Jonathan Bernstein: Happy Hour Roundup
15 Feb 2012 12:23am GMT The breaking news this evening is about a possible deal on unemployment insurance benefits and the Doc Fix to go with yesterday’s cave by Republicans on the payroll tax. Which would, if it happens and then passes, close the door on last year’s budget items just in time for everyone to ignore this year’s (since everyone also agrees that everything from this year will be put off until after the election).The rest of the good stuff: Read full article >> ...
Greg Sargent: Elizabeth Warren hits Scott Brown over birth control, health care
14 Feb 2012 10:33pm GMT The battle over birth control that has enveloped Washington is widely seen as a revival of culture-war politics. But if Elizabeth Warren has her way, it will become an economic issue — and it will help drive the Massachusetts Senate race. Read full article >>
Greg Sargent: Who has the leverage now?
14 Feb 2012 8:10pm GMT Nancy Pelosi, in a statement just now, said Democrats will support the House GOP plan to pass a stand-alone extension of the payroll tax cut without paying for it: “The House Republican leadership plans to bring to the floor a stand-alone payroll tax cut extension bill tomorrow. We have long proposed bringing this tax cut to the floor without payfors and House Democrats will support it so that taxes are not raised on 160 million working Americans, but this should not be a substitute for...
Greg Sargent: Americans love the safety net
14 Feb 2012 5:45pm GMT The other day, Mitt Romney claimed that he’s “not concerned about the very poor,” a clumsy way of arguing that the middle class, not the least fortunate, are the ones who have suffered most from the recession and would be the primary focus of his presidency. Read full article >>
Greg Sargent: Despite birth control controversy, Obama suffers no erosion among Catholics
14 Feb 2012 3:55pm GMT Since the birth control controversy broke, it has been an article of faith among even some neutral commentators that the battle would cause Obama to lose crucial support among Catholic swing voters. But Gallup has performed a new analysis of its tracking data that should complicate this assertion: It finds that Obama has suffered no meaningful downturn in recent days among that consistuency, even among church-going Catholics. Read full article >>