Opinion

As the New York State executive budget proposal inches closer to a final product, its insufficiencies and impacts become clearer. One area of especially great concern is Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to intercept federal funding meant to help offset localities’ Medicaid costs. Under the governor’s plan, more than $624 million in federal money earmarked for […]

We Americans live in a representative democracy. That’s a fundamental feature of public life in the United States, a part of who we are as a people. We elect leaders to make decisions on our behalf. It’s not a pure democracy, in which the people vote on every important issue and the majority gets its

The New York State budget process is a complex undertaking with an enormous impact on New York’s residents and businesses. At its core, though, the document has one simple aim, improve the quality of life for those living in the state. One way to accomplish this is by using the budget to shape economic policies

On Feb. 7, President Joe Biden engaged in a baseless fear-mongering campaign, accusing U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the new House Republican majority of attempting to withhold approval of increasing the $31.4 trillion national debt ceiling unless steep cuts are made to Social Security and Medicare. Before the nation, Biden stated, “Some of

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget proposal, delivered recently, sets another record high for state spending. But while spending big, the $227 billion proposal falls short on specific measures designed to reduce our cost of living. To put the plan in context, Gov. Hochul is calling for 50 percent more in spending than the proposed budget in

Here we go again. The United States crashed through the nation’s debt ceiling on Jan. 19, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. For now, the government is relying on accounting tweaks and shifting money from one pot to another to pay the bills. But that only works for so long. Soon, Congress will have

I don’t remember when it first occurred to me after arriving in Washington, D.C. many years ago that at its heart, being a member of Congress meant never being entirely satisfied. And that this state of affairs is baked into our form of government. But despite moments of immense fulfillment, it remained a central tension

Discretionary spending has risen by nearly $357 billion — a 26 percent jump to $1.7 trillion — since fiscal year 2019, according to data compiled by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This was in response to the COVID pandemic in 2020 and increases in transportation and defense spending.  This includes a $90

As in so many instances in Albany, basic, fundamental democratic processes are frustrated by political agendas and needless dysfunction. This unfortunate reality is again playing out as Judge Hector LaSalle, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s choice to lead the Court of Appeals, was summarily dismissed as a candidate, despite enormous support from lawmakers and legal experts across

Like many Americans, I watched with dismay [in early January] as the U.S. House of Representatives struggled through 15 votes over four days to select a new speaker. The sense of dysfunction was remarkable. Anyone watching might well have wondered about our ability to govern ourselves. For a week, there was no speaker to call