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“Driving While Impaired”: After Falling In Sequester Ditch, GOPers Look For...
Remember the Republicans’ debt-ceiling crisis in 2011? It was about a year and a half ago when GOP leaders handed President Obama a ransom note: accept more than $2 trillion in debt reduction or the...
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“Kick That Can”: Fiscal Austerity Should Wait Until The Economy Has Recovered
John Boehner, the speaker of the House, claims to be exasperated. “At some point, Washington has to deal with its spending problem,” he said Wednesday. “I’ve watched them kick this can down the road...
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“Weather Vane Man”: Tracking Paul Ryan’s 5 Different Positions On The Sequester
House Republicans are attempting to blame Democrats and President Obama for “sequestration,” the automatic budget cuts that will begin taking effect on March 1 if Congress fails to avert them. But even...
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“Let’s Take Healthcare Away”: Lindsey Graham Struggles With Fiscal Basics
There was an exchange yesterday between Fox News’ Chris Wallace and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that was hard to watch, but nevertheless illustrative of a larger point. WALLACE: You know that if we go...
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“No Good Choices”: Sequestration Is Here And Danger Lies Ahead
At midnight, $85 billion in federal budget funds will be sequestered (that is, held back) by the Treasury Department, with the potential to cause real pain for the economy and many Americans if...
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“A Lot Of Homework To Do”: Rand Paul’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad...
It’s probably safe to say Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has had better weeks. Just over the last few days he started to lose his cool on NPR when asked about a neo-confederate he co-authored a book with; he...
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“Paul Lunges For The Reagan Mantle”: His Government-Shrinking Visions Just...
Yesterday I wrote skeptically about Ross Douthat’s “spitballing” scenario whereby the two parties could undergo a role reversal on foreign policy in 2016 with “interventionist” Hillary Clinton pushing...
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“Et Tu, Leon?”: Continuing The Tradition Of Those Who Feel Ungrateful...
So let’s say you’re a former congressman, CIA director and Secretary of Defense. You (and probably a ghost or two) have been noodling with a memoir for a long time. You’re finally out of office and...
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“Why Obama’s Budget Matters”: Differences Within The GOP That Could Be...
When President Obama releases his budget on Monday, the words “dead on arrival” will be widely incanted because they are part of a quasi-religious Beltway ritual. This year, those words will be...
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“Republicans Can Kiss Medicare Privatization Goodbye”: GOP Has A Vice Grip On...
For the last four years Republicans have used their small power perch in the House of Representatives to prime members for the day when they’d control the whole government. During each of those years,...
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“Gimmicky Nature Of The Contingency Fund”: The Intra-GOP Budget Fight Grows...
At the beginning of a week where action was scheduled to begin on a FY 2016 congressional budget resolution, it looked like Republicans were on the brink of a big split between fiscal hawks in the...
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“The Right’s Word-Deed Problem”: Republicans Rely On All Sorts Of Magic...
Briefly, there seemed a chance we might have a cross-party discussion of the biggest economic problem the country faces: the vexing intersection of wage stagnation, declining social mobility and rising...
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“Why The House Republican Budget Plan Matters”: Predicated On The Assumption...
“A budget is a moral document,” Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) said two weeks ago. “It talks about where your values are.” Those comments from a conservative member of the House Budget Committee happen to be...
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“How Rand Paul Is Losing His Distinctiveness”: He’s About As Libertarian As...
As the 2016 presidential race has swung into motion in the last couple of months, we’ve heard a lot about Jeb Bush, and Scott Walker, and even Ted Cruz. But there hasn’t been a lot of news about Rand...
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“Notably Absent From This Debate”: Why Won’t Rand Paul And Chris Christie...
Nearly a week since Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), igniting a nationwide debate about whether the controversial law invites discrimination based on...
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“Libertarian-ish, Not A Libertarian”: Rand Paul Becomes Less Of A Libertarian...
On Tuesday in Louisville, Kentucky, Senator Rand Paul will officially kick off his campaign for president. As the New York Times reported Monday, his father, former Congressman Ron Paul, will be right...
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“There’s Plenty Of Money, Really”: Congressional Republicans Continue To Make...
Don’t think for a second that congressional Republicans sincerely believe draconian cuts in federal spending stimulate the economy. I know. They uniformly claim that spending cuts spark growth. But...
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“The Stench Of Death”: No White House For You, Rand Paul
All happy campaigns are alike, but each unhappy campaign is unhappy in its own way. Those unique experiences of campaign failure provide some of the best entertainment of the long and arduous journey,...
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“Crying About The Deficit Is A GOP Tool”: Can We Stop Pretending That...
Congress is about to pass a package that will keep the government operating through next September. And in order to sweeten the deal for conservative Republicans who would rather not spend money to...
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