Capitol Hill Blue

Senior White House aides knew about IRS targeting

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior advisers knew in late April…

Doug Thompson

Government of the inept, unqualified and unbelievable

In the American military, sexual abuse is so prevalent that even those in charge of overseeing programs to protect victims are themselves in jail for rape and assault. At the Internal Revenue Service, groups with the gall to question the many inept, unethical and probably illegal actions of President Barack…

News

Former IRS chief set for grilling on Capitol Hill

Lawmakers are getting their first chance to question the former head of the Internal Revenue Service, the man who ran the agency when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups.…

A muddled history of media probes by government

It was a rare moment in relations between the media and the government: In 2008, FBI Director Robert Mueller called the top editors at The New York Times and The…

Final decisions near on immigration bill

The Senate Judiciary Committee hopes to nail down an elusive compromise on high-tech visas and may punt a controversy over gay marriage to the full Senate as it makes final…

News

Military sexual abuse victims seek help from VA

More than 85,000 veterans were treated last year for injuries or illness stemming from sexual abuse in the military, and 4,000 sought disability benefits, underscoring the staggering long-term impact of…

Immigration vote set for Senate committee this week

The Senate Judiciary Committee is aiming this week to pass a landmark immigration bill to secure the border and offer citizenship to millions, setting up a high-stakes debate on the…

Lowered deficit forecasts also lowers drive for budget deal

The chances of a deal between Democratic and Republican lawmakers that would overhaul the tax system, trim government spending and reform safety net spending programs appear to be fading. A…

Tea Party hopes IRS debacle will give a needed boost

Is the tea party getting its groove back? Shouts of vindication from around the country suggest the movement’s leaders certainly think so. They say the IRS acknowledgement that it had…

Marines screw the pooch by failing to report water threat

A simple test could have alerted officials that the drinking water at Camp Lejeune was contaminated, long before authorities determined that as many as a million Marines and their families…

Obama”s budget: Higher, then lower deficits?

Near-term U.S. deficits under President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget plan would be higher than those forecast by the Congressional Budget Office this week but would be $1.1 trillion lower over…

Obama seems to be weathering scandals, controversies

Despite Democratic fears, predictions of the demise of President Barack Obama’s agenda appear exaggerated after a week of cascading controversies, political triage by the administration and party leaders in Congress…

Will White House scandals hurt Obamacare?

Political scandals have strange ways of causing collateral damage, and Republicans are hoping the furor over federal tax enforcers singling out conservative groups will ensnare their biggest target: President Barack…

Budget official tapped to run troubled IRS

President Barack Obama picked a senior White House budget official to become the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday, the same day another top official announced plans…

Ousted IRS boss stonewalls Congressional committee

The outgoing head of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service angered Republican lawmakers on Friday by resisting their demands that he identify who at the tax-collection agency had inappropriately targeted conservative…

Immigration deal reached in House

Prospects for passage of a major immigration bill improved on Thursday when a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives declared they had reached a tentative deal, resolving…

Arizona’s immigration law a monumental failure

The immigration debate in Arizona reached a boiling point in 2007 when the state passed a groundbreaking law targeting those often blamed with fueling the nation’s border woes: Employers who…

Lawmakers set to grill fired IRS boss

Lawmakers are ready to question the ousted head of the Internal Revenue Service as Congress holds its first hearing on the tougher scrutiny the IRS gave tea party and other…