Jamelle Bouie

When 62 percent percent of Americans agree that the Republican Party should compromise on budget negotiations, it’s obvious that President Obama is winning the politics of the debt-ceiling negotiations. On the other hand, when 47 percent of Americans say that spending cuts will create jobs – as they did in the most recent Washington Post/ABC […]

After months of negotiations, a bipartisan group of senators known as the “Gang of Six” has released its plan for long-term debt reduction. The proposal is in line with previous recommendations from the Simpson-Bowles Commission. It includes $500 billion in discretionary spending cuts, cuts to Medicare (which can include an increase in the eligibility age) […]

As Washington fights about which benefits to cut for low-income families, the Heritage Foundation throws an assist by arguing – in typical conservative fashion – that poor people can’t be poor if they own consumer electronics and air conditioning: [I]f poverty means lacking nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, relatively few […]

Michael Shear reports for The New York Times that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has become the new Democratic boogeyman on the debt-ceiling negotiations. This makes sense:Cantor has been the loudest voice against revenue increases in a debt deal. His hard opposition to any new revenues was responsible for trashing both the negotiations led […]

For the second time in three weeks, President Obama‘s has given a press conference on the troubled debt-ceiling negotiations. This time, he stated his opposition to a short-term extension of the debt ceiling and called on Republicans to put aside partisanship, and agree to a long-term compromise on spending and revenues. There are two ways […]

Like clockwork, Washington’s obsession with “independent voters” reaches its peak during presidential election season. From now until the election, a good portion of Beltway journalism will focus on how policies appear to independents, that large class of rational voters who carefully consider the merits of both parties. Among political scientists, however, it is common knowledge […]

Three days ago, Washington was preoccupied with the prospect of a “grand bargain” between President Obama and congressional Republicans over deficit reduction. Obama would offer $3 trillion in spending cuts – including changes in Social Security and Medicare – and in return, Republicans would provide $1 trillion in additional revenues and lift the debt ceiling. […]

Yesterday, ahead of the federal government’s monthly jobs report, analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted that the economy would add 100,000 jobs in June. This would be 50,000 jobs below what the economy needs to keep up with population growth, but it would also be a big improvement over May, when the economy added a […]