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Solyndra a Scandal? What it Means for Obama and Green Energy

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

By Stephen Reader

For me, a scandal would mean that you do it for your own personal self-interest, and although there's a lot of smoke out there, no one has proven yet that this was done for political purposes.

—Joe Stephens of the Washington Post on The Brian Lehrer Show

Comments [23]

How Would You Change Regulation?

Monday, September 19, 2011

By Stephen Reader

No one could possibly know every rule, and that's one of the problems with it...The rules are so dense that literally no one can comply with them. If you're a mean-spirited government inspector, you can find non-compliance in any workplace, in any home in America.

—Philip K. Howard, founder and chair of Common Good and author of The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, on The Brian Lehrer Show

Comments [28]

New Rep. Bob Turner Talks Capital Gains, Obama Plan

Monday, September 19, 2011

People weren’t prepared to lose their jobs. They weren’t prepared to go without income for as long as they have. Even for families higher up the economic ladder, people had too much debt and not enough savings, so this recession has hit everyone hard.

—Newly-elected congressman Bob Turner (NY-9) on The Brian Lehrer Show

Comments [61]

Breaking Down Obama's Deficit Reduction Proposal

Monday, September 19, 2011

By Stephen Reader

[It's as if Obama said,] Republicans don't want to compromise right now, so I'm going to come out with a plan that's closer to what I would actually want if I could do whatever I wanted.

—David Leonhardt, Washington bureau chief for the New York Times, on The Brian Lehrer Show

Comments [7]

vaccine

The GOP Fight Over the HPV Vaccine

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

[W]ho would have thought this would be the big issue in the Republican primaries?

— Washington correspondent for the New Yorker magazine Ryan Lizza on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [52]

Banksy Boston

America's Deepening Poverty Problem

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

People weren’t prepared to lose their jobs. They weren’t prepared to go without income for as long as they have. Even for families higher up the economic ladder, people had too much debt and not enough savings, so this recession has hit everyone hard.

— Rachel Black, a policy analyst in the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [40]

Tribute in light seen from Brooklyn Bridge Park, September 11, 2011.

The Politics of 9/11 Weekend

Monday, September 12, 2011

By Stephen Reader

I would hope that if 9/11 does anything, it gives us a new global literacy. We had a blind spot on September 11th through which those planes flew. The best deterrent is to have a kind of global engagement, being more aware of what's going on around us.

—Bob Hennelly, WNYC senior reporter, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [30]

Recapping the GOP Debate with Reihan Salam

Thursday, September 08, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

We wrote this book because neither of us want to be on duty when the American dream goes dark.

— Reihan Salam, columnist at The Daily and blogger for National Review Online's "The Agenda," on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [16]

Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum the Decline (and Potential Comeback) of the U.S.

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

We wrote this book because neither of us want to be on duty when the American dream goes dark.

— Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [71]

Setting the Week: Palin, Perry, and the Prospect of Austerity

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

By Stephen Reader

Not having Perry on the stage will probably hurt everybody else. There will not be that target to shoot for. It's not necessarily about whether Perry is going to go on attack, but whether anyone else will go on attack against Perry. Mitt Romney is in the Pawlenty position right now.

—David Dayen, writer at Firedoglake.com, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [12]

As Tri-State Rebuilds Post-Irene, Politics of Disaster Relief Come Into Focus

Friday, September 02, 2011

By Stephen Reader

Right now FEMA is being suffocated by this stupid idea that the more you cut will solve our problems. We're cutting and losing jobs. Our people need help immediately. They don't want to hear a debate between Democrats and Republicans about when should we cut and when shouldn't we.

—U.S. Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ 8th), who serves on House Budget and Ways and Means Committees, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comment

Next for Obama: Focus on Infrastructure

Thursday, September 01, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

Honestly in politics it’s hard to overestimate how incompetent people are… you can't totally write off the possibility in politics that people were just bumbling, because often, people are, and it gets attributed to some kind of devious intention.

— Senior Politics reporter Ben Smith, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [17]

Anna and the Independent Voter: Targeting Minorities

Thursday, August 25, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

It's A Free Country political reporter Anna Sale continues her monthly series with us. This week: how independent groups are going after minority voters.

Comments [18]

New Immigration Policy Offers Hope to the DREAM-Act Eligible

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

We’re talking about a pretty large number of people across the country, as many as three-quarters of a million, 750,000 people, across the country, who might immediately be eligible if the DREAM Act were to pass.

— Julia Preston, national immigration correspondent for the New York Times, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [15]

NJ Rep. Lance: Washington Must Next Act on Jobs

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

I am willing to consider the proposals of the president… my personal view is what we need is certainty in the economy.

— New Jersey Congressman Leonard Lance (R-7) discusses what he's been hearing from his constituents while Congress is in recess, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [21]

Fighting Continues in Libya, but 'Post-Gadhafi Era Has Begun'

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

By Stephen Reader

A regime like Gadhafi's doesn't just collapse and go away. It's clear they're continuing to fight, but also clear that they no longer control Libya; they might control a part of Tripoli, but that's it. The post-Gadhafi era in many ways has begun.

—Mark Quarterman, senior adviser and director of the Program on Crisis, Conflict, and Cooperation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [4]

Did Obama Win The War in Libya?

Monday, August 22, 2011

By Stephen Reader

People will be able to say Obama got rid of Gadhafi, but for the Libyans this story is beginning rather than ending...It will be an interesting question whether Libyans can maintain any kind of stability themselves. If they can't, the West will really have to face the more difficult question of whether we go in on the ground at all to maintain order.

—Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs Magazine and author of How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [5]

Setting The Week in Politics: Huntsman, Perry, Obama and More

Monday, August 22, 2011

By Stephen Reader

[Huntsman]'s starting to have fun with it, and when you're at 2.2 percent in the polls, you can do that...He's making the case that if his party wants to have a real shot at winning in the fall, you can't go with Michele Bachmann, you can't go with Rick Perry.

—Melinda Henneberger, contributing editor to Time.com, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [11]

Anna and Independents: New Hampshire Independent Primary Voters

Thursday, August 18, 2011

By Anna Sale : Reporter, WNYC News

Independent voters in New Hampshire share a proud, stubborn resistance to let a party define their politics, but not much else.

These unaffiliated voters are a huge electoral force in the state, outnumbering both Republicans and Democrats, and because New Hampshire’s primary system allows them to vote in either Democratic or Republican primary, they could technically sway the entire election. 

These voters don’t vote in anything resembling a bloc, and with just a contest on the Republican side, they may not turnout in large numbers in 2012.

Comments [10]

What To Expect From Obama's Jobs Agenda

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

By Alec Hamilton : Assistant Producer, WNYC News

A short term band-aid is not the worst thing in the world.

—Peter Coy, economics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Comments [14]

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