FREMONT, Calif.—House Republicans tried to hold a hearing today on what the New York Times called “the Energy Department’s embattled loan guarantee program.” They wanted to shine a spotlight on the program’s most embattled beneficiary, the solar manufacturer Solyndra. But they only called one White House official to testify, …
Al Gore takes some shots at President Obama in a new Rolling Stone essay, grumbling that he has “thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change.” Wait: Isn’t that Al Gore’s job? The president’s job is the action, not the case-making. And while I don’t plan to spend all my time …
There was a telling confrontation at last week’s Netroots Nation gathering of progressive activists, interrupting a panel discussion on “What to Do When the President Is Just Not That Into You.” A bisexual volunteer for …
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO— As corn ethanol’s Public Enemy Number One — did my plaque get lost in the mail? — I’m thrilled the Senate voted to kill the industry’s fiscally and ecologically ludicrous tax credit. But it was galling — if not too surprising — to hear Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, complain that the …
The Republican Party, after converting huge surpluses into huge deficits during the Bush era, after opposing deficit-reducing health reforms, student loan reforms and big-bank taxes during the Obama era, after continuing to clamor for trillions of dollars in deficit-expanding tax cuts while gutting House pay-as-you-go rules to make it …
It’s a trivial matter, with no connection whatsoever to the obscene congressional tweets that demand our attention in these troubled times, but President Obama’s widely ridiculed stimulus bill has brought unprecedented transparency and accountability to federal spending, which is why it’s been virtually fraud-free. So now the …
I hate to keep picking on Mitt Romney, but…oh, who am I kidding. I love to pick on Mitt Romney! He’s an Onion headline in a suit! He’s John Kerry with an R after his name! Today’s new hilarity comes from an unnamed adviser in …
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke again on Tuesday, but you didn’t miss much. He still thinks unemployment is way too high, and he still has no plans to do anything about it. His primary message didn’t change since …
I suspect that Mitt Romney’s record of sane centrist achievement, along with his hilarious flip-floppery and unconvincing pose as a red-meat right-winger, will doom him in the Republican primary. But it would be a shame to waste his talents, so I’m going to start proposing possible jobs for him in the sane centrist Obama …
Longtime corn ethanol supporter Tim Pawlenty has gotten a lot of good press for his allegedly courageous proposal to phase out ethanol subsidies, because they’re popular in Iowa. I suppose on this issue he’s more courageous than Mitt Romney, which is sort of like being more eloquent than The Situation. But in my official role as …
Until yesterday, my favorite symbolic moment of the Obama era was the rejoicing of the right after the President’s hometown failed to land the 2016 Olympics. Because any bad news for Obama is by definition good for America, even if it happens to involve bad news for America. But now I have a new favorite: the defeat of Peter …
Maybe Von Drehle is right. Maybe it’s silly to be irked that Republicans—after putting trillions of dollars in tax cuts, two wars, a prescription drug benefit and an unprecedented earmark spree on the Visa card—are threatening to force the U.S. into default if President Obama doesn’t adopt their agenda. After all, that hypocrite …
It’s risky to lend money to a guy who might not be able to pay it back. It’s also risky to lend money to a guy who might decide on a whim not to pay it back. The debt showdown, in which Republicans are threatening to force the Treasury into default unless Democrats agree to their budget priorities, has turned the U.S. into that …
