Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is making his second trip to the White House this week. Today he’ll be joined by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for an afternoon meeting with President Obama on the debt limit among other issues. The Democrats are plotting their next move in a game of chess with Republicans. Today at Heritage we’ll also host a member of the upper chamber. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks at 9 a.m. ET about the security implications of U.S. debt at …
Our long national nightmare is over. Phusion Projects, the makers of Four Loko brand caffeinated malt beverages, announced yesterday that it will remove the caffeine from its products. Phusion’s decisions came just one day after Senator Chuck Schumer (D–NY) pushed the Food and Drug Administration to ban “these dangerous and toxic drinks.” Unfortunately Schumer never explained what exactly makes these drinks “dangerous and toxic.” For now, Americans are still free to buy malt beverages. And for a limited time they are also still free to buy caffeinated drinks like coffee …
House Democrats have tentatively scheduled a floor vote this week on the DISCLOSE Act, a campaign finance measure they hope will counter the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. A source on Capitol Hill confirmed the Democrats’ plans, but noted that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a lot to get done before Congress breaks for its Memorial Day vacation at the end of the week. With the support of President Obama, congressional Democrats have seized the campaign-finance issue as an election-year ploy to attack corporations. The DISCLOSE Act, which stands for Democracy …
In a very rare visit to the press cabin of Air Force One yesterday, President Barack Obama told reporters that the White House will not be leading any immigration reform efforts in 2010. Obama said: “…I’ve been working Congress pretty hard. So I know, there may not be an appetite immediately to dive into another controversial issue.” Obama went on to assert that energy taxes were a higher priority, and that the election in November would make tackling immigration tough. Apparently, Majority Leader Harry Reid didn’t heed the President’s advice. …
Ruben Navarrette has a thoughtful op-ed in today’s USA Today that tries to dissect the problem with immigration and border security reform. What we are likely to engage in, he forecasts, is “not a debate. It’s a distraction.” The bill being drafted by Sen. Schumer with the administration is incomprehensible. On the one hand, Schumer tries to buy off both labor unions and “the right” with tough talk about enforcement and discouraging immigrant labor. On the other, the bill guarantees amnesty. That’s likely to fail for two reasons.
Politico reports today: It was a perfectly reasonable question, and on the surface it seemed like a perfectly reasonable answer. But when Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd went on Bloomberg TV Friday and mused about the possibility of bank nationalization, panicked investors sent the Dow plummeting a hundred points in the next hour. Whoops. Dodd’s casual remark and the not-so-casual consequences it caused were among the most vivid examples of a new Washington phenomenon. The city’s sudden status as the de facto world financial capital means that briefings and …
The Bush administration is hopping mad at the New York Times for a story the Gray Lady published Sunday, “White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire.” The White House will have to defend itself on this one, but we are concerned that the Times, in its partisan desire to tarnish President Bush, provides far too narrow a focus on the government’s central role in creating the current crisis. By pretending troublesome government policies that contributed to the housing bubble began with Bush, the Times makes it easier for those inclined to …
