John Boehner

Shutdown Doublespeak

House and Senate leaders seem to be speaking over each other rather than to one another in the debate over spending cuts that could shutdown the government on March 4 – not a good sign.

 

House Speaker John Boehner today reiterated his position that the Senate take up the 2011 spending bill passed by the House early Saturday. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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