US Politics Special: Fiddling While America Defaults?

With four weeks to go before the US faces a possible default on its debt, there is still little sense of how President Obama will lead the country out of the public finances mess the nation faces. It defies belief that the Administration does not have some kind of long-term strategy to ensure that America pays its bills come 2 August, but quite what that plan is nobody outside the Administration could claim to know for sure.

One disturbing possibility to begin considering is that Obama is privy to information that the crisis in America's finances is worse than thought --- his seeming reluctance to get fully involved in the debate is, in fact, a masterful attempt to avoid spooking the markets before a Band-aid can be slapped on the problem. That is pure speculation, but it says something about the ineffectiveness of the President that the only way to take some cold comfort from his performance is to imagine an even worse scenario.

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US Politics and Economy Analysis: Obama Talks Corporate Jets But Fails to Lead

Obama's demeanour does little to suggest he takes the problem as seriously as the authors of the Congressional Budget Office report. He is flunking his responsibility to take the initiative in explaining to the public the magnitude of the issues at stake. When he talks corporate jets not entitlement spending reform, he only makes it harder for those voices in Congress who are struggling to lead responsibly to be heard. If the president does not appear to be taking them seriously --- to my knowledge, President Obama has not once publicly acknowledged or encouraged the efforts of Sen. Conrad to build some sort of bipartisan consensus on the deficit, why should anyone else?

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US Opinion: Dumpster-Diving Politics --- Why Do Liberals Hate Sarah Palin?

Sarah Palin and Michele BachmannHow are the media going to try and damage the chances of another conservative women at becoming president, especially if Sarah Palin gives her backing to Michele Bachmann? There is little doubt left that a liberal media bias has scuppered a Palin presidency. In that they may have done America, and the world, a favour. But to repeat that treatment on another woman, whose personal life is as far removed from the sleazy conduct of an Anthony Weiner or an Bill Clinton as can be imagined, could raise some disturbing questions not just about the values of American journalism but about American liberalism as well.

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US Politics Update: The Wisconsin Battle Over Workers' Rights

Pro-Workers Protest, 12 March 2011In February and March, national media attention turned to the state of Wisconsin. Crowds of protesters, tens of thousands strong, thronged the Capitol building in Madison and the streets outside. Fourteen Democratic senators, the 'Fab 14' to their supporters, fled to nearby Illinois to avoid the Republican-controlled state legislature having the quorum needed to pass a controversial budget.

In an attempt, to some, to balance the state's bloated budget, or for others, to use the deficit problem as the justification to gut the rights of public workers, newly-elected Governor Scott Walker had proposed a budget that ended collective bargaining rights of many state employees. With the legislation stalled because of the absent Democratic votes, Republicans opted to force the bill through by what a circuit court judge ruled in May were unconstitutional means.

Now, according to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Sentinel Journal: "Acting with unusual speed, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated Gov. Scott Walker's plan to all but end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers.”

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US Politics Special: Will the Democrats Fight Back over Jobs?

The Democratic response to the twin problems of the stagnant economy and the successful Republican onslaught on "irresponsible" government spending has been to play defense. Little has emerged from Congress, and nothing from the Obama Administration, to suggest that the Democrats have vision of how to stimulate not only the economy, but also a liberal base feeling battered by the conservative resurgence.

But there were signs last week that Democrats are beginning to emerge from the bunker mentality re-engaging Republicans with the case that more should be done to invigorate the labor market through government investment.

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A US Politics Story: The 2012 Campaign, Cuts, and the Effect on Pregnant Women and Children

Mitt RomneyLast Thursday, Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts and a 2008 candidate for President, announced his intention to run for the Republican nomination for 2012. His speech, made at a family farm in the critical primary state of New Hampshire, concentrated on criticising President Obama's economic record. Noting the administration's failures to stimulate the job market, Romney accused the President of creating his own “misery index” for the American people.

The speech was standard campaign fare --- short on details and full of rhetoric –-- but it did contain one commitment that stood out among the run-of-the-mill language. Romney, front-runner in the betting markets for the Republican nomination, and probably the most moderate candidate that Republican conservatives will consider, pledged, “Government under President Obama has grown to consume almost 40% of our economy. We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy. I will cap federal spending at 20% or less of the GDP and finally, finally balance the budget.”

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US Politics Analysis: Setting Out the Medicare Crisis

An ideological clash looms over the reality that health care costs are on an unsustainable upward curve. Both parties have different and deeply divergent opinions on how those costs should be controlled, but the Medicare Trustees Report unequivocally sets outs:

The sizable differences in projected Medicare cost levels between current law and the illustrative alternative scenario highlight the critical importance of finding ways to bring Medicare costs --- and health care costs in the U.S. generally --- more in line with society's ability to afford them.

Quite how that "critically important'"solution can be found in the existing political climate remains a mystery.

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US Politics: Compromising on the Federal Government's Debt

A few weeks ago it appeared that Republicans were prepared to use the need for increasing the debt limit to push through some of the controversial measures included in their 2012 Budget Resolution, notably the plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) to change the Medicare programme for future beneficiaries and/or a Balanced Budget Amendment that would require sharp and immediate reductions in government spending.

These options are not totally off the table, especially with the pressures being exerted within Republican ranks by new members of Congress keen to assuage their Tea Party constituencies, but the overwhelming message that emerged from participants after the Biden talks is the urgent need for compromise before the debt limit vote.

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US Politics Analysis: "The Game's Afoot" --- The Budget Battle and Obama's Historic Speech

This was a speech that will be in the history textbooks in 50 years' time. Their verdict on its importance may be uncertain as yet, but Obama showed on Wednesday the essential role of the Chief Executive in framing the context of debate in the United States. Now the budget battles over the future of the entitlement programs in America can begin in earnest.

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US Politics Special: Does Planned Parenthood Pay the Price for the Budget Deal?

Following up on this weekend's analysis of the last-minute deal on the Fiscal Year 2011 budget that averted the shutdown of the Federal Government....

As part of the deal, Democrats agreed to hold votes in the Senate on repealing the health care law and defunding Planned Parenthood. At first, this budget agreement appeared to be a victory for the Democratic position, holding the line against the level of cuts demanded by conservative members of the House of Representatives.

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