Robert Samuelson - The Durango Herald

Samuelson: Too many of us have a vested interest in division

WASHINGTON — This is the summer of our discontent. As Americans celebrated July 4, they were mad at their leaders, mad at their government and mad at each other. A recent Pew poll finds that...

DATE: Jul 7, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Samuelson: Rise of postindustrial society linked to anger

WASHINGTON – Ever since Donald Trump’s election, a cottage industry of politicians, journalists, scholars and commentators has sought to understand what motivates Trump supporters. ...

DATE: Jun 19, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Samuelson: Anti-globalization fervor pits politics against economics

WASHINGTON – Globalization has gotten a bad rap. The Trump White House associates it with all manner of economic evil, especially job loss. The administration has made undoing th...

DATE: May 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Government being redefined by aging, health costs

WASHINGTON – I have been writing for some time – not years, but decades – that we are slowly turning the federal government into an old-age and health care agency. The relentless ...

DATE: May 8, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

The federal budget is a massive national slush fund

WASHINGTON – There was bound to be a political commotion when the Trump administration released its 2018 budget. After all, it isn’t every day that the White House proposes deep cuts in agen...

DATE: Mar 28, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Giant of health care, Medicaid, needs reform now

WASHINGTON – It’s time to take control of Medicaid before it takes control of us. Unless we act – and there is little evidence that we will – Medicaid increasingly becomes another mechanism ...

DATE: Mar 20, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

To a degree, the ‘administrative state’ is here to stay

WASHINGTON – Just what White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon meant when he recently suggested “deconstructing the administrative state” is unclear. To critics, he would gut...

DATE: Mar 10, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Time’s right to agree on a tax and rebate for carbon

WASHINGTON – By all means, let’s have a carbon tax. It’s the best way to deal with global climate change. It would require Republicans and Democrats to compromise – a good thing...

DATE: Feb 20, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

The real Dodd-Frank scandal is misinterpretation

WASHINGTON – Comes now Timothy Geithner, treasury secretary from 2009 to 2013, to tell you that much of what you “know” about Dodd-Frank – Congress’ response to the 2008-09 financial crisis ...

DATE: Feb 13, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Sides need to find middle ground on regulations

“In fiscal 2015, the Federal Register, containing final and recommended rules, totaled 80,260 pages.” WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pledges to dismantle much of the regulato...

DATE: Feb 6, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

True verdict on Obama administration years away

WASHINGTON – It is far too early to render final judgment on the Obama presidency. All the chatter about his “legacy” overlooks two obvious realities. The significance of Obama w...

DATE: Jan 16, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Trump’s job ‘jawboning’ is politics, not economics

The reality is that his jawboning won’t create many new jobs and could actually cost U.S. jobs. WASHINGTON — Jawboning is back in style, courtesy of Donald J. Trump. Those with lo...

DATE: Jan 9, 2017 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson