THE CARELESS HOUSE BUDGET
EDITORIAL
NEW YORK TIMES
In the long run, the premium support plan could shift costs to beneficiaries because it would limit annual per capita spending growth to well below the level required by the health care reform act. The plan would also cap the federal contribution to Medicaid by turning the program into a block grant to states. These extreme cuts and changes would greatly impede the nation’s economic recovery, and hurt those on the middle and lower economic rungs who suffered most from the recession. The contrast with President Obama’s budget, which raises taxes on the rich to protect vital programs while reducing the deficit, could not be more clear.
HEART OF DARKNESS
BY MAUREEN DOWD
NEW YORK TIMES
There was an exhausted feel to the oversight hearing, lawmakers on both sides looking visibly sapped by our draining decade of wars. Even hawks seem beaten down by our self-defeating pattern in Afghanistan: giving billions to rebuild the country, money that ends up in the foreign bank accounts of its corrupt officials. ... But most of the politicians seemed resigned to the fact that President Obama is resigned to settling for a very small footprint and enough troops to keep terrorists from using Afghanistan as a base to attack the U.S. or our allies. The White House seems ready to forget eliminating the poppy trade and expanding education for girls. We’re not going to turn our desolate protectorate into a modern Athens and there’s not going to be any victory strut on an aircraft carrier.
Read Tuesday's must-read opinion pages
Read Monday's must-read opinion pages
OIL UNDER OUR NOSES
PAUL RYAN'S DANGEROUS, AND INTENTIONALLY VAGUE, BUDGET PLAN
THE GOOD NEWS IN AFGHANISTAN SHOULD COME FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA
THE REFORM REPUBLICANS
ROMNEY'S ILLINOIS VICTORY SIGNALS AN END TO THE GOP PRIMARY
IN IL, ROMNEY FINALLY GETS A CLEAN HIT
PAUL RYAN'S PLAN OR AMERICAN DECLINE
