Democrats Still Playing Defense
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on April 11th, 2011 4:31 am by HL
Democrats Still Playing Defense
Michael Barone, Washington Examiner
One of the things that fascinates me about American politics is how the voices of the voters as registered in elections and polls are transformed into changes in public policy. It's a rough and ready process, with plenty of trial and error. But for all its imperfections the political market seems to work. Three developments during the past week illustrate this process. Developments, not results, because each is part of an ongoing struggle that will not be resolved soon.
Next on the Agenda a Fight Over Debt
Jackie Calmes, New York Times
WASHINGTON — The down-to-the-wire partisan struggle over cuts to this year’s federal budget has intensified concern in Washington, on Wall Street and among economists about the more consequential clash coming over increasing the government’s borrowing limit.Congressional Republicans are vowing that before they will agree to raise the current $14.25 trillion federal debt ceiling — a step that will become necessary in as little as five weeks — President Obama and Senate Democrats will have to agree to far deeper spending cuts for next year and…
The GOP’s War on the Weak
Jonathan Chait, The Daily Beast
by Jonathan Chait Info Jonathan Chait is a senior editor of The New Republic.In this week's Newsweek, Jonathan Chait looks at how the GOP came to view the poor as parasites—and the rich as our rightful rulers.Last week the Republican Party sounded two distinct voices. First we heard the angry demands of the Tea Party, speaking through its hardline conservative allies in the House, pushing the government to the brink of a shutdown. But then emerged the soothing tones of Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, who…
