

It shouldn’t surprise you that some reporters, talk show hosts and columnists are lazy.  They find a meme and then plug in a detail.   The meme today is the phrase “Washington is broken.” This phrase allows the speaker to avoid taking responsibility for a judgment or prediction.  It opens the door to the related meme, […]

Eat Real Food

Friday, January 13th, 2023

One of the best parts of my job as a historian is reading.  Because I work at a small teaching university rather than a large research university, I take a broad approach to my continuing education.   This morning I read a fascinating genetic study about prehistoric dog domestication.  It showed that there are five […]

Roots Run Deep

Friday, January 6th, 2023

In October of 1929 the New York Stock market crashed and took down the global economy.  Conservative President Herbert Hoover chose to keep government help limited.  For the next three years the economy remained in free fall. This horrible experience taught voters that something had to change.  Millions of people realized that they had the […]

Punish Illegal Employers

Thursday, December 1st, 2022

Now that the election is over, conservative smoke and mirror politics is evaporating right before our eyes.  Gas prices have dropped to $2.60 in North Texas.  Fox News has stopped spamming crime stories.  Retailers are slashing holiday prices and seeing record sales. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, however, has returned to inflammatory talk about the border.  […]

La même chose

Thursday, November 10th, 2022

It is a truism that elections have consequences.  No doubt this Tuesday election will also, but it will not change much.  All across the country voters dug into familiar patterns rather than alter course. Nationally, President Joe Biden can lock in his legislative victories.  Here to stay are the insulin price cap for seniors, lower […]

Straw Man

Thursday, October 13th, 2022

Boxers and soldiers often train fighting dummies.  It is easy to understand why.  Dummies don’t fight back.  Eventually, however, a good fighters needs to train against another human as an opponent if they want to win a real fight. Debates work similarly with words.  Some debaters only fight straw men; others, preferring a challenge, argue […]

« Previous Entries