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Articles by Stephen Dinan

Jobs plan paid for as Obama says, but with tax hikes in future

At its root, President Obama's jobs stimulus plan pays for spending and tax cuts now by promising tax increases that wouldn't kick in until 2013 — after next year's elections — and would last through the rest of the decade.

September 12, 2011
This booking photo from Aug. 24, 2011, shows Onyango Obama, who was arrested in Framingham, Mass., for several infractions, including operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. He is the uncle of President Obama. (Associated Press)

House chairman: Obama uncle’s got ‘backdoor amnesty’

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Friday that President Obama's half-uncle, an illegal immigrant who was picked up but has reportedly been released from jail, appears to have benefited from the new "backdoor amnesty" the administration announced last month.

September 9, 2011

Feds’ deficit streak hits 35 months

The federal government ran a $132 billion deficit in August, marking a record 35th straight month in the red, according to preliminary estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

September 8, 2011

Perry vs. Paul: A Texas-sized war

The scrap between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney may have gotten more attention in Wednesday's presidential candidates debate, but it was tame compared to the dust-up between Mr. Perry and Rep. Ron Paul, two Texans who apparently have spent plenty of time digging up dirt on each other and aren't afraid to use it.

September 8, 2011
PARTY POLITICS: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (left) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry spar during a Wednesday debate held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., among eight Republicans seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nod. (Associated Press)

In wide field, it’s Romney vs. Perry

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry wasted little time in going straight at each other Wednesday night, sparring over whether the former's business experience or the latter's decade as governor of Texas is better training for boosting jobs as the occupant of the White House.

September 7, 2011

Romney predicts 4% growth, 11.5M jobs

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Tuesday for deeper discretionary spending cuts and a broad rewrite of the relationship between businesses and Washington, saying he will lead the country to 4 percent annual growth and create 11.5 million jobs.

September 6, 2011
ASSOCIATED PRESS Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican presidential candidate, takes part in the American Principles Project Palmetto Freedom Forum in Columbia, S.C., on Monday. Mrs. Bachmann argued that the federal Constitution should prevent states from enacting individual mandates.

Hopefuls court tea party at S.C. forum

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised Monday to support repeal of a full range of financial-regulation legislation enacted over the past few decades as he sought to woo conservative and tea party voters in South Carolina, and pledged that his vice-presidential pick would be pro-life.

September 5, 2011

Academics dub tea partyers devout, racist

Two years after it burst onto the political scene, the tea party is getting a critical eye from political science academics who say the movement generally is populated by knowledgeable and religiously devout voters, but they are hypocritical and more likely to be motivated by "racial resentment."

September 4, 2011

Dark-cloud financial forecast precedes president’s speech

Ahead of President Obama's major speech next week, his administration on Thursday released a gloomy picture of the government's finances that shows that even with the deficit supercommittee's action, the government will pile up nearly $10 trillion in deficits over the next decade.

September 1, 2011
** FILE ** Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican (Associated Press)

Two senators riled by EPA payouts in lawsuits

A new government watchdog report says environmental lawyers have collected millions of dollars in lawyers' fees from taxpayers by suing and winning cases against the Environmental Protection Agency.

August 31, 2011

Napolitano wants National Guard to stay on Mexican border

Funding for National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border runs out in another month, but Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday she would like to see them stay there — if Congress or the Defense Department can find the money.

August 30, 2011
"The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission" is a new look at a very old dispute about American history. (Carolina Academic Press)

New book disputes claim Jefferson fathered children of slave Hemings

In a book due out Thursday, eminent scholars say it's unlikely that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' children, disputing a decade's worth of conventional wisdom that the author of the Declaration of Independence sired offspring with one of his slaves.

August 30, 2011

Judge blocks Alabama immigration law

A federal district judge halted Alabama's tough new immigration law Monday just days before it was to take effect, making it the latest state to see a crackdown law blocked by a court.

August 29, 2011
AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka speaks with reporters Aug. 25, 2011, during a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor at the St. Regis Hotel in D.C. (Michael Bonfigli/Christian Science Monitor)

Trumka: Labor support for Obama in question

The AFL-CIO has not decided yet if it will participate in next year's Democratic National Convention, as labor union members ponder whether President Obama has earned their support heading into next year's elections, the organization's head said Thursday.

August 25, 2011

Stimulus boosted economy but fell short on jobs

President Obama's stimulus led to between 1.3 million and 3.3 million jobs at its peak last year, according to the latest account by Congress's chief scorekeeper, placing somewhere between a little bit and way short of the administration's goal of sustaining 3.5 million jobs.

August 24, 2011
In this file photo, The National Debt Clock, a privately funded estimate of the national debt, is shown on Feb. 1, 2010, in New York. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Trillion-dollar deficits seen for years to come

The government will run another $1.3 trillion deficit in fiscal 2011, Congress' chief scorekeeper said Wednesday in a report that highlighted both an economy that will struggle over the next few years and a federal budget showing massive red ink for the foreseeable future.

August 24, 2011

Temblor moves Senate meeting

The earthquake Tuesday didn't stop the Senate, which made political history after the temblor shook Washington and sent lawmakers scrambling to hold a pro forma session outside the Capitol for the first time in recent memory.

August 23, 2011
Former Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, said open meetings give too much ammunition to single-issue interest groups that "have no interest in the national agenda of fiscal responsibility." (Associated Press)

Debt panel trade-off: Exposure vs. efficiency

The congressional supercommittee charged with tackling the federal debt crisis is facing overwhelming calls to conduct all its deliberations in the open, but some voices are warning that too much transparency could end up dooming the whole thing.

August 23, 2011
**FILE** Immigrant rights groups and community members call in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 2011, for an end to the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Secure Communities program, which was created in 2008 and calls for police to submit suspects' fingerprints to DHS so they can be cross-checked with federal deportation orders. (Associated Press)

Obama to deport illegals by ‘priority’

Bowing to pressure from immigrant rights activists, the Obama administration said Thursday that it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, such as attending school, having family in the military or having primary responsible for other family members' care.

August 18, 2011
** FILE ** Former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens leaves federal court in Washington on Thursday, July 14, 2011, after a federal judge declared a mistrial in his perjury trial after prosecutors showed jurors evidence that the judge had ruled out of bounds. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Ex-congressman: Roger Clemens has ‘suffered enough’

A former U.S. representative who prodded the Justice Department investigation that led to charges against Roger Clemens for lying to Congress said the seven-time Cy Young Award winner has paid his dues, and he doesn't see a reason to continue putting him on trial.

August 18, 2011