Christopher Hayes

Washington Editor

Christopher Hayes is The Nation's Washington, DC Editor. His essays, articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation,The American Prospect, The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, The Guardian and The Chicago Reader. From 2005 to 2006, Hayes was a Schumann Center Writing Fellow at In These Times. He is currently a fellow at the New America Foundation. His wife works in the White House Counsel's office.

Currently

  • The Breakdown: Defense Spending and the 2011 Budget

    February 5, 2010

    What effect will the reduction in troops in Iraq that Obama has promised have on defense spending?

  • Breakdown: Spending Freeze Edition

    January 29, 2010

    The Obama Administration has announced a plan to reduce the budget deficit through a three-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending. What are possible long-term effects?

  • A Cold Day in Washington

    January 28, 2010 Subscribe

    A freeze on discretionary spending may poll well, but it endorses ignorance of how the federal government spends its money.

  • The Breakdown: Can Healthcare Reform Be Saved?

    January 22, 2010

    In the wake of the surprising loss in Massachusetts on Tuesday, the future of healthcare reform has become uncertain. The Nation's DC Editor Christopher Hayes and special guest Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post explore the legislative options for next steps.

  • The Breakdown: A Healthcare Timeline

    January 15, 2010

    Even if healthcare reform passes in 2010, many of its programs will only go into effect in two or three years. Why? Christopher Hayes says it's all an accounting trick.

  • System Failure

    January 14, 2010

    As welcome as it was, the removal of George W. Bush was not enough to cure what ails us.

2009

  • The Great Leap

    December 22, 2009

    In the midst of a global financial crash and the climate crisis, New China enters its third act.

  • The Breakdown: The Great Climate Debate

    December 18, 2009

    Global warming is not just controversial, it's also pretty confusing. As world leaders debate in Copenhagen, politicians in Congress are pushing different plans to deal with climate change. Christopher Hayes breaks down the difference between cap and trade and a carbon tax.

  • Climate Fog

    December 2, 2009

    Congress is finally ready to address climate change--but the American public seems headed in the opposite direction.

  • The China Debt Dance

    November 18, 2009

    The Chinese own so much of us that they're stuck with us.

  • What Ails the Senate

    November 4, 2009

    The filibuster has become a cancer growing inside the world's greatest deliberative body.

  • Tuesdays With Rahm

    October 7, 2009

    The quickest way to Rahm Emanuel's bad side: put progressive pressure on conservative Democrats.

  • ACORN and Accountability

    September 23, 2009

    The ACORN tapes and the Inequality of Accountability.

  • Meet the Hazzards

    September 23, 2009

    If banks were people, here's what the full $17.5 trillion bailout would look like.

  • The Secret Government

    August 26, 2009

    An effective investigation into the breadth of the CIA's interrogation programs must be bipartisan, similar to the work of the Church Committee in the 1970s.

  • Bend It Like Obama?

    July 29, 2009 Subscribe

    With healthcare reform, the White House has transformed an intimate issue into a technical argument about long-term actuarial projections.

  • Bend It Like Obama?

    July 28, 2009

    The future of progressive politics and the nature of the American social contract, not to mention the lives and health of millions of our fellow citizens, are up for grabs.

  • Bucking the Banks

    June 24, 2009

    How can we expect the experts to reform the financial system when it's experts who got us into this mess to begin with?

  • The Compensation Hustle

    June 17, 2009 Subscribe

    How will Washington recalibrate the share of gains captured by shareholders, executives and workers in a post-crash economy?

  • Naming the Enemy

    June 3, 2009

    Grassroots activists take on the banking industry on the question of bankruptcy reform.

  • Bankers' Paradise

    May 20, 2009

    Congress, at the behest of the banking industry, has changed accounting rules to make company balance sheets even more opaque. How is that going to help?

  • Notes on Change

    April 22, 2009

    Three months into the Obama era, the euphoria of the election has begun to dissipate.

  • Webb's Prison Crusade

    April 15, 2009

    The Virginia senator's willingness to take up this cause is evidence that the culture gap may be closing.

  • Not Our Department

    April 8, 2009 Subscribe

    For the Labor Department damaged by eight years of Bush neglect, help is finally on the way.

  • Pulp Nonfiction

    April 2, 2009

    A tax loophole could let the ten largest paper companies rake in a whopping $8 billion. Where's the outrage?

  • Experts of the World Unite

    March 26, 2009

    Despite Obama's inaugural call for a New Era of Responsibility, the old cynicism threatens a comeback.

  • AIG Lights a Fire

    March 18, 2009 Subscribe

    A new kind of economic populism is driving grassroots protests to nationalize, reorganize and decentralize the financial system.

  • Which Side Are You On?

    March 18, 2009

    Every Democratic elected official must answer an old but newly relevant question: are you for or against labor unions?

  • Healthcare Enemy No. 1

    March 11, 2009

    Meet hospital magnate Rick Scott, the face of GOP resistance to healthcare reform. Oh, and did we mention the mass fraud perpetrated by the hospital chain he helped found?

  • Green Power Struggle

    March 4, 2009

    An act of civil disobedience at a coal-fired generator in DC shows the movement to halt global warming is now in its second act.

  • Obama Carrots

    February 25, 2009

    The White House plan to keep homeowners out of foreclosure seems to have the stick-to-carrot ratio about right.

  • COP on the Beat

    February 18, 2009

    Tough love from the Congressional Oversight Panel involves ripping the Band-Aid--otherwise known as TARP--off the mortally wounded banking system.

  • Cut the Military Budget--I

    February 11, 2009 Subscribe

    Reining in the Pentagon's wanton spending habits is going to be a long, hard slog.

  • Blue Dogs Bark

    February 11, 2009

    Why do the Blue Dog Democrats get so much attention? They're more unified and cohesive than any other House faction. And then there's America's love affair with fiscal conservatism.

  • Biden v. Summers

    February 4, 2009

    As Larry Summers takes a dominant role in crafting economic policy, it's up to Joe Biden to protect the interests of the middle class.

  • Never Say You're Sorry

    January 28, 2009

    Why do people like Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Gary Gensler keep getting the Obama administration's plum jobs?

  • 'I Saw My People'

    January 22, 2009

    Washington desperately needs new blood. Will Obama's people provide the necessary transfusion?

2008

  • The Pragmatist

    December 10, 2008

    We get it. He's pragmatic. But what does that mean--politically and philosophically?

  • The Right Choice at Treasury

    November 17, 2008

    To avoid the mistakes of the past, there are two basic criteria: First, no Wall Streeters; second, no one who helped create the current crisis.

  • Democracy Inaction

    October 1, 2008

    Nothing brings left and right together like a Big Government intervention on behalf of Big Money.

  • Q&A With Thomas Frank

    September 16, 2008

    The central thesis of Thomas Frank's new book, The Wrecking Crew, is that the kind of obscene depravity witnessed at the Department. of Interior is the natural result of the conservative philosophy of governance.

  • Blue-Collar Republicans

    September 2, 2008

    The Republican Party has set itself firmly against the agenda of the labor movement. So to observe Labor Day in St. Paul was a strange experience indeed.

  • Wanted: New Voters

    August 13, 2008

    Obama's voter-registration drive could be the change America's been waiting for.

  • MoveOn at Ten

    July 16, 2008

    It's given voice to a new silent majority--and made a few enemies. Now what?

  • Mr. Lessig Goes to Washington

    May 29, 2008

    The visionary professor who inspired the "free culture" movement takes on money in politics.

  • Politics at a Price

    April 1, 2008

    A former GOP fundraiser talks about donor psychology, disillusionment and the high cost of winning.

  • End the War: Try Again

    March 27, 2008

    Ten Congressional Democratic challengers have proposed a "Responsible Plan to End the War." It just might work.

  • Obama, Politics and the Pulpit

    March 17, 2008

    The uproar over intemperate remarks by Obama's former pastor reveals all that's repellant in our national discourse over race, religion and politics.

  • The Choice

    February 1, 2008

    On the eve of Super Tuesday, The Nation's DC editor explains why he thinks Barack Obama is the better choice to build a real progressive majority.

  • The Choice

    January 31, 2008

    Here's why Obama is the left's best chance to take back the country.

  • Viva la Restauración

    January 24, 2008 Subscribe

    Latinos supported Hillary Clinton in the chaotic Nevada caucuses, but how much do her policies support them?

  • Populism's Candidate

    January 10, 2008

    No matter who wins the Democratic election, the John Edwards campaign has set the domestic agenda for the entire field.

  • Return of the Swift Boaters

    January 2, 2008

    As conservatives stare into an electoral abyss, the shadowy group that smeared John Kerry in 2004 has reorganized and stands poised to do its dirty work again.

2007

  • Ron Paul's Roots

    December 6, 2007

    His phenomenal candidacy is giving the long-fractured libertarian movement a Kumbaya moment.

  • Heartland Forum Tackles the Real Issues

    December 3, 2007

    Pushing past TV's divisive debate format, a unusual forum in Iowa Saturday pushed Democratic candidates to really explain where they stand on pollution, immigration and predatory lending.

  • The Coming Foreclosure Tsunami

    November 13, 2007

    As Congress grapples with the wave of foreclosures and bankruptcies resulting from the subprime mess, why are some Dems siding with the banks?

  • Executive Excess on Capitol Hill

    November 12, 2007

    Faced with a no-brainer fix to close a tax loophole, Senate Democrats are dithering, caught between the interests of their donors and their voters.

  • The New Right-Wing Smear Machine

    October 25, 2007

    A web-savvy form of conservative propaganda, written anonymously and forwarded via e-mail, is altering the political landscape.

  • Ken Burns's War

    September 27, 2007

    His nostalgic PBS series casts WWII as acrucible of meaning. Too bad it lacked a tighter focus on the moral failure of combat.

  • Letters

    September 26, 2007 Subscribe

  • Politicize the War

    September 20, 2007

    By sending Petraeus to Capitol Hill, the White House tried to smuggle in a radical war agenda under the mantle of an outstanding soldier. And people fell for it.

  • The NAFTA Superhighway

    August 9, 2007

    The NAFTA Superhighway is a total myth. But the private Trans-Texas Corridor is all too real, foretelling a future America in which globalism and crony capitalism eclipse government as the provider of public services.

  • Michael Moore's Sicko

    June 27, 2007

    Michael Moore's healthcare documentary is less partisan, less outrageous--but more real--than anything he's done before.

  • In Praise of Red Tape

    June 21, 2007

    When lawmakers and the media failed to hold the Bush Administration to account, it was left to bureaucrats to defend the integrity of government.

  • Hip Heterodoxy

    May 24, 2007

    A group of economists is challenging the most basic assumptions of neoclassical economic theory, and their influence is growing.

  • Look Who's Taxing

    May 2, 2007

    Weary of tax cuts for the rich, state politicians are rethinking their aversion to tax-and-spend.

  • The Sum of Our Fears

    March 30, 2007

    The money we've wasted on unseen terrorists, nonexistent WMDs and phantom pedophiles could have been used to address any number of legitimate threats.

  • Obama's Media Maven

    February 6, 2007

    David Axelrod, Barack Obama's closest political adviser, is applying the lessons he learned from Chicago's ugly racialized politics.

  • Only Words

    January 31, 2007 Subscribe

    Now that Democrats have real power, netroots progressives need to choose their issues--and their tactics.

2006

  • Memo to Dems: About Those Earmarks

    December 21, 2006

    As Democrats clean up abuse of earmarks, they can't ignore the ones that masquerade as targeted tax breaks.

  • 9/11: The Roots of Paranoia

    December 8, 2006

    Public paranoia and a credulous establishment media that have failed to aggressively report on 9/11 have allowed a cult-like "Truth Movement" to fill in the gaps.

  • The New Democratic Populism

    November 21, 2006

    Economic populism was the most underreported story of the midterms and will be the cornerstone of any new Democratic majority.

2005

  • Can the Democrats Win the Ground War at Home?

    November 30, 2005

    Progressive groups that mobilized for the 2004 elections are now dismissed as failures. But though they were unable to defeat Bush, grassroots activists are creating waves across the country. They may be the ticket to Republican defeat and the creation of a new movement.

  • On to Ohio

    June 27, 2005

    With Ohio's GOP tainted by scandal and corruption, Democrats see an opening for 2006.

  • Corruption--a Proven Winner

    April 14, 2005 Subscribe

    It led to Democratic control in Illinois.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Advertisement
Advertisement

Blogs

» The Beat

Facing Bipartisan Criticism, RNC's Steele Asks If Race Is Factor | "Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?” he wonders. Maybe he could compare notes with Obama.
John Nichols

» Editor's Cut

New Web Column at The Washington Post | Every Tuesday, I'll be featuring progressive thinking about politics and challenging the Right in my new web column for The Washington Post. Read my first one here.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
31 Comments

» The Notion

When Snow Melts: Vancouver’s Olympic Crackdown | Anger is growing in Vancouver in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Like Olympic clockwork, here comes the media crackdown.
Dave Zirin
43 Comments

» The Dreyfuss Report

The Mind-Boggling Stupidity of Michael Rubin | How an AEI apparatchik's love affair for Ahmed Chalabi blinds him to Chalabi's pro-Iran treachery.
Robert Dreyfuss
27 Comments

» Act Now!

Demand Question Time | Join the call for the President and Congress to implement regular Question Time sessions.
Peter Rothberg
56 Comments

» And Another Thing

How to Counterbalance Focus on the Family on Superbowl Sunday | Give to help low income girls and women.
Katha Pollitt
54 Comments

» Altercation

Slacker Friday | James O'Keefe and Alter-reviews.
Eric Alterman