Press briefings are bad theater, and the White House is as close as Washington, D.C. gets to Broadway. So on Wednesday, when Jay Carney took the stage as the new White House press secretary, every seat was taken and the aisles were packed. People had not so much gathered to hear what he would say—the press secretary rarely says …
Public Workers Protest in Wisconsin
Updated, 8:50 p.m.
Thousands of Wisconsin’s union workers and supporters crowded into the state capitol in Madison for a second day to protest a bill that would strip key collective-bargaining rights from public employees. The measure, introduced last Friday by new Republican Governor Scott Walker, would take away public-worker …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Earmark Idiocy
Teach for America, the brilliant program that has sent tens of thousands of elite college graduates to work in the poorest, toughest schools, is about to get stiffed by the federal government. “We are, technically, an earmark,” Wendy Kopp, TFA’s founder, told me this morning. “I’m not sure exactly why we’re considered an earmark, but we …
Mr. Christie Comes to Washington
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took both Republicans and Democrats to task for political cowardice on entitlement reform in his first big Washington speech today at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The President’s not talking about it because he’s waiting for the Republicans in Congress to start talking about it,” said …
Good News For Everyone*
Fed Officials Forecast Economic Growth for 2011
…Fed officials say in an updated forecast that they think the economy will grow between 3.4 percent and 3.9 percent this year. That’s an upward revision from their November forecast, which predicted that gross domestic product will grow 3 percent to 3.6 percent.
*Except Republicans who …
Florida’s Rick Scott Sends High-Speed Rail Packing
By Michael Grunwald, TIME Senior Correspondent
It’s one thing to look a gift horse in the mouth. It’s quite another thing to slaughter a gift horse and send its disemboweled corpse back to Washington.
Florida Governor Rick Scott just killed the Obama administration’s marquee high-speed rail project, giving up a whopping $2.4 …
Budget Amendments Part II: From Yoga to Chimpanzees
Following yesterday’s introduction to the first amendments filed with the 2011 House budget, here is a roundup of some of the more colorful caveats tacked on in the second batch released by the House Rules Committee today. Certainly no one can say Congress is lacking in its variety of pet causes (or pet peeves).
–California …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Rape and Revolution
Jeffrey Goldberg is right to be disgusted by the various attempts to make light–or to make a political point–out of the sexual assault and beating visited upon Lara Logan of CBS. The attack is yet another reminder that those cowering, sniveling members of the mainstream media who actually go out and report things are not so cowardly or …
In the ArenaUncategorized
And Now Libya
I’ve been waiting for this. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving dictator. Except, perhaps, the Supreme Leader in Iran.
Morning Must Reads: Baseline
Rep. Paul Ryan checks his watch during a House Budget Committee hearing on President Obama’s 2012 budget on February 15. (REUTERS/Jason Reed)
–Citing economic drivers and defense, the White House issues a veto threat over Republican cuts for this year’s budget.
–Stan Collender thinks a government shutdown is likelier than …
The (Smart) Politics of Punting on Entitlements
Everyone seems to be outraged that President Obama has broken his promise to tackle entitlement reform and turned in a 2012 budget that ignores two main factors in ruinous fiscal outlays, Social Security and Medicare. Obama’s budget proposes cuts in discretionary spending, but in his State of the Union address in January he declared, …
Re: So Much For Thou Shalt Not Kill
Not exactly. South Dakota does have some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws–including, in violation of the Hyde Amendment, a ban on using state Medicaid funding to cover abortions when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. But a proposal to expand the definition of “justifiable homicide” to include resisting attempts …
In the ArenaUncategorized
The Rivers of Babylon
A decade ago, after the endless and empty Bush-Gore presidential campaign, I decided that I’d had enough of journalism and quit my job as Washington Correspondent for The New Yorker to write books and chill for a while. As a transition to my new life, to take a break and clear my mind, I enrolled in several classes at Columbia …