Articles & Op-Eds

As we work to recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, both Republicans and Democrats have offered plans for our economy. Republicans' own Congressional campaign chair admitted that they intend to return America to the "exact same agenda" of the Bush years -- the agenda that got our economy into this mess. Democrats, on the other hand, believe that when more products are made in America, more families will be able to Make It In America. That's why Democrats are pursuing the Make It In America agenda, a plan to create middle-class jobs by rebuilding our manufacturing sector.

If Republicans are serious about governing responsibly, they have an odd way of showing it. And for politicians who purport to hate the deficit -- odder still. The House Republicans' "Pledge to America," unveiled with fanfare Thursday at a Sterling hardware store, mixes irresponsible tax cuts with implausible spending caps and unspecified actions to control entitlement spending. The resulting concoction is a profile in cowardice.

Meet the new faces of the GOP's definition of "small businesses" that would be affected by looming tax increases on households earning more than $250,000 under the Democrats' tax plans.

A few blocks from the restored antebellum homes that draw tourists to rural Warren County, wooden shacks sink into the sandy soil, their tin roofs bowing low, walls askew. Clothes hang on lines outside, limp under a stifling, late-summer sun.

Is there any reason for hope in this gloomy summer for the economy? A certain fatalism - that a double-dip recession is inevitable - has crept into a lot of economic analysis lately, but it may be overstating the degree to which we are in dire straits. A roaring recovery is probably not on the way, but here are five reasons that a slow-and-steady recovery is likely to continue.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — President Obama's $787 billion stimulus — has been marketed as a jobs bill, and that's how it's been judged. The White House says it has saved or created about 3 million jobs, helping avoid a depression and end a recession. Republicans mock it as a Big Government boondoggle that has failed to prevent rampant unemployment despite a massive expansion of the deficit. Liberals complain that it wasn't massive enough.

Retail sales managed a modest increase in July after two consecutive monthly declines, but the strength was concentrated in higher sales of autos and gasoline. Most other retailers saw their sales fall.

Faced with rising costs, General Electric is moving production of its new energy-efficient water heater halfway around the world. The country it's leaving? China. The one it's bringing 400 jobs and a newly renovated factory? The United States.

Many of us have nearly forgotten an era in which it was commonplace for a person to be denied employment because she was blind, or unable to attend a university because he was in a wheelchair—an era in which people with disabilities were second-class citizens.

For a couple of years, it was the love that dared not speak his name. In 2008, Republican candidates hardly ever mentioned the president still sitting in the White House.

David S. Broder's explanation of the House's one-year budget enforcement resolution, and of our nation's fiscal challenge, was at best superficial and at worst misleading ["A dereliction of fiscal duty," op-ed, July 8].

Congress will debate its divisions over U.S. policy on Afghanistan a week after a Rolling Stone magazine article showed tensions in the Obama administration's war team that led to the dismissal of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as chief commander of American and NATO troops there.