Stephen Dinan

In wide field, it’s Romney vs. Perry

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry wasted little time in going straight at each other Wednesday night, sparring over whether the former's business experience or the latter's decade as governor of Texas is better training for boosting jobs as the occupant of the White House. Published September 7, 2011

Romney predicts 4% growth, 11.5M jobs

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Tuesday for deeper discretionary spending cuts and a broad rewrite of the relationship between businesses and Washington, saying he will lead the country to 4 percent annual growth and create 11.5 million jobs. Published September 6, 2011

Hopefuls court tea party at S.C. forum

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised Monday to support repeal of a full range of financial-regulation legislation enacted over the past few decades as he sought to woo conservative and tea party voters in South Carolina, and pledged that his vice-presidential pick would be pro-life. Published September 5, 2011

Academics dub tea partyers devout, racist

Two years after it burst onto the political scene, the tea party is getting a critical eye from political science academics who say the movement generally is populated by knowledgeable and religiously devout voters, but they are hypocritical and more likely to be motivated by "racial resentment." Published September 4, 2011

Dark-cloud financial forecast precedes president’s speech

Ahead of President Obama's major speech next week, his administration on Thursday released a gloomy picture of the government's finances that shows that even with the deficit supercommittee's action, the government will pile up nearly $10 trillion in deficits over the next decade. Published September 1, 2011

Two senators riled by EPA payouts in lawsuits

A new government watchdog report says environmental lawyers have collected millions of dollars in lawyers' fees from taxpayers by suing and winning cases against the Environmental Protection Agency. Published August 31, 2011

Napolitano wants National Guard to stay on Mexican border

Funding for National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border runs out in another month, but Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday she would like to see them stay there — if Congress or the Defense Department can find the money. Published August 30, 2011

New book disputes claim Jefferson fathered children of slave Hemings

In a book due out Thursday, eminent scholars say it's unlikely that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' children, disputing a decade's worth of conventional wisdom that the author of the Declaration of Independence sired offspring with one of his slaves. Published August 30, 2011

Judge blocks Alabama immigration law

A federal district judge halted Alabama's tough new immigration law Monday just days before it was to take effect, making it the latest state to see a crackdown law blocked by a court. Published August 29, 2011

Trumka: Labor support for Obama in question

The AFL-CIO has not decided yet if it will participate in next year's Democratic National Convention, as labor union members ponder whether President Obama has earned their support heading into next year's elections, the organization's head said Thursday. Published August 25, 2011

Stimulus boosted economy but fell short on jobs

President Obama's stimulus led to between 1.3 million and 3.3 million jobs at its peak last year, according to the latest account by Congress's chief scorekeeper, placing somewhere between a little bit and way short of the administration's goal of sustaining 3.5 million jobs. Published August 24, 2011

Trillion-dollar deficits seen for years to come

The government will run another $1.3 trillion deficit in fiscal 2011, Congress' chief scorekeeper said Wednesday in a report that highlighted both an economy that will struggle over the next few years and a federal budget showing massive red ink for the foreseeable future. Published August 24, 2011

Temblor moves Senate meeting

The earthquake Tuesday didn't stop the Senate, which made political history after the temblor shook Washington and sent lawmakers scrambling to hold a pro forma session outside the Capitol for the first time in recent memory. Published August 23, 2011

Debt panel trade-off: Exposure vs. efficiency

The congressional supercommittee charged with tackling the federal debt crisis is facing overwhelming calls to conduct all its deliberations in the open, but some voices are warning that too much transparency could end up dooming the whole thing. Published August 23, 2011

Obama to deport illegals by ‘priority’

Bowing to pressure from immigrant rights activists, the Obama administration said Thursday that it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, such as attending school, having family in the military or having primary responsible for other family members' care. Published August 18, 2011

Ex-congressman: Roger Clemens has ‘suffered enough’

A former U.S. representative who prodded the Justice Department investigation that led to charges against Roger Clemens for lying to Congress said the seven-time Cy Young Award winner has paid his dues, and he doesn't see a reason to continue putting him on trial. Published August 18, 2011

Year after oil spill, Gulf seafood rebounds

President Obama is doing stomach stimulus this week as he eats his way across the Midwest, but exactly a year ago he had more riding on the presidential palate as he ate his way across the Gulf of Mexico coast, trying to revive the region's tourism and seafood industries one shrimp po' boy at a time. Published August 17, 2011

Fitch keeps U.S. credit rating at AAA

The Fitch Ratings agency on Tuesday affirmed its AAA credit rating for the federal government, giving the U.S. a boost just two weeks after another ratings agency marked it down for the first time in history. Published August 16, 2011

Toomey focuses on fighting for spending cuts

He's the only member who voted against last week's debt deal, and also the only one who wrote his own individual budget this year - both of which make Sen. Patrick J. Toomey the wild-card selection to the 12-member deficit supercommittee charged with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts by Thanksgiving. Published August 14, 2011

Supercommittee is short on dealmakers, compromisers

The 12-member supercommittee tasked with straightening out the country's fiscal mess is long on lawmakers who have already whiffed in recent months on chances to strike deals and short on those who have shown a readiness to make the compromises that all sides say will be needed. Published August 11, 2011