Vermont’s forum for direct democracy, the town meeting, made national news in March when 50 towns passed resolutions calling on the state legislature to investigate the effect National Guard deployments have on the state, asking Congress to balance authority over the Guard between state and federal governments and calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops […]

This week’s last-minute Senate deal on judicial appointments entailed a showdown between Senators Bill Frist of Tennessee and John McCain of Arizona, men considered leading rivals for the 2008 presidential nomination. Everyone loves to handicap the great presidential derby, but it’s too early to look that far ahead. This week’s world will be long gone […]

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Vermont legislature’s struggle with finding a path toward universal health care in this year’s session. In other states, the lawmakers must have more time on their hands than they do here in the Green Mountain State. In Wisconsin’s legislative session, an effort to allow citizens to kill […]

The national news media has not paid attention to it, but the Vermont Legislature has spent the winter and spring debating the merits of universal health care. It’s a debate worth having. Vermonters spend $3.5 billion on health care each year, about $5,700 for every man, woman and child, sick or healthy. Those costs are […]