GOP Politics

Since coming up short in the November elections, its fifth popular-vote loss in the last six presidential elections, the Republican Party has been engaged in an anguished discussion of what went wrong, and what needs to change. The latest example is the 100-page Growth and Opportunity Project (GOP, get it?)

In those years, the Democratic Party became labeled, to its detriment, as the party of "acid, abortion and amnesty." With the Democrats' values far to the left of the silent majority, McGovern lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon in 1972.

Michele Bachmann has been uncharacteristically quiet since her razor-thin reelection last November, but she emerged loud and proud at CPAC this past weekend to preach to the faithful. Bachmann's speech focused on the Benghazi attack, but also on the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by President Obama, claiming the first family costs taxpayers $1.4 billion a year in "perks and excess."

The real "takers" in America are not poor people dependent on welfare, but the unproductive, rent-extracting rich Next Article Featured Slide Shows Lights out: 10 shows that ended too soon "Arrested Development" (2003-2004, 2013) Ron Howard's comedy about the dysfunctional Bluth family, which may or may not be a retelling of Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov," was axed after only three seasons in 2006.

When it comes to the Republican Party's budget proposal that passed the U.S. House this week, I agree with those who find it strange that anyone sees the initiative as a serious attempt to "grow the economy," as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)

Death Panels for everyone.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland - An NRA panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference this past weekend mocked a congresswoman whose husband was murdered in a 1993 mass-shooting, claiming she has "no idea what [she's] talking about" when it comes to gun control laws. Twenty years ago, McCarthy's husband Dennis was one of the six people [...]

A blunt self-critique by the national Republican Party concludes that while the GOP is flourishing in many state capitals, it is "increasingly marginalized" and out of touch at the federal level. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) took the critique in stride.

Last summer, the House agriculture appropriations subcommittee inserted an odd provision into a 90-page ag appropriations bill-one that had something to do with money, but nothing to do with the matter at hand, federal appropriations.

Most Americans understand that a business is some kind of enterprise involved in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers for a profit, and that there is a difference between a small business and a giant organization.

Over at Investors.com, Jed Graham ran the numbers on Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) new budget for the House GOP, and found that by 2023, it would drive all government spending that isn't either Social Security or interest on the debt to its lowest level since 1948.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) introduced a plan today that would axe the state's corporate and personal income taxes, replacing them instead with an increase in the sales tax. Jindal had promised the total elimination of income taxes during his State of the State address in January, and despite studies showing that it such a [...]

The tax plan embedded in the House Republican budget would cut taxes by $5.7 trillion over the next decade, with the benefits flowing disproportionately to very wealthy households, according to a new analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

"Sometimes, even I believe my lies." During Speaker of the House John Boehner's Sunday appearance on Meet the Press, host David Gregory did a fairly good job of holding Boehner's feet to the fire and challenging some of his more obvious misstatements ...

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers talks about the "sequester." House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers put on her best talking-to-idiots voice to discuss the sequester in the weekly GOP address.

Sunday's " Meet the Press" interview with House Speaker John A. Boehner focused almost entirely on sequestration and whether Washington will avoid another government shutdown. (Answer: maybe.) Boehner spent most of the interview repeating oft-used lines, reminding voters that House Republicans have passed sequestration replacement plans and a federal budget proposal.

House Speaker John Boehner is full of it on the sequester, and you don't have to take my word for it. Just listen to him in his own words: On the one hand, Boehner told Meet the Press moderator David Gregory over the weekend that he was skeptical about the impact of sequestration.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday openly admitted that she opposed the latest reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) because it included protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims of domestic violence. In an appearance on MSNBC, Blackburn pointed out that the latest iteration of the law protects "different groups" and thus [...]

Let's say you're a Republican. (Sorry, I know there's no greater insult, but stick with me here.) So you're a Republican, and you've just voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act-which has always, in its two-decade history, enjoyed broad bipartisan support because, until your party was hijacked by the uber-wingnuts, combatting violence against women was considered uncontroversial and, you know, good.

Barring a miracle of bipartisan cooperation over the next 12 hours, the sequester - a series of across-the-board spending cuts - will kick in tonight. Part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, the sequester will likely shave 700,000 jobs and 0.6 percent worth of growth off the economy.