The federal government is in the midst of a historic budget mess brought on by the Republicans’ irresponsibility. Bush and the GOP cut taxes for the wealthy by trillions of dollars, all the while promising the cuts would produce balanced budgets, and simultaneously boosted spending and launched wars without any sense of paying for them. […]
Suddenly, Howard Dean’s interest in integrating religious rhetoric into his campaign is all-the-rage with political reporters, leading to two major articles over the weekend in the Washington Post and the New York Times. The issue also came up in yesterday’s debate in Iowa. Dean defended his sudden inclusion of religious rhetoric, saying, “I have to […]
Aaron at naw noticed a terrific tidbit in a Washington Post article about Bush’s New Year break in Texas. Mark Knoller of CBS News, scrupulous keeper of records of presidential activity, reports that this visit is Bush’s 29th to his Texas ranch as president, so he has stopped at the ranch on all but three […]
Was is it me or did Bill Safire look awful yesterday on Meet the Press? I’m certainly not a regular fan of his work, but yesterday, the guy came across as barely coherent. He spoke interminably about his own use of the word “energize,” he appeared to have trouble remembering President Bush’s name, and he […]
Wesley Clark, after teasing the release of a “big idea” last week, unveiled the proposal this morning — a major overhaul of the U.S. tax code. At first glance, this looks like a political winner for Clark. Under the Clark plan, the top .1% of taxpayers will have their tax bracket increased by 5%, but […]
Last week saw two relatively high-profile political figures switch their party affiliation, one leaving the Dem Party to become a Republican, and the other leaving the GOP to become a Dem. While it’s never a good thing to have a public official abandon, and effectively denounce, your party, I’m inclined to argue that the Dems’ […]
Actually, there have been a few interesting developments since Friday. The Washington Post (which, by the way, seems to be the only paper interested in covering this scandal in any real detail) got the ball rolling — again — with an item from Mike Allen questioning whether the leaking of an undercover CIA agent’s identity […]
With nine candidates running for the Dem nomination, there’s been plenty of room for debates and disagreements. That’s to be expected. Each of the nine believes they should win and the other eight should just get out the way. Like most campaigns, electability — the idea that a candidate is better suited to win the […]
So far, the 2004 presidential race has been pretty mild when it comes to “big” ideas. None of the major Dem candidates are offering bold new policy positions, certainly nothing that could be referred to as “revolutionary.” Probably the closest they’ve come up with are plans for universal health care, but all of the competitive […]
Kevin Drum at Calpundit really seems to be on to something here — every time Congress gives itself a raise, it has to boost the minimum wage, too. “[F]or those who insist that raising the minimum wage would cause massive economic dislocation, I’d like to point out that Congress doubled the minimum wage in 1950 […]