As the year draws to a close, the only question in Washington appears to be how--and not whether--Republicans will seek payback against President Obama for his executive action deferring the deportations of four million undocumented immigrants. While House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and soon-to-be Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) want to defer retribution until […]

Two weeks ago, the House Intelligence Committee released its report on the 2012 Benghazi tragedy. Like the previous six probes by the State Department, internal watchdogs and other Congressional panels, the GOP-controlled House Intelligence Committee concluded there had been no stand-down order, no CIA intelligence failure and no cover-up in the killings of Ambassador Chris […]

Almost from its inception in 1974, Republicans have hated the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Ever since Capitol Hill's budget scorekeeper presciently predicted Ronald Ronald's magical tax cuts would produce oceans of red ink, the GOP has had the CBO in its crosshairs over its inconvenient truths about taxes, the economic stimulus, health care and more. […]

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. For two free health care clinics, that is. In Mena, Arkansas, the 9th Street Ministries free clinic closed its doors after 16 years, its services no longer needed by the low income residents in poverty-stricken Polk County who have now obtained health insurance […]

This week, House Republicans selected Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as the next chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. That lofty perch, the AP was quick to proclaim, gives Ryan "a high-profile platform if he decides to run for president in 2016 or beyond." But that's not the only perk for Mitt Romney's […]

For Democrats, the discovery that Romneycare and Obamacare consultant Jonathan Gruber is, well, a schmuck represents a triple whammy. For starters, the arrogance of anyone calling American voters "stupid" (or even just 47 percent of them) helps perpetuate every conservative stereotype of pointy-headed Northeastern elites. Worse still, Gruber is simply wrong that key aspects of […]

After months of delays, President Obama is poised to finally take executive action to address the crisis of America's 11 million undocumented immigrants, 85 percent of whom are estimated to have lived in the United States for at least five years. Relying on the same authority presidents of both parties have used for over 70 […]

A growing number of Republican senators are suggesting they will block the nomination of Loretta Lynch over the issue of "executive amnesty." If so, then no choice President Obama might make for attorney general could possibly be confirmed by the new GOP-controlled Senate. After all, the next head of the Justice Department will obviously agree […]

Among the many unintended--and disastrous--consequences of President Bush's war in Iraq was to replace the Sunni dictator in Baghdad with a sectarian Shiite government whose closest ally was naturally Iran. So, it was only common sense that President Obama would send a letter to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran regarding the ISIS […]

Rout. Thumpin'. Shellacking. Call it what you will, but Democrats suffered a defeat even more dispiriting than the larger 2010 drubbing that delivered the House majority to the GOP. More dispiriting, that is, because the state of the nation has improved so dramatically over the past four years. Unemployment is down to 5.9 percent and […]