2012 Elections

Budget Battles

  • The Great Debate

    Five Debate Moments that Changed Elections

    By Robert Speel, The Conversation

    Every presidential election year in my American Political Campaigns and Elections course, I get an opportunity to spend a full lecture discussing with students some of the famous moments from...

  • House panel says IRS official waived rights, contempt possible

    Lois Lerner Is Cleared, Sparking Conservative Fury

    By Rob Garver

    Concluding that “poor management is not a crime,” the Justice Department on Friday informed members of Congress that it would not be filing criminal charges against anyone in what has become known as...

  • GOP Leaders Take on Far Right Pressure Groups

    By Eric Pianin

    There have been plenty of theories about why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) strode onstage at a conservative gathering late last week carrying a rifle. Ostensibly, McConnell, the 72-...

  • Romney: If Hillary Runs, She Won’t Need Bill

    By Thomas Ferraro, Reuters

    Failed 2012 U.S. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said on Sunday he expects Hillary Clinton to win or lose the White House on her record, not that of her husband, former Democratic...

  • Joint Session of Congress

    Voters Give a Thumbs-Down to Their Own Lawmakers

    By Eric Pianin

    In another sign of public outrage over a dysfunctional and politically divided Congress, a record low percentage of registered voters now say their own House member deserves another chance while even...

  • Don’t Count on a Real Tax Cut If Romney Is Elected

    By Josh Boak and Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times

    Don’t automatically hold Mitt Romney to his promise of trimming income tax rates for everyone by 20 percent, one of the few specifics and defining principles in his plan for jumpstarting the sluggish...

  • Fiscal Cliff: Lawmakers May Push Deadline to 2013

    By Richard Cowan, Reuters

    Slowly and quietly, the U.S. Congress may be arriving at a consensus on how to avoid falling off the "fiscal cliff" on December 31 - by simply putting off its own deadline for most of the major year-...

  • America's Hidden Unemployed: Campaign Challenge

    By Lucia Mutikani, Reuters

    Economists, analyzing government data, estimate about 4 million fewer people are in the labor force than in December 2007, primarily due to a lack of jobs rather than the normal aging of America's...

  • U.S. China Policy: Incoherent and Dangerous

    By Patrick Smith

    The cement is hardly dry on America’s new policy to forge new Asia-Pacific alliances , and already the post–Iraq endeavor is coming across as a collection of incoherent contradictions. Consider: *We...

  • Republicans Brace for Four More Years of Obama

    By Eric Pianin

    As President Obama strengthens his lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney, for the first time some Capitol Hill Republican veterans are saying that the winner of the race will be able to claim a...