Elections

Budget Battles

  • Why the Reviled Tea Party Was Right about Obamacare

    By Liz Peek

    Before we march the Tea Party off to the Guillotine, let’s remember what fired up that unruly crew to begin with. In the midst of the economic crisis, the government went on a spending spree,...

  • GOP Wants to Talk, but Will We Get Any Action?

    By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

    House Speaker John Boehner said all he wants is a “conversation” about the budget and the debt ceiling, before the week-old government shutdown is joined by what could be a recession-inducing default...

  • Are Chinese policymakers signaling a broader reluctance to buy U.S. debt?

    Washington’s Mess Damages U.S. Global Standing

    By Patrick Smith

    Nobody will ever put up a neon sign or a billboard announcing that the U.S. has taken another step toward decline in its global position. Neither is American decline inevitable, as the so-called “...

  • The Deep-Seated Roots of Divisive U.S. Politics

    By Dan Balz, The Washington Post

    The government shutdown did not happen by accident. It is the latest manifestation — an extreme one by any measure — of divisions long in the making and now deeply embedded in the country’s politics...

  • Yes, Mr. Boehner, Government Shutdown Is a Game

    By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

    “This isn’t some damn game,” Boehner said at a news conference. But, let’s be clear, this has a lot of the characteristics of gamesmanship. Just because the economic consequences are massive from a...