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 […]

I have good news and bad news for Colorado Republican state senate candidate Jaxine Bubis. The bad news is that her would-be constituents now know that she authored a series of erotic novels under the name Jaxine Daniels, including the not-so-classic Beantown Heat. The good news is that publishing soft core porn is no barrier […]

In a campaign email to supporters Tuesday, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced he would reveal "exciting future plans" next Monday in San Antonio. But if Governor Perry is planning to pass up a fourth term in order to wage a second campaign for President, he will find he already has plenty of company from inside […]

God, it is often said, works in mysterious ways. Just ask Mike Huckabee. After all, the Baptist minister turned Arkansas governor turned Fox News host responded to the Supreme Court's marriage equality decisions this week by lamenting, "Jesus wept." But back in 2008, Huckabee had a different reaction to the passage of Proposition 8 that […]

As the New York Times documented last week, the choices and pricing of private health insurance will vary widely from state to state when the Affordable Care Act's exchanges launch this fall. In state-run marketplaces in California, Colorado and Oregon, residents will have a wide array of providers and plans to choose from. But in […]

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 […]

In recent week, a growing consensus of economists, analysts and political leaders has called for an end to U.S. fiscal austerity. Even as the influential Reinhart-Rogoff high-debt/low-growth thesis was being shredded, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) slashed its FY 2013 deficit forecast by $200 billion while Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that failure to […]

The arrival of season four of Arrested Development on Netflix may have been one of the most hyped developments in entertainment in recent years. But whether you loved it or hated it--or just didn't care--it's hard to dispute the lasting impact of the show. As Ben Yagodo explained in Slate, the tale of the Bluth […]