JORGE CASTAÑEDA AND ANDRÉS MARTINEZ, Fellows at the New America Foundation: For once Barack Obama can't be accused of pushing for ambitious change. The minor adjustments he has made to American policy towards Cuba simply take us back to the days of the Clinton administration, a time when the trade embargo and the travel ban had already proven to be counterproductive anachronisms. They still are.
Joe Mathews, Senior fellow at the New America Foundation:
The Vermont news is good for gay couples who want to marry there, but it's not a big development in the national push for same-sex marriage. Don't expect Congress to follow suit. ...
Among the last things to go in the Depression was -- lipstick.
"It was not particularly expensive, but it was a prized
possession," says Jeremy E. Adamson, director for collections and services
at the Library of Congress. "You feel bad anyway, but you make yourself
look a little bit better. It says, 'I care about myself.' Those little things
are terribly important."
If the Treasury uses the full $100 billion, it would leave only $12 billion uncommitted from the $700 billion financial rescue package that Congress approved in early October, according to tabulations by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. ...
"A lot of these weapon systems that are big-ticket items now have no purpose," said William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. "The Taliban doesn't have an air force. ...
"They've painted the worst-case scenario in order to make it as easy as possible to improve on," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which champions deficit reduction. ...
The peace initiative is described in an article by investigative journalist Steve Coll, who writes in New Yorker magazine that the two sides had "come to semicolons" in their negotiations when the effort lost steam. The attempt ultimately failed, ...
The graphic to the right was published in The Washington Post's Outlook section on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009. Please click on the image to view a full-sized PDF version. The image is also available from www.washingtonpost.com.
... outraged if any of these things are pulled back," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. ...
The Post partnered with Andres Martinez of the New America Foundation to host an online dialogue with Washington think tankers on the administration's ...
