After months of pretending the Bush tax cuts paid for themselves and calling President Obama's opposition to another $700 billion windfall for the wealthy a "job killer" and "class warfare," House Minority Leader John Boehner on Sunday signaled his willingness to accept a compromise. But in the Senate, the Republican line remained as hard as […]

Back in April 2009, 74% of respondent in a CBS/New York Times poll said that letting the Bush tax cuts expire for those earning over $250,000 was a "good idea." Now 18 months later, even with President Obama's approval sliding and Congressional Democrats wavering in their commitment, the American public by large margins still supports […]

A $700 billion, 10-year windfall for the wealthiest Americans who need it least. With both parties generally supporting the continuation of middle class relief already on the books, that's the difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to making the expiring Bush tax cuts permanent. But just one day after his former budget director […]

The bad news just keeps coming for Democrats. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll gives the GOP a record 9-point edge in the generic Congressional ballot for November. Meanwhile, an ABC News/Washington Post survey shows that as President Obama's approval ratings continue to slide, support for his management of the economy and the deficit are […]

In perhaps the greatest comic moment of the 2010 campaign to date, John McCain last month complained, "I know how popular it is for the Eastern press to paint me as having changed positions. That's not true." Of course, his flip-flops are now so numerous that he long ago earned nicknames like "Jukebox John" and […]

With Democrats proposing to set the top two income tax rates at 36% and 39.6% respectively, Republican leaders waged a ferocious battle on behalf of the wealthiest American taxpayers. Former House Majority Leader and current Tea Party moneyman Dick Armey warned, "This program will not give you deficit reduction." Ohio's John Kasich cautioned, "It's our […]

With his much-hyped call for the firing of President Obama's economic team, House Minority Leader John Boehner ensured his speech in Cleveland today would get a lot of attention. But sadly for the would-be House Speaker, the address also spotlighted his unique combination of political cowardice and fuzzy math. After all, while Boehner claimed to […]

On Monday, New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman summed up Republicans wanting to make permanent the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. At a time of record income inequality and massive budget deficits, Republican "politicians are eager to cut checks averaging $3 million each to the richest 120,000 people […]

Back in February, 42 governors signed a letter pleading with Congressional leaders to extend the federal matching assistance program for Medicaid. And with good reason. 30 cash-strapped states, including Republican bastions Georgia and Alabama, had already assumed new federal Medicaid funds in their budgets. Worse still, drastic downturns in revenues combined with the recession's escalating […]

Last year, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann summed up what would become the de facto Republican platform for the 2010 midterm elections when she fretted, "We're running out of rich people in this country." Now, as the GOP demands a $700 billion Treasury-draining tax cut for the wealthiest Americans even as it calls for a balanced […]