BY FROMA HARROP Let the name-calling begin. A national health plan is again proposed, and its foes are trying to deal it death by unflattering labels. The old favorites include “socialized medicine” and “government takeover of health care.” Some 61% of Americans think it’s more important than ever to fix the health-care system – an […]

BY SUSAN ESTRICH President-elect Barack Obama will no doubt ask for many things in the coming weeks-from Congress, from the states, from banks and businesses, and from the American people. He will ask for new legislation, new programs, new regulations, not to mention confirmation of all his new people. He will promise a better tomorrow, […]

BY FROMA HARROP Even in this awful economy, the voters seem content to toggle between the two main political parties. If Republicans aren’t doing the job, then let Democrats try. Barack Obama? He seems competent. There’s little agitation for a radical third-party response. That was not the case in 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt became […]

BY JOE CONASON Would it be rude to ask whether the Republicans have any new proposals to save the country from this worsening recession? The question arises not because anyone expects the minority party to burst forth with creative ideas, but because conservatives in Congress and the media seem so determined to thwart or stall […]

BY JIM HIGHTOWER After Bernard Madoff confessed in December to looting some $50 billion from investors through a long-running, widespread Ponzi scheme, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., complained that this massive fraud “fell through the cracks of our regulatory system.” Indeed it did, but let’s be blunt – there are now a lot more “cracks” than […]