As Obama’s reelection effort gets underway, Democrats today announced their pick of Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a gifted fundraiser with a lively TV presence, to head the Democratic National Committee. Her experience in the crucial swing state she calls home was said to be a factor in her selection. Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland was [...]
Republican Paul Ryan’s budget mark proposes deep cuts to Medicare, the popular government program that funds health care for seniors. Polls show Americans are overwhelmingly against cuts to entitlement programs generally, and Medicare in particular, and Ryan himself admits that he is handing Democrats a potential weapon. So why would the GOP risk Medicare reform? [...]
Sometimes it is great, cruel fun watching Bill Kristol dash about, attempting to be a power broker. He’s a smart, cynical tactician–but power? The Gods are too smart for such indulgences. He loved the idea of Sarah Palin…until it became clear that the public saw her as a more plausible candidate for Celebrity Apprentice than [...]
Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement Monday that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other alleged 9/11 plotters will be tried in military commissions rather than civilian courts means that KSM might face lethal injection at Guantanamo, and the President might have to personally sign off on his death. If it is a capital case, Holder’s decision [...]
If the votes could ever be found to pass it, Paul Ryan’s $4.4 trillion deficit cutting plan would affect the life of every American. But no proposal in Ryan’s massive overhaul of federal spending would be as quickly felt as taxes. In short: he cuts rates dramatically, while ending exemptions to keep the overall package [...]
The odds of a government shutdown were raised significantly this morning after House GOP leaders and President Obama failed to reach an agreement to continue funding the government. “While there was a good discussion, no agreement was reached,” Speaker John Boehner’s staff wrote in an e-mail to reporters following the White House meeting. “The Speaker [...]
Representative Paul Ryan’s budget proposal is, without question, an act of political courage. It contains more than a few provisions that are long overdue–like cuts in farm subsidies and the consolidation of job-training programs (many of which are outdated and useless). I would even be willing to consider a Medicare overhaul that creates a system, [...]
James Steinberg announced last week that he is stepping down as Hillary Clinton’s deputy at the State Department to run the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Taking over for him is Bill Burns, a career diplomat. The shift is natural enough on the surface. Steinberg had made it clear he [...]
For months, Washington has talked with growing alarm about the storm clouds of debt gathering over America’s fiscal horizon. Last fall, a bipartisan commission offered its plan for solving the debt crisis. But its recommendations went nowhere, and the talk has gone on ad nauseam. Nobody with any real authority, including President Obama, despite his [...]
As budget talks between the President, Vice President and congressional leadership started at the White House just past 10 a.m. this morning, Press Secretary Jay Carney treated the press to an off-camera gaggle dominated by discussion of the budget. Carney reiterated that by any measure, the White House believes Democrats have come “more than halfway” [...]
