As President Obama and Congressional leaders negotiate in Washington, the American people need to keep a couple of things in mind about the looming "fiscal cliff." For starters, the issue is not that the national debt will go up (which roughly half of those in one poll believe to be the case), but that it […]

France has been a bogeyman of the American right for years. Mitt Romney, after all, made enmity towards Paris' "big government, big taxation, welfare state" a talking point of his campaign. For his part, John McCain joked that the French "remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who is still trying to […]

Following his meeting with Congressional leaders Friday, President Obama declared he was "modestly optimistic" a deal could be reached to avoid the January 1st "fiscal cliff." But if Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can't come to an agreement, the President announced he would demand an up-or-down vote on […]

Having succeeded in his smear campaign against UN Ambassador Susan Rice, John McCain has launched a second pre-emptive strike against another would-be Obama cabinet member, former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. But this time McCain's petty payback against a GOP colleague who supported Barack Obama for President in 2008 may run into tougher sledding. After […]

As Washington's stalemated debate over avoiding the so-called "fiscal cliff" continues to fester, Social Security is once again in the cross-hairs of would-be deficit hawks across the political spectrum. This week, the New York Times profiled Maya MacGuineas, who "has spent years warning about threats to the solvency of Social Security and to the rating […]

Every Christmas brings the same frustrating question: what do you get the man who has everything? So it is with Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. After all, for two decades, the NRA has gotten almost everything it wanted, including an end to the national assault weapons ban, a Justice […]

The Boston Globe this weekend offered a fascinating analysis of why Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election. But for all the impact of ground games, turnout models and campaign strategies, Mitt Romney lost not because he failed to define himself to the American people, but because he succeeded. At the end of the day, […]

If you have lingering doubts that economic growth--and not deficit reduction--should be the highest priority during the debate over the so-called "fiscal cliff," the Congressional Budget Office should put them to rest. The CBO forecast that the triple witching hour of expiring Bush tax cuts, the ending payroll tax holiday and the falling axe of […]

As President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised in September, the State Department Accountability Review Board on Wednesday delivered its report on the Benghazi consulate assault which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The findings are sharply critical of the State Department, calling security at the Libyan outpost "grossly inadequate," a […]

Much to the delight of President Obama's conservative naysayers, Politico this morning reported that "the Treasury Department on Wednesday announced plans to sell, almost certainly at a loss, the government's remaining shares of Detroit-based automaker General Motors." Predictably, the right-wing Washington Free Beacon darkly warned "Treasury prepares to lose big on GM bailout" while gloating […]