I had the privilege of attending the 2011 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards in this, a particularly special year -- the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty's dedication as a gift to the people of America from France.
I had the privilege of attending the 2011 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards in this, a particularly special year -- the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty's dedication as a gift to the people of America from France.
Amidst all of the relief that a government shutdown was averted, it was almost forgotten that for millions of Americans, the government has been effectively shut down for so long it is not even news.
In the political theater we have just witnessed, there has been madness aplenty: a madness which, unless challenged, will inevitably rewrite the entire Obama play, to his immediate detriment and to our long-term cost.
Complete transcript and audio at McDermottReport.com. LYNCHBURG - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Barack Obama is holding militar...
What's sickening about Republican rhetoric is that although they love to blame President Obama for the mounting national debt, about one-quarter of it is due to George Bush's policies
Twenty-five years before the Revolutionary War began, Reverend Jonathan Mayhew was credited for having coined the rallying cry, "No taxation without r...
The politicians aren't telling us the truth about the budget cuts, probably because we aren't asking. Well I did ask, and I got a Democratic leader defending a Republican leader's secrecy. That's the real story of the budget showdown.
Like Newt Gingrich, and others criticized President Clinton for an affair, despite having their own, some conservatives lecture us on our lack of financial discipline when they are not fiscal role models themselves.
The current U.S. budget confrontation raises the issue of whether we are a society, a community, or a collection of individuals inhabiting the same geographical space.
It was not necessary to shut down the government over a dispute involving less than one percent of the budget. What was done in Washington last week was extreme in the way that unskilled negotiators often act.
Never underestimate fear of change, particularly when what is required is a deep shift in attitude. Most of us are so conditioned to deploy both langu...
The president continues to legitimize the Republican claim that too much government spending caused the economy to tank, and that by cutting back spending we'll get the economy going again.
Three separate factors were particularly important to Boehner's decision to throw in the towel on the GOP demand that any deal eliminate government support for women's health clinics, including Planned Parenthood.
I look around and see a system that seems to be led by the politicians and for the politicians. The people -- on both ends -- seem to be left out of that equation.
What is actually in this spending cut? Neither the White House nor congressional leadership has shown the slightest interest in keeping the American people informed about any step of this process.
After six grueling weeks of playing Government Shutdown Chicken, President Obama, Harry Reid, and John Boehner all blinked, then went to their respective corners to celebrate. Boehner, holding up $38.5 billion in spending cuts -- and a provision banning the use of government funds to pay for abortions in the nation's capital -- was cheered by the GOP caucus. Reid, having kept the Republican axe from falling on Planned Parenthood and environmental regulations, deemed the deal "historic." And Obama wrapped the agreement in the mantle of all-American cooperation: "Americans of different beliefs came together again." Meanwhile, non-Beltway-locked Americans looked on with incredulity at the irrelevance of a budget battle that won't create jobs, won't improve the economy, and will barely move the needle on delivering a balanced budget. Memo to the president: You show leadership by producing a good economy, not hailing a compromise that will actually hobble the economy.
Free Choice Vouchers were a true marriage of both Democratic and Republican ideas and they were killed in Friday night's budget agreement.
The government didn't shut down last night, but is that really something to celebrate? Isn't "keeping the government functioning" kind of a baseline a...
President Obama acknowledged that the planned cuts were "painful" and not what he would have preferred. No kidding. This new plan is nearly $80 billion cheaper than the budget he had proposed.
This whole government shutdown walk-to-the-brink-and-stare-into-the-abyss thing is nothing more than the warmup for the next budgetary battles -- which will be much bigger.