Moody’s Mark Zandi has done a macroeconomic analysis (subscription required) comparing a baseline scenario for 2011 with the Obama-McConnell tax compromise scenario to figure out the impact of the compromise on unemployment and the GDP.
For the baseline, Zandi tried to describe a consensus approach: Bush-era tax cuts extended under …
The Senate Republican conference’s looming vote has been portrayed as the first test of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell versus Tea Party leader Jim DeMint. House GOP leadership last week announced an agreement to ban earmarks for at least two years. But McConnell held out in the Senate while DeMint pressed for a conference vote on the …
“A gaffe happens when someone slips up and tells the truth,” goes the old Washington saw. But there is a corollary: A scandal occurs when someone gets caught doing what everyone else is doing. Gambling in the casino!?! He had an affair?!? Ethics impropriety in the U.S. Congress!?! Clutch the pearls, call for an investigation, restore …
If you’re still mourning the loss of the health care debate’s heated rhetoric, don’t despair. It’s about to get another lease on life thanks to the upcoming confirmation hearing for Donald Berwick, Obama pick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
This is a powerful position within the Department of Health and …
In an unusual move, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell today endorsed his long time protege Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson for forced out, er, retiring Jim Bunning’s Senate seat.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fdC3Fnx5z0&feature=player_embedded]
With two weeks to go before the Bluegrass State’s first …
I was just about to hit send on a post about how the Dems were rolling out cots for a forced all night session on financial regulatory reform when I got this email from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:
“I appreciate the efforts of Sen. Shelby to work toward a bipartisan solution on an issue that will have an impact on nearly
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This morning Washington woke up to reports on how the White House was going to go after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s opposition to the financial reregulation bill. “McConnell’s arguments that the Democrat’s plan for Wall Street reform will perpetuate bailouts is pure fantasy cooked up by Frank Luntz in a right wing focus …
When Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced last Friday that he would retire at the end of this term, thus leaving a liberal gap on the bench, the next great legislative war was conceived. As Stephen Colbert colorfully put it last night, “No matter who the president nominates, cable news will be talking about this all …
Bit by bit, bipartisan negotiations in the Senate over financial regulatory reform have broken down. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee split with the Democratic Chairman, Chris Dodd in February. Bob Corker filled the gap, stepping in to try to hammer out a compromise on an issue in which both parties see the …
Here’s a story from me out of Kentucky, where I went a few weeks ago to look at the GOP primary for Jim Bunning’s Senate seat. It’s hard to say who’s running a worse campaign, Rand Paul who has no message discipline and lacks charisma or Trey Grayson who doesn’t even post his events on his website (I’m still scratching my head …
Not to beat a dead horse, but Republicans continue to write ominous memos and give cryptic quotes about the political danger House Democrats face if they pass the Senate health bill. They’re publicly naming names now in an effort to scare wavering or vulnerable House Democrats into voting against the bill. (Steve Driehaus and Nick …
The White House health care summit is set to begin at 10 a.m. EST today at Blair House. Kate Pickert and I will be watching throughout the six hours, and will be posting developments as we see them. Please join us here in Swampland throughout the day, and let us know what you think of the proceedings.
In the meantime, here are a few …
The meeting has begun, between Republicans Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, Democrats Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, and the senior White House staff, including President Obama.
This is the first of what Obama has promised to be monthly gatherings between Republicans and Democrats, and basically nobody has much hope that …
