Congress

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Budget Debate Devolves Into Verbal Slugfest

(Newser) - The White House today ridiculed a budget proposal laid out by House Republicans, but the GOP gave as good as it got, the Hill reports. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the GOP document included a “picture of a windmill” but no substantive numbers. “It took me several minutes to...

Dems to GOP: Draft Your Own Budget

(Newser) - Frustrated Senate Democrats today urged their GOP counterparts to stop criticizing President Obama’s proposed budget and provide an alternative, the Hill reports. “If it were easy to write a budget, then the Republicans would be writing one,” Dick Durbin said. Republicans responded that as the minority, that...

GOP Targets Critics With Own Economic Plans

Budget proposals seek to douse 'Party of No' label

(Newser) - “The Party of No” is rejecting that label by introducing alternatives to President Obama’s policies rooted in GOP ideology, Politico reports. The Republican Road to Recovery is a weighty fiscal counterpart to the Democrats’ economic agenda, and marks a new strategy in the minority’s response. Republicans laud...

Cantor Skips Obama for Britney Concert

(Newser) - The political blogosphere is having some fun tonight with the fact that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor attended the Britney Spears concert last night instead of dutifully tuning in to President Obama's press conference. Cantor's office confirmed to Wonkette that he took in the show, adding that he did so...

Obama Meets With Dems to Push Budget

(Newser) - President Obama visited Capitol Hill today for a closed-door meeting with Senate Democrats to push for his budget plan. As Senate and House panels began debating their own versions, Obama urged Democrats to retain his budget's core principles on health care, energy, education, and deficit reduction. He also asked them...

'Wait Until She's Sober': Pentagon Rep on Sex Crimes

(Newser) - A House member is incensed that a Pentagon official, reporting a 25% increase in combat-zone sexual assault against women, said servicemen should “wait until she's sober,” the New York Daily News reports. “This woman is not in the right line of work,” Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-NY,...

Post Office Begs for Congress' Help

We can't pay all the bills this year: chief

(Newser) - The Postal Service can’t pay all of this year’s bills, the postmaster general warned Congress today as he proposed shedding $6 billion in costs and Saturday service. He clarified that the agency—which doesn’t get taxpayer subsidies—wants Washington’s help, not a bailout. Due to declining...

Insurers Offer to Stop Charging Sick People More

(Newser) - The push for health care reform got a significant boost today: Big insurers say they are willing to stop charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing medical conditions, the New York Times reports. In the surprise move, industry leaders say they are willing to give up the practice if Congress...

Specter's Shift May Doom Bill on Union Organizing

It's a major blow to EFCA hopes

(Newser) - Sen. Arlen Specter said today he won't support the Employee Free Choice Act, delivering a serious setback to the much-watched labor initiative, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bill would allow unions to organize more easily, using card signatures instead of secret ballots. The Republican's support of the measure was...

AIG Bonus Tax Is Stalled, Likely to Die in Senate

Lawmakers likely to let special tax die, with the nod from Obama

(Newser) - With populist outrage cooling and the White House even cooler, the 90% AIG bonus tax that sailed through the House last week is stalled in the Senate, where it's likely to die, reports Bloomberg. Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday this week will be devoted to debating national service and...

New York's Schumer Flips, Backs Gay Marriage

(Newser) - Sen. Charles Schumer now supports full marriage rights for same-sex couples, the New York Daily News reports. The New York Democrat, who was on the record as a proponent of civil unions, also wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which he himself voted for. “It’s time,...

Health Care Debate Turns Nastier
 Health Care 
 Debate Turns 
 Nastier 
ANALYSIS
Mar 21, 2009 12:45 PM CDT

Health Care Debate Turns Nastier

(Newser) - The claws have come out in the Capitol Hill debate on whether the government should create a public insurance plan to compete with private insurers, Politico reports. One of the first tangible signs begins today with an advocacy group's TV ad campaign against Sen. Charles Grassley in his home state...

If I Knew, I Would Have 'Rejected' Legislation: Dodd

(Newser) - Sen. Chris Dodd says that if he had known the purpose of changes to legislation he drafted for the stimulus package, he “would have flatly rejected it,” CNN reports. Dodd’s rewrite, at the behest of unnamed Treasury officials, allowed AIG and others receiving federal assistance to dole...

Pols Invade YouTube ... Badly
 Pols Invade YouTube ... Badly 
Mar 19, 2009 2:14 PM CDT

Pols Invade YouTube ... Badly

Congress' channel filled with awkward clips

(Newser) - Congress got its own YouTube channel 2 months ago, allowing politicians to beef up contact with voters—but instead they're just floundering, the Daily Telegraph reports. Clips seem more awkward than anything else, analysts say. Many lawmakers ramble too long in speeches; other videos are just plain weird, like Nancy...

Congressional Run-Ins With TSA Continue

(Newser) - It’s not quite a David Vitter, but Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio had his own run-in with airport security this week, the Washington Post reports. DeFazio, one of the architects of the Transportation Security Administration, had to endure what he thought was an unnecessary search. But when he told the...

Hill Grilled the Wrong AIG Guy
 Hill Grilled the Wrong AIG Guy 
OPINION
Mar 19, 2009 12:44 PM CDT

Hill Grilled the Wrong AIG Guy

(Newser) - Edward Liddy’s much-ballyhooed testimony yesterday—Chris Matthews billed it as “Watergate Redux”—didn’t wind up accomplishing much, “aside from revealing congressional ignorance of all things financial,” Daniel Gross writes in Slate. Yes, Liddy currently runs the reviled AIG, but he wasn’t running it...

House Votes Today on Bonus Clawback

Bill being rushed through would slap 90% tax on bonuses at bailed-out firms

(Newser) - The House will vote today on a hastily crafted bill to claw back bonuses from executives at AIG and other bailed-out firms, reports the Hill. The bill, drawn up by Democratic tax experts, slaps a 90% tax on bonuses over $250,000 at firms that received $5 billion or more...

Frank's House Panel to Grill Geithner Twice

Another Republican congressman calls for him to resign

(Newser) - As criticism of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner mounts, he is scheduled to take his place on the hot seat next week, the Wall Street Journal reports. Geithner will appear before Barney Frank's House panel—the same one grilling AIG chief Edward Lilly today—Tuesday and Thursday. Two Republican congressmen, Connie...

AIG Chief: I'm Angry About Bonuses, Too

Liddy blames 'cold realities of competition,' legal issues

(Newser) - Lawmakers read Edward Liddy the riot act today over AIG’s recent bonuses, CNNMoney reports, and the company’s CEO was expected to say he, too, found them “distasteful,” but felt he had to disperse them. “We have to continue managing our business as a business, taking...

Angry Congress Threatens Big Taxes on AIG Bonuses

(Newser) - Outraged lawmakers threatened today to impose new taxes to recoup at least some of the $165 million in bonuses that insurance giant AIG awarded executives and traders after getting billions in federal bailout money. "What is the highest excise tax we can impose that will stand up in court?"...

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