Blog Posts by Chris Moody

(Susan Walsh/AP)Members of Congress return to Washington, D.C., next month after a six-week recess, and one of the first items up for business will be to agree on a plan to avoid even the prospect of a government shutdown.

The current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, which means the money Congress has appropriated will run out, forcing both chambers to find another spending agreement to keep the government running.

There's a strong chance, however, that the conflict--if there even is one to speak of--will be resolved quickly.

It's the era of federal budget cuts (well, sort of), and even Social Security--once considered "the third rail of American politics" and one of the country's most expensive programs--may not be granted its usual exemption.

Some legislators are discussing a plan which would raise the retirement age for those currently younger than 55, while others are proposing an outright restructuring of the pension program--all evidence, it seems, that the third rail is no longer as lethally charged as it once was.

Most recently, at a campaign stop last weekend, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Social Security a "monstrous lie" to young people and a "Ponzi scheme."

"It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie," Perry said at an Iowa campaign stop, echoing passages from his book. "It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them."

Sure, Social Security has its problems, but is it accurate to call it a Ponzi scheme? It depends on who you ask. Using Venn diagrams, two political columnists, Nick Baumann, a liberal, and Tim Carney, a conservative, make their case.

See both after the jump...

Perry (Sue Ogrocki/AP)If Rick Perry defeats Barack Obama in November 2012, he would become the first person to be elected president after never losing a race in his political career since John F. Kennedy more than half a century earlier.

The eight presidents elected to the office since JFK--Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama--each faced at least one electoral defeat before their rise to the nation's highest office.

Perry, the three-term governor of Texas, has never had to phone an opponent on election night to concede a race.  Perry was elected to the Texas legislature as a Democrat in 1984, where he remained until his election to agriculture commissioner as a Republican in 1990. Eight years later, he was elected lieutenant governor. He made it to the governor's mansion in 2000 when Bush left to run for president.

That unblemished record makes him sound like an especially formidable presidential candidate. But as those other eight presidents might tell you, there's something to be gained by having felt the agony of political defeat.

An edited video that makes it appear as if Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann asked an Iowa crowd, "Who likes white people?" is quickly spreading around the Web. However, if you watch the full, unedited version of the video, it's clear the Minnesota congresswoman said something very different.

Bachmann made a campaign stop at the Midwest Spirit Christian Music Festival on Aug. 5 in West Des Moines to give a speech about her Christian faith. It was raining during her the appearance, so when Bachmann took the stage, she asked, "Who likes wet people?" referring to the still-damp masses who stuck around for her talk.

"Yeah, that's right. Because we have the God of the winds and the rain don't we?" she said immediately after--a key phrasing that was edited out of the shorter clip. "We serve a mighty God."

(Charles Dharapak/AP)Everyone complains about their job now and then, and members of Congress are no exception.

A few lawmakers have suggested in recent months that despite a $174,000 annual salary, generous health care and pensions, and perks for things like travel and mail, being one of the elite 435 ain't always what it's cracked up to be. And when you calculate the hours they put in, the pay isn't stellar either, they say.

The Florida Capital News reported last week on a speech Steve Southerland, a Republican representative, gave to a retirement community in Tallahassee in which he complained about some of the parts of his new job:

Pam Cooke, left, and Jody Bowers share a laugh in Kill Devil Hills, Outer Banks, N.C. (Charles Dharapak/AP)Even if you live out Hurricane Irene's reach, there's a good chance the storm was all you heard about when you turned on the television over the weekend. But some big things happened outside the hurricane zone while it ripped along the coast.

Here's the news you might have missed while you were watching local TV news reporters get covered in toxic foam:

• American military forces killed al Qaeda's second-highest ranking leader, Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, during a drone strike in Afghanistan.

• The National Geographic Channel aired an exclusive interview Sunday night with former President George W. Bush on his recollections of Sept. 11, 2001.

• In the first presidential campaign since the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, the lines separating non-affiliated political action committees and campaigns are becoming increasingly blurred, the New York Times reported.

Here are the stories we took note of today but didn't give the full blog treatment:

• John Edwards wants the charges that he took illegal campaign contributions dropped. (Reuters)

• Newt Gingrich closes shop on his national group, American Solutions. (Washington Post)

• Herman Cain is worth up to $6.6 million. (Daily Caller)

• Rick Perry leading in South Carolina, which will hold the first primary in the South next year. (The State)

(Charlie Neibergall/AP)

In yet another sign that perhaps the news media ought to think about treating his presidential campaign more seriously,  Ron Paul was viewed about as favorably as Rick Perry and Mitt Romney by Americans in a new poll.

In an Associated Press-GfK telephone survey of the general population, 37 percent of the respondents said they have a positive view of the libertarian-leaning representative from Texas, while 36 percent said they did not.

Perry, the Texas governor, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, invoked similar favorable/unfavorable ratings that also fell within the poll's 4.1 percent margin of error. Romney was viewed favorably by 39 percent of Americans, and Perry was viewed favorably by 33 percent.

Another 41 percent said they viewed Romney unfavorably, and 36 percent viewed Perry unfavorably.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had the widest gap among the poll's respondents, with 57 percent viewing him unfavorably and 27 percent viewing him favorably.

A Gallup survey