Recently in Congress Category

And it's a bi-partisan effort:"Both Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee, signaled that they're preparing budgets that would seek cuts to government spending in order to address the deficit.Conrad said he'd look to the recommendations by President Obama's fiscal commission as a "starting point," and then look to craft a budget that improves on those proposals."I have...

Just one small segment of Sen. Bernie Sanders' marathon speech on the floor of the Senate yesterday, dealing with the class war and the winners and losers in that war:<br />"...in the year 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income. The top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income-more than the entire bottom 50 percent.""From 1980-2005, 80% of all income went to...

The latest on "The Deal":President Obama at Tuesday's press conference: [I]t's a big, diverse country, and people have a lot of complicated positions, it means that in order to get stuff done we're gonna compromise...This country was founded on compromise."Yesterday: "Vice President Biden told House Democrats on Wednesday that the tax agreement the White House struck with Republicans was essentially final, forcing the divided caucus to decide whether to press its fight for changes in...

Why is this man smiling?You would be smiling too if you'd just been named de facto President of the United States:"White House officials and Congressional Republicans said Sunday they were closing in on a deal to temporarily continue the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels, while bitterly frustrated Democratic Congressional leaders began exploring whether they would have the votes for such a package. A day after the Senate rejected President Obama's preferred [yeah,right] tax...

The circular firing squad is forming:"The Democratic Party's Herbert Hoover-like response to high unemployment cost them their majority, a member of the House Democratic leadership team said Tuesday. "We never did enough in terms of that area for us to have the kind of success we would have," he said on MSNBC. "We had a Roosevelt moment and responded like Hoover."Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill) on the recommendations from the co-chairs of the deficit commission:"The middle...

It has been two weeks since Republicans made significant  gains across the country on Election Day.The focus of the election was jobs and the economy. 56% of folks in a recent CBS News poll say the most important issue for the new Congress is jobs and the economy.Yet as millions of Americans still deal with unemployment and underemployment, the Republican focus is on everything but jobs and the economy. Where incoming Republican governors have addressed jobs,...

Yes, yes we have heard this word many times before, but I am using it in a new context today. I'm calling this a primer for all disaffected Democrats and progressives. Let us remember the same calls and pleas that we made when we took over Congress in 2007 and the presidency in 2009. We asked people to hope and not just for change itself, but for improvement in our lot in life. One of...

On the day that marked the beginning of the 10th year of the Afghani-Nam cluster(bleep) the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Carl Levin (D-MI), released the results of an investigation which found that private security forces hired by the Pentagon to protect our military bases there include Taliban warlords and people with ties to Iran."Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban, criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American...

"I met a girl who sang the blues, and I asked her for some happy news. She just smiled and turned away."Our political system is broken. On one side, Republicans block everything up to and including marine mammals rescue assistance and shark conservation acts. On the other side, Sir Robin and his minstrels, tails tucked firmly between legs, can't run away from D.C. fast enough to avoid a vote on whether or not to extend...

In 33 of the 36 midterm elections held since the end of the Civil War, the party in the White House has lost seats in the United States House of Representatives.We need to recall this as the 2010 midterm elections approach. There are underlying patterns in all things. This historical fact and pattern of midterm losses for the party holding the Presidency  is one that has impacted both major parties over many years.Beginning with 1866,...