With another government shutdown averted by this week's two-year budget compromise, Republican leaders are once again threatening to hold the debt ceiling hostage if their demands aren't met. So what if they don't know yet what those demands will be? House budget chief Paul Ryan insisted, "We as a caucus -- along with our Senate […]

On Monday, the GOP-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) released a damning report about the so-called Obamacare "navigators." That Issa's inquisition railed against the Affordable Care Act's use of dozens of dozens of community groups, hospitals and other non-profit organizations who have received $67 million in federal grants […]

That was quick. Just two days after he joined House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in lashing out against right-wing extremists who threatened to trigger another government shutdown by blocking his compromise budget, Rep. Paul Ryan on Sunday promised to support the Tea Party's other favorite act of national economic blackmail. Despite the fact that both […]

In 2010, the GOP steamrolled to its House majority by scaring the bejesus out of seniors about $716 billion in Obamacare cuts to Medicare. Three years later, House and Senate Republicans are repeating their tried and untrue talking point. Untrue, that is, not just because the savings from private Medicare Advantage insurers and providers do […]

President Obama held a public event on Monday to address the serious problems plaguing the federal online health care exchange serving the 34 states which refused to create their own. Echoing former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pronouncement that the web site difficulties are "unacceptable," Obama insisted, "There's no excuse for these problems" hampering the launch of […]

On April 7, 2009--less than three months after Barack Obama first took the oath of office--the Daily Show's Jon Stewart perfectly summed up the red-hot, right-wing rage that hasn't cooled since. "I think," Stewart explained to frothing at the mouth Tea Party supporters, "you might be confusing tyranny with losing." Nevertheless, just days later thousands […]

From the moment he first picked up the Speaker's gavel, the choice before John Boehner was a simple one. He could betray the far-right Tea Party extremists whose support for him was always tenuous or he could betray his country. When it came to his party's debt ceiling blackmail--which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged […]

On Sunday, Tea Party icons Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz appropriated a veteran's march to the World War II memorial in Washington to blame the Obama administration for services idled by the government shutdown. The march organizers were none too happy about it, explaining on their web site, "We feel disheartened that some would seek […]

After first threatening to destroy the American economy if Obamacare wasn't defunded or delayed, desperate House Republicans have sent the President a new ransom note. Now, the GOP will grant a six-week extension to the debt ceiling and reopen the government if President Obama, among other things, accepts cuts to mandatory spending programs including Medicare […]

Al Qaeda chieftain Osama Bin Laden was never shy about the objectives of his jihad against the United States. High on that list was the destruction of the U.S. economy which, he declared in 2004, would be accomplished by "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy." But even with the economic shock after 9/11, the […]