“Pondering 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.
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Paul Krugman: Tax Cut Fraudulence: The Usual Suspects
Stan Collender has a characteristically perceptive discussion of the ongoing budget farce, and invokes Casablanca: “round up the usual suspects.” That struck me as the perfect motto for what I’m seeing, although I’m focusing on somewhat different aspects of the farce.
You see, until a few days ago the Trump sales pitch was a bit different from past GOP arguments for tax cuts, involving (a) a novel invocation of the supposed benefits of massive capital inflows from corporate tax cuts, and (b) outright lies on an unprecedented scale.
But what I’ve been seeing lately is a revival of some more traditional, Bush-era fraudulence. Two items in particular. First, the claim that the rich pay practically all the taxes, so that of course they have to get the bulk of the tax cut. Second, claims of vast growth, because Reagan.
Bryce Covert: The Economy Can’t Grow Without Birth Control
This month, 41 Democrats introduced a bill with a simple mission: It would undo the Trump administration’s recent change to the Affordable Care Act that paves the way for virtually any employer to deny its employees access to contraception without a co-payment. Before President Trump’s new guidance, the law required nearly all employers to offer workers health insurance plans that include contraception without cost. But the new rules, effective immediately after the announcement, allow any employer to request that the government let it opt out based on religious or moral objections.
In a statement on the bill, Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said that “birth control is about being healthy and financially secure.”
Indeed, while access to contraception is clearly about women’s health, it also profoundly affects the economy. The easier it is for women to obtain birth control, the more able they are to gain education and employment. That has been enormously important for the economy. The opposite, however, can be just as true. Mr. Trump has promised economic growth at rates we haven’t seen in decades. His actions on contraception are at odds with that.
Charles M. Blow: Checking My Male Privilege
I have also raised a daughter and helped her deal with her own episodes of sexual harassment, including reporting it.
I have used this column to regularly condemn sexism, misogyny, patriarchy and toxic masculinity.
And yet, I am still shocked when I hear of another case that has real names and faces of people I know. Shocked every time!
This is not because I don’t listen to women or believe them, but rather, I think, because a personally lived experience is a far cry from a passively learned experience.
I am a man. Six-foot-two, 200 lbs. Able-bodied, and physically fit. I move through the world with the privilege of never even considering the idea of being sexually assaulted or harassed. (Men are also sexually assaulted and raped, but the scale of those occurrences is dwarfed by scale of those problems for women.)
This is one of my male privileges, and I have to check it.
Brad Hoylman: Stop letting powerful men silence victims with confidentiality agreements
Each day seemingly brings new revelations about Harvey Weinstein’s three decades of alleged sexual assaults, harassment and sleazy come-ons. As the victims continue to stream forward, we’re left wondering: how did he get away with it for so long?
One thing seems clear. Ultimately, if not for the bravery of his victims coming forward, Weinstein, who has denied allegations made against him, would have continued. [..]
Silence is acquired. But at what cost? Silence begets more silence, giving predators the license to prey on new victims with little or no consequence. At the same time, accusers who speak up are ousted through settlements, often leaving their unknowing colleagues behind to become victims themselves.
This vicious cycle must stop.
Phillip Longman: How Big Medicine can ruin Medicare for all
In 2013, Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist,” couldn’t find a single co-sponsor for his healthcare plan, which would replace private insurance with Medicare-like coverage for all Americans regardless of age or income.
Today, the roll call of supporters for his latest version includes the leading lights of the Democratic party, including many with plausible presidential aspirations. It’s enough to make an exasperated Dana Milbank publish a column in the Washington Post under the headline ‘The Democrats have become socialists’.
But have they? Actually, no.
Real socialized medicine might work brilliantly, as it has in some other countries. In the United Kingdom, the socialist government of Labour’s Clement Attlee nationalized the healthcare sector after the second world war, and today the British government still owns and operates most hospitals and directly employs most healthcare professionals.
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