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Robert L. Borosage: Bushwacking Obama: Conservative Call for "Fixing" Social Security
Beware of Conservatives bearing gifts. Today in the Washington Post,, former Bush policy advisor, Michael Gerson echoes a growing chorus of conservatiuve pundits offering up "Social Security reform" as "the answer to Obama's problems." The advice is illogical on its face, pernicious in its consequence, and poisoned from its source. Gerson argues that Obama faces a major strategic decision in his coming State of the Union address, which must take the "first cut at the Reelection message he car...

Partisan Congress to mix cooperation and conflict
WASHINGTON -- When the 112th Congress convenes on Jan. 5, it will have a new look, a feisty new attitude and a penchant for Partisanship. Republicans will have their biggest House of Representatives majority since the Truman administration in the late 1940s, and, they believe, a mandate to slash spending dramatically and overturn President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law. But their chances of success are dim, since Democrats will still control the White House and the Senate. That makes the...

Does Scott Brown have Mass? | James Antle
During his 1996 Reelection campaign, Congressman Peter Blute ran a clever ad. The two-term Massachusetts Republican sat at a table between pictures of President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, using the props to demonstrate his independence. When the Democrats wanted to raise taxes, Blute voted with Gingrich, he explained as he pulled the speaker's mug toward him. But when Gingrich proposed radical Spending Cuts, Blute told viewers he voted with Clinton and reached for the presiden...

Obama to delay 2012 budget by about week: official
HONOLULU (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, who has pledged to tackle long-term U.S. Debt and Deficit challenges, will delay the delivery of his Fiscal Year 2012 Budget by about a week until after February 14. An administration official said on Monday the delay was due to the long time it took for the U.S. Senate to confirm Jack Lew as Obama's new Budget director, and because funding decisions for 2011 went so late into the year. The Democratic president nominated Lew in July but the appointmen...

The White House Delays Its Budget
President Obama will delay the release of his Budget for the government's 2012 fiscal year by about a week. It should be sent to Congress and the public on or around Feb. 14, according to the Administration. The White House said a delay in the confirmation of the new Budget director, Jack Lew, was partially to blame. Another reason given was that Congress was late to make government funding decisions at the end of this year. Sponsored Links The President may have a difficult time getting hi...

No More Mister Nice Blog
THE $100 BILLION QUESTION What will Orange Julius slice from the Budget to keep his $100 billion spending reduction promise? Here's a hint: it's not going to be from defense. Republicans view their midterm electoral victory as a mandate to cut spending, and cutting $100 billion from a $3 Trillion federal Budget sounds like a reasonable goal. But GOP leaders say they will focus only on non-security Discretionary Spending, and won't slash funding for defense, Social Security or Medicare. That ...

Starve the Beast: The Republican Plan to De-Fund the Health Care Law
Jim Angle, Fox News Republicans have made absolutely clear what they intend to do to block the new Health Care law — starve it. Incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, recently told Fox that “We can dent this, kick it, slow it down to make sure it never happens. And trust me,” he emphasized, “I’m going to make sure this Health Care bill never ever, ever is implemented.” Brad Blakeman, who worked in the Bush White House agrees, saying, “The...

Monday's campaign round-up
MONDAY'S CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP.... Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * It's not quite a concession, but Alaska's Joe Miller (R) announced last night he will not oppose certification of Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R) write-in re-election win. Miller will, however, take his pointless fight to the federal courts, after striking out in state courts. * Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), who h...

The Top 10 Political Moments of 2011
It's end-of-year time, and that means Journalists and pundits, looking to survive the news dead-zone of the Holiday Season, toss out the easy-to-compile Top 10 lists. The Top 10 political events of the year. The Top 10 quotes of the year. The Top Ten campaign ads of the year. And so on. Well, anyone can use Google to assemble such a feature. I'm going to do a little more and offer you a list of the Top 10 political moments of the coming year. After all, in the world of punditing, it is never to ...

House GOP Loosens Strictures on Deficit Spending
House Republicans are loosening the rules that allow using 'Budget Reconciliation' to increase the federal Deficit. The key is that deficits created by Tax Cuts are permissible but those created by spending hikes are not. ...

The Economic Year in Review
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. As we look back on the year that is limping to an end, there is little—not nothing, just little—to cheer about. The year opened with the headline Unemployment Rate at 9.7 percent, and the rate including workers too discouraged to look for work or involuntarily on short-time (the U-6 rate, in the jargon of the trade) at 16.5 percent of the work force. It is closing with the headline rate close to 10 percent and the U-6 ra...

Healthcare repeal tops list of Obamas showdowns with GOP
President Obama and Republicans taking over the House are girding for a series of showdowns set to begin almost immediately after Congress resumes next week. At stake is not only the direction of government over the next two years, but whether it will function at all. The last Congress failed to approve a single appropriations bill, and funding for the government dries up the first week of March. Lawmakers and the White House are set for serious Budget negotiations that will begin immediately ...

Zadroga bill: I'm fine being bad guy if it saves U.S., Sen. Coburn says
WASHINGTON - The Oklahoma senator who tried to scuttle the 9/11 health bill insists he wanted to wring out unnecessary costs, not deny benefits to seriously ill First Responders. Republican Tom Coburn, the Senate's most relentless foe of excessive federal spending, told "Fox News Sunday" legislators must be willing to make politically unpopular decisions to avoid fiscal disaster for the country - like 15%-18% Unemployment. "Just like on the 9/11 bill this last week," Coburn said. "I took all t...

Now That Tax Cuts For The Rich Are Extended, Coburn Calls On The Rich To Sacrifice To A Greater Extent
Earlier this month, after President Obama made a deal with congressional Republicans, Congress passed a bill to extend the Bush-era Tax Cuts for two years, in exchange for a 13-month Unemployment Insurance extension. Obama and most Democrats begrudged giving the rich more Tax Breaks, but Republicans rejoiced. Before the deal, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) fiercely advocated for extending the cuts for the rich. Despite the more than $800 billion cost to extend them, Coburn argued that Tax Cuts donR...

Study Finding Fox News Viewers Are Misinformed Was Bogus (video)
The study from the University of Maryland and WordPublicOpinion.org was bogus. Here is a video debunking. It is well worth your 21 minutes. Prepare to receive an education. Carol's Blog! Illegal Aliens Now Get Free Heart Surgery and Cancer Treatment - Free heart surgery for illegals is insane unless it is an emergency. Providing emergence medical services wasn't good enough for the Obama administratio... Funny Video: Burka Woman - Saad Haroon - Takeoff on Pretty Woman called Burkha Woman...

New GOP House rules pave the way for more tax cuts for wealthy, slashing spending
The incoming House GOP majority has adopted new rules that, according to Robert Greenstein and James Horney at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "clearly designed to pave the way for more Deficit-increasing Tax Cuts in the next two years." Not just tax cuts, but sharply reduced spending. Current House rules include a pay-as-you-go requirement that any tax cut or spending increase for a mandatory (i.e., entitlement) program must be offset by cuts in other mandatory spending or increase...

Rand Paul's Unkindest Cut
My new Senator-elect says he's going to load down major bills with Spending Cut amendments, but like most Republicans he has no specifics as to what will get the axe. Paul (Ky.) — who won his race with strong support from the Tea Party movement — said that he will "pressure" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to take simple majority votes on Spending Cut amendments in the next Congress. "I think that every piece of major Legislation that goes forward from now on needs to have...

Britons fear hard year ahead amid austerity cuts: poll
Two-thirds of Britons believe The Economy will fare badly in 2011 as harsh Austerity cuts designed to tackle a record Deficit begin to bite, a poll showed on Monday. One in five also said they could see themselves being involved in demonstrations against the Spending Cuts introduced by the government. The findings in the survey for The Times newspaper highlight fears of a bleak year ahead in Britain, where the recently formed Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government is seeking to make ...

The Night Before Christmas
* Bumped Up * For those preparing to celebrate Christmas I wish you a time of Peace, Intimacy and Joy with you family and friends. For those who don’t believe in Christmas and are on the outside looking in, well, have a good time too. Take advantage of stores being closed and life slowing down to get some rest. You don’t have to be a Christian to enjoy the lights and good cheer that should accompany a Christmas celebration. We will wake up tomorrow (hopefully) with our health and l...

Bipartisan Boogie
In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers - a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss - we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive addition...

Obama's stealth end-of-life regulation: Palin's 'death panels' made Dems do it
"If you can't legislate it, enforce it," says Tucker Carlson, sitting in for Sean Hannity on Fox , as he slammed the Obama Administration for dishonesty - specifically  sneaking back into ObamaCare  what Sarah Palin labeled  the 'Death Panel's'" end-of-life planning. At that time, Sarah Palin warned of a slippery slope to euthanasia for the elderly, the sick and the disabled and America's response echoed Palin's "Not no, but hell no!".  Now it's back. As per the New York Time...

Tea Partier Throws Hat in Ring Against Senator Webb
This should be fun! The 2012 Senate campaign has its first Tea Party Candidate. Jamie Radtke, head of the Virginia Federation of Tea Party Patriots, has filed federal papers to run for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat now held by Virginia Democrat James Webb. The race is expected to be a crowded one. Former Sen. George Allen, who lost to Mr. Webb in 2006, looks increasingly likely to jump into the fray, as does Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County board of supervi...

A Whole Wide World Of Bank Bailouts
Boy, we sure are generous as Americans, taking it on the chin here at home while Taxpayers helped to bail out non-US banks. CNBC and the Financial Times: More than half of Lending under the Fed’s term auction facility - the largest of its crisis programs - went to foreign banks. Details of the varied uses to which they put it may add to political criticism of the Fed. The Taf was set up in December 2007 to provide one-month loans to creditworthy banks as markets dried up for le...

Tuesday: crying all the way to the bank
Promises, Promises . . . They say President Obama is a little testy these days when questioned about some of his unfulfilled promises. And who wouldn’t be grumpy? WE might have known Obama was just saying what he had to say to get through the (long) primary and election seasons. But, a fair number of voters fell under the sway of his pretty words and they’re starting to wonder what happened to some of his shiny presents: The promises Obama wants you to keep forgetting In early Dece...

Dems say new GOP plan to repeal healthcare would increase deficit
Democrats are pouncing on a Republican plan to Repeal the Healthcare Reform law, accusing Republicans of breaking their campaign promise to reduce the Deficit. Under new Budget rules released by Republicans, the House could Repeal the Healthcare Reform law without offsetting the $143 billion that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates it will shave from the deficit over 10 years. The new rules allow the Budget Committee to “make appropriate Budget adjustments” to account for the ...