Archive
In OtherWords: February 14, 2018
The White House released its budget proposal this week, and the numbers are more of the same: huge cuts to popular programs like food stamps, Medicare, and Social Security, and a huge boost for military contractors — all while driving up the deficit. Policies like...
Tips Are for Servers, Not CEOs
When we give someone a tip, we expect the money will go to the workers who provided us with service. We might leave a little extra because someone went above and beyond for us. Or because we want that person to have a slightly easier time getting by. Whatever the...
The Attorney General Thinks Aspirin Helps Severe Pain. He’s Wrong.
Recently Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave Americans suffering severe pain some advice: "People need to take some aspirin sometimes and tough it out a little." As someone who has suffered chronic pain for over 20 years, his remarks make me very angry. Sessions was...
The White House Vs. Working Stiffs
Have you noticed that Donald Trump constantly prefaces his outlandish lies with such phrases as: “To be honest with you,” “To tell the truth,” and “Believe me”? Why? Because like a snake-oil salesman, he constantly needs to convince himself that he's speaking the...
Beholder in Chief
In OtherWords: February 7, 2018
It's the week before Valentine's Day. And as my colleague Josh Hoxie writes, working families aren't getting much love from Washington. This week in OtherWords, he recounts an unbelievable story about House Speaker Paul Ryan boasting that a Pennsylvania secretary will...
No Love for Working Families This Valentine’s Day
Love is in the air. Or so the marketers want us to believe, as Valentine’s Day ads sweep the nation into a frenzy of buying flowers, greeting cards, and confections to communicate our affection. Washington is less forthcoming with the adoration, especially for working...
Get Ready for More Voter Suppression
When President Trump created the "Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity" last spring — and put notorious vote suppressor Kris Kobach at the helm — voting rights advocates had decades of good reasons to be concerned. The panel seemed destined to back...
America Dumps Its Fracking Waste in My Ohio Town
My southeastern Ohio town in the Appalachian foothills is a small, rural place where the demolition derby is a hot ticket, Walmart is the biggest store, and people in the surrounding villages must often drive for 30 minutes to grocery shop. We hold the unfortunate...
Bad Bureaucracies Are Fraying the Social Safety Net
I've always believed in government. That is, I believe there are roles in society that can be best performed by a government — to serve the people, rather than a profit motive. But I'm fed up. It's like a crisis of faith. I'm trying to believe the best about the...
