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The Lineup: Week of June 13-19, 2011
In this week’s OtherWords editorial package, Wenonah Hauter calls for a ban on gas “fracking” and Jim Hightower miraculously finds the humor in the GOP’s efforts to kill Medicare. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do.
No Fracking Way
Flames exploding from kitchen taps. Livestock dropping dead from tainted water. People in small towns noticing an unusual stench, experiencing acute headaches, and blacking out.
America Shouldn’t Scrimp on Food Safety
Americans are becoming too familiar with imported foodborne illnesses. Remember the tainted dog food from China and those salmonella-laced hot peppers shipped from Mexico? Now a virulent strain of E. coli is racing across Europe, possibly heading toward our shores.
Enough Budget Slashing, Let’s Flip
Our country once had a more widely shared appreciation for both public services and the workers who provide them, including firefighters, teachers, and police officers. Today, however, state legislatures across the country are singing a very different tune. Instead of raising new revenue to protect those services and workers, states are slashing from their budgets the things that make our nation strong.
Cutting to get out of a deficit is like digging to get out of a ditch. It puts everything we value at risk. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Stay Healthy
My plan is modest, universal, and foolproof. If the nation were to embrace it, we’d not only cut health care costs in half, our budget deficit would shrink to the equivalent of spare change. This is my plan: Stay healthy.
The GOP’s Medicare Lies
In an astonishing observation, Rep. Paul Ryan recently declared: “Washington has not been honest with you.”
Dr. Toughlove
Segregation Still Strong 150 Years after the Civil War Began
Good old Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi. He helps keep life in perspective. When he defended Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell’s infamous recollection of the Confederacy that somehow failed to mention slavery, Barbour called the issue a “nit” — merely an insignificant matter.
Newt’s Campaign Implosion
The bulk of GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich’s senior staff abandoned him this week. “The professional team came to the realization that the direction of the campaign they sought and Gingrich’s vision for the campaign were incompatible,” said senior strategist Dave Carney.
Pawlenty’s Tax Proposal Caters to the Richest Americans
GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty observed the 10th anniversary of the Bush tax cuts by proposing $2 trillion in additional tax cuts, primarily for millionaires and global corporations.
