Updated 12:30pm Republicans are demanding to know why President Obama isn’t at the table pin the deficit talks. Today, Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor abruptly withdrew from the talks saying they have gone as far as they can and now presidential leadership is needed – particularly on the [...]
Last month, for this story in the dead-tree edition, I asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell if defeating President Obama is still his No. 1 priority. “Yeah, sure. I think every Republican in the country would like to elect a Republican president,” McConnell told me. “But that’s next year. The question this year is: what are [...]
Don’t hold your breath, our colleague Mark Benjamin writes at TIME’s Battleland blog. The House appears poised to vote on an amendment to a defense appropriations bill that would cut off funding to the war non-hostile armed conflict in North Africa. While the measure could find support among the bipartisan cadre of members irked by [...]
The United States is not engaged in a war with Libya and the War Powers Resolution does not apply to U.S. military action there, according to two White House officials who briefed reporters on Wednesday. “We’re now in a position where we’re operating in a support role. We’re not engaged in any of the activities [...]
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 Obama administration is expanding the Recovery Act’s approach [...]
Reuters reports: “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about leaving her job next year to become head of the World Bank, sources familiar with the discussions said Thursday.” Clinton’s longtime communications aide, Philippe Reines, is denying the story and a senior administration official tells TIME the Reuters “rumor” [...]
The grim news last week was not new: The American economy is stuck in a rut, with the manufacturing sector sputtering, housing prices falling and job growth too small to keep up with the growing population. We have been reading headlines like this, off and on, since 2007. What has changed, however, is the political [...]
The incredibly boorish grilling of Elizabeth Warren by Republican members of a House subcommittee on Tuesday raises two interesting questions: After a decade in which money lenders raped and pillaged homeowners, home-buyers and credit-card holders, why are Republicans so intent on gutting an agency that would protect the American middle class from such persistent sleazebags? [...]
Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued their icy relationship in front of the cameras Friday after what the President somewhat ruefully called “prolonged” talks, suggesting that Bibi had delivered one of his trademark multi-part lectures on the requirements of Israeli security. The two were correct and diplomatic, but as they have at previous [...]
A day before Obama’s address on the Middle East, the White House made two important gestures Wednesday in the ongoing Arab Spring saga. As with much of U.S. policy in the region of late, its not clear how much effect either will have.
