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Rangel Charges Could Cost Democrats the House
Tweet Share on Facebook July 30, 2010 Comment (24)If the Democrats are extremely unlucky, former House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel is about to become the poster child for everything that is wrong with Washington.
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Thank Republicans for Clinton’s Bold Deficit Reduction Tactics
Tweet Share on Facebook July 30, 2010 Comment (8)In his often-trenchant criticism of supply-side shamanism, the New Republic’s Jonathan Chait tends to inflate the significance of President Clinton’s 1993 budget reconciliation package with its tax hike on the wealthy. He’s at it again here, as he chides a Wall Street Journal columnist for doubting whether tax increases can reduce the deficit.
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Snooki Was Just a Joke to Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook July 30, 2010 Comment (6)Yesterday on The View the hosts gave President Obama a pop-culture quiz. Joy Behar asked the president, “Should Snooki run as mayor of Wasilla?”
"I've got to admit, I don't know who Snooki is," Obama said. (Speaking of Wasilla, you could say he repudiated Snooki with that answer.)
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Environmentalists, Stop Whining and Follow the Tea Party Example
Tweet Share on Facebook July 30, 2010 Comment (13)It has been five years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the the Gulf Coast and four years since Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth demonstrated the dangers of global warming. And now thousands of Gulf Coast residents and small businesspeople are without their livelihoods because of BP’s big toxic dump in the ocean.
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Congress Passed an Arizona-Like Immigration Law in 1996
Tweet Share on Facebook July 30, 2010 Comment (49)Congress is always looking to get tough on something. It plays well on the campaign trail. Get tough on crime. Get tough on corporate ethics. Get tough on fanny packs and man purses. Just this year Congress got tough on Ford Motor Company by giving the administration millions of dollars to subsidize General Motors. [See which industries give the most to members of Congress.]
Back in 1996 (when fanny packs were still cool, in some circles) it was time to get tough on immigration, and an interesting little law was passed. Congress deemed it appropriate for state and local law enforcement to enforce immigration law. In the inscrutable manners of Washington (where all legislation seems to be named with insufferably cute acronyms or indecipherable legislative codes that read like security passwords), this law came to be known as 287g.
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California’s Fiscal Emergency a Microcosm of Americans’ Debt Concerns
Tweet Share on Facebook July 29, 2010 Comment (15)“It used to be that people had vague concerns about the deficit. They knew there was one, but it didn’t seem to really matter,” Republican Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told the Hill. “Now average people outside of politics are zoomed in on it. You go to the grocery store or the dry cleaners or some place and average people, they make comments about the debt, the deficit, and spending.”
Maybe they’re reacting to stories like this one, out this morning on the Reuters wire: “Schwarzenegger Declares California Fiscal Emergency.” Here’s why the governor had to declare an emergency:
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Sarah Palin and Rod Blagojevich: A Match Made in Reality TV Heaven
Tweet Share on Facebook July 29, 2010 Comment (5)It would be America's ultimate political reality show: Rod and Sarah, two ex-governors, bound to make out like bandits and discover their true soulmates--each other. In the finale, Sarah would promise to visit Rod in federal prison every chance she gets to be in the neighborhood. Ratings would be sky high for their teary goodbye.
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John Thune's Deficit Proposal Could Launch a 2012 Presidential Bid
Tweet Share on Facebook July 28, 2010 Comment (1)South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune garnered national attention in 2004 when he ousted Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle from the seat he had held since 1986. There have been a lot of eyes on him ever since.
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Wikileaks, Watergate, and Why We Must Banish the Baby Boomers
Tweet Share on Facebook July 28, 2010 CommentSeveral months ago, I invited one of the best of the up-and-coming journalists of the “new media”/“social networking” generation to address a class I teach on Congress. All went well until a student sought the guest's ideas on how civility might replace the partisan strife that characterizes so much of contemporary politics. "The first thing we have to do is get those 'baby boomers' both off the sets of cable news broadcasts and banished from both print and digital media," he said.
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5 Bad Democratic Policy Ideas
Tweet Share on Facebook July 28, 2010 Comment (2)Robert Schlesinger argues that the GOP has a few bad policy ideas. I strongly disagree with him and contend that because the Democrats run the White House and Congress, we have witnessed misguided and irresponsible policy proposals that are having a negative impact on our country. Here are five examples:
