Steve Benen

Mitt Romney was on the campaign trail in South Carolina yesterday, and brought up the issue he expects to ride into the White House: the U.S. economy. Unfortunately for the former governor, the message isn’t quite the same as it was a few months ago. In his remarks [Friday], Romney also acknowledged the economy was […]

As a matter of policy and politics, John Bolton isn’t making any sense. (thanks to reader V.S. for the tip) Speaking before a crowd of veterans in Hilton Head, SC at a campaign event for Mitt Romney, former United Nations ambassador John Bolton dismissed the notion that President Barack Obama deserves any credit for the […]

NBC News reported yesterday that Mitt Romney made a “slight tweak to his usual campaign message” during an appearance in South Carolina yesterday. Traditionally on the stump and in debates, Romney says the poor are “taken care of” by the country’s social safety net. Today he appeared to call for reinforcing that net, in addition […]

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had a little fun at the GOP leadership’s expense this week, mocking the Speaker and Majority Leader for their recent globetrotting. As Dems see it, these guys have more pressing matters at hand. With House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor on separate overseas trips, Democrats are taking […]

A couple of years ago, Republican policymakers in Arizona thought they’d come up with a clever idea: they’d put the state capitol up for sale. Seriously. For GOP officials, it checked off a lot of boxes: the state needed the money; the sale would signal a real commitment to austerity, and it would be the […]

First up from the God Machine this week is an important Supreme Court ruling on employment discrimination and a “ministerial exception.” In what may be its most significant religious liberty decision in two decades, the Supreme Court on Wednesday for the first time recognized a “ministerial exception” to employment discrimination laws, saying that churches and […]

Today’s edition of quick hits: * Eurozone: “Standard & Poor’s Corp. on Friday stripped France of its sterling credit rating, cut Portugal’s credit to junk status and downgraded Italy’s debt by two steps in a wide-ranging action revision of European countries caught in the euro crisis. The actions, which lowered the ratings of nine countries, […]

Paul Krugman noted this morning that Mitt Romney tells so many falsehoods so often, he seems determined to rehabilitate George W. Bush’s reputation “by running a campaign so dishonest that it makes Bush look like a model of truth-telling.” Krugman added, “I mean, is there anything at all in Romney’s stump speech that’s true?” Well, […]

Suzy Khimm offers a great example of budget cuts costing, not saving, us money. The Internal Revenue Service got hit with a 2.5 percent budget cut for 2012, paring back money for tax enforcement even as tax compliance has gotten worse. The agency got $300 million less than in the previous year — including $193 […]

As the White House explained this morning, there are currently six major federal departments or agencies that focus on business and/or trade: the U.S. Department of Commerce’s core business and trade functions, the Small Business Administration, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S. Trade […]