Pete Spiliakos

We need to channel our old zeal for tax cuts into reforming health care. . . . . Continue Reading »

The well publicized problems of Obamacare are a sign of both opportunity and a danger for conservatives. The dysfunctions of Obamacare (the premium increases even more than the website problems) will give conservatives a wider hearing for their ideas on health care policy. But there is a danger: If conservatives fail to offer alternatives to the failures of Obamacare, the left will be able to offer single-payer as the only viable alternative to the problems caused by Obamacare. Whether or not conservatives can offer an alternative will determine if Obamacare is the high point of government control of medicine or just another step toward a complete public takeover… . Continue Reading »

 I very strongly recommend Mike Lee’s speech at the Heritage Foundation on the importance of American conservatism taking a reformist and pro-middle-class turn. What is most encouraging is that this speech on upward mobility, the importance of pro-parent tax reform and the centrality of . . . . Continue Reading »

 Matthew Continetti has a terrific column about how the Center for American Progress was able to connect liberal fundraisers, grassroots activists, intellectuals and Democratic politicians to move the Democratic party and the political culture to the left. By 2008, even though the various . . . . Continue Reading »

Henry Olsen has written a fascinating and important article about the voting habits and worldview of the white working-class. Republicans aren’t doing so well with them. Olsen reports that Obama won non-southern whites who earn less than $45,000. Mitt Romney did a mediocre-to-lousy job of . . . . Continue Reading »

 A cold has severely damaged my already limited thinking abilities. I just rewatched “The Way of the Gun”. I saw it about a dozen years ago and remembered it as an enjoyable and darkly funny action movie with an exceptional performance by James Caan. Seeing it again, the movie, for . . . . Continue Reading »

At least Mike Lee takes an occasional interest in the struggles of middle-class and working poor families.  My On The Square column is on how the Republican establishment and Tea Party populists each have self-serving and self-destructive illusions about persuadable voters. . . . . Continue Reading »

Some Republican donors, consultants, and lobbyists are deeply unhappy with the government shutdown and debt ceiling strategy being pursued by Tea Party-affiliated conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. Their fear”that it is damaging the Republican party and threatening the economy while having no hope of achieving its original goal of defunding Obamacare”is probably correct. But things are worse yet, for the tactical error of the Tea Party Republicans is only one such mistake made by Republicans in the aftermath of the disastrous 2012 election… . Continue Reading »

The shutdown/debt ceiling fight is just too depressing a subject to keep up a running commentary. It was an unwise fight, but the Republican establishment that is saying “I told you so” to the defunders is, in its own way, just as delusional as the people who thought the threat of a . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the really irritating narratives to come out of the shutdown/debt ceiling debate is the idea that the shutdown drowned out coverage of the incompetence of the Obamacare exchanges. Funny, but the excellent Fox News program Special Report with Bret Baier managed to cover both stories. The . . . . Continue Reading »