Op-Eds
November 20, 2015 -- This week we are reminded that almost four centuries ago, a group of men, women, and children fled their homes and set sail across the ocean in search of a better life. They embarked upon this pilgrimage, seeking a land free of religious persecution. When the pilgrims finally made landfall, a kind and generous people opened their homes and shared their food.
With Memorial Day weekend upon us, the start of the summer tourism season is beginning, and Gov. Chris Christie has spent the past week going up and down the Shore to make certain everyone knows it. His tour is to culminate this morning in Seaside Heights, with an appearance on the "Today" show and a symbolic ribbon-cutting that will signal the Shore is officially open for business.
IN A RARE episode of bipartisanship in Washington, the unfolding scandal at the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups is being rightly condemned by both Democrats and Republicans, from President Obama to Mitch McConnell. We all agree that freedom of speech is one of our most sacred American values.
AS OUR ECONOMY recovers from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the story of what led to this economic meltdown is well known. Homebuyers were persuaded to sign up for risky loans. Greedy brokers pushed clients into high-priced mortgages to reap higher profits.
THE CONFETTI has been dropped. The last ads have aired and the last ballots have been cast. To the relief of many, the 2012 campaign has finally come to a close, and President Obama has been reelected. Now comes the hard part: governing.
Imagine that you are a 50 year old waitress with no children working in a restaurant that does not provide health insurance. You are struggling to make ends meet on $14,000 a year, and you certainly can’t afford to purchase your own health care plan.
Ten years after envelopes containing anthrax spores were dropped into a mailbox in Princeton, we still have a long way to go to improve our nation’s biodefenses.
The anthrax attacks — in which five people died and 17 were sickened — signaled one of the greatest challenges we face in securing our homeland: a terrorist attack using biological weapons.
FOR THE past 30 years, our trade policies have operated under the assumption that any trade deal is a good one.
I’m not sure if the House Republican leadership understands that we are moving in the wrong direction. A disappointing jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor last Friday indicated that despite 54,000 private-sector jobs created last month, the unemployment rate increased a tenth of a percent.
PERHAPS the most significant part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress last week wasn’t any singular thing that he said, but where he said it.
Americans have walked the moon. Americans have scoured the earth bringing our worst enemies to justice. So why is it when we consider our energy crisis, “Drill baby, drill!” is some Americans’ only solution?
How did we get so pessimistic about our own country?
One of the first commitments I made after becoming a congressman 14 years ago was to make the U.S. Congress, and the public, aware of the dangers of traumatic brain injury (TBI). As part of that commitment and in my role as co-chairman of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, every year I host a day on Capitol Hill dedicated to brain injury awareness.
President Abraham Lincoln, who led our nation through a time of great crisis, warned us that a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Last week, the 112th Congress began with a reading of the U.S. Constitution. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona read from the First Amendment, the portion that gives every American the right to peaceably assemble. Two days later, violence erupted in Tucson, Az. that left Rep. Giffords and others severely wounded and took the lives of six people, including a 9-year-old girl.
What a difference 34 years doesn’t make.
The following words appeared in a Time Magazine editorial about the federal government in 1976:
KEN GROSS, a Washington attorney who advises corporations on campaign finance laws, recently gave his forecast for corporate
spending in this fall’s campaigns on National Public Radio.
“There are opportunities there that the corporate community is interested in exploring,” he said.
A few Republicans in Congress have offered various alternatives to financial reform legislation. Most of their rhetoric about fixing the Wall Street collapse is factually bankrupt.
The recent attempted attack in Times Square reminds us as a nation that the threat of terrorism continues to be real and our vigilance must be everlasting.