News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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All eyes have been on the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks as politicians and pundits assess the impact of changing rules for who can enter the United States. But the fixation on the border can distract from a bigger problem: America’s immigration system hasn’t kept up with the times. We need an immigration policy that advances our national interest, one that reflects our needs as well as our values. It should complement and support American foreign policy. It should respond to the current realities of workforce demands and international mig...
Here we go again. The United States crashed through the nation’s debt ceiling on Jan. 19, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. For now, the government is relying on accounting tweaks and shifting money from one pot to another to pay the bills. But that only works for so long. Soon, Congress will have to raise or suspend the debt limit. The alternative, defaulting on America’s financial obligations and sending the world economy into a tailspin, is unthinkable. Or it should be. But we can expect a lot of brinksmanship and political pos...
Like many Americans, I watched with dismay this month as the House of Representatives struggled through 15 votes over four days to select a new speaker. The sense of dysfunction was remarkable. Anyone watching might well have wondered about our ability to govern ourselves. For a week, there was no speaker to call the House to order. Elected members couldn’t take the oath of office and start conducting business. One house of the Congress was effectively AWOL. Finally, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, secured enough votes to win. But the c...
Having just watched a Supreme Court nominee supported by a comfortable majority of Americans draw just three Republican votes in the Senate, you could be forgiven for thinking bipartisanship in Congress is a thing of the past. But if you look carefully, there are plenty of signs that bipartisanship is still possible in Washington. President Biden recently signed a bill reforming the Postal Service, which drew strong support from both parties in Congress. The same happened with a measure that keeps companies and universities from shielding...
aMaybe it’s the perspective a long life brings, but I find myself eyeing with some skepticism the glut of “personal brands” that assault us every day on television, in print, and through social media. Entertainers, celebrities, politicians striving for acclaim, artists and writers who’ve mastered the public-relations game, journalists and media stars who are building their national profiles — all are “important” in terms of the attention they garner. But are they actually important? In some ways, of course, the question is impossible to...
With an infrastructure package on the books and the Biden administration’s $1.8 trillion “Build Back Better” measure preoccupying the Senate after passing the House, government spending is very much on Americans’ minds. In public meetings, I frequently hear people say that government’s share of the economy is too big, and it’s likely that voters’ feelings about federal spending will figure prominently in next year’s elections. If you look ahead, even beyond the current debate on Capitol Hill, there will be intense pressure to expand even furthe...
I still remember a question I got years ago. It was at a public meeting in southern Indiana, where a young woman commented that I’d traveled throughout the US and wanted to know: What was my impression of Americans? I didn’t even hesitate: The American people are fundamentally decent, I told her. Why even mention this? Because at the moment, we live in a country where a lot of Americans don’t believe it. They think fellow citizens and public officials they don’t agree with are at best misguided and, at worst, evil. I don’t think this happened...
Twenty years ago, the United States was intently focused on terrorism. The 9/11 attacks had killed 3,000 Americans and profoundly shaken our national sense of safety and security. President George W. Bush declared we were fighting a “war on terror” and vowed we would defeat terrorist organizations. Since then, we have taken important steps to keep our country safe, and they have been largely effective. News coverage of terrorism is relatively rare, and I suspect most Americans wouldn’t put it at the top of their list of concerns. But terro...
Call me naïve, but I’ve never quite gotten why some politicians want to limit voters’ ability to cast their ballots. Sure, I know that plenty of people like to flip the classic Clausewitz quote and say that politics is war by other means. All’s fair, etc., they insist. But the cornerstone of representative democracy, the base on which everything else rests, is the people’s right to cast an informed vote to choose our leaders. There’s no argument about this: it’s just a basic right. Which means that the more Americans we hear from in the votin...
No matter how hard we try, we really can’t avoid one another. We live in a world where what takes place somewhere else on the globe has a very good chance of affecting us. The pandemic, of course, is a perfect example. A virus that infected humans in one city in China spread with breathtaking speed around the world, beyond the power of governments — or anyone else — to stop it. But then, it often seems like everything is interconnected these days: workers, tourists, ideas, commerce, communications, drugs, crime, migrants, refugees, weapo...
We Americans have long prided ourselves on offering a safe haven to people seeking refuge from conflict and repression. The theme is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Refugees have contributed immeasurably to American life. They include world-changing figures like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, visionary artists like Marc Chagall, popular entertainers like Gloria Estefan, respected musicians like my Indiana University faculty colleague Menahem Pressler, and...
As Washington turns its attention to infrastructure and other matters of policy, the Senate filibuster isn’t commanding quite the same headlines as it did a few weeks back. But that’s only because the issue is percolating behind the scenes. At some point, it will return to the limelight. And when it does, you should understand what’s at stake. Because as obscure as it seems, it actually goes to the heart of how we operate as a democracy. The key point to remember is that as the country’s population has shifted, a growing number of senator...
As the events of the past few months have unfolded, I have often found myself wondering what our Founders would have made of it all. Impossible to know, of course, but they had plenty of insight to offer. In particular, I keep returning to these lines from James Madison: “I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom,” he said. “Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks — no form of government can render us s...
With the handoff of power from one president to another, we enter this new phase of our national life in deep distress. We are polarized, struggling to communicate reasonably with one another, and seemingly unable to find common ground on basic issues. Yet the path forward is neither new nor, really, difficult. We all know what needs to happen. We just need to do it. To heal as a nation, we need to return to our traditional ways of doing business. We need to rediscover our skills at negotiation and compromise. We must rekindle our...
Joe Biden won’t become President of the United States for a few weeks yet, but it’s fair to say he’s already feeling the pressures of the office. I think being president-elect may be the second hardest job in the world. For one thing, as president-elect he’s encircled by people who want something from him: appointments, jobs, internal disputes settled. Political players of all sorts —people who supported him, people who opposed him, interest groups of all kinds and descriptions — are angling to get his ear. We’ve already seen what else lie...
If you pay attention to global affairs, you know that increasing numbers of people believe US leadership in the world is coming to an end and the West more broadly is being eclipsed. I think these predictions are exaggerated, but they are not without some basis. Our challenges have grown. It is time for us to re-establish ourselves by showing our capacity for change and adaptation. The biggest external challenge we face, of course, is the rise of China and the competition it offers to the democratic model. It is not just that its wealth,...
Call it American exceptionalism or not, the American people have always embraced the idea that we live in an exceptional country. We are grateful to be Americans. We take a lot of pride in our country, as we should. Pride and patriotism are among America’s greatest strengths. Having said that, we need to be clear-eyed about our limits. Sometimes we tend to think we should always be No. 1, no matter what metrics we apply. That attitude can lead to arrogance and a lack of interest in the world. There are always things we can learn from other c...
We are a nation adrift. Even before the pandemic and George Floyd’s death, the U.S. was piling on problems with little sense that we had either the leadership or the political will to address them. The coronavirus and Black Lives Matter protests have amplified those challenges, throwing older ones into stark relief and adding new ones. I am as convinced as ever that this country has the strength and ingenuity to find its way out. I don’t know about you, but I see rising out of the multiple crises besetting us a bedrock recognition that the...
I’ve spent a long time in politics, and over those years one thing has remained constant: a lot more Americans criticize government than serve and do something about it. There have been times when I’ve felt a bit resentful. It’s hard to enter the fray, listen patiently to criticism from all comers, and then look around to find that many of them are nowhere to be found when it comes to the hard work of improving our communities and our system. But mostly what I’ve felt is amazement at the immense but often un-grasped opportunity our system...
Representative democracy is based on a simple premise. It’s that ordinary citizens can judge complex public policy and political issues — or at least grasp them well enough to decide who should be dealing with them. But the significance of that premise isn’t simple at all. It means that our country’s future depends on the quality of democratic participation by its citizens. So, in an era when our democracy appears to be under great stress, what must we do to keep it healthy? Here are some steps I think we need to take. First, we have to protect...
I am lucky enough these days to be in regular touch with young people who are interested in public service. I find hope in their quality, energy, and motivation, and they press me to think more deeply about what it takes to pursue a life in the public realm. I’ve come to believe that at the heart of it all — indeed, at the heart of representative democracy itself — is persuasion. If you’re trying to improve society, you have to persuade other people: the only way to get things done is to convince other people to join in. I once was fortunate to...
You know these words, but how often do you stop to think about them? “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” They belong, of course, to the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. That remarkable document is not just the blueprint for our political system. Its Preamble is also a profoundly aspirational call to arms. Because when you read...
Every so often, I jot down a list of the things that discourage me about our country. There’s the widespread disregard for our core values of tolerance and mutual respect, for instance. Or our declining national optimism. There’s wage stagnation, income inequality, a high poverty rate, failing infrastructure, inadequate healthcare coverage, a dysfunctional Congress. … You get the idea. This is not really a list of failings. It’s a to-do list. How do we make progress on it? Well, I’ll tell you: politics. American politics can be an inefficie...
We’re at a watershed moment in American political history. Our Congress — I’m talking about the people’s body, the institution created by our founders, and not just the men and women who currently inhabit it — is in deep trouble. And no one seems to be offering hope. Its public standing is abysmal, occasionally dropping into the single digits in polling. Very few people seem to respect it, even on Capitol Hill. Small surprise, as the Pew Research Center reported the other day that “More members of the U.S. House of Representatives are choosin...
As Republicans in Congress move forward on their tax plan, it’s worth remembering one thing: whatever the legislative particulars, keep your eye on the plan’s impact on the federal debt. Our debt load is already worrisome. It’s almost certainly going to get worse. At some point, this will become unsustainable — we just don’t know exactly when. One common measure of the debt problem is to compare the total federal debt to our gross domestic product, or GDP. This basically measures whether a country’s economy is healthy enough to carry its d...