In recent weeks, pollsters and pundits have been wrestling with a seeming contradiction at the heart of the country's abortion debate. On the one hand, the United States is a pro-choice nation, with consistent majorities of Americans voicing the belief for two decades that abortion should be legal in some or all cases. On the […]

For the first time in years, passage of the farm bill is producing conflict and controversy on Capitol Hill. But even as House Republicans demand $20 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that would remove five million people from the food stamp rolls, the Government Accountability Office offered yet another example […]

During the 2012 campaign, Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan proposed what might be called "tax cuts for cowards." That is, Romney/Ryan proposed slashing tax rates for the wealthy and corporations, partially offsetting the trillions in lost revenue by promising to close some of the hundreds of loopholes and tax breaks that cost Uncle Sam […]

Just days after playing a key role in ending the log jam over Republican filibustering of President Obama's executive branch nominees, Arizona Senator John McCain put a road block in the front of the anticipated confirmation of Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey. McCain announced he would put a "hold" on Dempsey's second term heading up […]

Last week, former Bush Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt offered a very instructive look back at the rollout of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. In what the Washington Post's health care reporter Sarah Kliff praised as a "great piece," Leavitt recounted the technical troubles, process pitfalls, rapid responses and lessons learned […]

When the dust-up over the IRS' treatment of non-profit "social welfare organizations" first erupted in early May, I predicted that whatever the findings of looming Internal Revenue Service probes, "the GOP will play politics with the IRS budget regardless. And the certain result will be tens of billions in less revenue annually for Uncle Sam--and […]

As has been thoroughly documented, until 2011 no political party had both the votes and the intent to block an increase in the U.S. debt ceiling and thereby trigger both a U.S. default and a global economic catastrophe. Now, despite plummeting annual federal budget deficits, a stabilization of the debt as a percentage of the […]

Few issues incite Republican fury like medical malpractice. For conservative ideologues, malpractice lawsuits are a double affront which interferes with the righteous operation of the free market while lining the pockets of trial lawyers who help fund the Democratic Party. That's why, despite the near-total debunking of GOP mythology that frivolous lawsuits and "jackpot justice" […]

There is a saying that America is always preparing to fight the last war. So it is with the conservative crusade against illegal immigration. After all, even as Tea Party Republicans demand draconian--and expensive-- new "border security" measures, apprehensions of the undocumented have plummeted to 40 year lows. And thanks to the slow U.S. economy […]

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 […]