Some things never change. With some constants in life, like the invariable force of gravity or the sun rising in the east, that persistence is good news. (Imagine your morning coffee without them.) The bad news is that some myths, no matter how dangerous or thoroughly debunked, never seem to die. This week, the greatest […]

Unveiling the Congressional Budget Office's latest long term forecast this week, new CBO Director Keith Hall made an unremarkable statement. "The evidence," Hall explained, "is that tax cuts do not pay for themselves." For the overwhelming majority of economists or just about anyone with a passing familiarity with the U.S. budget since Ronald Reagan first […]

Of all of the Republicans' manufactured controversies during the Obama presidency, one less-remembered episode may be the most telling of all. Unable to prevent three-fifths of the Senate from voting to confirm Elena Kagan as the newest Supreme Court Justice, Republican in May 2010 denounced Obama's nominee for declaring that the Founding Fathers' three-fifths of […]

Things did not go well the last time Jeb Bush tried to blame President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Dubya's calamity in Iraq. After comically flip-flopping as to whether he would have invaded Iraq knowing what he knows now, Jeb! was then humiliated by a 19 year-old college student who correctly explained […]

This weekend, former Arkansas Governor and flailing 2016 White House hopeful Mike Huckabee shocked many with his slander that with the Iranian nuclear deal President Obama will "take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven." But while Americans should be disgusted, they shouldn't be surprised. After all, like so many other […]

Over the last few weeks, the U.S. media have hyped the growing love affair between Republicans and the ride-hailing service, Uber. The reasons why are no mystery. Extolling the virtue of Uber and its ilk in the "sharing economy" lets the GOP seem hip, offer the façade of a future looking economic vision and accelerate […]

After a half-century in mothballs, the Cuban embassy in Washington and the U.S. embassy in Havana reopened on Monday. But while the restoration of relations is popular with the American people, the usual suspects among the GOP White House hopefuls expressed outrage. Ted Cruz (R-TX), whose father fought alongside Castro, protested that to "have an […]

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican nominee John McCain traveled to Ynez, Kentucky to announce his economic vision in the place where LBJ launched the War on Poverty back in 1965. His solution for Americans struggling to make ends meet? Ebay: "Today, for example, 1.3 million people in the world make a living off eBay, […]

So it's come to this. In the wake of Donald Trump's description of Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, remarks that have divided the GOP presidential field, the "severely conservative" former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney declared, "I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans." And for that, Bernie […]

All eyes in the conservative political world were focused this week on the Faith and Freedom Forum in Washington, DC. There, Politico reported, the entire field of 2016 Republican White House hopefuls auditioned before the evangelical faithful to "depict a Christian world under siege" and "road-test their religious messages." But Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco […]