Oh, my. Who could ever have thought that Republican members of Congress would turn out to be hypocrites about earmarks? At the beginning of the 112th Congress, a wave of Republicans swept into control of the U.S. House of Representatives, pledging fiscal restraint. One of the first policy changes instituted by the new Republican majority was to institute a moratorium […]

Ezra Klein makes a truly interesting point this morning with regards to the failure of the Deficit Commission “Super Committee”. Their failure to come to an agreement and the trigger pulled by that outcome is a dream situation for progressives. Imagine if the Democrats offered Republicans a deficit deal that had more than $3 in tax increases for every $1 […]

Turns out the Republicans’ retaliatory efforts to recall Democrats in Michigan was just an effort to collect contact information. Yesterday, Michigan Republican Party ended its recall drives against Democrats. Michigan Republicans have halted their efforts to recall state Democratic lawmakers, a spokesman said today. Stu Sandler, a consultant to the Michigan GOP who was organizing more than a dozen recall […]

Apparently Michigan Governor Rick Snyder didn’t get the memo. From a Mackinac Center-sponsored event a couple of weeks ago, here is the Governor speaking about keynote speaker Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels during his introduction: But when people were talking about people that should run for president, Gov. Daniels … really would have been an outstanding candidate. Again, I’ll be blunt, […]

We all knew it, right? But it’s especially painful to hear it put so bluntly. Rep. Loretta Sanchez from California: Interviewer: Harry Reid said yesterday, and frankly we’ve heard this from a lot of Democrats, the Republicans oppose the jobs bill for political reasons, that it helps them if the economy stays in bad shape. But, is that fair? Sanchez: […]

Senate Republicans today blocked a vote on yet another one of the components of President Obama’s jobs plan today. This one would have invested $60 billon in building and repairing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and was fully paid for by a 0.7% (!!!) surcharge on income over $1 million. A bridge too far for Republicans, apparently. Republicans in the Senate […]

I’m begining to come to the sad realization that our Republican-led US Congress is completely hopeless. They haven’t introduced a single jobs-creation bill but have time for all sorts of frivolities like honoring cheap, crappy fast food. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) on Tuesday honored White Castle with a congressional tribute to the “tasty little burgers” and the company that serves […]

New Jersey Senate candidate Phil Mitsch says women should be “whores in the bedroom. Well, to be fair, he has apologized. But not before saying some other (not) awesome things by way of giving “relationship tips”. First, he tweeted (TWEETED!): “Women, you increase your odds of keeping your men by being faithful, a lady in the living room and a […]

Herman Cain has a plan. It’s a plan with a catchy title. He calls it the 9-9-9 plan. It stands for a 9% across the board income tax rate for individuals, a 9% across the board corporate income tax, and a 9% across the board national sales tax. Cain says our tax code today is “the 21st century version of […]

This past week, Rep. Tim Walberg (MI-07) sponsored a jobs fair. So far, so good. I’ve been waiting for him to do something, anything related to jobs so I view this sort of thing favorably. Unfortunately, the fair doesn’t appear to have been very successful. On Wednesday, I hosted a Job Resource Fair at the Jackson County Fair Grounds. This […]

On Mackinac Island at the GOP Leadership Conference this week, Governor Rick Snyder got a frigid reception from tea party types on his position on a new bridge to Canada, Right to Work for Less bills, and a new proposal for doctors to report children’s body mass indices in an effort to curb childhood obesity. The question, at this point, […]