I have a TIME.com story out today on what’s happening with the potential government shutdown and how 2011 is different from the last time this happened in 1995.
John Boehner
A Grand Bargain? You Show Me Yours…
Showing a little leg on deficit reduction is a highly risky proposition these days: display the scantest hint of skin and you risk losing a limb. The ink was still drying on the final edition of the Wall Street Journal‘s Thursday story detailing a grand bipartisan plan for deficit reduction when the angry missives began. Grover Norquist …
Boehner Raises the Stakes on a Government Shutdown
House Speaker John Boehner today ruled out a short term extension of current levels of government funding, raising the prospect of a government shutdown.
The House tonight or tomorrow is expected to pass funding for the government through the rest of the year. But both chambers of Congress are out next week for President’s Day recess. …
The GOP’s Big Budget Tent?
Slashing $100 billion from the 2011 budget may have appeased the Tea Party caucus and the freshman class, but it’s turning out to be not so comfortable for some Republican moderates.
On Monday New York Republicans Pete King and Michael Grimm sent Speaker Boehner a letter protesting cuts to transit security grants, the COPS program …
The Four Pieces of the Great Spending Debate
Starting this week deficits and spending will take center stage in Washington. And barring a total meltdown in the Middle East, they will hog the stage for the next three months. The stakes are high. Odds of a government shutdown are getting better as are the chances the U.S. could default on its debt. Odds that President Obama will …
100 Billion Dollars!
Last year, in the Pledge to America Republicans said if they gained control of the House they would lop $100 billion off the 2011 federal budget. Lo and behold they won. But the week they took office, they said that given that fiscal 2011 was already partly over so they would cut more like $60 billion. I never quite got this move as it …
The 2011 RNC Winter Meeting
Two years ago, the GOP was reeling from two brutal elections and a seeming eternity in the minority. As they gather for their annual winter meeting this year they have control of one chamber of Congress and are within striking distance of the other. That will not save, it seems, Chairman Michael Steele whose tenure was marked with gaffs …
Giffords Gets Shot and Congress Will Do… Very Little
What will the legislative fallout be from the tragedy in Tucson? Probably nothing at all. Frankly, there’s little they can do.
Thus far members have come up with a variety of ideas:
–Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) renewed his call to install a Plexiglas shield between the gallery and the House floor – because members should be handled …
In Response To Mayhem, The Nation Stands In Silence
Sometimes, the silence says it all.
And so, in a city that runs on rhetoric and bombast, the only moments that really mattered Monday were the ones when no one said a thing. The President stood with his wife, their heads down before the South Lawn, flanked by hundreds of White House staff, from the senior aides in $170 ties to the …
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
In her weekly newsletter sent early this morning, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords told supporters: “The most effective way for me to do my job is for me to keep in touch with you.” Doing so may have cost her her life. The Arizona Democrat was shot in the head at her “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway supermarket in northwest …
A Rocky Start
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 …
Playing Chicken with the Nation’s IOUs
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 …
The New Republican Rules
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 …
