Stephen Dinan

U.S. readies plan for drug cartel threat

The federal government has begun planning what it would do if the Mexican government fails in its fight with drug cartels and the United States has to deal with a broken government and refugees streaming across the border.

March 25, 2009

Deficit to hit $9.3 trillion in next decade

Staggering numbers released Friday show President Obama's new budget will nearly double the cumulative deficit over the next decade to $9.3 trillion, damaging plans to overhaul health care and boost alternative energy.

March 21, 2009

Obama’s budget doubles deficit in 10 years

Staggering budget numbers released Friday showed President Obama's budget plans will nearly double the cumulative deficit over the next 10 years, higher than the president himself projected and damaging his ambitious plans to overhaul health care and boost sources of alternative energy.

March 20, 2009

Aides attempt to cover for Obama

To hear his camp tell it, President Obama has been in the dark about at least two issues that broiled into controversies this week. Republicans are jumping at the chance to cast doubts about the White House's operations.

March 20, 2009

Treasury cleared way for AIG bonuses

The Obama administration and one of its key allies in Congress belatedly acknowledged Wednesday that they were responsible more than a month ago for clearing the way for large bonuses to be paid inside taxpayer-supported companies like AIG, undercutting the White House's attempts to distance itself from a growing political embarrassment.

March 19, 2009

Obama names first court pick

President Obama named his first judicial nomination Tuesday, tapping a federal district judge from Indiana to serve on a Midwest federal appeals court and making good on his goal of working with senators to find consensus picks.

March 18, 2009

Economy a likely blame game

With the economy still teetering, Republicans and Democrats are engaged in a high-stakes game of blame fixing, all with an eye to preparing voters to pin the blame on the donkey - or elephant - before the next election.

March 17, 2009

GOP reverses stance on filibusters

When it comes to judicial nominations, Republican senators are finding themselves defending hills they sought to storm just a few years ago.

March 17, 2009

Obama to foreign investors: Have confidence

President Obama said Saturday that investors can have "absolute confidence" in the U.S. economy, continuing a recent push to shore up markets after months of dire warnings drove stock indexes to decade lows.

March 15, 2009

Obama forms group to protect U.S. food supply

President Obama on Saturday created a food safety working group to advise him on new rules and tools to protect the U.S. food supply and tapped two people to serve at the top of the Food and Drug Administration.

March 15, 2009

Obama: Have confidence in U.S. economy

President Obama said Saturday that investors can have "absolute confidence" in the U.S. economy, continuing a recent push to try to shore up markets after months of dire warnings had driven stock indexes to decade-long lows.

March 14, 2009

Obama creates food-safety group

President Obama on Saturday created a food safety working group to advise him on new rules and tools to protect the U.S. food supply and tapped two people to serve at the top of the Food and Drug Administration.

March 14, 2009

Stimulus overseer: Waste ‘inevitable’

The chief watchdog for spending from the $787 billion stimulus package says it's guaranteed there will be waste and fraud.

March 13, 2009

Obama balks at parts of spending bill

President Obama on Wednesday issued his first signing statement arguing he won't be bound by some of the provisions of the $410 billion catch-all spending bill, just two days after he promised to cut down on such statements.

March 12, 2009

Obama’s drug czar pick has stepson with drug record

The Obama administration nominated as drug czar Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, who said when accepting the post Wednesday that he has experienced the effects of drugs in his own family, but did not specifically mention his stepson, who is currently being held without bail in a Florida jail.

March 11, 2009

Obama to build on Bush school plan

Taking on the teachers unions and building on his predecessor's No Child Left Behind Act, President Obama on Tuesday told states to stop limiting charter schools, to get rid of bad teachers and to improve rather than scrap standards and testing that were at the heart of President Bush's education agenda.

March 11, 2009

Obama wants teacher ‘accountability’

The president on Tuesday put the nation's teachers on notice that their performance will be tracked and good teachers will be rewarded, while bad teachers will be tossed out of the classroom.

March 10, 2009

Obama to demand ‘rigorous’ school standards

President Obama on Tuesday will call for education improvements that build on rather than replace President Bush's No Child Left Behind education bill, pushing for better pay for good teachers and calling on states to develop more "rigorous" real-world standards and tests.

March 10, 2009

Funding of embryo experiments OK’d

Declaring that the stem cell issue had moved past the former president's life-or-death morality, President Obama said he is instead bowing to a different morality that respects majority opinion.

March 10, 2009

Obama signs order reversing stem-cell funding

President Obama on Monday signed an executive order allowing the federal government to fund the full array of embryonic stem cell research, overturning one of the most contentious decisions of the Bush administration.

March 9, 2009