Prof. Steven Kyle, applied economics and management, on the economic crisis:

“By far the most important thing the economy needs is a fiscal stimulus large enough to pull us out of our slump. We know it will work but the politics of the moment prevent it from getting done. In particular, 100 percent of Republicans and a few conservative Democrats have blocked action and will continue to do so after the election, with perhaps a considerably strengthened opposition if the Republicans take the House. Speaker-in-waiting Boehner has made it crystal clear that his first priority is to block anything and everything the President wants to do, so get ready for complete gridlock on economic as well as all other fronts in the next two years.”

Prof. Charles Greene, earth and atmospheric sciences, on global climate change:

“Global climate change is the greatest challenge confronting your generation. Society has avoided making the necessary changes for too long, and now we find ourselves in a much more precarious position than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested only a few years ago. We face the inescapable truth that strong actions must be taken by your generation during the next few decades to prevent dangerous greenhouse warming and ocean acidification by the end of the century. Is there still hope? Absolutely, but only if the climate-change debate is no longer allowed to be held hostage by politics. We can’t allow politicians in the pockets of special interests or driven by ideology, rather than science, to continue using climate change as a divisive wedge issue. If there is going to be a political game-changer, then I think that it is going to arise when your generation mobilizes to support Congressional representatives demanding strong climate and energy legislation. Why not Tuesday?”

Prof. John Kuder, policy analysis and management, on health care reform:

“The run-up to the mid-term election has once again opened the floodgates for fear-mongering, innuendo, and misinformation about health care reform.  The basic design of Obama’s effort was, and is, to use the proven approaches already implemented in the State of Massachusetts health plan. The principal goals are to drastically reduce the number of people that do not have adequate health insurance, to make good health care accessible and fair for everyone, and to introduce programs that can put the brakes on otherwise inevitable and large increases in health care cost.  This will be accomplished by using private health insurance plans to provide much of the increased insurance to the population. While this is a big change, with potentially large costs, much of the costs will be absorbed in two ways:  by lowering the government subsidies now paid to hospitals for care of uninsured patients and by providing market type incentives for physicians, hospitals, and drug companies to improve their efficiency and lower costs.   But the political rhetoric on television ads says the plan is “socialist” or will take away Medicare from the elderly. This is a clear attempt to breed uncalled-for fear. While the outcome of the election is not likely to lead to the revocation of the law, with a large number of opponents in office, it could lead to weakening our ability to implement important features of the plan, like cost controls and a greater use of healthier primary care and prevention.”