“Punting the Pundits“ is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Michelle Obama: A food bill we need
Last spring, a class of fifth-grade students from Bancroft Elementary School in the District descended on the South Lawn of the White House to help us dig, mulch, water and plant our very first kitchen garden. In the months that followed, those same students came back to check on the garden’s progress and taste the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor. Together, they helped us spark a national conversation about the role that food plays in helping us all live healthy lives.
Fareed Zakaria: To deal with the deficit, let the tax cuts expire
For the past few months, we have heard powerful, passionate arguments about the need to cut America’s massive budget deficit. Republican senators have claimed that we are in danger of permanently crippling the economy. Conservative economists and pundits warn of a Greece-like crisis in which America will be able to borrow only at exorbitant interest rates. So when an opportunity presents itself to cut those deficits by about a quarter — more than $300 billion! — permanently and relatively easily, you would think that these people would be leading the way. Far from it.
E. J. Dionne: The auto industry lives. Can we admit that government intervention worked?
Who could have imagined that the bailout of the auto industry, one of the single most unpopular moves by the Obama administration, would become one of its best talking points?
But don’t for an instant imagine that the comeback of the nation’s rescued car companies, particularly General Motors, will change the way we debate government’s role in the economy. When it comes to almost anything the government does, ideology trumps facts, slogans trump reality, and loaded words (“socialism”) trump data.
Let there be no mistake: Rescuing GM and Chrysler took political courage, and I want to put in a good word not only for President Obama but also for George W. Bush.
Robert J. Samuelson: Shale gas: Hope for our energy future
You probably have never heard of oilman George Mitchell, but more than anyone else, he has changed the global energy outlook. In 1981, Mitchell’s small petroleum company faced dwindling natural gas reserves. He proposed a radical idea: drill deeper in the company’s Texas fields to reach gas-bearing shale rock more than a mile down. Because the gas was tightly packed, most engineers believed it was too costly to extract profitably. But after nearly two decades of trying, Mitchell proved doubters wrong. The result: The world has far more available natural gas than anyone suspected.
The BP oil spill cast a cloud over almost all energy news. Well, shale gas is good news. Here’s why.
Until recently, scarce U.S. natural gas reserves suggested increasing dependence on expensive foreign supplies of liquefied natural gas. No more. Also, natural gas emits about 50 percent less carbon dioxide — the major greenhouse gas — than coal. Substituting gas for coal in electricity plants could temper emissions. Finally, shale gas in Europe and Asia has huge geopolitical implications. It could reduce dependence on Russian natural gas and frustrate any gas cartel mimicking OPEC.
Robert Suro: In the fight over Arizona’s immigration law, everybody loses
Arizona’s immigration law was never going to solve the problem of illegal immigration. That is not its purpose. Instead it is an invitation to a shootout in which there will be no winners. It is more of a provocation than an attempt to enact policy, and as a protest against Washington’s failure to fix a broken immigration system, it resonates.
A preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton on Wednesday halted several major parts of the law, but it really did nothing more than set the terms for more litigation. A tortured path to the U.S. Supreme Court seems likely, though even the nine justices won’t be able to settle the heart of the matter. If Arizona ultimately wins in court, states could end up obliged to fashion their own immigration controls. If the federal government wins, President Obama could find himself running for reelection on a devilish issue he has done his best to avoid.
William Saletan: Muslims Keep Out
The Republican campaign against a Ground Zero mosque.
The latest plot against America, we’re told, is smoldering in the ashes of 9/11. A Muslim organization wants to build a “community center,” including a mosque, two blocks from the site of the fallen World Trade Center. Republicans and leaders of other faiths are rallying against the mosque, calling it a threat to American values. But the threat to our values isn’t coming from the mosque. It’s coming from those who want to stop it.
The stated mission of the organization behind the project, the Cordoba Initiative, is to build “interfaith tolerance and respect.” The center would include a library, gym, auditorium, and restaurant. Its purpose would be “promoting integration, tolerance of difference,” and “inter-community gatherings and cooperation.” The initiative’s chairman, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has denounced church burnings in Muslim countries, rejected Islamic triumphalism over Christians and Jews, and proposed to reclaim Islam from violent radicals such as Osama Bin Laden.
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