When he worked as a legislative liaison in 1982 for Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, B.T. Collins -- an unlikely Brown hire, as Collins was a Republican and double-amputee Vietnam War veteran who joked that he threw grenades "like a girl" -- had choice words for the California Legislature. He used to call the Assembly "an adult day care center."
During February, the number of Republicans in the nation grew by a full percentage point, but the Democrats continue to have a sizable advantage in terms of partisan identification.
President Obama this week continued his effort to spend the country out of recession with his first speech to Congress outlining where he wants to go and his first budget showing how he plans to pay for it.
Let me be very clear on the economics of President Obama’s State of the Union speech and his budget. He is declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity and venture-capital funds.
On the last day of her trip to East Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke briefly of the place of human rights in American policy toward China. "Our pressing on those issues" -- issues she didn't identify any more fully -- "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis."
For the third straight month, 38% of voters rate the U.S. Supreme Court’s job performance as good or excellent.
President Obama on Tuesday night tapped Vice President Joseph Biden to lead “a tough, unprecedented oversight effort” to make sure the public’s money is not wasted in any of the administration’s multi-billion dollar reform and economic plans.
President Barack Obama laid out three major – and costly - policy goals in his Tuesday night speech to the nation – health care reform, development of new sources of energy and ensuring that every child has “a complete and competitive education.” He also repeated his pledge to cut the federal deficit in half in four years.
Two weeks ago we discussed the basic framework for 2010's thirty-six Senate elections. Last week we reviewed the seventeen Democratic Senate seats that are on the ballot in the midterm year.
When it comes to important national issues, 73% of adults nationwide trust the judgment of the American people more than that of America’s political leaders.
One of my favorite federal judges used to laugh whenever I began a sentence "with all due respect," because he knew I was about to tell him I thought he was wrong.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of U.S. voters say President Obama is unlikely to achieve his pledge to cut the federal deficit in half within four years. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say he is not at all likely to do it.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of U.S. voters say President Obama’s plan to raise taxes on those who earn more than $250,000 a year would be good for the economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Only 29% of Americans believe the federal government should nationalize some banks that are at risk of going out of business, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
A couple of years ago, when speaking to a local group, I mentioned that The Chronicle was losing money.
In early October, as the meltdown of the financial industry gained momentum following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of U.S. voters agreed with Ronald Reagan that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
At the brink of global ruin, many Americans suddenly seem willing to consider sensible ideas that were always deemed unthinkable, and to reject foolish notions that were once deemed brilliant. Soon we may be mature enough to observe how other developed countries address problems that have baffled us for generations.
How big should government be? The answer is: As big as it has to be -- and for small-government types, no bigger than it has to be.
ACORN, a national organization of community activists, is encouraging people in foreclosure to resist the law and refuse to leave their homes. Twenty-one percent (21%) of Americans support the idea.
Despite the country's persistent economic problems, 30% of voters now believe America is moving in the right direction, the highest level in several years.
