During a heated exchange on the Senate floor back in June 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney famously told Vermont Democrat Pat Leahy, "f**k yourself." Looking back on the episode six years later, Cheney told Fox News that he had no "qualms, second thoughts, or embarrassment" about his Leahy outburst, because "I thought he merited it […]

Black Friday is the single biggest shopping day of the year. And this Friday, all eyes will be on Walmart, the nation's single biggest retailer and employer. But while the planned protests at 1,000 of the chain's 4,000 locations will keep the focus on Walmart's below-industry standard pay to its 1.3 million associates, the company's […]

As President Obama continues to press his plan to slice $800 billion off the national debt by ending tax cuts for the top two percent of earners, the New York Times on Sunday profiled upper-income Americans trying to skirt the modestly higher bill. But the Times didn't merely fail to note the economic boom they […]

In Washington and on Wall Street, there is growing optimism in the wake of President Obama's White House meeting with Congressional leaders Friday that the U.S. will avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff." After their drubbing on Election Day, Republicans are walking back their scorched-earth opposition to new tax revenue to reduce the national debt. But […]

As John McCain launched his first run for the White House in 1999, he was forced to confront the Keating Five scandal that nearly ended his political career. "The fact is, it was the wrong thing to do," McCain acknowledged, "and it will be on my tombstone and deservedly so." As it turns out, John […]

Republicans still refusing to countenance modestly higher tax rates for the wealthiest Americans are facing a moral dilemma. If tax cuts for the gilded-class do not in fact drive economic growth and job creation, then the GOP has been draining the United States Treasury for the sole purpose of needlessly padding the bank accounts of […]

If there's one thing both parties in Washington can agree on, it is the necessity of getting to the bottom of the September 11th assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has already agreed to testify to Congress after the completion […]

The cruel and unnecessary death last month of Savita Halappanavar, the 31 year-old dentist denied a life-saving abortion, is rightly prompting soul-searching in Ireland. But those in the United States whose business is saving souls would do well to join them. After all, with their "human life amendment," draconian clinic regulations, "personhood" initiatives, heartbeat bills […]

In 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama campaigned on ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and won resounding victories both times. That policy enjoys strong public support now, just as it has since before Obama dispatched John McCain four years ago. And just last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecast that Obama's […]

For the second time in as many weeks, an analysis by a nonpartisan agency of Congress has demolished the GOP myth of upper-income taxes and so-called "job creators." Just days before voters headed to the polls, the Congressional Research Service documented that for decades tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans were not correlated to economic […]