As the New York Times detailed this week, the Obama administration will end George W. Bush's fuzzy math when it comes to the federal budget and budget deficit. But by accurately reflecting the true costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Medicare reimbursements, disaster responses and the AMT, the Obama White House is now […]

News that the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Swiss banking giant UBS is just the latest chapter in the curious case of Phil Gramm. Just one day after UBS agreed to pay a $780 million criminal fine and admitted to conspiring to defraud the IRS, the DOJ demanded access to 52,000 accounts as […]

Canadians on Thursday gave Barack Obama a warm welcome in his foreign trip as President. But while real issues concerning trade and the future Canadian combat role in Afghanistan remain, the most difficult discussions between President Obama and Prime Minister Harper will likely wait for another time. But in one area – whether the United […]

The blogosphere reacted with a sense of amusement Wednesday to news that former Federal Reserve Chairman and free market stalwart Alan Greenspan was urging the nationalization of American banks. While Paul Krugman laughed that "Comrade Greenspan" had called for the government to "seize the economy's commanding heights," Atrios snickered "I guess he's capable of being […]

On Wednesday, federal authorities reported they did not know the whereabouts of Texas banker and scammer Allen Stanford. But what we do know for certain about the financier whose frauds may yet rival the $50 billion Madoff Ponzi scheme is that he donated generously to both political parties in Washington. Of course, that would be […]

In the wake of Congressional Republicans' unified rejection of President Obama's just signed $787 billion economic recovery program, the AP's Liz Sidoti wrote Tuesday that "GOP tries to restore image of fiscal discipline." Sadly, that image is now as ever a myth. Far from the deficit hawks of Republican legend, the modern Republican party from […]

Even in its last throes, the Bush administration remained an irony producing machine when it came to the PlameGate conviction of Scooter Libby. As the Daily News reported, Vice President Dick Cheney furiously lobbied President Bush to pardon his former chief of staff even hours before Barack Obama's inauguration. But for sheer humor value, Cheney's […]

In the months since their bitter contest last fall, Barack Obama time and again reached his hand out to former rival John McCain, only to get slapped in the face for his troubles. Within days of Obama's pre-inauguration dinner honoring the Arizona Senator, McCain decried the President's supposed lack of bipartisanship on the $787 billion […]

They're baaaaack! As I detailed previously, the lockstep Republican obstructionism which greeted President Obama's stimulus plan in Congress was almost a perfect replay of the GOP's treatment of Bill Clinton's economic program in 1993. Then as now, Newt Gingrich and Bill Kristol helped mobilize a minority Republican Party afraid not that a new Democratic president […]

As predicted, House and Senate Republicans on Friday maintained their unified front in turning their backs on President Obama's economic recovery package. As it turns out, Obama wasn't the first Democrat to learn the hard way that bipartisanship is a one-way street for the GOP when it comes to the economy. In 1993, Bill Clinton's […]