Some of the day’s best reads:
- William Galston thinks that people are finally starting to take our fiscal problems seriously: “I may be a cock-eyed optimist, but I’m seeing signs that the ice is breaking and that a discussion that has been frozen for a generation is beginning to develop.”
- Michael Mandel sees the payback period for going to college growing longer: “In 2000, the average young adult with only a bachelor’s degree earned about 4 times the annual cost of a 4-year college. By 2008, the average young college grad was earning less than 3 times the annual cost of college.”
- Mark Kleiman offers some thoughts on moral leadership: “If a moral leader is someone who calls on people to change their minds about right and wrong or to act in ways they would prefer not to act on behalf of the values they already profess, then it is true almost by definition that moral leaders aren’t popular with the people over whom they’re exercising moral leadership: it’s very rare for people to actually like being asked to do the things they don’t want to do.”
- Josh Gerstein reports on memos that reveal Elena Kagan’s centrist politics: “The memos reviewed by POLITICO suggest that, during her time as a White House deputy domestic policy adviser, Kagan fit comfortably within a cadre of Clinton aides known for centrist impulses.”
- Climate Wire breaks down the long-awaited climate bill.
