We are constantly hearing the DC chattering class bemoan the toxic partisanship that is endemic of congressional politics. These supercilious wizards of smart contend that if we just had a little more bipartisanship in Washington, all of our public policy troubles would dissipate in short order. The reality cannot be more antithetical to this ubiquitous line of thought from the media. We suffer from a | Read More »
Yesterday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, she asked Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell about a recent Roll Call article that framed me as one of the loud leaders of conservatives opposed to Mitch McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky responded that he had never heard of me and I did not have an audience. That sounds a bit like the child, when asked if he ate | Read More »
There is an interesting factoid that was overlooked from last night’s largely pro-forma presidential primaries. According to University of Minnesota’s Eric Ostermeier, Romney was the first GOP frontrunner who failed to reach 60% in contests “conducted after his last major challenger dropped out of the race.” Romney won just 56% of the vote in Delaware and 58% in Pennsylvania. Over the past few months, we’ve | Read More »
There’s got to be some way to create a legislative scorecard on committee votes. Last month, House Republicans almost unanimously passed the “Ryan” budget resolution for FY 2013. It established the topline discretionary spending level at $1.028 trillion, just $15 billion below last year’s levels and $19 billion below the cap set in the Budget [Out of] Control Act. To put that in perspective, the | Read More »
In what’s become a biennial spectacle, supporters of unprincipled Republicans – who often vote with Democrats – are maligning conservatives as “purists” and accusing them of gambling away Republican control of the Senate. Today, Kimberley Strassel published a column in the WSJ, “Conservatives vs. a Senate Majority,” insinuating that Freedom Works and The Club for Growth are helping elect Democrats to the Senate. Specifically, she | Read More »
Who needs Democrats when so many Republicans are willing to orchestrate their agenda for them? The Senate is on the precipice of passing Barbara Boxer’s highway bill with overwhelming support. Mitch McConnell is negotiating a deal with Harry Reid in which Republicans would be granted a vote on some of their choice non-germane amendments. After Democrats summarily defeat those amendments, Republicans will return the favor | Read More »
The other day, Mitch McConnell made clear to Republican Senators that he would block efforts to offer amendments on full repeal of Obamacare this legislative year. I wrote about. Then Alexander Bolton at The Hill wrote about it. Then Rush Limbaugh mentioned it. Then conservative group Restore America’s Voice Foundation said it would, well, Alexander Bolton has a follow up report. Restore America’s Voice Foundation | Read More »
I reported yesterday that Mitch McConnell is expressly blocking a vote on a conservative backed measure to repeal Obamacare, but there is news this morning that the situation is far worse than even I thought. Alexander Bolton reports Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell intends to avoid any votes on repealing Obamacare this entire year lest he anger Senator Harry Reid. Obstensibly, McConnell says a vote | Read More »
On Thursday, the Senate will consider Senator Roy Blunt’s amendment to the Senate version of the highway bill. It is the only amendment the Senate GOP will offer up. On its surface, it is a good amendment. It will allow religious employers to opt out of the new Obamacare mandate on contraception and abortifacient drugs. But strategically, it is another lame effort by Senator Mitch | Read More »
Yesterday, Roll Call published an article suggesting that Harry Reid has had quite an auspicious year as Majority Leader. They observe the fact that Reid has won a larger percentage of cloture votes this year than in 2010, even though his caucus has been diminished from 59 senators to 53: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid managed to win more than half of the filibuster-breaking votes | Read More »
If the traditional description of the political parties wasn’t evident enough before the payroll tax/UI kerfuffle, it certainly is now: Democrats are evil and Republicans are stupid. Democrats are evil for insidiously driving up the deficit, perpetuating unemployment, lying about Social Security and passing short-term unworkable Social Security tax holidays for political gain. Republicans are stupid for a) having Mitch McConnell as Senate Leader and | Read More »
Mitch McConnell‘s minion are in full on spin mode trying to blame Speaker of the House John Boehner for botching the payroll tax cut extension. The only person who deserves any blame is Mitch McConnell. In this, the first deal he pretty much single handedly negotiated with the Democrats, he not only screwed up, but proved he has no freaking clue how to get the | Read More »
The Senate-passed payroll tax cut extenders package was already on the ropes with House Republicans over the weekend. The bill (HR 3630) offers a pathetic two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. In addition, it extends long-term unemployment benefits for the ninth time, along with the annual Medicare doc fix. The bill gutted all House-passed reforms to medicare and unemployment insurance, while offsetting the cost | Read More »
“The Senate action was akin to grounding into a triple play for Team GOP, yet the underlying bill passed with unanimous consent.” Over the weekend, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans obviated the superior leverage of House Republicans by passing a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, along with a clean extension (no reforms and offsets) of doc fix and unemployment benefits. In a premature | Read More »
Forget the Presidential race. We can get back to it another day. This is the most important fight for the conservative movement in America right now and it happens next week. Well, it was going to happen in January. But conservatives started gaining momentum. Naturally, Mitch McConnell had to go try to pull the rug out from under conservatives. Far be it for fresh ideas | Read More »
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