Honestly, the Obama campaign has a new message. “We’re going to have an honest conversation,” said campaign spokesman …
medicare
Fact Check: Obamacare’s Medicare Cuts
Since the Romney-Ryan campaign is hammering the Obama-Biden ticket on the Affordable Care Act’s $716 billion in cuts to Medicare, it seems useful to put this figure in context and explain exactly what programs within Medicare lose funding under the health care law.
Decrying Campaign ‘Hatred,’ Romney Tries to Redefine Obama — and Change the Subject
Mitt Romney should have been feeling great on Tuesday night. Crisscrossing five swing states over four days, he was greeted by some of the best crowds of the campaign. The politics of his Vice Presidential pick are open for …
A Big Ideas Campaign, With Few Specifics On a Key Issue
Miami, Fla.
Since picking Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has pledged repeatedly to wage a campaign of ideas. But the specifics have so far been hard to come by.
Voters Beware: What the Obama Campaign Doesn’t Tell Julia
The Obama campaign came out with a nifty, interactive online graphic Thursday that guides America through the life of Julia, a hypothetical young web designer who appears to have been drawn by Chris Ware or Dan Clowes. She has …
What We’ve Learned from Paul Ryan’s New Budget
Republicans’ cherubic budget crusader, Paul Ryan, unveiled the latest House GOP budget on Tuesday morning. It won’t become law anytime soon, but it can still tell us a few things about the state of fiscal politics in 2012.
Why Endangered Democrats Are Thanking Paul Ryan
Clearly, health care reform was a losing political issue for lots of congressional Democrats, especially those who were up for reelection in 2010. The issue helped mobilize Republican voters who managed to unseat enough Democrats to shift the balance of power on Capitol Hill. Democrats lost their Senate super majority and Republicans now …
PolitiFact’s Semantic Distinction of the Year: Ending Medicare
The ubiquitous fact-checking outfit PolitiFact has chosen Democrats’ charge that Paul Ryan’s budget would “end Medicare” as its Lie of the Year. This dubious honor, which follows 2009 and 2010 rulings that both went against the …
What Mitt Romney’s Fiscal Plan Says About GOP Tax Cut Mania
Dick Cheney was once memorably quoted as declaring, during a Bush White House debate about tax cuts, “deficits don’t matter.” In the telling, Cheney insisted that Ronald Reagan had proven the axiom by overseeing a huge expansion …
Behind One of These Three Doors Is a Debt Ceiling Deal
Washington these days feels like a 1960s game show. Our lucky contestants, House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama, are on the stage in front of three doors, listening intently to the audience cheer before they …
What if There Was a Reasonable Compromise on Medicare?
Sen. Joe Lieberman has found an ally for the middle-of-the-road Medicare reform proposal he laid out a few weeks ago. On Tuesday, the independent Senator from Connecticut and conservative Republican Tom Coburn unveiled a tweaked version of Lieberman’s plan. They hope to build a coalition of support for the proposal, which they say …
Pulling the Plug on Granny, Part 2
(This post was update at 6:35 p.m.)
Yes, we’re back here again already, with at least one Republican claiming this week that Democratic health reform will kill seniors. Sigh.
The target of the GOP attack is the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a controversial group to be appointed by the president and charged with slowing the …
Defining Pawlentycare
On the campaign trial – especially the presidential campaign trail – nuance rarely breaks through the fog of generalization. Mitt Romney is the frontrunner and a flip-flopper on the issues. Michele Bachmann is the Tea Party …
