Truthout
News Analysis
The Afghan Syndrome
Take off your hat. Taps is playing. Almost four decades late, the Vietnam War and its post-war spawn, the Vietnam Syndrome, are finally heading for their American grave. …
How Does Our Government Surveil Us? Let’s Count the Ways
Privacy is eroding fast as technology offers government increasing ways to track and spy on citizens. The Washington Post reported there are 3,984 federal, state and local organizations working …
How to Fix Health Care Without the Mandate
What happens if the Supreme Court strikes down the “individual mandate” in the health care reform law? Commentators ranging from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich to Forbes Magazine columnist Rick Ungar agree: Such …
Self-Reporting Creates $385 Billion “Tax Gap“
The real divide in US incomes isn't between the top 1 percent and the other 99 percent. It's between those whose income is reported by their employers to the …
America’s Superficial Health Care Debate Silences Single-Payer Supporters
Georgetown University law students wait in line for admission tickets to view oral arguments on the constitutionality of the health care law, outside the Supreme Court in Washington, March …
The Invisible Hand Is Invisible Because It Isn’t There
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Americans have had it drilled into them that government is bad, but a new narrative is surfacing. Last Thursday, Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick …
Obama and Romney Are Politicians, Not Visionaries
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, right, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) shake hands during a campaign event at Lawrence University in Appleton, …
Keystone XL’s Dirty Little Secret
The people and companies pushing the tar-sands pipeline don't want you to know that most of this oil won't be made into gasoline for our vehicles. “It's certainly true,” …
Let’s Ditch the Empty Suits as Politicians and Bring Back Real Fiscal Policy
America hasn't always had a Congress full of can't-do seat-warmers, small thinkers and penny pinchers determined to castrate the national government and let bankers and CEOs run the world. …
Son of Frackenstein
In a few short years the term “fracking” went from obscurity, mostly mistaken for an obscenity, to a household word, now often associated with flammable tap water. The technology …