Joe Donnelly needs a lesson in economics. Donnelly’s campaign advertisements say he’s “about jobs and balanced budgets,” but throughout Donnelly’s time in Congress, the public debt has increased $7.3 billion and every American citizen’s individual share of the debt is now $51,823. He voted to increase the debt ceiling five times. In Donnelly’s last two terms alone, net private-sector jobs have decreased a half million.
The trick that is easy to play on the average person is to imply that Washington is like your experience in most life situations in a business, church or even city or state government, which tends to be solution-oriented as opposed to establishing the ideological framework and laws for all private business and increasingly all governmental standards.
On Nov. 6, all eyes will be on several battleground states. Unfortunately, the pundits will miss one of the most important states that will contribute to an Obama victory—Indiana. While some will debate whether the president will win Indiana (I still contend that he can), keep in mind that several Indiana-related items will play a role in the fall campaign and will have an impact in other parts of the country.
In the decade of the Great Depression, the 1930s, the population of Indiana grew 5.8 percent. Later, in the 1970s, a decade of great economic turmoil, the state’s population advanced 5.7 percent. The 1980s saw a strong recession and a subsequent restructuring of American business; Indiana’s population grew a mere 1 percent.
The outgoing Daniels administration takes great pride in its fiscal probity and not without justification—the state’s budget is in surplus, its credit rating is better than the U.S. governments’, and business taxes have been reduced.
While it is easy to see the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case, since corporate-sponsored political ads have dominated our airwaves for months, it is much more difficult for voters to determine exactly who is paying for these ads.
I just arrived in Shanghai, but I’m thinking about Estonia and wondering about something Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have been saying.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been to two party conventions filled with people who think all of America is just like them.
After reading Barack Obama’s book “Dreams from My Father,” it became painfully clear that he has not been searching for the truth, because he assumed from an early age that he had already found the truth.
Football season is here, bringing with it swelled TV audiences, increased tax revenue for Indianapolis, filled seats in Lucas Oil Stadium, and frustrated fans across the state. For many, their frustration will likely catch them by surprise and have nothing to do with Andrew Luck’s accuracy or holes in the Indianapolis Colts defense.
Once upon a time, three daily newspapers operated in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Times, a Scripps-Howard paper, was first to stop its presses, in 1965, a victim of competition and the advent of aggressive electronic news sources.
Earlier this year, U.S. student loan debt achieved a milestone. It surpassed outstanding credit card debt. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, student debt is rising when other debt is flat or even falling. Fifteen percent of all Americans with a credit score are carrying student debt.
Going to a convention really is a “bucket list” item for those of us who find politics so compelling. I can only imagine what the conventions were like a hundred years ago—much less scripted and scrutinized I’m sure—but there was such tremendous optimism and energy in Tampa last month.
I admit it. Even though I was a political science minor in college, I did not watch one minute of the Republican or Democratic national conventions. But I am not alone. In some very informal polling, I have learned that lots of engaged local leaders also skipped these television events.
For an actor, actress or movie buff, it is the Academy Awards. For a basketball player and fan, it is March Madness or the NBA Finals. For the swimmer, gymnast, or distance runner and those of us who admire their talents, it is the Olympics.
Now that the national political conventions have come and gone and the presidential campaign season is about to reach top gear, at least two Hoosiers have to be watching with mixed emotions.
When women vote, women win. That’s the mantra the 51% Club has adopted in an effort to encourage women to vote this election cycle. An organic, grass-roots movement of Democratic women throughout Indiana, the 51% Club has repeatedly shared some startling statistics.
War on women? The only one I see is the plight of the single mother suffering from broken commitments, her own poor choices, and an overwhelmed system poorly designed to serve her and her children.
The Indiana Coalition for Open Government was putting together such a list for the gubernatorial candidates as I wrote this column. While I played a small role in that effort, I would also like to ask a few questions of Mike Pence and John Gregg that are not on the list:
As attorney general, and in my prior position as chief deputy in this office, I understand and appreciate the relationship between the Office of the Attorney General and the General Assembly. Indiana is one of only six states where the office is created by the Legislature and not by the state constitution.
