Congress – News Stories About Congress - Page 50

Hate-Crime Law Marks Fork in Road for Obama

ANALYSIS

Oct 28, 2009 8:00 PM CDT

Hate-Crime Law Marks Fork in Road for Obama

Are more equality measures on the way, or is this the token?

(Newser) - President Obama today signed a bill extending hate-crime protection to homosexuals, a victory for equality advocates after more than a decade of pushing for such a law. But, Chris Geidner wonders, will this open the floodgates for more action—eliminating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, for instance—or will...

GOP Ramps Up Attacks on AARP Over Health Care

Oct 28, 2009 4:16 PM CDT

GOP Ramps Up Attacks on AARP Over Health Care

Republicans see 'backroom deals' over reform

(Newser) - The "right-wing commentariat" has a new villain to replace ACORN, and it has a far more familiar acronym: AARP. The basic line of attack is that the AARP has struck "backroom deals" with Democrats on health care reform to steer insurance business its way, writes Evan McMorris. The...

Lieberman Threatens Filibuster Over Public Option

Oct 27, 2009 2:08 PM CDT

Lieberman Threatens Filibuster Over Public Option

Independent's warning is bad news for Harry Reid

(Newser) - Joe Lieberman doesn't want a public option, and he warned today that he would join a Republican filibuster to try to prevent one from becoming law. The statement by the Democrat-turned-independent is bad news for Harry Reid's prospects of getting 60 votes in the Senate. Lieberman said he told Reid...

Conservatives to GOP:
Get Out of Our Way

doug hoffman

Oct 27, 2009 12:46 PM CDT

Conservatives to GOP: Get Out of Our Way

Upstate New York candidate wants liberal Republicans to sweat

(Newser) - The conservatives' newest rising star has no qualms about his congressional race turning into a referendum on the GOP. "The establishment Republicans are beginning to panic," writes Doug Hoffman. They're worried that a victory by a true conservative like himself will hurt the party's political strength. But Hoffman—...

Reid Narrows In
on 60 Votes
for Public Option

Oct 24, 2009 9:25 AM CDT

Reid Narrows In on 60 Votes for Public Option

Landrieu and Lieberman agree not to block opt-out plan

(Newser) - Harry Reid closed in on the 60 votes he needs to pass a health reform bill with a public option yesterday, aided by 2 Democratic moderates who pledged not to filibuster the vote. Both Mary Landrieu and Joe Lieberman said they wouldn't block the bill, which offers a public insurance...

Senate OKs Bill Giving Gays Hate-Crime Protection

Oct 22, 2009 7:32 PM CDT

Senate OKs Bill Giving Gays Hate-Crime Protection

Named for Shepard, it now heads to Obama

(Newser) - Physical attacks on people based on their sexual orientation will join the list of federal hate crimes in a major expansion of the civil rights-era law Congress approved today and sent to President Obama. The measure, on the congressional agenda for a decade, expands current law to include crimes based...

Meet the Future
of Conservatism

ANALYSIS

Oct 21, 2009 6:22 PM CDT

Meet the Future of Conservatism

Novice Doug Hoffman is shaking up the right

(Newser) - He's a "nerdy-looking" political novice, but Doug Hoffman just may be the "conservative superstar of the future," writes Marc Ambinder. Hoffman is running as a Conservative in the closely watched special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district. Despite his lack of experience, the lifelong accountant...

Reid to 'Vaporize'
GOP Challengers: Aide

ELECTION 2010

Oct 20, 2009 1:25 PM CDT

Reid to 'Vaporize' GOP Challengers: Aide

Senate majority leader studying Corzine for cues to effective negative campaign

(Newser) - Harry Reid, his re-election campaign wilting in the polls, is getting ready to rumble: The Senate majority leader is promising an intensely negative campaign against the 2010 GOP challenger for his Senate seat. With his $8.7 million war chest—the largest ever for a Nevada statewide race—Reid will...

Public Option Now
Has Legs in Senate

so much for baucus bill

Oct 20, 2009 8:58 AM CDT

Public Option Now Has Legs in Senate

Hostile insurance industry pushes Dems to consider grab-bag of proposals

(Newser) - The public option, left for dead by the Max Baucus bill that passed the Finance Committee just weeks ago, has a new lease on life in the Senate. Credit goes to a CBO report underwhelmed by that bill's efforts to encourage competition, and a big power play by the insurance...

GOP Plans
Stall Tactics for
Health Bill Fight

Oct 19, 2009 1:02 PM CDT

GOP Plans Stall Tactics for Health Bill Fight

Opponents hope long debate will force voters to 'understand this thing'

(Newser) - Lacking the votes for a filibuster and increasingly resigned to the fact that Democrats will stand united, GOP senators have a novel strategy to stall the health care reform bill: They’re going to stall it however they can. The Democratic plan “is inconsistent with the American people,”...

GOP Slow-Pedals Effort
to Oust Rangel

Oct 19, 2009 8:04 AM CDT

GOP Slow-Pedals Effort to Oust Rangel

New York Dems nervous as ethics probe drags on

(Newser) - Rep. Charlie Rangel, the ethically challenged head of the House Ways and Means Committee, has become yet another millstone for New York Democrats, whose electoral chances are already sagging under an unpopular governor. Several candidates want him gone, and are tacitly supporting GOP efforts to get him booted from his...

GOPers Run
'Witch Hunt' for Muslim Spies

Glenn Greenwald

Oct 16, 2009 10:37 AM CDT

GOPers Run 'Witch Hunt' for Muslim Spies

Advocacy group tries to place Muslim interns in Congress. So?

(Newser) - Four House Republicans are using a document reprinted in a fringe book on a supposed conspiracy to “Islamize America” to call for an investigation into Muslim “spies” in Congress—spies in the form of interns in congressional offices, that is. How “repugnant” and crazy, writes Glenn Greenwald...

Beck Could Be
'Major' Factor
in 2010 Vote

OPINION

Oct 16, 2009 10:08 AM CDT

Beck Could Be 'Major' Factor in 2010 Vote

If he combines angry right-wingers with libertarians, look out

(Newser) - Don't look now, but Glenn Beck could turn out to be a big factor in the 2010 elections, writes Marc Ambinder. Beck is cooking up some kind of voter mobilization project, which is a "tricky proposition" given that "conservative talk radio audiences—and Fox News viewers—tend to...

Health Debate Now Hinges on Public Option

Oct 15, 2009 7:22 AM CDT

Health Debate Now Hinges on Public Option

Obama, Reid warm to Snowe 'trigger' plan phased in state by state

(Newser) - The White House and Congress are now wrangling to reconcile the five health care bills on the floors of the House and Senate, and no issue is causing greater headaches than the so-called public option. The Senate Finance Committee's bill, which has the support of Republican Olympia Snowe, doesn't have...

Six Senate
Swing Votes

HEALTH REFORM

Oct 14, 2009 12:55 PM CDT

Six Senate Swing Votes

From Dems who swing right to left-leaning GOPers, debate promises suspense

(Newser) - As health care reform bills merge and change on the Senate floor, the pool of legislators to watch has grown. The Wall Street Journal takes a look:

Olympia Snowe, R-Maine: Her vote for the Finance Committee bill was clutch, but "doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow,"

...

GOP Takes Down
Tweet Linking
Pelosi, Hitler

Oct 14, 2009 11:34 AM CDT

GOP Takes Down Tweet Linking Pelosi, Hitler

Link to doctored video from NRCC 'an error,' pulled after DCCC outrage

(Newser) - Turns out linking a genocidal dictator with the speaker of the House might be a little over the top, as the National Republican Congressional Committee found itself today taking down a tweet with a link to a video comparing Nancy Pelosi to Adolf Hitler. A broadside from the Democratic Congressional...

Fido, Fetch
My Tax Break!

Oct 13, 2009 1:52 PM CDT

Fido, Fetch My Tax Break!

Longshot GOP bill wants to make pet expenses deductible to boost economy

(Newser) - A bill with appealing benefits for pet owners and advocates alike is crawling through Congress, though it’ll probably be put down without ceremony. The HAPPY Act proposes pet expenses be tax deductible up to $3,500 a year, as a way to stimulate the economy and, of course, encourage...

Snowe to Vote for Health Bill

Oct 13, 2009 12:26 PM CDT

Snowe to Vote for Health Bill

She provides crucial Republican support for Obama's overhaul

(Newser) - Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe says she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, breaking with her party on President Obama's top legislative priority. The Maine senator kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote until she announced it late in the Senate Finance Committee debate today. "...

Dour Industry Report Backfires

HEALTH CARE REFORM

Oct 13, 2009 10:14 AM CDT

Dour Industry Report Backfires

Dems, GOP alike have hard time believing Hail Mary predicting higher costs

(Newser) - The health insurance industry report presented yesterday that predicts the reform bill will do little to stop rising costs appears to have backfired. Dems are up in arms at the timing and content of the “misleading and harmful” attack from their erstwhile ally in the effort. Sen. Jay Rockefeller...

Yea or Nay, How Health Bill Hinges on Snowe's Vote

ANALYSIS

Oct 13, 2009 10:07 AM CDT

Yea or Nay, How Health Bill Hinges on Snowe's Vote

Either way, Maine Republican will likely preserve leverage going to the floor

(Newser) - The day is finally here: Olympia Snowe will have to vote one way or another on the Senate Finance Committee’s health reform bill. The Maine Republican has been coy—“It’s all about what I’m comfortable doing at the end of the day”—but that doesn’...