Those who want the U.S. to act decisively on climate change seem to be losing the battle of public opinion lately. Only 30 percent of Americans say global warming should be a top priority for Congress and the President, behind the economy, terrorism, Social Security, health care, immigration and...

The argument by the Superfreakonomics authors that we should try "geoengineering " our way out of global warming seems to be a Rorschach test for the blogosphere: if you're the "drill, baby, drill" type, you love it ; if you're an environmentalist, you hate it. Or, maybe it depends...

Stonewalling on climate change is rapidly going out of fashion among the American business community.

As a climate bill moves forward in Congress, the energy business is choosing sides between the high-carbon companies (coal, oil), the less-carbon option (natural gas) and the low-carbon alternatives (nuclear, wind and solar )....

Complex problems and anxious people are a bad combination. And right now that sums up the nation's political agenda for the rest of the year: health care, climate change, immigration and the economy all have the public both confused and scared. But at least when it comes to climate change...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, beset by the health care battle among other problems, says he's thinking about putting off action on the huge climate change bill. Much as we hate to say it, and speaking as people who've been trying to educate the public on energy, it may...

When environmental and energy policymakers gather in December in Copenhagen to discuss a new international agreement to combat climate change, their goal will be clear: reduce human beings' reliance on fossil fuels. The respected journal Nature upped the ante this week, reporting that the world has to cut back...

There's a dirty little secret about the debate over energy and global warming in America, and it's got nothing to do with carbon. But it's got everything to do with whether the American people are ready to make the choices needed to grapple with the problem.

Four in 10...

Nearly everyone who doesn't have blinders on agrees that the country simply has to make some changes in Social Security and Medicare, and President-elect Obama has already put the issue front and center. Budget analysts often use the same word to describe the programs' financial condition: "unsustainable." Unless there...

There were moments during the presidential campaign when the whole election seemed like a fight to the death over which candidate would cut taxes more. Will it be tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans or tax cuts for everyone? Most politicians think the American public is like Pavlov's dog...

There are enough signs of the apocalypse already: the global financial crisis, reports that one in four mammals are at risk of extinction, the Cubs (briefly) making the playoffs. So maybe it's no surprise that a huge milestone (or tombstone perhaps) slipped by without much notice. The national...

We're not expecting to run into Barack Obama or John McCain in the next week, and you probably won't either. But if you do, we think you should do them a favor. Just give them your best steely-eyed look and say, "You do realize you're not going to have any...

If there's anyone out there who still thinks "deficits don't matter," the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should puncture that complacent little bubble.

The breathtaking financial mismanagement of the mortgage giants means the U.S. government has very little choice other than stepping in. But Fannie Mae...

Earmarks -- the Rasputin of Congressional budget politics - are back on the scene. If you don't remember your late tsarist Russian history, Rasputin was the "mad monk" with scary eyes, decadent tastes and way too much influence over Tsarina Alexandra. Eventually he was poisoned, shot, beaten, and...

It's the old Hollywood story: Actor gets rich and famous. Actor attracts an entourage of self-serving, unsavory associates. Actor gets himself into lots of trouble.

And the Hollywood ending is that Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in jail for vocally, willfully, foolishly refusing to file income tax...

The problem with bringing some sort of sanity to the federal budget isn't that people don't want sanity. It's that they usually want something else more.

Political candidates and their advisors know this, and they generally act accordingly.

Take Douglas Holtz-Eakin, for example. The Republican economist and former Congressional...

Not where most Americans think, based on everything we've seen in polls and focus groups. Americans' distorted ideas about where the government spends most of their money leads to distorted thinking about where to focus when it's time to rein in the budget. That time may be surprisingly close at...

"Trust fund" is such a comforting term, especially if you're lucky enough to have one. It conjures up pictures of country clubs, prep schools, Paris and Nicky and other super-rich kids reeling out of clubs in the meatpacking district at three in the morning.

And on one level, we've...

We're not sure how many words will be spoken by the presidential candidates before November 4.Yet despite all the interviews, speeches and debates, you could easily write a book about what they aren't saying. Let's focus in on just one area: money. There are few choices more fundamental for a...

Its earmark season on Capitol Hill, and this year, thanks to technology, it will be even easier for members of Congress to get their earmark requests sorted out and submitted. It's true that some members, most recently Rep. Henry Waxman of California, say they won't be asking for any earmarks...

Just how much will the Iraq war cost the American taxpayer next year? We don't know, and the people running the war (who should know) say they don't either. In his $3 trillion federal budget, President Bush is asking for $70 billion for the war, but he admits that won't...