Gas-stove culture war

January 23, 2023

Who could have predicted that kitchen stoves would become the latest tinderbox in the nation’s culture wars? But that’s what happened in recent days as Republicans flew off the handle over comments by Richard Trumka Jr., a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, who said the agency was looking at regulating gas stoves and could even ban them because they are a health hazard. GOP politicians seized on the remarks, accusing President Biden and the Democrats of trying to take away people’s gas stoves. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz declared they’d have to “pry” his ...

CPR: Learn what to do

January 21, 2023

Ten minutes. That’s the length of time Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills lay unresponsive on the field at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium. Many of us watched in horror and disbelief as paramedics rendered aid to the Buffalo Bills player. Doctors who treated Hamlin told reporters on Jan. 5 that both cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and an automated external defibrillator (AED) had been used to restart his heart and restore a pulse on the field before being taken to hospital. Now as he continues making remarkable recovery in a Buffalo hospital, Hamlin’s cardiac arrest highlights ...

Restore truth in state budgeting

January 20, 2023

Inflation should be included in forecasts to give Minnesotans a full picture. Minnesota’s twice-a-year economic forecasts, vital for determining the state’s fiscal picture and the basis for budgets, has for too long suffered from a built-in flaw. For the last 20 years, inflation has been prohibited as a formal part of fiscal projections. If only it were that easy. As Minnesotans have been reminded, inflation pushes up the cost of most everything, either directly or indirectly — including goods and services needed to deliver programs. A budget forecast that fails to account for ...

Back to another horrible, hellish, horrendous, totally absurd battle over debt ceiling

January 20, 2023

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that the federal government will hit the limit on total federal debt on Jan. 19, just two days from now. After that, the Treasury Department will be forced to take “extraordinary measures” to avoid defaulting on the debt, which would likely trigger a global financial crisis. Congress could defuse this bomb by simply raising the debt limit, as it has dozens of times under presidents of both parties for decades. But the MAGA radicals now in control of the House of Representatives are refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless President Biden ...

Pete Buttigieg, the FAA and the airlines

January 19, 2023

Only a couple of weeks ago, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg roasted Southwest Airlines for problems that led to thousands of canceled flights. Yet Mr. Buttigieg was no model of contrition Wednesday after airlines were grounded nationwide by a mega-meltdown at the agency he oversees, the Federal Aviation Administration. “This is an incredibly complex system,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “Glitches or complications happen all the time.” Those are words of great comfort, no doubt, to any travelers who missed grandma’s funeral. The cause of Wednesday’s fiasco was a failure in ...

The handling of classified documents

January 18, 2023

It will be up to the two special counsels to investigate and weigh the handling of secret documents by President Biden and former President Donald Trump. But the current questions should not obscure an enormous problem that has been festering for decades and threatens national security, democracy and accountability: The classification system for managing secrets is overwhelmed and desperately needs repair. Too much national security information is classified, and too little declassified. For years, officials have stamped documents “secret” in a lowest-common denominator system that ...