Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–Obama worked in an address to the troops and a sit-down with President Karzai in just six hours on the ground in Afghanistan. The brief weekend trip was his first to the nation as commander in chief. Michael tagged along to tell the tale.
–Reuters describes how the entire thing was …
President Barack Obama today announced his intention to make 15 recess appointments, signaling his frustration with the Senate’s foot dragging. The White House pointedly noted that these nominees have been waiting an average of 214 days for confirmation. Overall, the White house said, Obama has 217 nominees before the Senate who’ve …
The Senate scattered to the four winds this afternoon, leaving unfinished work on a $9.2 billion bill to extend for one-month unemployment benefits. This will not make for a restful two-week recess for exhausted lawmakers as some of the benefits begin to run out April 5 – the day after Easter. Barring any kidnapped girls or celebrity …
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–So health care is done for now. Congress is running off on recess and President Obama is headed to Camp David for the weekend. Everyone could probably use a rest.
–Majority Leader Reid, caught up in the moment, accidentally voted “no” on health care (again) yesterday before …
The House just voted 220-207 to pass the tweaked package of health reform fixes approved by the Senate earlier today and sent back to the lower chamber for one final vote.
It may be hard to believe, but after all the vitriolic town halls, the missed deadlines, the desperate search for 60 in the Senate, the thousand deaths and rebirths …
If you happened to have turned on C-SPAN in the last half hour you may have noticed the Senate was full of senators but no vote going on. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid convened the upper chamber to try and get consensus on how to proceed after Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, objected to proceeding to a one-month extension …
In the middle of a meeting in the early evening Wednesday on – what else? – reconciliation, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer interrupted proceedings to speak with the Senate Parliamentarian. Though neither man would discuss what was going on, reports soon emerged: Tea Party protesters were planning to picket the …
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–As Kate mentioned, parliamentarian Alan Frumin ruled early this morning that two minor clauses relating to Pell Grant funding in the health care reconciliation bill don’t make the cut for budget rules. It’s a minor hiccup and won’t radically alter the legislation. The Senate is expected …
Well Charlie Crist’s latest radio ad certainly throws a healthy dose of cold water on those whispers about him switching parties:
There were never any credible reports he was mulling a flip, but musings about the Florida governor and Republican Senate hopeful taking desperate action were understandable given the brutal beating he …
Yesterday I reported that the GOP storm on health care seemed to be subsiding. Indeed, reconciliation looks on schedule to go through by Friday, though Senator Tom Coburn says he believes he’ll be able to successful strip out certain provisions forcing the Senate to send the bill back to the House for final passage. It seems, though, …
Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy
–That’s what a signature with 22 pens looks like. Here’s who get them.
–Probably the most touted immediate effect of the health care bill, a measure preventing insurance companies from denying children coverage on the basis of preexisting conditions, may not kick in as advertised …
With the help of TIME’s Katy Steinmetz:
The last few weeks Senate Republicans were all sturm und drang. “The American people are getting tired of this crap,” Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican told ABC’s This Week. “If [Democrats do reconciliation], it’s going to poison the well for anything else they would like to …
A dispatch from our colleague Alex Altman:
Less than an hour after President Obama signed the health-care reform bill into law, attorneys general from 13 states filed a lawsuit challenging the bill’s constitutionality. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, acting on behalf of 13 states, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Pensacola,
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