Checking Palin’s claims from Tea Party

Sarah Palin's speech to the Tea Party convention in Nashville brought praise from right, criticism from the left, and it sparked an unusual controversy over the talking points she apparently had written in the palm of her hand. * In her speech, Palin criticized the Obama administration for using stimulus money to promote how stimulus money was spent. "One state even spent a million bucks to put up signs that advertise that they were spending on the federal stimulus projects," she said. We rated that Half True. * In an interview, she criticized Obama's lack of experience and said that ... >>More

Debra Medina: “The governor’s not taking his own fiscal advice. … In the first fiscal quarter of this year, we’ve seen a 13.5 percent increase in spending, double-digit spending out of the executive branch in the State of Texas.”

The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Medina says executive spending went up 13.5% in quarter

For the next governor of Texas, one task will overshadow all the others on the to-do list: closing a state budget shortfall that some projections put as high as $15 billion.During the second Republican gubernatorial debate Jan. 29, candidates were asked to detail what programs they would cut or taxes they would raise to balance the budget. Debra Medina, who is in the three-way race for the GOP nomination with Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, took the opportunity to criticize the incumbent’s fiscal record."You know, it’s unfortunate that the governor’s not taking ...

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Obama invites Republicans to summit on health care

By Michael D. Shear Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, February 8, 2010 President Obama moved to jump-start the stalled health-care debate Sunday, inviting Republicans in Congress to participate in a bipartisan, half-day televised summit on the subject this month. The president made the offer in an interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric hours before the network televised the [...]

Today’s Broad Brush Issues

Progressive Breakfast: Is The Senate Broken? By Bill Scher February 8, 2010 – 8:52am ET New Rules Needed So Senate Can Govern W. Post reports some Senators exploring changes to filibuster rules: “… nascent efforts to curb the use of filibuster face resistance from Senate elders with long memories … Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has not scheduled [...]

America’s candor gap on the budget

washingtonpost.com By Robert J. Samuelson Monday, February 8, 2010 In all the recent reports, speeches and news conferences concerning the federal budget outlook — including the administration’s proposed budget for 2011 — hardly anyone has posed these crucial questions: What should the federal government do and why; and who should pay? We ought to go back to [...]

Another Day, Another Disappointing Political Ploy Obstructing Progress

White House.gov Blog Feed 2/5/10 1:31 PM Dan Pfeiffer White House Yesterday, just hours after the Senate voted 96-0 to confirm Martha Johnson as the Administrator of the GSA after a pointless 9-month delay, we learned that Sen. Richard Shelby from Alabama has placed a blanket hold on all nominees, including national security nominees, to [...]

Democrats chafe as White House wavers on health care bill

Hill Democrats say they have no clear understanding of Obama’s strategy — or if there even is one. Photo: AP photo composite by POLITICO President Barack Obama has left Democrats as confused as ever over how the White House plans to deliver a health care reform bill this year, following two weeks of inconsistent statements, negligible hands-on [...]

Rick Perry: Says his executive order requiring young girls to be vaccinated against HPV wasn’t mandatory.

The Truth-o-Meter says: Barely True | Perry says the HPV vaccine he mandated would have been optional

When Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order in 2007 requiring all Texas girls to receive a vaccine against the human papillomavirus before entering the sixth grade, lawmakers balked and blocked it. Critics said the vaccine, Merck & Co.'s Gardasil, was too new to declare safe. Some said too that Perry's order would infringe on parental rights or give girls a false sense of security, leading them to be sexually active too young.Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, one of Perry's opponents in the GOP gubernatorial primary, frequently slams Perry's stilled order. Perry has stood ...

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Drop in unemployment rate shows signs of an economic reprieve

By Neil Irwin, Michael A. Fletcher and Kafia Hosh Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 6, 2010 A surprising dip in the unemployment rate for January offers promise that the job market is finally stabilizing after a long, steep decline. The latest employment data released Friday was not uniformly positive. The nation shed an additional 20,000 jobs last month, [...]

Obama suggests extending debate as way to pass health reform

By Shailagh Murray Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 6, 2010 President Obama sketched out an alternative approach to passing health-care legislation that would enlist Republicans and potentially extend debate into the spring, a strategy seemingly in conflict with the fast-track talks among Democrats on Capitol Hill. Speaking to members of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday night, Obama [...]