If House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's faltering inquisition of the IRS seems familiar, it should. Back in the 1990's, Republicans demonized the agency, slashed its enforcement staff and, unsurprisingly, helped the growth of tax cheating which now costs Uncle Sam up to $500 billion in lost revenue annually. And as Reuters reported Saturday, history […]

News that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had denied additional disaster aid to the town of West, Texas has Lone Star State leaders crying foul. President Obama, they charge, "used West, Texas as a photo op" and "turned his back on Texas and gone against his word." But while their disappointment is understandable, it's […]

In the wake of the twin revelations about the National Security Agency's dragnet of phone calls and online activity, polling suggests that a majority of Americans apparently remain comfortable with their civil liberties being compromised in the cause of preventing terror attacks. Probably just as predictable, a survey from Pew Research showed a fair amount […]

In recent week, a growing consensus of economists, analysts and political leaders has called for an end to U.S. fiscal austerity. Even as the influential Reinhart-Rogoff high-debt/low-growth thesis was being shredded, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) slashed its FY 2013 deficit forecast by $200 billion while Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that failure to […]

The arrival of season four of Arrested Development on Netflix may have been one of the most hyped developments in entertainment in recent years. But whether you loved it or hated it--or just didn't care--it's hard to dispute the lasting impact of the show. As Ben Yagodo explained in Slate, the tale of the Bluth […]

From the beginning, the defining irony of the never-ending debate over Obamacare has been this: health care is worst in those states where Republicans poll best. That is, the map of the states with the worst health care systems largely mirrors GOP strongholds in the Electoral College. Red state residents are generally the unhealthiest and […]

It is said that historical events occur twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. But when it comes to Republican presidential frontrunners and comprehensive immigration reform, the results appear to be all farce, all the time. After all, in 2008 a John McCain desperate to win over xenophobic Republican primary voters promised he would […]

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. Right now, a heart-breaking tragedy is unfolding in Philadelphia, where desperately ill 10 year-old Sarah Murnaghan is in a race against time as she waits for a lung transplant that is her only hope as she battles end-stage cystic fibrosis. But in Washington, Republican politicians and their media […]

Until this week, Republican Congressman Steven Palazzo of Mississippi's Katrina ravaged 4th district was best known for his opposition to federal aid for New York and New Jersey in the wake of super storm Sandy. Now thanks to his partnership with Florida Senator and 2016 GOP White House hopeful Marco Rubio, Palazzo will be known […]

Over the past few days, Erza Klein and Jonathan Cohn among have debunked the claims by Avik Roy of Forbes that Obamacare will produce a "rate shock" in California. As they noted, Roy conveniently ignored the fact that many people individual market cannot currently buy insurance at any price, let alone at the "teaser" rates […]