Mark Trahant
4/1/2013
Mark Trahant: How to stop the sequester: Win the next election
(Washington D.C.) -- A couple of weeks ago I was on Capitol Hill. In between meetings, I sat in the sun and watched tourists come and go. I also saw the First Amendment...
1/17/2013
Mark Trahant: The politics of Republican vs. Republican
(Washington D.C.) -- Two years ago President Barack Obama met with House Republicans during their retreat in Baltimore.
He said it was important to “visit the...
1/15/2013
Mark Trahant: Cheap money: Why the debt-limit fight matters
(Washington D.C.) -- It’s easy to be gloomy about the prospects of the United States government. The country, after all, owes a boat load of money and the...
1/14/2013
Mark Trahant: Congress’ fight over status quo means another shutdown of government
(Washington D.C.) -- The Idaho congressional delegation represents the divide that is the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Mike Simpson, from...
6/28/2012
Mark Trahant: Supreme Court’s affirmation of ‘ObamaCare’ means a fundamentally different debate; Indian Health Care Improvement Act is permanent
(Washington D.C.) -- The entire debate over “ObamaCare” is now fundamentally different. It’s the law of the land that has been upheld by the Supreme...
6/19/2012
Mark Trahant: Voter registration at Indian Health clinic is a way to boost number of Native Americans at polls
(Washington D.C.) -- Voting should be easy, almost routine. If it’s election day ... we should vote. It’s that simple because it’s the very foundation...
1/29/2012
Mark Trahant: State of the Union, Part 2: A call for votes and resources from America’s first nations
(Washington D.C.) -- The National Congress of American Indians every year releases its “State of Indian Nations,” an alternative prospect for the Congress...
1/25/2012
Mark Trahant: State of the Union, Part 1: It’s time to invest in young people
(Washington D.C.) -- Presidents are required to be optimistic.The American people expect it -- and reward those politicians who know their lines. President Barack Obama...
1/16/2012
Mark Trahant: Repeal of Affordable Care Act is not a likely election outcome
(Washington D.C.) -- A question for any Republican running for any federal office: If you are successful repealing “ObamaCare,” what happens to the Indian...
1/10/2012
Mark Trahant: Health care remains the 2012 election riddle
(Washington D.C.) -- This election ought to be about one issue, a referendum on health care reform.
Republicans say it’s about repealing Obamacare. Every candidate...
1/2/2012
Mark Trahant: Winning the day: Indian Country’s election year begins now
(Washington D.C.) -- Happy New Year. Or, I should say, happy election year. From now on the national election for president (as well as the house and the senate) shifts...
12/19/2011
Mark Trahant: Not a bad federal budget, only consider it as a transition plan
(Washington D.C.) -- I’ve been writing a lot lately about the Era of Contraction -- the shrinking of the federal government -- and what that policy means to Indian...
12/12/2011
Mark Trahant: Why the payroll tax fight matters
(Washington D.C.) -- Congress has a long to-do list to complete before the end of the year.
It must enact a budget, either a real one, or for most federal agencies, a...
12/6/2011
Mark Trahant: President Obama says Indian Country is at a turning point. But heading in what direction?
(Washington D.C.) -- Politicians are required to be optimistic. It’s the first tool in their bag. And a president of the United States is even more optimistic than...
11/28/2011
Mark Trahant: ‘Big Deal’ is the coming federal budget cuts
(Washington D.C.) --
Last December hundreds of American Indian and Alaska Native leaders traveled to Washington, D.C. for the second White House Tribal Nations...
11/21/2011
Mark Trahant: Congressional legacy: A failure to govern
(Washington D.C.) -- A simple statement from the two co-chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. “After months of hard work and intense...
11/14/2011
Mark Trahant: Whooshing past the strict congressional deadline for difficult budget choices
(Washington D.C.) -- The United States Congress is debating two important principles.
There is the idea that a strict deadline forces action. (Or, more accurately, as...
11/7/2011
Mark Trahant: Why vote? Because even imperfect elections still matter
(Washington D.C.) -- We know democracy’s slogan: “Elections matter.” Or if that doesn’t work, draw on so many other oft-repeated phrases that...
11/1/2011
Mark Trahant: “Termination, Self-Determination and now Contraction: Navigating a new era.”
(Oregon) -- Thank you for inviting me to speak this morning. This is a particular honor for me. When I was a kid I used to spend time here in Portland with a man I...
10/24/2011
Mark Trahant: Remember health care reform? Law, funding remain on separate and unequal tracks
(Washington D.C.) -- Remember health care reform? The Republican presidential candidates all promise repeal just as soon as they win the White House. But we ought to ask...
10/17/2011
Mark Trahant: Budget cuts will repeat a tragic history
(Washington D.C.) -- Tribal leaders went to Capitol Hill last week to make the case to protect American Indian and Alaska Native programs from the deep federal spending...
10/10/2011
Mark Trahant: Looking at the federal budget as metaphor
(Washington D.C.) -- There are many ways to look at America’s shift into the Era of Contraction. Budget numbers tell part of the story. Words of elected leaders...
9/27/2011
Mark Trahant: A road less traveled, a journey through the Era of Contraction
(Idaho) -- I drove across the Northwest this past weekend. A 1,700-mile trip from Idaho to Seattle, returning via rural roads in Washington, and freeways in Idaho and...
9/20/2011
Mark Trahant: Era of Contraction (like termination) begins slowly; tribes have time to find new resources
(Washington D.C.) -- It’s nearly impossible to know when a new political era has begun for certain.
Congress enacted House Resolution 108 on August 1, 1953,...
9/12/2011
Mark Trahant: President must sell a complicated jobs program to a simple-minded Congress
(Washington D.C.) -- President Barack Obama must sell a complex idea to a Congress that prides itself on simplicity.
This Congress, namely the House Republicans, were...
8/29/2011
Mark Trahant: It sounds reasonable: Just cap the spending. Only reality is harmful to people & budgets
(Washington D.C.) -- It sounds reasonable: Why not just cap federal spending? Make every agency operate with the money that’s already there. This notion has common...
8/22/2011
Mark Trahant: Administration proposes to ‘double down’ on federal spending cuts
(Washington D.C.) -- So far, most of the government’s austerity movement has been theoretical. We know the federal budget is shrinking, but the evidence of that...
8/15/2011
Mark Trahant: A hell of a way to run a country ... full speed traveling in different directions
(Washington D.C.) -- It’s a hell of a way to run a country.
Last week a federal appeals court ruled at least one major provision of the the Affordable Care Act is...
8/8/2011
Mark Trahant: The Federal Budget Is The March of Folly
(Washington D.C.) -- The late historian Barbara Tuchman described the ineptness of government decision-making in her book, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. She...
8/1/2011
Mark Trahant: Yea! The President and Congress found compromise in a deadline deal ... now let the real debate begin
(Washington D.C.) -- There’s nothing like deadline to produce a deal: The president and congressional leaders reached an agreement over the weekend to increase the...
7/25/2011
Mark Trahant: Dental health therapist program is the essence of excellence and self-determination
(Alaska) -- Conan Murat has a tough schedule. About every other week he packs up a portable dental office, checks his groceries, sleeping bags and other supplies, then...
7/18/2011
Mark Trahant: Summer reading add perspective to current debates about American Indian policy
(Idaho) -- The debt ceiling negotiations are deep underground. While there’s plenty of action on the surface, posturing, mostly, there are also quiet talks about...
7/11/2011
Mark Trahant: Country’s problems are too complex for 140 character answers or political slogans
(Washington D.C.) -- Last week President Barack Obama held his first town hall on Twitter. A really great idea and I plunged in with this question:
“#AskObama...
6/27/2011
Mark Trahant: Throw away the old playbook: Tribes and counties are better off working together as neighbors
(Washington D.C.) -- Idaho’s Bannock County is considering an ordinance that would create an “overlay” zoning district on the Fort Hall Indian...
6/20/2011
Mark Trahant: States and tribes better off working together in this new Era of Constriction
(Washington D.C.) --
The new Era of Constriction -- shrinking all levels of government -- is both an opportunity for tribes and a threat.
First, the problem....
6/13/2011
Mark Trahant: How bad is the economy? We’re halfway to a lost decade
(Washington D.C.) -- How bad is this economy? Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers wrote in The Financial Times this week that the United States is now halfway to...
6/6/2011
Mark Trahant: Where are Indian Country’s jobs?
(Washington D.C.) -- Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics started a frenzy when it released its latest job report, showing that only 54,000 jobs were added to the...
5/23/2011
Mark Trahant: Will Indian Country be excited by President Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012?
(Washington D.C.) -- Canada just finished its national elections and the governing Conservative Party expanded its majority in parliament. Last week Prime Minister...
5/16/2011
Mark Trahant: Republican divide about Medicare should reopen the health care reform debate
(Washington D.C.) -- Republican Party unity on the issue of a massive restructuring of Medicare and Medicaid (if there is such a thing) ended this weekend. Presidential...
5/9/2011
Mark Trahant: Tribes should develop foreign policies to counter U.S. policy of contraction
(Washington D.C.) -- Nobel winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is trying to change the national debate about the deficit, the role of government and the impact of those...
5/2/2011
Mark Trahant: Debt limit debate matters to Indian Country
(Washington D.C.) -- Sometimes it’s easy for Indian Country to ignore the huge challenges facing the United States. After all, there are so many immediate and...
4/25/2011
Mark Trahant: The family math doesn’t work when it costs $100 to fill-up a pickup truck
(USA) -- A few weeks ago Bloomberg News reported that Saudia Arabia is investing $100 billion in renewable energy sources. In other words the country with the largest...
4/20/2011
Mark Trahant: There are a lot of tall tales told about taxes
(Washington D.C.) -- Tall tales are fun. Most of us love the story about the day we scored perfect on a test, caught the biggest fish or won a bunch of cash at the...
4/12/2011
Mark Trahant: Bringing stories about sex abuse in Alaska Native communities into the light
(Alaska) -- It’s trite to write that winter days are short this far north. And it is remarkable watching the sun skate through the sky in such a hurry to disappear...
4/4/2011
Mark Trahant: Ryan proposes a fundamental change to Medicaid -- and it would be bad
(Washington D.C.) -- The national budget debate is multi-directional. Most of the story, so far, has centered on this year’s federal spending, basically how to...
3/28/2011
Mark Trahant: A year after health care reform the discourse of termination returns in the battle of ideas
(Washington D.C.) -- Just over a year ago President Barack Obama signed the health care reform bill into law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. That...
3/21/2011
Mark Trahant: We’re not broke ... and we must invest in young people or the old folks will lose
(Washington D.C.) -- Google the phrase, “we can’t afford,” and some 209 million results pop up that capture our Great Public Debate. Articles range...
3/14/2011
Mark Trahant: Japan reminds us about the inevitability of chaos
(Idaho) -- Like most people I watched the events in Japan unfold on cable and through Facebook throughout the weekend. It’s great to see posts from friends and...
3/7/2011
Mark Trahant: Contraction policy will cost Indian Country thousands of good paying jobs
(Washington D.C.) -- Finally the economy seems to be creating jobs again. Last week a federal jobs survey showed an increase in 222,000 private sector jobs, a full year...
2/28/2011
Mark Trahant: Test of values: Strategies for Native communities to weather Congress
(Washington D.C.) -- This week represents, perhaps, the most important week of lobbying for tribal nations since the end of the termination era. At a variety of meetings...
2/20/2011
Mark Trahant: What is ‘Plan B’ for tribes if there is a federal government shutdown?
(Washington D.C.) --
Is there a Plan B?
That is the question tribes, Indian organizations and government agencies should be asking -- and answering because it...
2/14/2011
Mark Trahant: Budgets are full of spite, not promise
(Washington D.C.) -- The coming year’s proposed federal budget is a lost cause. Mostly. The budget that will finally emerge from Congress is going to be ugly. A...
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