Articles by Charles Wheelan

I miss Anthony Kennedy already. Other people have written eloquently about Kennedy’s contributions to the Supreme Court. After the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor (whom I miss, too), Kennedy became the swing vote in case after case. When a seminal case was argued before the high court, Kennedy was the justice who had to be persuaded. When a 5-4 decision came down, Kennedy was usually that crucial fifth vote. Sometimes he voted with the more liberal wing of the court; sometimes he voted with t...

“If something cannot go on forever, it must stop.” In economics, this is known as Herb Stein’s law. We ignore it at our peril. In the 2000s, economists and other observers pointed out that real estate prices could not continue to rise at such a blistering pace. They didn’t. The entire global financial system was put at risk when that unsustainable trend came to a screeching halt. At about the same time, financial observers pointed out that the Greek government was borrowing recklessly. That d...

How could a handful of common-sense, independent Senators defuse the partisanship around trade? By changing the way we talk about the whole issue. Most American say they believe in markets. Why? Because markets reward hard work and innovation. They deliver us better products at lower prices. They allow us to specialize in what we do best and use that income to buy the other things we need or want. Markets have delivered America 250 years of unprecedented growth and prosperity. Sure, there are ...

Once again members of Congress are discussing a compromise immigration bill. The details on the table appear to be similar to the deal that fell apart last week after a bipartisan group of legislators met with President Trump. One might reasonably ask: If a compromise deal fell apart last week, why should we expect better things from Congress and the White House this week? But let me offer a more basic question: Why couldn’t Congress get a comprehensive immigration bill passed last year, or 10...

The point of electing Centrist Independents is to empower the political center, to build a bridge between Republicans and Democrats, and to get things done. As I’ve written before in our Finding Common Ground series, there are a host of issues on which Centrist Independents could be the catalyst for productive legislation: infrastructure, health care reform, even gun policy. But there are also times when a handful of Centrist Independents might play a crucial role in stopping a legislative tra...

Where do we even begin after Las Vegas? The shooting was so calculatingly evil, so tragic for the victims, and so sad for our nation. And yet we have been here before: after Sandy Hook, after the Orlando night club shooting, after Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise was shot in the capital this summer. Our reaction is always shock and sorrow – followed almost immediately by the same predictable partisan debate on guns. I fervently believe that electing more centrist independents can help break thr...

The Republicans are now saying that tax reform is their next legislative priority. Is tax reform likely to happen? Almost certainly not, as I wrote recently in my column for U.S. News & World Report. We need tax and fiscal reform; unfortunately the current political environment makes it nearly impossible. Tax reform is the kind of issue that has to be tackled from the center, with reasonable compromises gradually attracting more support on the left and right. The two parties cannot do that by t...

Remember all that talk about infrastructure during the 2016 presidential campaign? America needs massive new investments in infrastructure: safer bridges; modern sewers; a more efficient electricity grid; better transportation options; an upgraded air traffic control system; and so on. Building infrastructure would create jobs in the short run. More important, it would make us richer and more productive as a nation in the long run. When the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicag...

If only we had a handful of Centrist Independents in the U.S. Senate right now to be the catalyst for a more constructive debate over real health care reform. Health care does not have to be a hyper-partisan issue; sadly the Republicans and Democrats have turned it into one. Sure, there are areas of honest ideological disagreement when it comes to health care, such as public funding for abortion or the level of insurance subsidies for low-income people, but the fundamental objective of health c...