Among the most mysterious moments in President Obama's puzzling performance in Wednesday's debate with Mitt Romney was his response to a question about Social Security. "I suspect that on Social Security," the President said, "We've got a somewhat similar position." Obama couldn't have been more wrong. As it turns out, Mitt Romney doesn't merely want […]

Though not yet 24 hours old, the Republicans' Romney-Ryan ticket is already drawing fire for both men's plans for the "voucherization of Medicare." As it turns out, there's another reason Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan should worry America's seniors and the millions more soon to join them. Both supported President Bush's aborted scheme to privatize […]

In February 2009, President Obama delivered what Steve Benen rightly described as the largest two-year tax cut in American history. Nevertheless, the New York Times asked in the run-up to the 2010 midterms, "What if a president cut Americans' income taxes by $116 billion and nobody noticed?" What happened, of course, was the Democrats' drubbing […]

As the Supreme Court prepares to decide the fate of the 2010 Affordable Care, recent polling from Reuters and the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that Americans support its major provisions except for one. The individual mandate to purchase private health insurance beginning in 2014, the part of the ACA most likely to be struck down […]

Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan has become the perfect Republican Easter story. Each spring, Ryan reemerges with a new version of his draconian "Roadmap for America's Future." Despite being crucified each time by most Democrats, much of the press and even some members of his own party, Ryan nevertheless rises again, earning more followers (like Mitt […]

As the New York Times suggested last week, the fate of President Obama's Affordable Care Act in general and its mandate that Americans obtain health insurance in particular may hinge on Justice Anthony Kennedy's notion of "liberty." While Solicitor General Donald Verilli posited "a profound connection" between health care and liberty, his opponent Paul Clement […]

After another bad day for the Affordable Care Act at the Supreme Court, voices across the political spectrum are already pondering life after death for health care reform. Conservative Ross Douthat and liberal James Carville agree that overturning the ACA will help President Obama get reelected. Meanwhile, statements by Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney seemed […]

During last week's Republican debate in Mesa, Arizona, GOP co-frontrunners Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney claimed "courage" and "resolute" as the single words which respectively best described them. If so, the two rivals might want to take a look back at their records on Social Security. After all, in 2005 Santorum was the GOP point […]

"Where's the beef?" With that sound bite, Walter Mondale deflated the insurgent bid of the "candidate of new ideas" Gary Hart for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination.* Twenty-eight years later, rising Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich may be about to have his own "where's the beef" moment. But the growing criticism from left and […]

If nothing else, former House Speaker and new GOP front-runner Newt Gingrich is all about keeping his options open. After all, Newt has gone through three religions and three wives. As it turns out, when it comes to Medicare, Social Security and the tax code, President Gingrich wants Americans to have options as well. In […]