Pete Spiliakos

The Obama administration sent Susan Rice out to lie when she said that the Benghazi attack was a “spontaneous” (with RPGs!) response to a YouTube clip. I just don’t think that foreign Muslims were the intended audience for the lie. The Obama administration could have groveled and . . . . Continue Reading »

I’ve never been able to get worked up about the Benghazi attack. I always thought that the refusal to order a prompt rescue mission was judgment call. The story cooked up that the attack was a response to a video was also pretty obviously a lie and a political attempt to prevent the story . . . . Continue Reading »

Yuval Levin has some eminently sensible suggestions for how to improve the Gang Of Eight’s immigration bill. Levin’s suggestions include mandating the near-term adoption of E-Verify for all employees, eliminating the guest worker program and shifting future immigration toward high-skill . . . . Continue Reading »

Ross Douthat is on a roll lately. He points out that the recent Oregon study indicates that expanding health care coverage isn’t the most cost effective way to improve the well being of the poor and lower middle-class. I would agree, but I would put the emphasis in different places, not . . . . Continue Reading »

Here is Megan McArdle on the new Oregon Medicaid study. One implication is that a comprehensive prepayment model of health insurance might not be the most cost effective way to get people health care services. There is no statistically significant evidence that Medicaid improved the health outcomes . . . . Continue Reading »

Republicans can and should be both.   If Republicans choose to be the party of high-earner self-interest, Democrats will end up making policy in the long-term. . . . . Continue Reading »

Thirty-four. That is the percentage of 2012 voters who, according to exit polls, believed Mitt Romney’s policies would primarily benefit the middle class. Fifty-three percent responded that Romney’s policies would primarily favor the wealthy. Things, though, are in danger of getting worse for Republicans. … Continue Reading »

Over at Legal Insurrection, William A Jacobson writes about the costs of low information voters who get their information primarily through liberal-leaning (or sometimes straight partisan liberal) news outlets. I think the problem is less that they are low information than that many voters are no . . . . Continue Reading »

Over on twitter, Reihan Salam and Patrick Brennan were discussing a Matthew Yglesias post on the Koch brothers’ attempt to buy the Tribune line of newspapers. Yglesias is for it since he thinks that the Koch brothers buying the Tribune papers and turning them into conservative news outlets . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaac Chotiner explains that the expressed desire/hope/prediction of many liberals that the Boston bombers turn out to be white non-Muslims was based on a “reasoned reactions to a society that is still full of racism and bigotry” and that “in times of national emergency or stress, . . . . Continue Reading »