Budget

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's New Day on CNN, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman defended his most recent column arguing that the various "fibs" told by Hillary Clinton are not as bad as "giant whoppers" told by Donald Trump as he suggested the Democratic nominee is the preferable choice for President.

Former Reagan official David Stockman predicted that whoever was elected in 2016 would “inherit a recession.” Stockman, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget for President Ronald Reagan, said on May 25, 2016, that Wall Street would undergo “massive panic and selling.”  

New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait has contempt for both Donald Trump (“his appeal operates…at a sub-intellectual level”) and those who’ve voted for him (“the Republican Party turns out to be filled with idiots”). Still, suggested Chait in a Thursday post, Trump and his supporters have unwittingly clarified something important: the Tea Party movement is not and never was truly conservative,…

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton believes we're supposed to be impressed by the idea of putting her husband Bill, in the Associated Press's words, "in charge of revitalizing the economy." Yep, the old "2-for-1" offer from the early 1990s is back. In 1993, President Bill put First Lady Hill in charge of health care. Fortunately, nothing tangible resulted, but we did get an…

In an analysis for the front page of Wednesday’s New York Times business section, Eduardo Porter trumpeted that the real issue ailing the American economy and impeding on its improvement is the lack of mass government jobs programs similar to its “large and underappreciated role in reshaping” the country during the 19th and 20th centuries. 

During a discussion of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump indicating that he was willing to negotiate over both taxes and the minimum wage, and possibly end up raising taxes on the wealthy, CNN's Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room praised the GOP candidate for having a willingness to compromise, unlike "some very conservative Republican hardliners."

Just in time for tomorrow's first-quarter economic growth announcement from the government, Bloomberg Businessweek's Economics Editor is telling readers: "Don't Sweat America's Upcoming Microscopic GDP Growth." Besides, Peter Coy writes, people need to get used to the supposedly inescapable fact that "Normal growth for the U.S. economy is just a lot lower than it used to be." Americans shouldn't…

Things must be getting grim on the Obamacare front if the Obama administration feels it must send "Zeke the Bleak" Emanuel out to defend it. Though he was on relatively good behavior compared to previous interviews he has given, Emanuel, rather than visibly losing his cool, kept on using Stuart Varney's first name in his responses during a Fox Business interview this week to the point where it…

As the Washington Free Beacon reported today (confirmed here in a chart published two weeks ago), the number of Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), traditionally known as Food Stamps, dropped below 45 million for the first time in almost five years (actually, 57 months) in January. This is hardly cause for cheer, and does nothing to change the fact that in…

Has Newsweek just admitted to something the rest of the press knows but won't acknowledge? In promoting its insufferably fawning portrayal of California Governor Jerry Brown, the weekly magazine tweeted that Brown is "arming California to meet an economic recession head-on." Recession? What recession?

Thursday’s CBS Evening News featured a segment in which chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook tag-teamed with the White House and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to attack Republicans for not going along with demands to create $1.9 billion (that could be passed through Congress) to allow the CDC and NIH to fight the Zika virus.

There’s a crucial difference between the Loch Ness Monster and any Republican health-care-reform plan worthy of the name: Nessie almost certainly does not exist, but the GOP plan cannot exist. That, essentially, was the message of a Monday blog post by New York magazine’s Chait. “It is impossible to design a health-care plan that is both consistent with conservative ideology and acceptable to…

In a long rant on Monday’s Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS, the former Daily Show comedian complained that food stamps don’t cover the cost of diapers as she ended by somehow blaming conservatives and pro-lifers. Bee mocked conservatives: "Look, you whiney babies, if you didn't want to wallow in your own fifth like a Dickensian orphan, you shouldn't have chosen poor parents. It's called…

A Los Angeles Times story by Liam Dillon and Patrick McGreevy hailed the "historic" increase in the state-mandated minimum wage to $15 an hour. Apparently giddy with excitement, the pair also unwisely told readers that many public-sector employees who earn far more will be receiving big raises as a result of the legislation with having to bother negotiating with the government entities involved…