Stephen Reader

In his first State of the State address on Wednesday afternoon, Govenor Andrew Cuomo laid out his plans for reorganizing New York state government, closing the $10 billion budget deficit, and acting on a host of progressive social issues.

He said streamlining government and taking on the deficit go hand in hand. "This is not just a budget exercise," Cuomo said. "This is a fundamental realignment for the state. You can't make up these savings over this period of time through a cutting or trimming exercise. We need to reorganize government agencies and redesign our approach, because the old way wasn't working anyway."

We can expect some sort of tax hike, some sort of cut to state services, some sort of negotiation with state employee unions, and beyond that, I'm not sure what. I think even Governor...

Business spends plenty of money focused on narrow industry interests. Same with organizaed labor and other special interest groups, they tend to focus narrowly. The challenge Cuomo wi...

As the new governor of the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo has pledged to freeze the salary increases of state employees, veto any increase in personal or corporate income taxes, and ...

You're talking about freezing salaries, capping state spending, these changes in worker status. I think Cuomo's saying, we've got to rip this thing up and start over again. A lot of...

I think peopls will be very angry for a very long time about the city's response...To say it's Bloomberg's Katrina is overstated, but it really chips into his image as someone who "...

Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo has been mostly silent lately about his plans for New York, but he's got a lot to say about his plan to present them. Today Cuomo announced that the annual...

Congress usually draws the most attention for the things it doesn’t accomplish. The 111th session was no different, but all the partisan bickering, deadlock, and frequent threats of...

I think it’s important to remember that it’s really important for people to have these discussions, and I think that importance got totally lost in all that “death panel” business t...

The United States' economy continued to struggle in 2010 as policymakers attempted to navigate the difficult transition from recession to recovery. A high, stubborn, stagnant unemployment rate serves as the backdrop to a year in which further stimulus measures were considered, the financial industry faced reform, and politicians prepared to compromise on the Bush tax cuts.

The year in Iraq and Afghanistan was marked by grim milestones in the US occupation, fraudulent and confusing elections, sudden changes in military command, and a lot of leaked information. Here's what you may have missed.

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's a Free Country we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. This morning on The Brian Lehrer Show, Commander Beth Coye, former naval officer and author of My Navy Too, reacted to the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy affecting gay servicemen and women.

I think a lot of people were blindsided by the agreement Obama worked out with congressional Republicans to not only extend the Bush tax cuts but to add on with payroll tax cuts and s...

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's a Free Country we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. This morning on The Brian Lehrer Show, NPR national security correspondent Rachel Martin reviewed the Obama administration's assessment of the war in Afghanistan.

You could feel in his commentary skepticism about America's Afghanistan project, and I found this really revealing given the final words he's alleged to have said before he was sedate...

If the Democrats in the House scuttle this thing, it's just clear as day what happens. Taxes go up on everybody on New Year's Eve. The Republicans take control of the House a week la...

People who thought Julian Assange or Bradley Manning are immoral now, people like that certainly thought I was immoral at the time. Manning I see as the first person in 40 years who h...

I think the Democrats need to draw a line in the sand now. They were real wimps during the election and Republicans were all about the deficit, the deficit, the deficit. And now they ...

There's no question that they want to keep their promises, myself included. The reality is that sometimes you have to play the cards that you're dealt. I don't think it's prudent to s...

Most recently, Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand, who've been working hard to get this passed, have proposed a whole bunch of options, sort of a menu list, and told Republicans t...