Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter has a new fetish. Three years after Americans learned of Vitter's predilection for prostitutes and diapers, Senator Vitter has announced his support for Birther lawsuits challenging President Obama's eligibility to serve. Vitter's apparent attempt at misdirection comes after a torrent of bad news for the one-time family values merchant turned […]

When it comes to tax cuts and deficits, Republicans have gone from the ridiculous to the insane. A month ago, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) comically insisted that the Bush tax cuts did not contribute the America's exploding national debt. Now Jon Kyl, the number two Republican in the Senate, the man almost single-handedly […]

In 2009, Politifact declared Sarah Palin's "death panels" fraud its "Lie of the Year." As it turns out, the Republican Party is the Home of the Whopper. Its followers, especially those most deeply steeped in the Tea Party's toxic brew, continue to believe claims about Barack Obama's faith, national origin, and tax cuts (just to […]

Last month, Florida Republican Senator George Lemieux summed up the impact of his party's successful effort to kill the estate tax in 2010. "The joke is don't go hunting with your children because right now there's no estate tax in this country this year." But the billions lost to the U.S. Treasury so that the […]

Back in February, Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan defended his "Roadmap for America's Future," which among other things would privatize - and inevitably ration - Medicare. "Rationing happens today!" Ryan revealingly protested, "The question is who will do it? The government? Or you, your doctor and your family?" Of course, he omitted the real culprit, private […]

On Friday, Gallup became just the latest pollster to confirm the obvious: "Tea Party supporters overlap the Republican base." Despite the fact that the Tea Party movement is simply a continuation of the losing 2008 GOP presidential campaign by other means, the Washington Post today examined how its members marked the Fourth of July. But […]

Republican leaders are calling for Michael Steele's head in the wake of his remarks calling the conflict in Afghanistan "a war of Obama's choosing" which is destined to fail. But it's hardly the first time the GOP threatened Steele with the chopping block for bucking the party line. Last year, when the RNC chairman rolled […]

One day before Friday's dismal jobs report confirmed the pace of the U.S. recovery has slowed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the extension of unemployment benefits to "injects demand into the economy." But while the Republicans who have blocked the $112 billion package including the jobless benefits mocked her for it, Americans don't have […]

For months, governors and economists alike have been warning that unprecedented revenue shortfalls in the states would lead to draconian budget cuts and massive layoffs. Now with the July 1 start of fiscal year 2011 for many states, doomsday is here. And thanks to Republican obstructionism in Congress, the combined $89 billion budget gap facing […]

President Obama's rebuff on stimulus spending by the G-20 and the latest Republican roadblock on the Senate jobs bill is producing fears of a deeper, double-dip global recession. While Thomas Frank urged the U.S. to avoid the "austerity trap," Paul Krugman warned that the "pain caucus" here and in Europe could produce the "Third Depression." […]