Commentary

At moments, ”The Lessons of Watergate” conference held a couple of weeks ago in Washington, D.C., by the citizen’s lobby Common Cause, was a little like that two-man roadshow retired baseball players Bill Buckner and Mookie Wilson have been touring. In it, they retell the story of the catastrophic moment during the bottom of the last inning of Game Six of the 1986 World Series, when the Mets’ Wilson hit an easy ground ball toward Buckner of the Red Sox, who haplessly let it roll between his legs. That notorious error ultimately cost Boston the championship.

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It's no secret that state governments need all the revenues they can get. Five years after the financial crisis, states are still struggling to close huge budget gaps, forcing harsh ongoing cuts to education, infrastructure, and social services. This is not a moment for states to be letting billions of dollars in revenue slip through their fingers every year by failing to tax online sales. In fact, exempting Internet purchases from sales taxes has never made sense.

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As was vividly demonstrated in the 2012 election, immigrant communities are increasingly a major political and civic force. A record 10 percent of the electorate in 2012 was Latino, up a percentage point from 2008, and the Asian-American share of the electorate rose to 3 percent, still small but historic. Both groups overwhelmingly voted for President Obama, in even larger proportions than they did in 2008, proving themselves to be potent voting blocs.

You know the old saying, “He who pays the piper calls the tune?” Well, today in New York politics, the already-wealthy and powerful are paying to run state campaigns, and once candidates get into office, these donors get to call the tune. While not all of our elected officials are swayed by the power of big money, the system makes it hard for average New Yorkers to be heard in Albany.

It’s too late for Tonisha Howard, the mother of three in Milwaukee who was fired for leaving work to be with her hospitalized two-year-old. And forFelix Trinidad, who was so afraid of losing his job at Golden Farm fruit store in Brooklyn that he didn’t take time off to go to the doctor—even after he vomited blood.

I will start drawing Social Security next month. I think I've earned it. On the other hand, I have to admit that society has been good to my generation.

I was able to graduate from a good private college with no debt. Four years at Oberlin cost $10,000 -- tuition, room, board, books, fees. Not $10,000 a year -- but for four years.

My wife and I were able to buy our first home when housing was relatively cheap, and we accumulated net worth without lifting a finger, as housing values appreciated.

The job market has been tough for older workers, but did you ever imagine that you wouldn’t land a job because of your credit report?

It’s possible.

As I wrote about in my Forbes blog, Bad Credit Can Cost You a Job, if you’re looking to change careers, find a new job, get promoted, or just hang onto the one you have, a messy credit report can trip you up.

According to a new study by the think-tank Demos (PDF), the affluent tend to hold a different vision of a just society than the public at large, and it is that vision which tops the political agenda in Washington and in state houses across the country.

There are two quite different perspectives in the set of speeches at this conference. Many on our morning panels – Steve Keen, William Greider, and earlier Yves Smith and Robert Kuttner – have warned about the economy being strapped by debt. The debt we are talking about is private-sector debt. But most officials this afternoon focus on government debt and budget deficits as the problem – especially social spending such as Social Security, not bailouts to the banks and Federal Reserve credit to re-inflate prices for real estate, stocks and bonds.

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I attended the oral argument in the Voting Rights Act case before the U.S. Supreme Court, and I came away even more convinced that the Court should uphold the contested parts of the law.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires that covered states "preclear" their proposed election law changes with federal officials. Nine states plus parts of seven others are "covered," and many of these areas are in the South.