Category Archives: Congress

Is Congress Still Relevant?

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All 100 Senators gathered last year for this photo. They have done little since. Have they become irrelevant? [Credit: senate.gov]

All 100 Sen­a­tors gath­ered last year for this pho­to. Under Har­ry Rei­d’s lead­er­ship, they have done lit­tle since. Have they become irrel­e­vant? [Cred­it: senate.gov]

Here is all you need to know about the decline of the Unit­ed States Con­gress: a US Sen­a­tor recent­ly asked a fed­er­al judge to block the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion from unlaw­ful­ly sub­si­diz­ing his own health insur­ance coverage.

The law­suit illus­trates how Con­gress has become a sub­servient branch of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment.  Sub­ject to the whim of the Exec­u­tive Branch, one of its Mem­bers must now appeal to the Judi­cial Branch for relief.  Actu­al­ly leg­is­lat­ing seems out of the ques­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Unemployment Benefits and Harry Reid’s Pain

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Harry Reid has embraced the pain of sequestration in his proposal to extend jobless benefits. But does it address the problem? [Credit: Roll Call]

Har­ry Reid has embraced the pain of seques­tra­tion in his pro­pos­al to extend job­less ben­e­fits. But does it address the prob­lem? [Cred­it: Roll Call]

“I think it’s real­ly unfair that it would be so easy to turn the sequester around and allow us to do some­thing for the long term to take care of this issue. But no, the Repub­li­cans like the pain. They like the pain.”  — Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid, April 24, 2013

Har­ry Reid (D‑NV) has late­ly embraced the pain of sequester. On Thurs­day, Reid advanced a pro­pos­al to off­set the cost of extend­ing “emer­gency” unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits with auto­mat­ic cuts in med­ical spend­ing for the elder­ly and dis­abled. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How The Budget Deal Could Threaten Obamacare

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An angry John Boehner (R-OH) lashed out at conservative groups who opposed the budget deal. The deal strengthens his hand with his caucus and in negotiations over changes to Obamacare. [Credit: Washington Post]

An angry John Boehn­er (R‑OH) lashed out at con­ser­v­a­tive groups who opposed the bud­get deal. The deal strength­ens his hand with his cau­cus and in nego­ti­a­tions over changes to Oba­macare. [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

“Frankly, I think they’re mis­lead­ing their fol­low­ers. I think they’re push­ing our mem­bers in places where they don’t want to be. And frankly, I just think that they’ve lost all cred­i­bil­i­ty.” – House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH), com­ment­ing on oppo­si­tion by con­ser­v­a­tive groups to the bud­get deal.

Last week’s over­whelm­ing House vote to rat­i­fy a mod­est bud­get agree­ment has been var­i­ous­ly depict­ed as a defeat for the Tea Par­ty, a rare instance of bipar­ti­san­ship, and a moment of ratio­nal­i­ty in an oth­er­wise chaot­ic and dys­func­tion­al bud­get process. It is all of those things and some­thing more: a new threat to the already trou­bled imple­men­ta­tion of Oba­macare. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare Bipartisanship: You Probably Can’t Keep Your Coverage

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President Obama had another stressful week. But not nearly as stressful as millions will experience when they find that they still can't keep their health coverage. [Credit: Dr. Lillian Glass Body Language Blog]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma had anoth­er week of stress.  But not near­ly as much stress as mil­lions will expe­ri­ence when they find that they still can’t keep their health cov­er­age. [Cred­it: Dr. Lil­lian Glass Body Lan­guage Blog]

Wash­ing­ton has at last arrived at a bipar­ti­san con­sen­sus on what to do about the mil­lions of peo­ple whose insur­ance poli­cies are being can­celed because of Oba­macare: not near­ly enough. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

In Washington, All Is Well

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The faces of Congressional leaders are hardly etched with joy, but they did manage to avert a fiscal crisis, even if only for a few months. [Credit: Bloomberg]

The faces of Con­gres­sion­al lead­ers are hard­ly etched with joy, but they did man­age to avert a fis­cal cri­sis, even if only for a few months. [Cred­it: Bloomberg]

Octo­ber 16, 2013, 6:00 am

All is well in Wash­ing­ton. The gov­ern­ment is spend­ing and bor­row­ing again. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Congress IS Getting a Special Deal Under Obamacare

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The Obama Administration cut Congress a break when it allowed them to keep their health insurance subsidies. Will Congress at some point be forced to vote on that special deal? [Credit: Getty Images]

The Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion cut Con­gress a break when it allowed them to keep their health insur­ance sub­si­dies. Will that spe­cial deal prove polit­i­cal­ly viable?  [Cred­it: Get­ty Images]

[Updat­ed Octo­ber 1, 2013]

The new health care exchanges opened for busi­ness today, even as most fed­er­al gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions shut down.

That result is exact­ly the oppo­site of what House Repub­li­cans intend­ed when they set­tled on their strat­e­gy of link­ing gov­ern­ment fund­ing with Oba­macare “defund­ing.” They insist­ed that their tac­tics would keep the gov­ern­ment open while stop­ping the health law in its tracks, though nei­ther Sen­ate Democ­rats nor the Pres­i­dent seem inclined to go along. Con­tin­ue read­ing →