Related Content: Republicans
GOP ticket's views on renewable energy raising concerns in rural red statesEssential Reads Rural America almost always votes reliably red. But many farmers say they’re growing uneasy with the Republican presidential ticket’s opposition to renewable-energy policies that have helped them economically — and that could hurt the GOP this year in traditionally friendly farm country. |
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan pursue united front strategyEssential Reads Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan plan to campaign together again sooner than aides had originally planned, likely twice next week, as part of a new offensive to take on the touchy issue of Medicare, campaign officials tell POLITICO. |
Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan to shift the campaign debate; will the gamble pay off?Essential Reads It doesn’t take a political genius to see where the contest between President Obama and Mitt Romney is heading. With Rep. Paul Ryan on the Republican ticket, the campaign is looking at a full-throated debate over the future of Medicare. Are Romney and Ryan ready? There is plenty in Ryan’s budget blueprint — and by implication, Romney’s platform — that will spark debate and controversy. The size and shape of Romney’s and Ryan’s proposed tax cuts already are under attack by Obama and the Democrats. |
Three Iron Truths of the (Not-Fine) RecoveryEssential Reads The U.S. economy is not doing fine. Not in the private sector, and especially not in the public sector. President Obama was wrong to say otherwise – that the private sector is fine – last week. Mitt Romney was wrong to suggest laying off teachers and firefighters hasn’t hurt. And congressional Republicans are wrong to say the whole situation would improve if we just had more “certainty” around taxes and regulations. |
Is GOP Stalling on Economy to Hurt Obama?Essential Reads Are Republican lawmakers deliberately stalling the economic recovery to hurt President Obama's reelection chances? Some top Democrats say yes, pointing to GOP stances on the debt limit and other issues, which they say are causing unnecessary economic anxiety and retarding growth. The latest Democratic complaint came after House Speaker John A. Boehner said last week that when Congress raises the nation's borrowing cap in early 2013, he will again insist on big spending cuts to offset the increase. |
Obama and House Republicans Offer Taste of Renewed Fight Over the Debt CeilingEssential Reads President Obama and Congressional Republicans staged a preview of a looming end-of-year battle on Wednesday, as the president warned Republicans that he would not allow Congress to hold the economy “hostage” to another fight over whether to raise the country’s debt ceiling without accompanying cuts in spending.
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Two Parties Find a Way to Agree, and Disagree, on Student Loan RatesEssential Reads As President Obama wrapped up a barnstorming tour of college campuses in swing states on Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans agreed that they wanted to avoid a steep increase in the student loan interest rate this summer. But the chief issue remained unsettled: how to pay the cost of doing so. |
Boehner: 1-in-3 Chance Democrats Could Take HouseEssential Reads House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) is sending a cautionary message about the danger that the Democrats could retake the House in November, saying there is a one-in-three chance the GOP will lose its majority. “I would say that there is a two-in-three chance that we win control of the House again, but there’s a one-in-three chance that we could lose,” Mr. Boehner told Fox News in an interview to air Tuesday. |
Redistricting Takes Some of the 'Swing' out of House FightsEssential Reads In the next decade, the battle for control of the House of Representatives will hinge on fewer races, incumbents will be tougher to beat, and the polarization that has come to define the institution in recent years is all but certain to continue. The process is wrapping up on 2012 redistricting — the once-a-decade politics-fueled redrawing of district lines because of population shifts — and one result, political analysts say, is the continued reduction of swing districts in which either party has potential to win and make up the battlefield that helps determine a majority. |
PBS NewsHour: Indiana Sen. Lugar Targeted for Defeat by His Own PartyWeb content The Senate's most senior Republican, Richard Lugar is under pressure from within his own party to retire or be denied another term. At 80 years old, even Lugar seems slightly baffled about his political detractors. Gwen Ifill reports on the veteran senator's coming primary challenge on May 8. |
