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Michael Barone: Why freight rail pays and passenger trains flunk
Michael Barone
Published: Sat, Mar 30, 2013
Forty years ago, American railroads were in trouble. The Penn Central, the largest railroad, had recently gone bankrupt. American freight rail was technologically obsolescent and hamstrung by union rules and government rate regulation. American passenger rail was unprofitable and unreliable....
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Michael Barone: The Economist's Emily Litella moment on global warming
Michael Barone
Published: Fri, Mar 29, 2013
Emily Litella was the "Saturday Night Live" character who would spin out lengthy theories based on her misunderstanding of a word or phrase and, when her error was pointed out, would respond crisply, “Never mind.” The Economist, which I read and revere and for which I have on...
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Michael Barone: How driverless cars will change our cities
Michael Barone
Published: Fri, Mar 29, 2013
While the Obama administration keeps talking up high-speed rail, the real revolution around the corner in transportation is the driverless car. While the public sector–the federal government and the state of California–spend huge amounts of money on a high-speed rail line that will initially...
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Michael Barone: Republicans grow less hawkish in wake of Iraq War
Michael Barone
Published: Tue, Mar 26, 2013
Are Republicans no longer the party more inclined to military interventions and an assertive foreign policy? It's a question raised by the enthusiastic response to Sen. Rand Paul's 13-hour filibuster and to his not-very-interventionist foreign policy. It's raised also by House Republicans'...
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Same-sex marriage: no decision from Court?
Michael Barone
Updated: Tue, Mar 26, 2013
In the wake of the oral argument SCOTUS Blog does not seem to share the confidence of my Examiner colleague Conn Carroll, that the Supreme Court will decide that the Constitution requires recognition of same-sex marriage. SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein dwells on Justice Kennedy’s apparent...
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NPR on the tragedy of disability insurance
Michael Barone
Published: Mon, Mar 25, 2013
Ballooning federal Disability Insurance payments were the subject of my December 2 Washington Examiner column. I drew on my American Enterprise Institute colleague Nicholas Eberstad’s book A Nation of Takers: America’s Entitlement Epidemic and pointed out that between 1996 and 2011, when the...
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The Republican party is not doomed (cont’d)
Michael Barone
Published: Mon, Mar 25, 2013
So says a second liberal blogger Kevin Drum of motherjones.com, in a short blogpost that is full of common sense. Excerpt: “Republicans control the House, and no one seems to think that’s going to change in the near future. (And no, it’s not just because of gerrymandering.) On the...
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Immigration: who wants to immigrate to the USA?
Michael Barone
Published: Sat, Mar 23, 2013
As we debate immigration policy, it’s useful to get an idea of how many people from which countries would like to immigrate to the United States. Gallup has conducted a worldwide survey (covering countries with 98% of the world’s population) with 501,000 (!) respondents. It finds that...
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Michael Barone: New census data show people go where the money is
Michael Barone
Published: Sat, Mar 23, 2013
What parts of America have been growing during these years of sluggish economic growth? Answers come from comparing the Census Bureau's just-released estimates of metropolitan area populations in July 2012 with the results of the census conducted in 2010. The focus here is on the 51 metro...
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The Nation to pundits: Republicans not doomed
Michael Barone
Published: Thu, Mar 21, 2013
Before you accept the notion that the Republican party is destined for permanent minority status, you ought to read these two blogposts on the Nation’s website by left-liberal writer Rick Perlstein. He’s a talented and perceptive writer and the author of the 2008 book Nixonland, which...

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