The report from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to the Senate today could be a clarifying moment in the debate over Iraq if the right questions are asked. Unfortunately, it appears presidential politics will motivate the Senate’s anti-war candidates to ask only backwards looking questions that will not …
Here’s a preview of the week ahead in Washington. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ySXAXT2vaI[/youtube] Congress will soon consider a $100 billion emergency war supplemental. Some want to load it up with non-military proposals that have nothing to do with the war. Special-interest projects include unemployment insurance, funding for national parks and money for local …
Over the next eight weeks, a group of freshmen Republican senators will be spreading the conservative message on health care. Through coordinated media education and speeches on the floor of the U.S. Senate, these senators will define the stark contrast between liberal government-controlled health care and the conservative vision that …
The expectations were low for the Senate Fiscal Reform Working Group, so today’s proposal to bring greater transparency, debt reduction and oversight can’t be viewed as a total disappointment. It demonstrated that even some of the Republican Party’s biggest porkers acknowledge that the favor factory needs to be cleaned up. …
Despite “the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate” and promises from the new House leadership to cut the number of earmarks in half, it appears the House is on its way again to absurd levels of pork-barrel spending. Roll Call reports that member earmark requests to the House Appropriations Committee …
Two articles from Congressional Quarterly last week show why liberals are so desperate to have the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulate carbon under the authority of the Clean Air Act (CAA). First from “Democrats reject Bush’ Cost-Benefit Approach to Pollution Standards” we learn: Under the Clean Air Act, last overhauled …
Earmark reformers in the Senate failed to temporarily shut down the favor factory tonight, losing their vote for a one-year moratorium, 29-71. Appropriators managed to emerge victorious after nearly all Democrats voted against the measure. Just five Democrats voted for Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) amendment to temporarily freeze the earmarking …
The House Republicans have released an alternative to the Democrats’ budget. Instead of following the Democrats’ path of raising taxes by more than $3,000 per household to finance large spending hikes, the GOP would maintain current tax rates, repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax, and rein in runaway discretionary spending. Importantly, …
