Donald Lambro

LAMBRO: Obama slammed left, right and center

Gas prices have soared to a national average of $3.82 a gallon, hitting a high of $4.35 per gallon in some parts of the country.

March 15, 2012

LAMBRO: Unemployment threatens White House

The precipitous rise in President Obama's job disapproval polls stunned the West Wing on Monday and shook Democratic leaders. The president is getting failing scores on all of the politically pivotal issues - from a weak economy, high unemployment, skyrocketing gas prices to trillion-dollar budget deficits.

March 13, 2012

LAMBRO: It’s the economy, Santorum

At a time when Americans consider the lack- luster Obama econ- omy to be the No. 1 issue facing the country, Rick Santorum this week was suggesting that other issues deserve equal treatment.

March 6, 2012

LAMBRO: Defusing Obama tax bomb

An election-minded Congress defused the Social Security payroll-tax cut issue last week, but a much more politically lethal time bomb is set to go off at the end of the year.

February 21, 2012

LAMBRO: Beauty contest wins don’t put Santorum on top

Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania is the GOP's latest presidential flavor of the month, propelled in large part by his party's large bloc of evangelical and socially conservative voters.

February 9, 2012

LAMBRO: Obama’s recipe for poverty

The Congressional Budget Office gave us a forecast Tuesday of a frightening fiscal catastrophe that threatens to engulf the government in a sea of debt.

February 2, 2012

LAMBRO: Low scores for Obama economy

The Republicans' presidential primary slugfest has all of our attention right now, but the general election race is really the more interesting story.

January 31, 2012

LAMBRO: Obama’s tax-rate demagoguery

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney estimates the federal tax rate he pays on most of his income is about 15 percent because it comes from his past investments.

January 19, 2012

LAMBRO: Reorganizing deck chairs on U.S. Titanic

President Obama's puny election-year plan to consolidate a handful of government agencies and programs is about three years and $4 trillion too late. With America's jobless rate stuck at a few tenths below 9 percent and his dismal job approval polls in the mid-40s - the equivalent of a failing grade - Mr. Obama is attempting to impersonate a budget cutter. He's fooling no one.

January 17, 2012

LAMBRO: Finally voters start to get a say

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 term.

December 29, 2011

LAMBRO: Donnybrook over underwater mortgage giant

Newt Gingrich's sharp counterattack against Mitt Romney for "laying off employees" during his years as a venture capital investor was taken right out of former Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's liberal campaign playbook.

December 14, 2011

LAMBRO: Earmarks - by a different name

When Congress announced a ban on budget earmarks earlier this year, many believed that the wasteful spending practice had been killed once and for all.

December 13, 2011

LAMBRO: Two at the top of the heap

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 GOP primaries, and it may well be decided at the party's 2012 convention.

December 8, 2011

LAMBRO: Obama’s statistical slump

Mark Twain, who took a dim view of elected officials, once said that in the world of politics and government there were lies, damned lies and statistics. That scathing remark certainly applies to the Obama administration's response to last week's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report, which said the nationwide unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November. The White House joyfully lept on the news, saying it showed the economy was "moving in the right direction."

December 6, 2011

LAMBRO: Social Security teeters over tax cut plan

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 talking about how much revenue this will drain from a fund that's already turned "cash negative."

December 1, 2011

LAMBRO: Bent out of shape over Bush tax cuts

Ten years after President George W. Bush cut income-tax rates, his decision remains at the epicenter of debate about future economic policy. President Obama, who came charging into office vowing to repeal the Bush tax cuts, has been blocked at every turn by Republicans but also by some members of own party who thought it was insane to raise taxes in the midst of a recession when businesses were struggling and so many Americans were out of work.

November 29, 2011

LAMBRO: Self-destructing on mission impossible

The 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.

November 22, 2011

LAMBRO: Supreme Court’s health care hand grenade

The Supreme Court will decide in the midst of the 2012 presidential election campaign if the government for the first time in U.S. history can force Americans under penalty of law to buy a product they may not want, need or be able to afford.

November 15, 2011

LAMBRO: Republican hopefuls struggle to pull away

The best thing Democrats have going for them in the 2012 election cycle is the deep division among Republicans over who should be their presidential nominee. Less than 60 days before the Iowa caucuses, the GOP is no closer to coalescing around a front-runner to take on President Obama than it was a year ago. A party that can't agree on who stands the best chance of winning back the White House looks weak, indecisive and rife with internal ideological divisions that can deplete its energy, turnout and fundraising.

November 10, 2011