While Barack Obama toured rural parts of the Midwest this week, the Congressional Black Caucus drew thousands of people to job fairs in Detroit and Atlanta. Driving the turnout was a sobering fact: The unemployment rate among …
Interviews
Q&A: Paul Ryan on the Debt Ceiling Debate and Medicare
On Tuesday, as congressional leaders and President Obama fought a public battle over cutting spending and increasing revenue, Rep. Paul Ryan was elsewhere, leading a discussion over an issue that just happens to be at the center …
Q&A: Mitch McConnell Explains How to Get a ‘Really Big Deal’ on the Debt Ceiling
One day after Congress rejected a $2.4 trillion increase of the federal borrowing limit without preconditional spending cuts, House Republicans are visiting the White House on Wednesday to negotiate directly with President Obama …
Q&A: The White House Economic Team’s Departing Lefty
Jared Bernstein, the most prominent Manhattan School of Music alumnus on the White House economic team, has left his job as Vice President Biden’s chief economist. He was the most liberal member of the team, so it’s no …
Q&A: Jon Huntsman
TIME talked to former ambassador to China and Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman for a profile running in the May 23, 2011, issue of the magazine. Lightly edited excerpts from three separate interviews with Huntsman follow:
Q&A: Tea Partying Former CEO Herman Cain
Sitting in his Atlanta office over looking a golf course, Herman Cain contemplates what life could have been. “My plan was to be on cruise control at this particular point in my life,” the 65-year-old former Godfather’s Pizza CEO says. Cain retired from the corporate world 15 years ago. Since, he’s served on a few boards – …
Q&A: Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist
Since founding Americans for Tax Reform in the 1980s, Grover Norquist has become one of the conservative movement’s most influential figures. Each Wednesday, Norquist, 54, draws an eclectic mix of center-right activists to his …
Q&A: Gary Johnson Embarks on “One of Humankind’s Great Adventures”
Concord, NH
Former two-term New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is running for president. He’s not testing the waters or forming an exploratory committee. Thursday, on the steps to the New Hampshire State Building, he announced …
Q&A: Politix’s John Ellis
Late last week, TIME spoke to John Ellis, who has blogged, worked in the election units of NBC and Fox News, written columns for the Boston Globe, and now runs a new website at Business Insider called Politix. Ellis is one of the hardest-headed political observers we know and he was kind enough to take on a few questions:
Q&A: Paul Ryan on His “Path to Prosperity”
TIME’s Jay Newton-Small talked to House Republican Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan in his Longworth office Tuesday about his 2012 budget, an ambitious package that includes drastic changes to Medicare and Medicaid, new tax reforms and deep spending cuts. A lightly edited transcript of the conversation follows:
TIME: How does your …
Morning Must Reads: Deal
(White House/Pete Souza)
–After the weekend, a deal extending all the Bush tax cuts temporarily (1-3 years) in exchange for Recovery Act tax credits and a year or so of unemployment benefits still appears to be the only way forward in the Senate. The timing of the expiration, of course, has implications for Obama’s re-election …
Morning Must Reads: Pack
–President Obama has a long chat with Rolling Stone.
–Vice President Biden doesn’t mince words with the base.
–CNN reports Rahm Emanuel will pack his bags Friday and Pete Rouse will likely serve as interim chief of staff.
–Republican independent expenditure groups out gun Democratic ones.
Blago Goes on the Daily Show
If you like the kind of comedy that makes you cringe as you’re watching someone train wreck their life, then this is the show for you. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich hit the Daily Show last night. Here’s the interview.
Part 1:
And Part 2:
