Sen. David Vitter, R-La. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom) Sen. David Vitter, an ardent opponent of Obamacare, readily concedes that his proposal to end health care subsidies to members of Congress and their staffs isn’t popular on Capitol Hill. But the Louisiana Republican won’t give up anytime soon, he vows. “I won’t let my amendment fall […]
(Photo: St Petersburg Times/ZUMAPRESS.com/Newscom) A veterans advocacy group hailed House passage of a measure making it easier for the secretary of Veterans Affairs to dismiss managers for poor performance and called for Senate action that appears much less likely just days before Memorial Day. By a vote of 390-33, the Republican-controlled House last night passed […]
For a guy who isn’t eyeing House Speaker John Boehner’s job, the gentleman from Texas sure took his time saying so. And he used the word “Shermanesque” three times in a minute and a half. House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling fielded three questions from the audience after his speech on the Export-Import Bank yesterday […]
Until conservatives undo a system that grants favors to well-connected business interests, they will lack the “moral authority” to reform a social welfare state that traps too many Americans in poverty and dependence, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said this afternoon in a speech he bluntly acknowledged as “a call to action.” In a half-hour address […]
Photo: Rick D’Elia/EPA/Newscom Fresh off his proposal last week to expand Indiana’s alternative Medicaid program, Gov. Mike Pence today defended his decision to ask for federal approval to make more Hoosiers eligible. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, the Republican governor promoted the Healthy Indiana Plan and his efforts to expand the program, started in […]
Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images The U.S. Department of Education recently released the 2013 results of math and reading achievement for 12th graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It’s hard to say what’s been achieved. According to the NAEP—a standardized test often referred to as the nation’s “report card”—just 26 percent of the […]
Paul Krugman (Photo: Newscom) Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century is a smash on the Amazon bestsellers list. It is all the rage in Washington and other corridors of influence. Why all the buzz? Piketty, economics professor at the Paris School of Economics, has amassed a novel set of data on income and wealth inequality […]
Photo: Erik S. Lesser/EPA/Newscom SunTrust Bank will continue to do business with David and Jason Benham, reversing course after the twin brothers publicly announced the bank had cut ties. SunTrust said a “third party vendor” had misapplied corporate policy in severing ties with the real-estate entrepreneurs — who lost a cable TV show a week […]
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom) Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is “willfully failing” to comply with a subpoena from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In a letter sent yesterday to Sebelius, who recently resigned, Issa wrote that HHS had been slow in […]
Photo: Olivier Douliery/ABACAUSA.com Government documents show that Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington coordinated how IRS employees in Cincinnati and Los Angeles should hold up conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status, the legal group Judicial Watch announced today. The watchdog group highlighted an email string from nearly two years ago that it says shows IRS […]
