On Friday, Republicans deployed two talking points - one new, one old - in response to the grim news that the U.S. economy added no new jobs in August. The same GOP leaders who in January gave credit to the "newly elected House Republican Majority" for the economy's strong performance in the fourth quarter of […]

During the just concluded debt ceiling crisis, only one American political party was willing to see the United States default and its economy crippled rather than raise the nation's borrowing limit. That culprit was the Party of Lincoln, whose namesake once explained the Confederacy's threat to the Union, "one of them would make war rather […]

That all six of the Republicans selected to the Congressional debt reduction "Super Committee" are signers of Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge is hardly surprising. But the choice of Arizona Senator Jon Kyl is an especially fitting one for the GOP. After all, Kyl didn't merely define a generation of Republican talking points when he explained […]

In the wake of S&P's reduction of the U.S. credit rating, Republican leaders and amen corner are apoplectic about what Democrats John Kerry and David Axelrod deemed the "Tea Party Downgrade." Sadly, there's one small problem for the right-wing bloggers insisting "they can't possibly sell that" and for the GOP presidential candidates attacking President Obama […]

Among the things we learned during this week's debt ceiling debacle is that Republicans in general and their Tea Party hardliners in particular don't like to be called "hostage-takers" and "terrorists." While Sarah Palin called Vice President Biden's alleged use of the T-word "appalling," Rep. Jeff Landry (R-LA) suggested it was the Obama administration "who's […]

If nothing else, the debt ceiling crisis provided what Barack Obama is so fond of calling a "teachable moment." Hopefully, that extends to the President himself. After seeing his nominees blocked, his legislation filibustered and popular upper-income tax increases delayed by Republicans who withheld their support from his watered down stimulus and health care programs, […]

In the wake of the debt ceiling deal they opposed, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are predictably apoplectic that Vice President Joe Biden allegedly likened Tea Partiers to "terrorists." In that case, they must really be furious with observers like New York Times reporter Joe Nocera and George W. Bush's Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill who […]

The ink isn't yet dry (or even written) on the 11th hour debt deal, but the media are already doing their usual body count of the victors and vanquished. In the Washington Post, conventional wisdom regurgitation machine Chris Cillizza produced the predictable winners and losers list. While the Wall Street Journal and right-wing columnists proclaim […]

"In Washington more spending and more debt is business as usual," House Speaker John Boehner declared on Monday before warning, "I've got news for Washington - those days are over." The days, Boehner should have explained, before Barack Obama took the oath of office. As Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) rightly pointed on the Senate floor last […]