Just like deciphering the start of a problem in grade school, you always got to look deep into the facts to distill rightwing rhetoric. Since the Tucson shooting the right has strummed up the chorus to scream and shout that the left needs to stop politicizing the event. While there was some politicization from the […]
There is still a lot of debate over Sarah Palin’s crosshairs map and if it should be relevant to the tragedy this weekend. This article tells us why it is very relative: For Arizona Congressman Harry Mitchell, the threats were verbal, conveyed in messages left at his office. “I cannot tell you how much I […]
In another example of the hypocrisy we see from the GOP, let’s have a look at that old “demon pass”: Emphasis added. Back in March 2010, House Democrats were toying with using a similar process to pass health care reform. They were considering the Senate health care package, which they hated, and a package of […]
Who needs Wikileaks? At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News’ controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network’s journalists not to use the phrase “public option.” Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox’s reporters should use “government option” and similar phrases — wording that a top Republican pollster […]
I just love hearing Republicans talk about “cutting the budget”, yet when asked for specifics they never can. That’s what happened with teabagger darlings Rand Paul and Jim DeMint yesterday: DeMint came the closest to naming specifics, but I would expect more from someone who has been in the Senate since 2005 and proclaims to […]
Caroline Baum from Bloomberg has some very interesting advice for Democrats this fall: Congressional Democrats like to blame former President George W. Bush for just about everything: the lousy economy, high unemployment, trillion-dollar deficits, two wars – and probably the bedbug epidemic in New York City. With the 2010 midterm elections 10 weeks away, Democrats […]
Robert Gibbs has issued a statement trying to walk back his critique of the “professional left” in an interview with The Hill. Here’s Gibbs statement (via The Plum Line) I watch too much cable, I admit. Day after day it gets frustrating. Yesterday I watched as someone called legislation to prevent teacher layoffs a bailout […]
Following up on my earlier post about the Republicans not worrying about the deficit if it helps the rich, I decided to post this little graph. It really puts a perspective on the current budget deficit and who is ultimatley responsible for it. Fareed Zakaria, writing an article entitled “Raise My Taxes, Mr. President!” in […]
Right after health care reform passed, we started hearing teabaggers and Republicans shouting for repeal. Now it looks like that might not be happening so much: Anxious backers of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law are starting to see a flicker of hope. While polls show Americans remain sharply divided over the Democrats’ landmark […]
One of the biggest fears I had with the health care reform bill was insurers coming up with creative accounting methods to circumvent the requirements that they spend 85% of premiums on health care related costs. Now that fear is becoming a reality: Some of the largest U.S. health insurers are changing their accounting practices […]