A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep

I voted against George W. Bush twice. But when he was elected, I went to work for him as a White House intern. I worked hard, I took my responsibilities seriously, and I looked for common ground with people whose viewpoints differed from my own. I love my country. I respect the office of the presidency. And I’m not afraid to learn from people who don’t think exactly like me. +++ Growing up as a Utahn, Western Pennsylvania was a magical place. There were lightning bugs at dusk and deer in misty hills and when my grandfather cut the grass it smelled sweeter than anything we had in the arid Rockies. And, of course, my grandparents’ house always meant games and cookies and fun with cousins. Later, when I moved to DC for grad school, it was even more of a refuge. I probably made that 8-hour round trip five times in one semester. To see my grandma. To see the brilliant fall oranges and reds on Route 30. To feel at home. Latrobe, Pennsylvania is literally Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhoo...

Published November 14, 2016 Updated January 15, 2017 Republicans plan to use a parliamentary tool known as 'budget reconciliation' to pass a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act (the ACA, aka Obamacare). If reconciliation sounds familiar, it's because Republicans denounced it with great gnashing of teeth in 2010 when they claimed that Democrats were using it to ram the ACA through Congress. I was a Democratic congressional staffer at the time, working on budget policy for a member of the House Budget Committee; I can tell you, we didn't ram through the ACA, with reconciliation or otherwise. But don't take my word for it. Take John McCain's . Or read Jonathan Chait's short and 100% accurate piece: "Every Republican Lie About Passing Obamacare Is True About Repealing It." Or see Norm Ornstein's excellent "The Real Story of Obamacare's Birth," which also covers the myriad ways in which Democrats sought to work with R...

A friend posted this Seth Meyers video and it's well worth the watch. But it's actually what Meyers left out that scares me most: Trump's two biggest allies this year have been ... Vladimir Putin and rogue agents in the FBI . (!) Deep antipathy to Hillary Clinton exists within the FBI, multiple bureau sources have told the Guardian, spurring a rapid series of leaks damaging to her campaign just days before the election. ... “The FBI is Trumpland,” said one current agent. I commented on my friend's post: I could actually live with a president who brags about sexual assault, stiffs small business contractors and defrauds working class students trying to get college degrees, cheats on his income taxes, and illegally uses his charity as a front to enrich himself . Perhaps I could even live with one who incites violence against minority groups and buddies up to white supremacists, one who doesn't understand the basic policy 101 details of his own proposals,...