Jim Newell

Welcome to November, poor people. For this month, the federal government taketh away. Benefits to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (a.k.a. food stamps) were cut by $5 billion last Friday. It’s the expiration of a boost in food stamp payments signed into law as ...

Americans, who says your government isn’t working hard for you? Just look at the House Committee on Financial Services: they are the hardest workin’ folks in Washington. This statement is especially true if by “House Committee on Financial Services,” you actually ...

It was the summer of ’13, and all the talk was of immigration reform. Good heavens, the Senate even passed a piece of comprehensive reform legislation! And then the measure went to the House, where members got right down to work . . . by ignoring it for a month, then going on ...

Much of the commentary following the Republican Party’s fruitless shutdown of the federal government suggests that there is only one group who can prevent the party from continuing to implode: the Republican donor class. These fellas–because they’re mostly ...

According to media reports, since the October 1 launch of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges, if you try to sign up for insurance through the HealthCare.gov website, your computer is likely to spontaneously combust out of sheer frustration. In the weeks leading ...

People: A deal has been struck. Congress is poised to pass a short-term government funding measure and a slightly longer-term hike in the never-ending quagmire that is the debt ceiling. Obamacare will not be defunded. The House and the Senate will get to work on long-term budget ...

Watching a few minutes, or even a few seconds, of the annual Values Voter Summit in Washington, you’d have no idea that the GOP is struggling—or even, as ABC News says, “working out the terms of their surrender.” The conference, which began Friday, October ...

Quick! Think of the worst possible event to attend ever. What? They make you do what with a fishing pole? Yeah, that sounds pretty bad, but still not as bad as this. On Monday, October 7, the conservative muckety-mucks came together at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan to roast the ...