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The GOP’s Lies And ‘Monstrous’ Lies
In politics these days, there are lies, “monstrous lies,” and statistics. By lies I mean the mundane nonsense that dribbles out of politicians’ mouths when the facts don’t suit them or they just don’t...
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The GOP’s Economic Sabotage
It was somewhere between hilarious and pathetic to watch Republicans respond to the positive jobs report last Friday. Some friends and I were counting the minutes until some Republican started casting...
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“At Odds With Reality”: Three Conservative Myths About Government
The Path to Prosperity blueprint of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan—the foundation for the budget that the House passed last week—reflects conservative politicians’ war on government. As my...
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“Government Is The Solution”: Healing The Economy For The Common Good
Why don’t Democrats just say it? They really believe in active government and think it does good and valuable things. One of those valuable things is that government creates jobs — yes, really — and...
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“The Incredible Shrinking Issue”: Lack Of Jobs, Not The Deficit, Is The...
Republicans gleeful over the recent slew of scandals afflicting the Obama administration – some imagined and some worthy of the name – should be thanking their lucky stars that they have new issues to...
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“Liberals, Conservatives, And The Meaning Of Work”: Ideological Republicans...
It appears that those who talk so much about “economic freedom” aren’t too happy when ordinary people have more choices. It isn’t often that we spend an entire week talking about a Congressional Budget...
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“Republicans Are Losing All Credibility On ObamaCare”: At Some Point, Voters...
Even before President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, GOP critics assailed it as a socialist, job-killing overreach indicative of a government run amok. In the years since, we’ve seen no...
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“Misrepresenting The Facts”: Obamacare Critics Still Tell Just One Side Of...
The economics profession is famous for its balance—as the joke goes, we always need more hands to express all the caveats to our conclusions. (“On the other hand … and on the other hand … and on the...
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“Minimum Truth”: The Hollow Argument Against Higher Wages
In the midst of a crucial political debate that plainly favored proponents of a higher minimum wage, the Congressional Budget Office dropped a bombshell headline this week. Increasing the minimum to...
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“Obamacare Won’t Cause Society To Collapse”: Americans Choosing To Work Less...
A small war has erupted over the recent Congressional Budget Office report on the employment effects of the Affordable Care Act. Last week, the CBO itself felt compelled to offer a lengthy and detailed...
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“The Larger Answers Must Come From Within”: The VA Reform Legislation Is A...
In the aftermath of the Veterans Affairs scandal, Democrats and Republicans are moving swiftly to pass legislation to fix the problems at the department. In their haste, though, policymakers have...
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“Sorry, Obamacare Denialists, You’re Insane”: Don’t Want To Be Called...
Conservative writer Philip Klein, who seems very nice, complains that liberals are being far too mean about the latest conservative attempt to gut Obamacare. “Liberal critics of this legal theory have...
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“Secret Deficit Lovers”: The GOP Deficit Scolds Are Having A Hard Time...
What if they balanced the budget and nobody knew or cared? O.K., the federal budget hasn’t actually been balanced. But the Congressional Budget Office has tallied up the totals for fiscal 2014, which...
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“Tax Cuts Pay For Themselves”: Behold, The Magic Kingdom Of Dynamic Scoring
While most citizens were distracted by the holidays, the enlarged Republican majority in Congress was laying golden pavers for its magical kingdom — a fabulous place where taxes are cut, military...
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“Making Stuff Up”: A Republican Ruse To Make Tax Cuts Look Good
As Republicans take control of Congress this month, at the top of their to-do list is changing how the government measures the impact of tax cuts on federal revenue: namely, to switch from so-called...
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“Absurdity Of The Argument Is It’s Greatest Strength”: Republicans Know Their...
On Thursday, the government filed its brief to the Supreme Court in the case that will determine whether Obamacare subsidies disappear in three dozen states. Its argument is comprehensive, but one part...
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“Dynamic Scoring Isn’t A Magical Tool”: Here’s How Conservatives Rig The...
When Republicans decided not to retain Doug Elmendorf as head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Democrats became concerned that conservatives would try to rig the budget process. When the GOP...
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“Completely Erroneous Impressions”: The Race Between Slander And Reality On...
Speaking of million pixel images, Sarah Kliff has an important piece at Vox today about perceptions of Obamacare five years in, and the big takeaway is how little has changed, in no small part because...
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“Making Congress More Stupider”: Making Congress Dumber Has Not, In Fact,...
You may recall Paul Glatris and Haley Sweetland Edwards’ cover article, “The Big Lobotomy,” from the June/July/August 2014 issue of the Washington Monthly. It documented how congressional Republicans...
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