Craig Gurian

In an address that otherwise reprised many of the noblest principles from this country's history, President Obama's remarks on education offered only a bleak vision of schools as training grounds for employers. Neither the principle that a good education is an essential requisite for developing active citizens nor the idea that education has intrinsic value independent of its utility in the job market made it into the speech.

Former Senator George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic candidate for president who issued a clarion call to “Come home, America,” died earlier this week. His New York Times obituary reflected all too well the problem of image over substance in our politics, and failed — 40 years on — to appreciate the consequences of the 1972 election.

Former Senator George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic candidate for president who issued a clarion call to “Come home, America,” died earlier this week. His New York Times obituary reflected all too well the problem of image over substance in our politics, and failed — 40 years on — to appreciate the consequences of the 1972 election.

More political reporters are either unable or unwilling to harness the cognitive and analytic effort involved in grasping basic evidentiary principles. But figuring out what impact is more likely than not to flow from a tax cut or from switching Medicare to a voucher system really isn't so hard.

The current system clearly hasn't been so good for those to whom the benefits were supposed to trickle down. But the U.S. remains a mighty economic force, one that could push back effectively if it wished to, and cross-national cooperation could yield a mutual defense pact to protect countries from having to compete in a race to the bottom.

Having become disoriented in the fog of Corporate Uncertainty, I was trying to find my way when, suddenly, over the Fiscal Cliff I went. I plunged straight down — deeper and deeper into the abyss. I thought all was lost. But then I saw the Grand Bargain waiting for me, beckoning to me. For a moment, I rejoiced.

The Medicaid expansion portion of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act was most fundamentally a decision to reorder the relationship between the federal government and the states, a decision to subordinate the idea of nationhood to judge-made deference-to-states theory. Voters, we were told, were not savvy enough to figure out the respective roles of federal and state officials and apportion credit or blame accordingly.

A recent CBO report on the long-term budget outlook has reheated deficit hysteria. But the points of fiscal stress the CBO highlighted were misleading, its alternative budget scenarios lacked range or nuance, and its treatment of "excess" growth in health care costs cavalier.

An outstanding reporter unaccountably prescribes a one-sided regimen of dispensing with annual physical examinations and cutting back on routine testing of both invasive and non-invasive testing, all without appreciating the potential costs to patients. Teaching better judgment? Yes. Minimizing data and communication? No.