By all accounts, the budget talks between President Obama and House Speaker Boehner have stalled, and one reason is a failure to come to some reasonable agreement on spending cuts. Richard Durbin, a left-wing senator from Illinois was told he had assurances from the White House that they would not agree to raising the Medicare age from 65 to 67. This intransience on the part of the Administration ... More

On the final Sunday of the election season, the presidential race is up for grabs. The Senate is up for grabs. But one governing body is not up for grabs and that’s the House of Representatives. While it’s possible the Democrats may gain seats, not even their own political spinmeisters are selling the idea that they’ll make up the 25 they’d need to re-take control. According to a report in... More

The state of Florida is one of the last places where President Obama’s re-election campaign has a chance to pick off a state that traditionally leans Republican (Obama won it in 2008, but the Sunshine State usually ends up narrowly Republican in any election competitive on a national scale). With the vote of the senior citizens being so prevalent in Florida, it’s unsurprising that the campaign... More

The future of the New Deal—the social insurance state that has Social Security and Medicare as its twin pillars—is at stake in not just this, but coming presidential elections. In that, Mike Konczal and Bryce Covert writing in The Nation, are correct. Where they are wrong is the notion that prescriptions put forth by GOP vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan constitute a clear and present dang... More

The shamelessness of the modern Left trying to piggyback on the great achievements of their Democratic Party forebears c continues unabated today. Eugene Robinson, a columnist for The Washington Post pushed the myth that today’s Left is somehow intrinsically connected to the legitimate progressives who made Medicare a reality in 1965. Robinson is offended by the idea that the Republican ticket w... More

Welcome to the Lunchtime Reader, where we assemble important stories to keep your eyes on. One despicable leftist ad showed a Republican pushing a grandmother off of a cliff. Christmas comes early for Paul Ryan. Politifact calls the claim that “Republicans voted to end Medicare” as the “Lie of the Year 2011.” http://is.gd/vgJWIm GOP unhappiness with the field fuels buzz for... More

Welcome to the Lunchtime Reader, where we assemble important stories to keep your eyes on. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR Bipartisan support, finally! Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, teamed up with Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden on a new plan to reform Medicare. Wyden said it was time for conservatives and progressives to come together and “deal with the costs and demographic challenges.” It won’... More

Welcome to the Lunchtime Reader, where we assemble important stories to keep your eyes on. The Catholic Church confirms Pope Benedict XVI will visit Cuba in the spring. http://cvote.to/9g The mitts come off: Romney slams Gingrich for attacking Paul Ryan’s Medicare reforms. http://cvote.to/9h Mitt Romney now says he wouldn’t recommend other states adopt Romneycare. That’s a shift from what he... More

Welcome to the Lunchtime Reader, where we assemble important stories to keep your eyes on. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston denounced an effort to get physician-assisted suicide on the Massachusetts ballot. “We hope the citizens of the Commonwealth will not be seduced by language [such as] dignity and compassion, which are means to disguise the sheer brutality of helping people to kill themse... More

Faithful Catholics often are stereotyped as caring about one or two issues at the expense of everything else. At one level they are right. Abortion and marriage are indeed foundational, and they will always be of primary concern for us. But does this mean that Catholics must remain silent during the debate over how to reform the federal budget, or how to reform the entitlement programs that are ba... More