Historical events, it is said, occur twice: first as tragedy, then as farce. Sometimes, though, as with the latest Republican call for a balanced budget amendment, the farce is double. Even as they call for a budget busting $700 billion tax cut windfall for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, GOP leaders including John Boehner, […]

At a time of record income inequality and massive budget deficits, how do you justify a $700 billion plus tax cut for the wealthiest Americans? By claiming that the fate of the economic recovery depends on the rich - and the rich alone. And with the very top income earners facing a return of their […]

Back in 2007, the National Archives took over the Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. Among its first tasks in setting the historical record straight regarding the Richard Nixon Foundation's presentation of Watergate as "a 'coup' engineered by Nixon enemies." Now three years later, the Nixon loyalists are back, this time to […]

The two weeks have not been kind to the ersatz deficit hawks of the Republican Party. First, the preposterous claims of John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and the legion of new Republican alchemists that tax cuts pay for themselves were thoroughly debunked. Making matters worse, Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and the 116 members of the House Republican […]

On the day Christina Romer had the unenviable task of announcing another grim jobs report, Americans learned the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers is leaving the Obama administration. Coming just weeks after the departure of popular Obama budget chief Peter Orszag, Romer's exit will leave the White House without two of the key […]

On Sunday, the fact-checking web site Politifact deemed Sarah Palin a "Pants on Fire" liar for her claim that "Democrats are poised now to cause this largest tax increase in U.S. history." (As it turns out, that's just one of the 10 Republican lies about the Bush tax cuts.) Now, the half-term Alaska Governor is […]

In the wake of his ruling overturning California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage, one legal observer concluded Judge Vaughn Walker "is speaking to Justice Kennedy." Slate's Dahlia Lithwick went a step further, suggesting that while "Judge Vaughn R. Walker is not Anthony Kennedy," he "certainly knows how to write like him." If so, Judge […]

Back in May, half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin insisted that the Founding Fathers "were quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the 10 commandments." But while the Founders intended no such thing, Palin's protege Sharron Angle is convinced. Just weeks after proclaiming "God has a plan" for […]

The deaths this year of billionaires George Steinbrenner, Dan Duncan and other members of the gilded class have drawn attention to the temporary lapse of the estate tax. After all, even as Republican obstructionism produced a multi-billion dollar windfall for the heirs of some of America's iconic rich, the one-year expiration of the estate tax […]

As the planned "Ground Zero" mosque passed a key hurdle today, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin have emerged as its most vocal critics on the right. But while Gingrich called it "an offensive act" which Palin asked the Muslim faithful to "refudiate," Mitt Romney's predictable path to opposition may best capture the fetid state of […]