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Obama's Payroll Tax Grinch Act Could Backfire
Tweet Share on Facebook December 6, 2011 Comment (10)It is increasingly clear that President Barack Obama's re-election strategy hinges on his ability to convince enough of the electorate that Congress is the problem, not him. He rhetoric on the subject is becoming increasingly strident as he calls out the chamber's Republican leaders for failing to pass a number of his initiatives, most lately the extension of the temporary cut in what employees contribute to Social Security.
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'Tis the Season: Congress Gets Ready to Tax and Spend Again
Tweet Share on Facebook December 6, 2011 Comment (4)It's that time of year again—alas, I don't mean when the world falls in love as in Karen Carpenter's rendition of a charming Christmas song. No, it's the countdown to the inevitable omnibus bill that Congress and President Obama will foist on an unsuspecting public before they recess for the holidays. To the uninitiated, omnibus is code for "political grab bag" and is the reward for our elected officials who could not get their jobs done according to the established budgetary process. House Republicans did their duty and passed a budget, but Senate Democrats have yet to do so (we're at about 900 days and counting, such is the quality of Sen. Harry Reid's leadership).
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'New Domesticity' Is a Step Backwards for Women
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2011 Comment (21)Reader, beware the seeds of a pseudo-retro trend sown on the Washington Post Outlook pages about a week ago by a 29-year-old woman: a "new domesticity" which elegant writer Emily Matchar hopes will come to a kitchen or garden near you.
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Newt Gingrich’s Ideas Aren't as Creative or Effective as He Thinks
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2011 Comment (8)Years ago, I remember an interview in which former Speaker Newt Gingrich said he read at least one book a week. The trick to doing so for such a busy man?
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On Income Inequality, GOP Is Terminally Tone Deaf
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2011 Comment (16)The electoral fate of politicians around the world may come down to this: is it class warfare or income inequality?
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Herman Cain Drops Out ... Weeks After It Mattered
Tweet Share on Facebook December 3, 2011 Comment (19)In the end, Herman Cain left the presidential race as he entered it—more a sideshow than a contender.
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Are Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney Really the Best the GOP Can Do?
Tweet Share on Facebook December 3, 2011 Comment (73)The big story this week was the Newt-vs.-Mitt choice that is shaping up in the early primary states. The big question is who is more gleefully ecstatic at this development: Newt or the left?
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Conservatives Attack Newt Gingrich With a Vengeance
Tweet Share on Facebook December 2, 2011 Comment (34)The speed with which House Speaker Newt Gingrich (predictably) shot to the top of the GOP field seems only to be matched by the force with which prominent conservatives have turned their fire on the new frontrunner (and self-proclaimed nominee-in-waiting). Not-Romney predecessors like Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Herman Cain at least got honeymoons. Perry was the knight in shining armor before proving a cowboy of the all hat and no cattle variety. And not even the (sober minded) pundits who never bought into the Cain boomlet blasted him with the force and vitriol Newt is receiving.
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Why Americans Think Politics Is Corrupt
Tweet Share on Facebook December 2, 2011 Comment (16)After living in Massachusetts, I left the Northeast for the first time to go to grad school at the University of Minnesota. While I lived in the Twin Cities, the Democratic Farmer-Labor Gov. Wendell Anderson was re-elected to a second term. At the beginning of his new term, the governor created a crisis in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes by making one of his money guys a member of his cabinet.
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Herman Cain Is Not Going to Drop Out
Tweet Share on Facebook December 1, 2011 Comment (13)By now it is positively trite to say that Herman Cain's presidential bid has been rocked by allegations of sexual indiscretions. After initially seeming to have weathered the storm, Cain's numbers have fallen and pollsters are reporting that a measurable portion of his support is moving to other candidates.
