Obama's Real Secret: He's a Republican

(NEWSER) - Birther "crazies" are fueling ugly confrontations at town hall meetings about health care reform, complains Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. “The birthers are a perfect slice of people who have lost their rationality" whose "obsession is hurting the Democratic process," he said on Hardball yesterday. The so-called birthers insist President Obama is an undocumented alien despite "clear evidence" that he was born in Hawaii, said the Democratic governor. They're "absolutely nuts," he added. More»

(NEWSER) - The mob-like scenes at recent town halls are "something new and ugly," writes Paul Krugman, who notes that 2005's protests against Social Security privatization never saw baying crowds and congressmen hanged in effigy. The New York Times columnist is unconvinced that the mobs are in the pay of well-organized conservative groups. Rather, they're genuinely angry—and are nursing "the same cultural and racial anxiety that's behind the birther movement." More»

Projects deficit will soar to $1.75T

(NEWSER) - President Obama's budget plan, which he delivers to Congress today, attempts to balance a broad spending program with a commitment to slash the deficit in half by the end of his first term. It calls for tax increases on the wealthy and spending cuts to fund a "down payment" on a huge expansion of health care. It also makes permanent middle-class tax cuts introduced in this month's stimulus package, paid for by a cap-and-trade system that will force companies to pay to pollute. More»

Presidential hopeful's top priorities would cost hundreds of billions

(NEWSER) - Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promises change, but if he’s elected in the current uncertain economy, those changes may come later rather than sooner, the Wall Street Journal reports. Obama’s big economic priorities–government-sponsored health care for millions, greenhouse-gas reductions, and tax increases—leave the government with a tab in the hundreds of billions and face opposition, even within his own party. More»

Mike Coffman already backpedaling after bringing up birther issue

(NEWSER) - Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado is already backpedaling furiously after being caught on tape bringing up President Obama's citizenship and questioning his patriotism. "I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don't know that," Coffman said at a fundraiser last week, according to NBC 9 News . "But I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American." More»