Tag: steve benen

In the last 12 months the economy added 2.38 million jobs and 2014 is on track to be the best year for job creation since 1999. Also: 1 million jobs gained in the health care sector since Obamacare passed into law.

Conservative celebrity Sarah Palin and right-wing blogger Erick Erickson are just two of the high profile far-right leaders disparaging Speaker of the House John Boehner for the budget deal he hammered out with President Obama and Democratic Senate leaders last week. Colorado "liberty movement" talk radio hosts are unhappy. Colorado Tea Party freshmen Congressmen Scott Tipton and Cory Gardner as well as Colorado Springs conservative Doug Lamborn broke with the Speaker and voted against the budget. But Boehner can't go back on the deal and he won't likely win over the Tiptons and Palins and Ericksons with a lecture on the delayed gratification of budget cutting and the difference between outlays and spending. On the contrary, it would just make him seem more establishment. So instead, Boehner followed the lead of GOP presidential hopefuls and took a provocative and distracting stand against gay rights.

Roughly since Obama took office, the Tea Party has led the charge in tying the president to higher taxes and job loss. Democrats have...

Fox News Host Bill O'Reilly has said that, given its enormous viewership, Fox News is where "you have to come" to know what's happening...