Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
States make fake IDs quick and easy
Federal investigators were able to get fraudulent driver's licenses in all three states where they tried, according to a report released Friday that shows continued problems with states' ID programs more than 11 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks highlighted the problem. Published September 23, 2012
Confident conservative Jordan: Stand ground on taxes
Other Republicans may be worried about the campaign prospects of Mitt Romney but not Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the conservative caucus in the House, who said voters have made the decision to reject President Obama and replace him with the GOP nominee. Published September 23, 2012
Democrats block GOP rewrite of immigration priorities
House Democrats defeated the broadest immigration reform effort yet in this Congress, voting down a bill on Thursday that would have ended the random visa lottery and replaced it with a system rewarding high-tech foreign graduates from U.S. universities. Published September 20, 2012
Watchdogs headed for heavy budget cuts
The automatic spending cuts looming at the first of next year might end up eliminating some waste, but they also will take a giant bite out of the waste-watchers themselves — the auditors whom taxpayers count on to weed out fraud and keep tabs on government money. Published September 19, 2012
High-tech, science grads favored in visa proposals for immigrants
A big immigration deal is still elusive but Congress is suddenly rushing to take a smaller nibble at the issue, with the House slated to vote on a Republican proposal later this week that would open up tens of thousands of green cards to foreigners who promise to bring their science and technology skills to the U.S. Published September 18, 2012
Skeptics say Middle East attacks organized
Pressure is increasing for Congress to conduct its own independent investigation into last week's attacks on diplomatic posts in Egypt and Libya as lawmakers and even Libya's president dispute the Obama administration's assertion that the attacks were merely mob violence spawned by an offensive film. Published September 17, 2012
Obama’s convention bounce begins to fade
President Obama came out of his nominating convention surging in the polls, both nationally and in key states he will need to carry to win in the Electoral College — but the high already is beginning to fade, and pollsters said he didn't fundamentally alter what's still a neck-and-neck race. Published September 16, 2012
White House details ‘destructive’ spending cuts
With excruciating detail, the White House's budget office on Friday laid out exactly where it will have to cut $109 billion from federal spending in January, including $11.1 billion from Medicare and $54.7 billion from defense spending. Published September 14, 2012
House passes stopgap bill at Democrats’ spending level
After fighting all year for a lower spending number, House Republicans reversed course Thursday and passed a bill funding the government at the level Democrats had pushed for all along. The vote that averts the kind of government-shutdown showdowns that have become increasingly frequent. Published September 13, 2012
Judging of disability claims flawed, Senate study finds
More than one out of every 20 Americans of working age was collecting Social Security disability payments as of March, but the system designed to judge claims is overloaded and bungles more than a quarter of the cases, according to a new report by a Senate investigative subcommittee. Published September 12, 2012
Romney condemns attacks, says Obama goofed on response
Mitt Romney late Tuesday condemned reported attacks on two U.S. diplomatic posts in the Middle East and said President Obama bungled the American response by trying "to sympathize" with the attackers. Published September 11, 2012
Ryan not adding fuel to Republican ticket
A month into his vice presidential candidacy, it's clear Rep. Paul Ryan has had an impact. What is yet to be determined is whether the Wisconsin Republican's impact helps or hurts the Romney ticket on Election Day. Published September 11, 2012
IRS pays $104 million to whistle-blower
The IRS awarded the largest whistle-blower award in history — $104 million — to a former banker who gave information that helped expose a $20 billion offshore banking scheme, the recipient's attorneys said Tuesday. Published September 11, 2012
Budget deficit tops $1 trillion for fourth time
With three weeks still to go in the fiscal year, the federal government already has notched its fourth straight trillion-dollar deficit, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday. Published September 10, 2012
Obama, Romney both draw bright lines in the sand over budget deals
With congressional gridlock unlikely to change in this year's elections, both President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spent the weekend saying they are willing to compromise to get budget deals done — though both drew bright lines they said they won't cross. Published September 9, 2012
Romney promises to get tough with Iran
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said this weekend that President Obama failed to lessen the risks of a nuclear-armed Iran because he came into office promising to meet with, rather than confront, that nation's leaders — and vowed to impose "crippling sanctions" himself. Published September 9, 2012
Romney: Obama and GOP erred on defense cuts
Mitt Romney said this weekend that his fellow Republicans erred by agreeing last year to automatic defense spending cuts in lieu of a broader debt dealing, and said as president he'll fight to keep military spending the same portion of the U.S. economy as it is now. Published September 8, 2012
Obama appeals to voters for more time
Accepting his party's nomination for re-election, President Obama on Thursday said voters face the most momentous election of a generation and told them they must choose between locking in his vision of a government that works to boost the most vulnerable, or side with Republicans in rolling back his agenda. Published September 6, 2012
Obama predicts ‘barrage of negative ads’
After canceling his stadium-sized speech, President Obama on Thursday told the thousands of supporters who missed out on seeing him that he's still counting on them to do the legwork required to get him re-elected. Published September 6, 2012
Democratic National Convention 2012: Clinton returns to back Obama at DNC
Democrats rushed to clean up a party platform mess Wednesday and moved to officially re-nominate President Obama for a second term in office as his predecessor, former President Bill Clinton, said voters this year must choose between Republicans' "winner-take-all" vision of success and his own party's "shared prosperity." Published September 5, 2012
