This site aggregates Arizona's political blogs. If you would like to have your blog added to the list, contact site administrator Mark B. Evans at mevans@tucsoncitizen.com.
Your blog must allow RSS feeds.
For a list of all the blogs aggregated, see below.
IRS Targeted Groups Lobbying to “make America a better place to live”
The Wall Street Journal reports, “The Internal Revenue Service’s scrutiny of conservative groups went beyond those with ‘tea party’ or ‘patriot’ in their names—as the agency admitted Friday—to also include ones worried about government spending, debt or taxes, and even ones that lobbied to ‘make America a better place to live,’ according to new details of a government ...
“On Jobs Tour In Texas, Obama Offers Little New Hope For Jobs Progress In Washington”
TIME reports, “President Barack Obama’s campaign-style, jobs-focused swing through the Texas technology core on Thursday was notable mainly for what it left out—any plan for putting his proposals into law. … Ostensibly Obama flew to a Democratic enclave in the deep-red state to pitch his previously announced plan for 15 nationwide manufacturing innovation institutes an...
“Promises, Promises: When Obama’s Promises Conflict”
The Associated Press reports, “Absent a magic potion or explosive economic growth, it was all but inevitable President Barack Obama would have to break some of his campaign promises to keep others. If there’s one thing that distinguished them besides their ambition, it was their incompatibility. Cut a staggering $4 trillion from deficits while protecting big benefit programs, subsidizing more hea...
Public Notice Executive Director Gretchen Hamel editorializes in The Richmond Times Dispatch, “In business, you have to compete. The only way to attract new jobs and create economic growth is by cultivating a better environment for businesses to thrive. Virginians understand this, and so do their neighbors. North Carolina is considering legislation to drop its corporate tax rate to 4.9 percent, which would be the lowest...
Dems React to Boston Marathon Bombing with Sequester Talk
POLITICO reports, “With the Boston Marathon bombings less than 24 hours old, some on Capitol Hill are beginning to say the attack shows why Congress should’ve stopped automatic spending cuts from taking hold in March. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), responding to a question at a Tuesday morning press conference, said the bombings are ‘clearly another place where it demonstrates why having th...
Yesterday the president said his budget didn’t have “a lot of smoke and mirrors” but it seems all it takes is a little digging to uncover the hidden gimmicks. Between accounting for “an explosion of economic growth” or counting savings from cuts that will never pass, the meaningful change amounts to more of an optical illusion. If this isn’t a lot of smoke and mirrors, will the real cuts to spending please stand up?
Robert Samuelson editorializes in The Washington Post, “There is something profoundly timid about President Obama’s proposed $3.8 trillion budget for 2014. Stripped of boasts about ‘investments’ for the future and a responsible ‘balance’ between deficit reduction and economic growth, the budget is a status-quo document. It lets existing trends and policies run their course, meaning that Obama would allow higher spending ...
Based on the reaction to President Obama’s proposal to change the way Social Security cost-of-living adjustments are estimated and transition to Chained CPI, you’d think it was putting it on a path towards insolvency! The truth is, the change is a long-overdue, common sense reform that is a step in the right direction, but falls well short of preserving the program and reducing our long-term debt. It seems like Washington is dividing itself into two groups of ...
President Obama released his budget yesterday and – give or tax a few hundred billion in additional tax hikes – it’s pretty much what we expected. It’s been called “a dud,” and a “budget fantasyland” that is “based on bad math, phantom revenues, imagined spending cuts.” But the best way to get a feel for what a wasted opportunity it is might be through a few simple graphics …
While Republicans passed a balanced budget that would help our economy grow and improve the live...
“A Tale Of Two Charts: Busted To Balanced In One Year?”
POLITICO reports, “Tucked deep inside President Obama’s budgets last year and this year are charts extrapolating the effects on publicly held debt some 70 years in the future, but they paint vastly different pictures, going from out-of-control, exploding debt to dropping-like-a-stone, into-negative-territory debt. … One White House official said the new, rosier prediction is based on explosive ...
Former Congressional Budget Office director and American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin editorializes in POLITICO, “Exciting as watching paint dry — that’s the usual assessment of a budget document. And Wednesday’s release of President Barack Obama’s budget promises to be as underwhelming as it is overdue. Will there be anything of interest at all? Not likely. However, if you believe in long s...
Here we go again . . . more prattle and prevarication from our government. First, the good news about Mr. Obama’s budget proposal: he plans to attack the entitlement-reform issues as a compromise component to the more conservative U.S. Congress. The overall deficit reduction Obama proposes is $4.3 trillion when you add up the $1.8 trillion offer for the next ten years with the $2.5 trillion already established by Obama White House and U.S. Congress in the last two years. Obama is clearly...
Arlington, Va. – The White House today released its budget for fiscal year 2014. This budget proposal, arriving 65 days late, includes $3.77 trillion of total spending, increases taxes by $580 billion by ending tax deductions and closing loopholes and would leave the nation with a $744 billion budget deficit in 2014. Despite a $230 billion cut in entitlement spending, the administration’s budget still fails to balance.
President Obama’s budget is expected to make some reforms to Medicare and Social Security, but he could face considerable challenges selling the plan to his own base. Many of these proposals were on the table during the fiscal cliff negotiations, but faced major headwinds from Congressional Democrats and outside interest groups. Will the White House finally lead on entitlement reform, or will these changes quietly be the first to slide off the table?
The Washington Post editorializes, “When he was asked in 2011 about the possible impact of the sequestration on defense, Chuck Hagel breezily replied that the Pentagon was ‘bloated’ and ‘needs to be pared down.’ In his first major speech as defense secretary on Wednesday, Mr. Hagel’s assessment was considerably more sober. The $41 billion cut the department is taking this year, he said, ‘is already having a disrup...
U.S. Economy Gained 88,000 Jobs in March, Smallest Gain in 10 Months
MarketWatch reports, “The economy generated just 88,000 jobs in March – the smallest gain in 10 months – and more people dropped out of the labor force, adding to a fresh pile of evidence that the pace of hiring in the United States has slowed. The unemployment rate fell a tick to 7.6% from 7.7%, the lowest rate since December 2007, but the decline stemmed from fewer Americans look...
