Paul F. deLespinasse
Paul F. deLespinasse, who now lives in Oregon, is professor emeritus of political science at Adrian College in Michigan. He can be reached via his website, www.deLespinasse.org.
Articles by this author
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Views Saturday, January 05, 2019 How Congress Could, But Probably Won't, Take Charge of Shutdown Battle In normal times it wouldn't matter so much that Congress has abdicated many of its constitutional powers to the president. But the times clearly are not normal, and a reassertion of congressional power could help calm our troubled political waters. The current stalemate between Congress and... Read more |
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Views Sunday, October 11, 2015 Stop Trying to Overthrow Assad General David Petraeus recently told Congress that the United States is not doing enough in Syria. On the contrary, we have been doing too much. There is no such thing as an ideal foreign policy. An ideal world would have a universal government with no need to conduct foreign relations... Read more |
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Views Saturday, April 28, 2012 Obamacare: How the Supreme Court Could Rule Unanimously Many pundits predict the Supreme Court will decide the Obamacare case 5-4 along partisan lines. Justices Scalia, Alito, and Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts, they assume, will vote to strike the legislation down, and justices Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan will vote to uphold it. If these predictions are correct, the outcome will depend on Justice Kennedy, often considered the “swing” vote between Court conservatives and liberals. The guessing is that Justice Kennedy will tip the case to the conservative side. Read more |
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Views Sunday, April 08, 2012 Repudiate ‘Obamacare’?: Here is a Radical Strategy for Obama No matter how the Supreme Court decides the medical insurance cases, we face prolonged uncertainty. If it upholds the law, Republicans will sabotage implementation and promise to repeal it when they return to power. If it strikes down the law, the uncertainty will be what, if anything, Congress will do next. Confusion will be even greater if the court only strikes down parts of the law. Read more |
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Views Monday, January 30, 2012 Abandon the Concept of "Illegal" Alien In a recent column [ "Rethinking Deportation" Oregonian, January 23], Richard LaMountain denounced President Obama's proposed rule that would make it easier for illegal aliens to become legal residents, claiming it will undermine respect for law. Read more |
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Views Sunday, November 13, 2011 Unemployment Not Just a Problem for Returning Veterans It is hard to disagree with President Obama when he tells us it is wrong for returning veterans to be unable to find work. Even Senate Republicans went along with his proposal to give tax credits to companies that hire unemployed veterans. Still, this kind of rhetoric and legislation should make us all very uneasy. Although it sounds good in Veteran’s Day oratory, it smacks too much of telling us that the wrong people are unemployed. Read more |
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Views Sunday, May 01, 2011 Our Health and Education ‘Cathedrals' ADRIAN, Mich. — In recent months my wife has been treated for a foot problem by some excellent doctors and therapists at the Slocum Center in Eugene, Ore. Walking up to the third floor one notices the large number of steps between each floor. The floors must be 15 or 20 feet apart. The building is elegant, with high ceilings, wide halls and expensive furnishings. But Slocum is not unusually extravagant when compared with other recently constructed medical facilities we have seen. Read more |
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Views Tuesday, July 06, 2010 Let's End Unemployment Once and for All Buried in discouraging unemployment numbers recently released was proof that a straightforward way to end unemployment (and not just reduce it) actually exists. The private sector of the economy created 83,000 additional jobs in June, but total employment fell because 225,000 temporary census workers were let go. The census workers had real jobs and these were additional jobs that reduced unemployment. They demonstrate that there are two possible ways to reduce unemployment, not just one. Read more |
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Views Sunday, March 07, 2010 ‘Nuclear Option’ Better Than Reconciliation President Barack Obama recently urged Congress to use "reconciliation" to enact medical reform legislation. Reconciliation rules allow legislation related to taxes and spending to be enacted by a simple Senate majority without the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster. Democrats no longer have the 60 votes. Reconciliation therefore appears to offer the only hope of enacting medical reforms. Read more |
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Views Thursday, January 07, 2010 Make Us All Citizens of the World The pursuit of "illegal aliens" has become a high government priority. Congress has made it illegal to hire an "undocumented" alien who has managed to get into the U.S. Although discrimination in other contexts is illegal, for the undocumented it is mandatory. Impeccable logic underlies this requirement. A major reason people want to move here is our employment opportunities and higher wages. If you cannot be hired, sneaking in is much less attractive. Read more |