Barack Obama and Mitt Romney laid out competing frameworks for tax reform on Wednesday, competing to lay down political markers on a policy issue both parties where both parties want reform but where there is little chance to achieve Congressional compromise anytime soon.
Congress
With Cordray’s Appointment, Obama Expands Legal Fight with Conservatives
There are straightforward political reasons for President Barack Obama’s “recess” appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau: Obama’s base wants him to fight big banks and Republicans’ opposition to the agency; and picking a fight with the Hill, especially if it …
Obama to Recess Appoint Cordray to Consumer Bureau
President Obama is reportedly planning to name Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a recess appointment today, which means the drawn-out Congressional standoff over Cordray’s nomination to …
Ben Nelson Retiring, the ‘Kickback’ Kicks Back
Ben Nelson, the conservative two-term Nebraska Democrat, won’t seek re-election to the Senate next year, according to Politico.
Nelson is 70–not exactly an adolescent, but hardly outside the norm for a Senate whose average …
Crunch Time for Defense Authorization and Military Detention
The Senate and House conferees on the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act issued their compromise version of the bill late Monday night. That means it’s crunch time for the controversial law and its provision requiring the military detention of terrorism suspects. The White House and liberal Senate Democrats are battling a coalition …
Gingrich and Paul: A History of Bad Blood
This is Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s third presidential bid, but never before has he gone negative the way he has in recent weeks on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Paul is spending $429,000 on television ads — a whopping amount, more than almost any other candidate — and much of that is in this 60-second buy in Iowa. The ad is brutal, …
Newt Gingrich’s Battle with the GOP ‘Establishment’
On Tuesday morning, former Vice President Dan Quayle endorsed Mitt Romney, as did California Congressmen Jerry Lewis, Ken Calvert and Brian Bilbray. On Monday morning, Tennessee Congressmen Jimmy Duncan, Diane Black and Phil Roe announced their support. In the past month Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte …
With Supercommittee Failure, 2012 Election Offers False Hope
“Good riddance!” say the pundits on both left and right. The Super Committee is dead, and with it any short-term hope of a solution to the nation’s long-term deficit woes. For the right, this is a victory, because no tax …
Q&A: Bill Clinton’s Vision for ‘A Smart Government and a Strong Economy’
Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, spoke with TIME’s Rick Stengel about his new book, Back to Work, and how to fix the economy. Excerpts from that conversation follow.
Jack Abramoff: Still Detestable
At the height of the Tom DeLay-era, Jack Abramoff was probably Washington’s most influential and lucratively paid lobbyist. He was brash and brazen, displaying a Hollywood swagger long before they made a movie about him. Then Abramoff was exposed as a fraud, a liar and a creep of the first order–someone who effectively stole millions of …
In Thursday Press Conference, Professor Obama Demands Answers
“Why?” Barack Obama asked Republicans about their opposition to his job creation bill. Then he asked it again. And again. By the time he was done, the President had repeated the question, in different ways, some 15 …
The Next Twist in the Solyndra Scandal
More Solyndra emails from the White House are coming. Just how many is unclear, as is whether or not they will contain any news. The last batch–hundreds of pages of correspondence between low-level Solyndra executives and President Obama’s advance team–revealed little, beyond one aide’s view that the manufacturing robots at Solyndra’s …
Why Congress’s Next Budget Battle Will Be Bigger
The Senate’s deal to sidestep a government shutdown is a respite from, not a resolution to, the Congressional fiscal mire. It didn’t solve the substantive disagreements between the two parties about entitlements or taxes or the economic policies that foster job creation or even why the debt problem driving the budget brinkmanship exists. …