House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan did an admirable job rebutting President Obama’s state of the union speech tonight. As Republicans with more stature have learned the hard way, ahem Bobby Jindal, answering the President’s hour-long speech in under 15 minutes can be tough. But the Wisconsin Republican’s biggest competition
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President Obama is expected to announce a five-year non-security, discretionary spending freeze in tonight’s State of The Union, effectively extending by two more years the three-year freeze on many discretionary programs that Obama had previously proposed. Just what does this “freeze” really mean?
It is actually something that will …
President Obama and the First Lady take part in a moment of silence on January 10 in honor of the victims of the shooting in Tucson. (REUTERS/Jim Young)
–President Obama will travel to Arizona Wednesday to speak at a memorial for the victims of Saturday’s shooting.
–Gun control advocates Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Carolyn …
Sure, the handing over of power went smoothly and civilly. But Republicans are off to a tough first week and Dems are not letting them forget it – or so say the dozens of press releases in my inbox. Governing is always harder than being in the minority and there’s bound to be some period of transition – though it’s only been four …
This morning the Treasury officially requested that Congress raise the debt ceiling. This has been a long-anticipated move and Congress cannot fail to act as the consequences would be catastrophic: think downgrading our AAA credit status – in other words, sorry China, we will not be able to pay our debts.
But, the prospect of …
After the ceremonies and standing ovations died down, the new Republican House majority did get around to some crucial business today. By a straight party-line vote, the House approved a new rules package for the 112th Congress, 240-191.
Republicans say passing the new package–a right granted by the Constitution–will foster openness …
The U.S. Capitol Dome is lit after the first significant snowfall of the season as the House of Representatives worked late into the evening on December 16, 2010. (REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang)
–The tax deal, including a two-year extension of all the Bush breaks, a temporary payroll tax cut, and assorted other cuts and credits, breezed …
In the Wall Street Journal today, Tim Pawlenty published a self-serving essay about his own bravery in taking on the public employee unions in his state, who never really supported him anyway. It is an obvious piece of political positioning for 2012, and not a very interesting read.
This morning, by contrast, outgoing White House …
At 10:25 a.m. this morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, began a lengthy speech on the Senate floor to block President Obama’s $858 billion tax bill. “You can call what I am doing today whatever you want, you it call it a filibuster, you can call it a very long speech,” Sanders said. “I’m not here to set any great …
Here is Anthony Weiner, a Congressional black belt in cable news combat, making waves on Fox News yesterday. You don’t have to watch the whole thing. But note at about 1:25 when he says. “Is it best to add another $80 billion in debt to our children to pay for the Estate Tax burden that will only be lifted for 32,000 people in the entire …
Long before the midterm ballots had been counted, White House aides had begun to mull the coming agony of divided government. As the Obama team worked out its options, one priority kept coming to the top: However, the next two years shook out, they told themselves, Barack Obama needed to convince the great middle of the American …
Combing through records compiled by the spending watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, Hotline‘s Reid Wilson writes that members of the 52-person Congressional Tea Party Caucus requested more than $1 billion in earmarks during the 2010 fiscal year. From Wilson’s piece:
[…]the 52 members of the caucus, which pledges to cut
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“It’s all bad, as far as I’m concerned,” Michele Bachmann announced in April, in an appearance on Fox Business. “All this pork is bad. The old pork was bad. The new pork is bad.”
But she didn’t mean it. In an interview Monday with a homestate newspaper, she said she …
