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Donald Lambro is chief political correspondent for The Washington Times. Donald Lambro's twice-weekly column, which he has written since 1980, appears in newspapers nationwide. One of the most frequently quoted political reporters in Washington, Donald Lambro has interviewed most of the major political leaders of our time and has covered numerous presidential campaigns. Donald Lambro has written widely about the government, the economy and social issues, and won the 1995 Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Economic analyst and CNBC commentator Lawrence Kudlow has called Donald Lambro "the best political economic reporter in Washington today." Lambro earned a national reputation for his investigations into federal spending programs. The author of five books on government and economics, Donald Lambro wrote Land of Opportunity (Little Brown and Co.), an examination of economic growth and entrepreneurs in the 1980s. His FAT CITY: How Washington Wastes Your Taxes won national acclaim and the attention of President Reagan, who quoted from it during his 1980 presidential campaign and gave copies of the book to every member of his Cabinet.
Donald Lambro hosted and co-wrote the PBS documentaries "Inside The Republican Revolution" and "Star Spangled Spenders" and produced and moderated C-SPAN's "The Washington Times Forum." His commentaries have been heard on AP Radio and NPR, among others. A graduate of Boston University, Donald Lambro began his career as a reporter for The Boston Herald-Traveler and United Press International. His investigative series on federal spending programs, "Watching Washington," was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Donald Lambro was named the Heritage Foundation's Distinguished Journalism Fellow in 1981.
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Donald Lambro (Dec 30, 2011)
WASHINGTON - Voters go to the polls next month to begin choosing a candidate who can put America back to work and that means preventing Barack Obama from winning a second... more
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Donald Lambro (Dec 27, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Iowa voters are having a hard time making up their minds, although it appears they've boiled down their top choices to three candidates.
Nationally,... more
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Donald Lambro (Dec 23, 2011)
The Commerce Department's revised GDP report Thursday threw cold water on the fading hope that the economy is breaking out of its doldrums.
The gross... more
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Donald Lambro (Dec 21, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Once again, Congress is playing high-stakes poker with a precarious economy and the lives of struggling Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. That is, if... more
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Donald Lambro (Dec 15, 2011)
WASHINGTON - Newt Gingrich's sharp counter attack against Mitt Romney for "laying off employes" during his years as a venture capital investor was taken right out of Sen.... more
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Donald Lambro (Dec 13, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- When Congress announced a ban on budget earmarks earlier this year, many believed that the wasteful spending practice had been killed once and for... more
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Donald Lambro (Dec 08, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Two things are now likely in the two-man race for the Republican presidential nomination: This will be a marathon, not a sprint, that will run through the... more
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Donald Lambro (Dec 07, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Mark Twain, who took a dim view of our elected officials, once said that in the world of politics and government there were lies, damned lies and statistics.The... more
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Donald Lambro (Dec 02, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Congress is working on extending the employee Social Security payroll tax cut for one more year, and possibly cut it for employers, too. But no one's... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 30, 2011)
WASHINGTON - Ten years after President George W. Bush cut income
tax rates, his decision still remains at the epicenter of debate over
future economic policy.... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 24, 2011)
Abraham Lincoln acknowledged in his 1863 proclamation for a day of Thanksgiving that it was hard for many Americans to be thankful "in the midst of a civil war of unequalled... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 22, 2011)
The so-called "supercommittee" was doomed from the start, a victim of pie-in-the-sky thinking that a small, secretive legislative cabal could fix the debt crisis.
The idea... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 18, 2011)
Sen. Pat Toomey, the GOP's fiercest anti-tax warrior, stunned the supercommittee when he proposed raising taxes to break the impasse over cutting the government's... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 16, 2011)
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will decide in the midst of the
2012 presidential election if the government for the first time in
U.S. history can force Americans under... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 11, 2011)
The best thing Democrats have going for them in this 2012 election cycle is the deep division among Republicans over who should be their presidential nominee.
Less than 60... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 09, 2011)
WASHINGTON - Bill Clinton's new book doesn't mince words about
the dismal state of the Obama economy. The former president flatly
declares, "We're in a mess now."
Are... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 04, 2011)
WASHINGTON - If President Obama ever expected the economy to improve significantly before the 2012 election, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke buried that hope this week.
The... more
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Donald Lambro (Nov 02, 2011)
The White House's half billion dollar loan to a now- bankrupt solar panel firm is just the first act in an emerging scandal of insider political influence over a... more
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Donald Lambro (Oct 27, 2011)
WASHINGTON - The modest uptick in economic growth is a welcomed breather in the bleak Obama economy, but it won't reduce unemployment anytime soon.
The Commerce... more
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Donald Lambro (Oct 26, 2011)
WASHINGTON - President Obama flew to Las Vegas Monday to talk
with distressed homeowners and see what Nevada's 13.4 percent
unemployment first hand. While he was there,... more
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Donald Lambro (Oct 21, 2011)
In a budget nearing $4 trillion a year, it strains incredulity to hear members of the so-called "supercommittee" say they're still no closer to finding $1.2 trillion in... more
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Donald Lambro (Oct 19, 2011)
President Obama was back on his bus this week, promoting yet another job bill in the diminishing hope that it might help him hang on to his own.
Just days after the... more
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Donald Lambro (Oct 14, 2011)
WASHINGTON - At a time when the American left is beating its war drums to raise taxes on "the rich", Herman Cain wants to slash their income tax rates to 9 percent.
... more
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Donald Lambro (Oct 05, 2011)
The angry, youth-driven, anti-capitalism protests begun in New York City a few weeks ago are the latest manifestation of President Obama's lengthening recession.
This... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 29, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Thus far, the maddening Republican storyline in the presidential election cycle is complicating the party's prospects of winning back the White House in... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 28, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- A rattled tone of desperation has taken hold of President Obama's once self-confident rhetoric as he struggles to rally his party's dispirited political base.... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 22, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- What if Barack Obama had begun his presidency by enacting a permanent tax cut that further lowered income tax rates, cut the capital gains rate in half and... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 21, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Once again Barack Obama proposes to raise job-killing taxes on a weakening economy, one that has all but stopped growing under his 1930s-style policies.
... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 16, 2011)
Barack Obama's troubled presidency was hit hard again this week on several fronts that shook the White House and raised fears in his party of deeper losses... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 14, 2011)
President Obama's latest swing of the bat to get the economy growing again looked a lot like his previous attempts when he couldn't make a base... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 08, 2011)
I'm always amused by national news polls showing that few Americans like the job Republicans are doing in Congress, as if this is somehow a precursor to the outcome of the... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 07, 2011)
The battered, jobless U.S. economy took a turn for the worse this past week as President Obama prepared to offer another bag of bromides that looked like the failed remedies... more
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Donald Lambro (Sep 02, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Would you buy a used car from Barack Obama? Or would you want him managing your 401(k) investment plan at work?
The president, of course, isn't in either... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 31, 2011)
America is in a steep decline because of the Obama administration's anti-business policies that have blocked economic growth.
From... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 26, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- When a heckler at the Iowa State Fair told Mitt Romney that raising taxes on corporations was one way to solve America's fiscal and economic problems, the... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 24, 2011)
The federal appeals court ruling that struck down the centerpiece of Obamacare has dealt a massive, possibly fatal, blow to the government-imposed health care system... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 18, 2011)
The political battle for the Republican presidential nomination is all about who can get the U.S. economy back on track and restart the once-great American jobs... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 17, 2011)
Things aren't going well for President Obama these days.
A U.S. appeals court struck down a key mandate in his health care law to force... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 12, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The Obama economy is looking bleaker than ever. All recessions end, but this one's going to last a lot longer than most because America remains overtaxed,... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 09, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Job creation remains unacceptably weak in the Obama economy, which some Democrats are calling the "new normal." Friday's labor report for July showed there... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 05, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The flat-lining Obama economy is at the tipping point of another recession. Economic growth has plunged to a near standstill, consumer spending has hit the... more
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Donald Lambro (Aug 03, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The air was thick with bombastic predictions throughout the months-long battle over raising the debt ceiling. A deal appeared impossible, and pundits predicted... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 29, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The American economy, for some inexplicable reason, has been pushed to the sidelines in the fierce debate over a fiscal crisis that threatens to shut down much... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 27, 2011)
If Americans who tuned in to President Obama's televised address Monday night were hoping for a breakthrough in the budget crisis, they were sorely... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 22, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama's job approval score sank to nearly 40 percent this week in the midst of a budget and debt-limit crisis that threatens to further weaken our... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 19, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- There have been many attempts to slay the deficit monster that lurks in the appropriations committee rooms of Congress, only to see it return to life more... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 15, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The gulf between President Obama and a divided Congress grows ever wider as the debt-limit crisis stumbles toward a potentially catastrophic deadline.
Tempers... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 13, 2011)
There he goes again. More than six months after surrendering to Republican demands that this isn't the time to raise taxes in a weak, jobless economy, Barack Obama is... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 08, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The demonstrably false party line being peddled by President Obama and the Democrats in the budget battle is that tax increases must be a large part of the deal... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 06, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The likelihood that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner may resign from his post later this summer is the latest sign that President Obama's team of... more
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Donald Lambro (Jul 01, 2011)
President Obama went on the political offensive Wednesday by reviving the old class warfare enmity he hopes will excite the liberal base of his party, while accusing... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 29, 2011)
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has singularly achieved what the rest of her colleagues only dream of doing but never will: breaking out of the anonymity of 435... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 24, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's lower economic growth estimates for this year and next diminish President Obama's already weakened prospects for a... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 22, 2011)
All the talk here is about the slowing economy, the threat of a continuing recession, the government's growing debts, and the looming insolvency of Social Security and... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 21, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- In a recent interview, President Obama seemed to suggest his policies would have created more jobs if businesses had stopped finding ways to be more productive... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 21, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- In a recent interview, President Obama seemed to suggest his policies would have created more jobs if businesses had stopped finding ways to be more... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 17, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- In a recent interview, President Obama seemed to suggest his policies would have created more jobs if businesses had stopped finding ways to be more productive... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 15, 2011)
The leading contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination showed their stuff in a nationally televised debate in New Hampshire Monday night, and they... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 10, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama broke his silence this week on the precipitous decline in job creation, saying he's not happy with the unemployment rate, and, by the way, the... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 07, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama went to Toledo, Ohio, last Friday to boast about his "economic recovery," but didn't say a word about that morning's grim... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 03, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- This week's House vote against raising the debt limit was a long-overdue, fist-shaking declaration of public outrage at the runaway spending that endangers... more
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Donald Lambro (Jun 01, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The third year of Barack Obama's presidency is running into the same troubles he faced in his first two, undermining his prospects for a second term.
No... more
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Donald Lambro (May 27, 2011)
WASHINGTON - If the Democrats are counting on making a come back in the 2012 elections by demagoguing the Republican Medicare reforms, they'd better think again.
The... more
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Donald Lambro (May 25, 2011)
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats were expected to bring up the House
Republicans’ 2012 budget plan for a vote this week, but not their own plan which
remains under lock and... more
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Donald Lambro (May 20, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The bump in President Obama's approval polls, after Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden, didn't last long. It was shot down by a $4 gallon of gas, a 9-percent... more
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Donald Lambro (May 18, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Seventeen months before Americans go to the polls to elect their next president, the field of Republican candidates is rapidly being winnowed down to its... more
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Donald Lambro (May 13, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The debt limit battle is heating up, the second of three 2011 heavyweight budget fights whose outcome could have a major impact on the 2012 presidential... more
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Donald Lambro (May 11, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Can President Obama be defeated in his bid for a second term? It depends, of course, on whom Republicans choose as their candidate, but it's clear that Obama... more
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Donald Lambro (May 06, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- There are two fundamental things that need to be done to restore America's economy to its former health: reduce government spending and thus shrink its debt,... more
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Donald Lambro (May 04, 2011)
The Obama administration's daring, nighttime attack by commandos who killed Osama bin Laden and four of his aides has dealt al-Qaida terrorists a severe but far from... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 29, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump has been saying things about himself and others lately that are untrue, suggesting that he has a tendency to make up his own reality as he goes... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 27, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Reports coming in from congressional town hall meetings during the Easter recess say that Republican lawmakers were peppered with angry questions about cutting... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 21, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama seems to have trouble giving the Libyan rebels what they need most in their life-and-death struggle to topple Moammar Gadhafi's... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 19, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- America's fragile, high-unemployment, debt-ridden economy is looking shakier than ever, threatening Barack Obama's chances of a second term and boosting support... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 15, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- There he goes again. President Obama says that what America needs right now are higher taxes to pay the government's mounting bills and curb its $14 trillion... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 13, 2011)
Speaker John Boehner extracted more budget concessions from President Obama and the Democrats than was at first evident when the deal was announced last week.
Not only... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 07, 2011)
Americans are getting hit on all fronts nowadays. Wages are flat or falling. Income tax bills are due by April 18. Food prices are rising. And gas prices, which are soaring... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 06, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- In the last three months, the biggest battle here has been about carving a relatively tiny amount of money out of this year's $3.7 trillion budget.
But... more
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Donald Lambro (Apr 01, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Voters sent a loud, angry message to President Obama and Congress last November that government is too big, and spends too much. Cut it.
Everyone seemed to get... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 30, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama's address Monday in defense of his military intervention in Libya may go down in the history books as one of the most artful speeches ever... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 24, 2011)
While President Obama was touring the capitals of Latin America this past week, Americans were being battered by one bad economic report after another.
The worst were in the... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 23, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- In the first two years of his presidency, Barack Obama replaced Teddy Roosevelt's well-advised admonition to "speak softly and carry a big stick" with "be... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 17, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The unemployment numbers came out last week, but these were not the nationwide 8.9-percent average that was announced with much hoopla earlier this month,... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 16, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Getting a law passed in Congress is a very difficult thing to do, as our Founding Fathers designed it that way, fearing that bad legislation would rob the... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 11, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- This has been a rotten week for big spending, liberals and President Obama, and a great one for conservatives in the effort to reduce the size and cost of... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 09, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The welcome addition of 192,000 jobs last month comes with some huge caveats that suggest the Obama economy isn't actually going to reduce the high unemployment... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 04, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama is coming under increasing fire for being a passive, reactive commander in chief, who all too often stands on the sidelines instead of entering... more
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Donald Lambro (Mar 02, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- No doubt by now you've heard the story on the nightly news that the Obama economy grew at a weaker pace in the fourth quarter than was previously... more
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Donald Lambro (Feb 24, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Thomas Jefferson said that a revolution now and then is a good thing, and that is what's happening in states around the country that are dramatically cutting... more
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Donald Lambro (Feb 23, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- There's no chance the Senate is going to take up last week's House Republican budget cuts, yet they sent a loud, clear, muscular message to the other side... more
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Donald Lambro (Feb 18, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner has reintroduced a welcome if sometimes messy change in what was once known as "the people's House": the right to amend pending... more
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Donald Lambro (Feb 16, 2011)
The Obama administration seems to have a serious problem with its hearing, not to mention its memory. Last November, the voters said loud and clear that government is too... more
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Donald Lambro (Feb 11, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The Democratic-run investigative panel's 600-page report on what caused the financial crisis was promptly thrown onto a dusty shelf, where most congressional... more
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Donald Lambro (Feb 08, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- There are plenty of reasons to be dubious about President Obama's forced fence-mending efforts with the business community as he begins his 2012 campaign for... more
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Donald Lambro (Feb 04, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Uncontrolled government spending is far worse than previously projected just a few months ago, driving the federal budget much more deeply into debt, which... more
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Donald Lambro (Feb 02, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Centennial events here and around the world officially begin this week to commemorate Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday that will mark the 40th president's... more
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Donald Lambro (Jan 27, 2011)
For millions of unemployed American workers, President Obama's State of the Union proposals offered little hope that they were going to find a job anytime soon.
With few... more
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Donald Lambro (Jan 26, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Over the past two years, President Obama has blamed big banks, Wall Street, corporate executives, trade deals, tax cuts and deregulation for all the nation's... more
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Donald Lambro (Jan 20, 2011)
A risky fiscal strategy is gathering strength in Congress: reduce federal spending and the deficit by freezing the national-debt limit.
Republican budget hawks are pushing... more
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Donald Lambro (Jan 19, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- President Reagan's son Ron has written a book that unfairly, and without any evidence, questions his father's mental capacity in the early to middle years... more
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Donald Lambro (Jan 14, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- Recent polls say Barack Obama's job-approval ratings are up, yet other indicators of our troubled times show that some of our biggest problems persist or have... more
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Donald Lambro (Jan 12, 2011)
Liberalism was running at full throttle in the Age of Obama until it collided with the 2010 midterm elections.
It is fair to say that tax-and-spend liberalism is now in... more
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Donald Lambro (Jan 06, 2011)
The new 112th Congress, politically reshaped and redirected by the voters, reopened for business this week to tackle some old and vexing issues.
Republican Rep. John Boehner... more
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Donald Lambro (Jan 05, 2011)
WASHINGTON -- The No. 1 question for 2011 is whether the bullish economic forecasts for the new year will be justified or remain pie-in-the-sky exaggerations.
The answer... more