The 2000 presidential campaign witnessed a fierce battle over the future of Social Security, pitting the private, personal accounts of George W. Bush versus Al Gore's "lockbox." Ten years later, Nevada Republican Senate hopeful Sharron Angle has taken both sides in a single day. In her just-released ad titled, "Social Security," Sharron Angle did a […]

No doubt, Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan's dashing good looks make the Washington chattering classes weak at the knees. But his policy proposals make most Americans - including most of his party leadership - sick to their stomachs. After all, the past week highlighted how Ryan's supposedly budget-balancing Roadmap for America's Future would instead produce […]

Back in February, 42 governors signed a letter pleading with Congressional leaders to extend the federal matching assistance program for Medicaid. And with good reason. 30 cash-strapped states, including Republican bastions Georgia and Alabama, had already assumed new federal Medicaid funds in their budgets. Worse still, drastic downturns in revenues combined with the recession's escalating […]

Last year, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann summed up what would become the de facto Republican platform for the 2010 midterm elections when she fretted, "We're running out of rich people in this country." Now, as the GOP demands a $700 billion Treasury-draining tax cut for the wealthiest Americans even as it calls for a balanced […]

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 […]