Arkady's Thoughts

Although a double tap should have done it, yet Murkowski brushed aside Alaskan voters who chose Joe Miller and is now brushing aside Alaska's Libertarian Party .   First, let me be the first to say that the discussions over having Murkowski run on the Libertarian ticket went on for far too long.  How can a group representing constitutional limited government ever consider a porker like Murkowski?   That conversation should have lasted 2 minutes and gone something like this: Murkowski:  Hey guys, I am your best chance at winning a Senate seat ever - support me. Libertarian Party:  We are armed. No, but seriously, what was there to consider?  An insider politician supporting TARP and proudly announcing industry support due to her exceptional skill of shoveling pork into Alaska.  At that rate, Obama would make a great Libertarian candidate too. So what now?  Instead of acknowledging the political winds and the will of the Alaskan people, instead of graciously stepping aside

One of Peter Orszag's first messages after leaving the public sector was to advise his former boss to extend the Bush cuts for two more years.  Ideally he would prefer to extend the cuts only for the middle class, but despite his liberal desires has come to a sober realization. Why does this combination make sense? The answer is that over the medium term, the tax cuts are simply not affordable. Yet no one wants to make an already stagnating jobs market worse over the next year or two, which is exactly what would happen if the cuts expire as planned. Talk about a rock and a hard place. So despite his Keynesian ways, Orszag admits that a tax increase (essentially what the expiration would amount to) would damage jobs.  His populist desires compel him to suggest we keep these cuts for the middle class only, yet he realizes  the wealthy keep this economy moving.  This is essentially a microcosm of the age-old debate between conservative and liberal thinking, brain versus heart.