The Pentagon study that argues that gay troops could serve openly without hurting the military’s ability to fight is expected to re-ignite debate this month on Capitol Hill over repealing the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Officials familiar with the 10-month study’s results have said a clear majority of respondents don’t care if gays […]
The top Democrat in the Senate said on Tuesday he was willing to consider a temporary tax cut extension for all income levels, a step that could pave the way for a possible deal with Republicans on Bush-era tax cuts. “This is something we will take a look at,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told […]
Senate Democrats and Republicans alike are poised to return their respective party leaders to their posts following an election in which the top Democrat scrambled to retain his seat and the senior Republican picked up 13 new senators. Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is unopposed to keep his post, as is Kentucky Republican […]
Old and new Washington collided on Capitol Hill Monday, and new won. Within moments of flicking on the Senate lights, Sen. Mitch McConnell announced that when it came to pork barrel politics he had changed his mind. The Senate’s staunchest fan of so-called earmarks reversed course and supported a ban on those special spending requests, […]
Congress’ most unapologetic fan of big-money politics is backing a ban on pork-barrel earmarks and avoiding an early battle with conservative senators who had threatened to force a vote on the matter. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has long defended the practice of designating money for home-state projects, said he was heeding the message […]
Amid all the hoopla over the phony grassroots operation called the tea party, a central and important question gets lost. Did Republicans recapture control of the House of Representatives because of the tea party or in spite of it? One can argue that the tea party’s willingness to accept and push questionable candidates cost Republicans […]
Barely an hour after President Barack Obama invited congressional Republicans to post-election talks to work together on major issues, the Senate’s GOP leader had a blunt message: His party’s main goal is denying Obama re-election. In a sign that combat and the 2012 elections rather than compromise could mark the next two years, Sen. Mitch […]
President Barack Obama may have expressed humility over the “shellacking” he took in the midterm elections. But he and his fellow Democrats made it clear they still differ with Republicans on many key issues, and all the talk of a new spirit of compromise could prove tough to follow up on. Leaders of the two […]
A chastened President Barack Obama admitted he had suffered a “shellacking” in this week’s US mid-term elections, but refused to see it as a repudiation of his transformative domestic agenda. He instead blamed the loss of the House of Representatives and Republican gains in the Senate on deep voter frustration at the sluggish recovery and […]
Emboldened by a commanding House majority and Senate gains, Republican leaders vowed Wednesday to deliver on their “golden opportunity” to roll back the size of government and President Barack Obama‘s signature health care law. “Change course we will,” said Ohio Rep. John Boehner, the speaker-in-waiting, describing Tuesday’s midterm elections as a mandate to shrink the […]