Robert Kuttner


Recent Articles

Beware a Grand Bargain

AP Photo/ Evan Vucci

Will President Obama and the Democrats win a major battle only to lose the war?

The longterm war that Republicans are fighting is a deadly serious struggle to destroy the most important and valued achievements of the New Deal-Great Society legacy, Social Security and Medicare.

Wall Street billionaires like Peter G. Peterson and Stanley Druckenmiller have been softening the ground for decades by claiming that Social Security is bankrupting the country and destroying future prospects of America’s youth.

A Spine Is a Useful Thing to Have

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak


The contrived shutdown crisis proved two things.

Take the Fourteenth!

AP Images/Charles Dharapak

Remember the proposals that were current back in 2011 to have President Obama invoke his authority under the 14th Amendment to keep funding America’s public debt, even without approval from Congress? Well, that proposal has suddenly become highly relevant again, even urgent.

Tom Friedman’s Worst Column Ever

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan



Thinking the Unthinkable

Listen up, class. World War I never happened.

It didn’t happen because nobody wanted it, and everybody grasped the horrific risks. In the event, the common European civilization was destroyed, three empires fell, 16 million people died, and 20 million were wounded. So World War I couldn’t happen because everyone knew how awful it would be.

In August 1914, virtually all leaders anticipated a short set of skirmishes, a readjustment of borders as in other recent wars, and everyone would be home for Christmas. But, you know, stuff happens.