Category Archives: government shutdown

A Sensible Immigration Ruling Makes No Sense In Washington

Posted on by

The President took immigration policy into his own hands, bypassing Congress. A federal judge has ruled that he acted improperly. [Credit: Tax Justice Blog]

A fed­er­al judge has ruled that the Pres­i­dent improp­er­ly took immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy into his own hands. [Cred­it: Tax Jus­tice Blog]

A fed­er­al judge in Brownsville, Texas, on Mon­day pro­vid­ed a way out of the Con­gres­sion­al impasse over a bill to fund the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS).  But the oppor­tu­ni­ty might be squan­dered by Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans bent on self-immolation.

Com­pared with the President’s exec­u­tive excess­es and Repub­li­can cir­cu­lar fir­ing squads, Fed­er­al Dis­trict Court Judge Andrew S. Hanen’s pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion against the Admin­is­tra­tion’s immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy is a mod­el of ratio­nal­i­ty and restraint. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How The Budget Deal Could Threaten Obamacare

Posted on by

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 →

Politics as the Art of Spurning Compromise

Posted on by
It may take a bigger gavel for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his Senate counterpart Patty Murray (D-WA) to hammer out a budget agreement. (Credit: Swampland Times)

It may take a big­ger gav­el for House Bud­get Com­mit­tee Chair­man Paul Ryan (R‑WI) and his Sen­ate coun­ter­part Pat­ty Mur­ray (D‑WA) to ham­mer out a bud­get agree­ment. (Cred­it: Swamp­land Times)

Bud­get nego­tia­tors have strug­gled for near­ly two months to find agree­ment on the out­lines of a spend­ing bill that would fund the gov­ern­ment after Jan­u­ary 15.  The tar­get date for a deal is next Fri­day. They hope to meet it.

The agree­ment that con­tin­ues to elude them, if it comes at all, would be a small one. Gone are aspi­ra­tions for a “grand bar­gain” that would reform enti­tle­ments and the tax code and replace future across-the-board cuts with some­thing less mind­less. Changes to Medicare, Med­ic­aid, Social Secu­ri­ty and oth­er “manda­to­ry” spend­ing pro­grams, which togeth­er con­sti­tute 63 per­cent of non-inter­est gov­ern­ment spend­ing, are off the table.  So, too, are tax­es. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Cuccinelli Era Is Over

Posted on by

Ken Cuccinelli fell short last night in his bid to become Governor of Virginia. Is the GOP mature enough to accept defeat and find a new way forward? [Credit: Huffington Post]

Ken Cuc­cinel­li fell short last night in his bid to become Gov­er­nor of Vir­ginia. Is the GOP mature enough to accept defeat and find a new way for­ward? [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

Chris Christie and Ter­ry McAu­li­ffe were both sup­posed to win big in their guber­na­to­r­i­al bids. Christie did; McAu­li­ffe didn’t. And that presents Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans with a gen­uine oppor­tu­ni­ty to make crit­i­cal changes to the President’s health care law. If they don’t squan­der it. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

In Washington, All Is Well

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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 →