Five Truths You Won't Hear at CPAC

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Friday March 15, 2013 · 1:03 PM PDT

2013/03/15 · 13:03

Posted at The National Memo
by The Century Foundation

It’s that time of year again. That glorious weekend when thousands of uniquely dressed conservatives descend on Washington, D.C. to celebrate being the political advocates for upper-class, white, heterosexual Americans.

For those of you who were not invited and will be watching from home, here are five truths you won’t hear at CPAC.

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Tuesday March 05, 2013 · 8:31 AM PST

2013/03/05 · 08:31

By Therese Postel
Policy Associate, The Century Foundation
Posted also at Blog of The Century

On March 1, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released the most recent version of its English-language recruitment magazine, Inspire. With each passing publication comes analysis from the counterterrorism community. This edition, the tenth in the series so far, seems to teeter toward ridiculous. Authors call for cartoonish plots to cause automobile accidents with oil-lubricated roads and for blowing up parked cars.

There are some good chuckles on the pages of Inspire, but an AQAP “public service announcement” on the last page of the magazine should be of serious concern to President Obama and Congress as they continue the gun control debate. The announcement suggests that those aspiring to jihad should consider themselves as the “terrorist next door.” AQAP states the “M-16” is “abundant in enemies’ land” along with “any other weapon” and encourages “lone mujahids” to use these weapons to commit acts of terror. Although gun rights enthusiasts will protest that there are no M-16s floating around the United States, no doubt those seeking to follow these instructions will look to the AR-15, the civilian version of the M-16, which is the most popular rifle in the United States. AQAP recognizes and hopes to exploit an unfortunate fact: background checks are weak in the United States, making guns easy to obtain. And, in fact, we have already seen the horrible results one “lone mujahid” can cause by following the path that AQAP suggests.

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Monday March 04, 2013 · 10:38 AM PST

2013/03/04 · 10:38

Worker Victory at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
by Moshe Marvit
The Century Founation
Posted also at Blog of The Century

Last month, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) settled a massive complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging that the hospital chain routinely violated workers’ rights. This settlement marks a crucial victory for UPMC workers who have been trying to join together in a union to bargain for fair pay and working conditions—and a voice on the job.

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Friday March 01, 2013 · 11:27 AM PST

2013/03/01 · 11:27

By Moshe Marvit
fellow, The Century Foundation
cross-posted at Blog of The Century

During Wednesday’s oral argument in Shelby County v. Holder, Justice Scalia delivered a long rant expressing his irritation with the Voting Rights Act. Justice Scalia reminded everyone that when the Act was originally enacted in 1965, it was passed in the Senate by “double digits” (77-19, to be precise). In each subsequent renewal of the Act, the margin has increased; most recently, it was renewed in 2006, passing the Senate 98-0. Scalia rejected the obvious explanation for this trend, claiming that “I don’t think that’s attributable to the fact that it is so much clearer now that we need” the Act. Instead, Scalia opted for a post-modern skepticism: “I think it is attributable, very likely attributable, to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

Scalia quickly added, “It’s been written about.” This qualification was perhaps intended to provide some political cover. After all, the phenomenon has a name and it’s been written about, so surely it must be true. Indeed, the Supreme Court is an institution built on precedent. That something has been written about matters a great deal.

What Justice Scalia failed to mention is that while the phrase does in fact appear several times in Supreme Court context, Scalia has been the one doing the writing in all but one instance.

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Thursday February 07, 2013 · 8:05 AM PST

2013/02/07 · 08:05

Recently on The Blog of the Century
From The Century Foundation
By Richard D. Kahlenberg, senior fellow

This week, Iowa City, Iowa joined a growing number of school districts in trying to promote student academic achievement by giving all pupils a chance to attend good, economically diverse schools. The policy is a big step forward, as it is backed by a half-century of research suggesting that students do much better when they attend schools with a mix of middle-class and low-income students as opposed to schools with high concentrations of poverty.

But the good news was tempered by a potential legal cloud imposed by the Obama administration’s Agriculture Department, which has been raising unfounded concerns about the use of free and reduced price lunch data in socioeconomic integration policies.

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Wednesday February 06, 2013 · 9:26 AM PST

2013/02/06 · 09:26

New on Blog of The Century
The Century Foundation
by S. Michael Gaddis

Last week, North Carolina governor Pat McCrory suggested that public funding for higher education should support only those academic programs that have clear paths to jobs. This comes on the heels of similar remarks by Florida governor Rick Scott, who wants a tiered tuition plan. The remarks of a number of conservative lawmakers portend either deep cuts in liberal arts programs at public universities, or higher tuition prices for students seeking such degrees.

History suggests that liberal arts degree programs cannot all be a waste of time and money.

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Tuesday February 05, 2013 · 12:14 PM PST

2013/02/05 · 12:14

Why We Should Not Export What We Frack
And Why Liberals Should Care

New from The Century Foundation
Charlie Morris

A hot lobbying battle is shaping up over government permits for natural gas exports. The energy industry, oil- and shale-patch congressmen from both parties, and most economists are pressing for a policy of unrestricted exports. Now, a group of large industrial companies, led by Dow Chemical and Nucor, are attempting to stem this legislative momentum, and for good reason. If we put aside the environmental pros and cons of shale and focus strictly on the economics, progressives have a real stake in seeing that the industry doesn’t get its way. To understand why, here is some background.

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Thursday January 17, 2013 · 8:00 AM PST

2013/01/17 · 08:00

Posted at Blog of the Century
From Graph of the Day
by Benjamin Landy, Policy Associate
The Century Foundation

In the days and weeks after Mitt Romney’s electoral defeat, there was what seemed like an endless stream of hand-wringing and soul-searching among Republican elites. The political landscape had changed overnight, forcing rising stars within the party to acknowledge the need for greater diversity, a new position on immigration reform, and a less exclusive rhetoric. Foremost among these would-be reformers was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who made waves when he told Politico, "We got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything. We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.”

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Wednesday January 16, 2013 · 9:05 AM PST

2013/01/16 · 09:05

From Therese Postel
Policy Associate, The Century Foundation
Posted at Blog of the Century

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post Fact Checker took Bill Clinton task on gun-control statistics. On January 9, Clinton gave a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where he claimed, “Half of all mass killings in the United States have occurred since the assault weapons ban expired in 2005, half of all of them in the history of the country.” Kessler and the Fact Checker column come down on this with “Three Pinocchios”—the statement is false and Clinton, apparently, refused to comment on where he got his facts.

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Thursday December 20, 2012 · 7:47 AM PST

2012/12/20 · 07:47

The best fiscal policy development of 2012 has been the near-universal refutation of the expansionary austerity hypothesis, and a better understanding of the risks of austerity-induced recessions. International evidence and economic research has lent credence to the welcomed realization that, in the United States, expansionary fiscal policy has been largely responsible for propping up anemic growth rates, and that recent pullback of fiscal support has already contributed to decelerating recovery.
In Washington, this realization has taken shape in the newfound bipartisan concern that the so-called fiscal cliff of legislated spending cuts and expiring tax cuts will push the economy into an austerity-induced recession if they take effect far into 2013. Policymakers have finally been forced to reckon with the macroeconomic reality that budget deficits closing too quickly—and public debt rising too slowly—will produce another recession. This necessarily implies that large U.S. budget deficits, swollen by economic downturn, automatic stabilizer spending, and deliberate fiscal support, have been keeping the economy out of recession, and that recent accumulation of public debt has staved off a much deeper depression.

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Wednesday December 19, 2012 · 1:05 PM PST

2012/12/19 · 13:05

In 2002, The Century Foundation convened the Working Group on Tax Expenditures to examine and propose reforms to the tax code. The resulting report, Bad Breaks All Around, identifies twelve tax breaks with little or no economic justification. These "dirty dozen" are no less ripe for the chopping block a decade later, as Congress finally takes up the task of simplifying the tax code. Follow along at Blog of the Century as we introduce each of the "dirty dozen" and explain why it's long past time to eliminate these useless, and costly, tax breaks.

Join us we count down the Dirty Dozen tax breaks from 2002 that are costing us billions in lost revenue. The Dirty Dozen Homepage.

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Wednesday December 05, 2012 · 11:16 AM PST

2012/12/05 · 11:16

Americans have paid off some $1.7 trillion in mortgage, home equity, car loan and credit card debt since the height of the recession, according to the latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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Five Truths You Won't Hear at CPAC

al Qaeda to Americans: Take Advantage of Loose Gun Laws

Worker Victory

Will Scalia’s Pet Peeve Decide the Voting Rights Act?

Why Is Obama’s Agriculture Department Standing in the Way of School Integration?

Dangerous Higher Education Policy: The Restriction of Liberal Arts

Why We Should Not Export What We Frack

GRAPH: Republican Govs Promise Tax Cuts for “Job Creators” Financed by Higher Taxes on the Poor

Fact-checking the WaPo on Assault Weapons

Best Fiscal Policy Development of 2012? The Half-triumph of Keynesianism over Austerity

Twelve Tax Breaks We Called for Eliminating in 2002

Graph of the Day: Student loan delinquencies surpass credit cards.