Do-Nothing Congress Is Back to Doing Nothing
The most-hated Congress ever is back in session today, as the House of Representatives reconvenes after the holiday break for some good old-fashioned election-year gridlock.
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If you were wondering why anti-abortion advocates were so keen on getting Gosnell into the news cycle this spring, look no further than HR 1797: the reintroduced "D.C. Pain Capable Unborn Protection Act," which some lawmakers hope to institute on a national level.
The most-hated Congress ever is back in session today, as the House of Representatives reconvenes after the holiday break for some good old-fashioned election-year gridlock.
Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have separate reports about the widening wealth gap between members of Congress and the people they represent.
Of the 620 bills sponsored by Ron Paul during his long career in the House of Representatives, only four have ever made it to a vote on the House floor and only one became an actual law.
President Barack Obama's brief speech on the payroll tax cut gridlock turned up the heat on House Republicans telling them, "Enough is enough."
The payroll tax debate in Congress is violating Reagan's famous Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.
A developer who calls himself T Rizk doesn't have much faith in Congress making the right decision on anti-piracy legislation, so he's built a work around for the impending censorship measures being considered: DeSOPA.
The House and Senate are drawing lines in the sand on the contentious payroll tax cut, with both sides saying that will refuse to negotiate until their opponents give them what they want.
The White House is making House Republicans feel its wrath the best way it knows how: Aggressive Photoshopping.
Prolonging the payroll tax debate into next year, the Senate approved a 2-month payroll tax break extension on Saturday, reports The New York Times.
With 27 hours to go, Congressional leaders signed off on a $1 trillion spending bill late Thursday night to avoid a government shutdown.
It was a key Democratic demand but party leaders abandoned a surtax on millionaires to finance a payroll tax holiday Wednesday night in return for, well, nothing, as of yet.
The federal government has begun preparing again for a government shutdown as stalled negotiations over a payroll tax holiday prevent a spending bill from advancing in Congress.
The same group of the world's largest technology companies, including Facebook and Google, that aggressively opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are now throwing their weight behind the recently released and amicably named alternative: OPEN.
Forget the "Welfare Queens" of the 1980s, the GOP has a new scapegoat of government excess: Welfare Millionaires.
A risky decision by President Obama to connect the fate of a payroll tax break and an omnibus spending bill will be tested today as the Republican-controlled House votes on the payroll tax proposal.
On television, lawmakers in both parties are projecting confidence that a deal to extend a payroll tax break will be reached by year's end but a number of significant disputes remain unresolved.
Three staffers for Rep. Rick Larsen have learned today that it's a pretty terrible idea to tweet about being drunk on the job if you work on Capitol Hill.
As lawmakers prepare to release the full details of an alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Internet law expert Jonathan Zittrain remains skeptical that Congress's ability to produce a reasonable anti-piracy plan.
Putting pressure on Congress to approve a payroll tax holiday by year's end, the White House unveiled a countdown clock on Monday ticking off the seconds to Dec. 31, but another deadline looms even larger: Holiday recess.
With just a few short weeks remaining before the end of the 2011 session, Congress has passed its fewest number of bills in at least the last 10 non-election years.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday afternoon will offer a new Democratic proposal to expand a payroll-tax cut for employees while tweaking how the bill is paid for in a nod to Republican concerns.
A analysis of pardon applications shows that criminals who had the support of a member of Congress were three times as likely to win approval for their pardon as those who didn't.
With Massachusetts' Barney Frank announcing he won't run for reelection to Congress next year, America will soon lose one of its few elected officials both willing and able to say rude (and often funny) things on camera.
The deficit-reducing Super Committee, which everyone thought would fail, has officially admitted failure in a press release today.
After being accused of particularly sneaky insider trading practices, Rep. Spencer Bachus, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is denying he did anything wrong.
Rick Perry is perhaps not the best Republican presidential candidate to take up the banner of cleaning the corruption out of Washington, but he's charging ahead anyway.
Over the past few days, ABC has been previewing its interview with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords about her recovery: last night, footage aired of her speaking to Diane Sawyer on the topic of returning to Congress, although she had trouble forming sentences.
The legislators knew it was coming and they came out guns blazing.
A 60 Minutes report on Sunday examined the ways that members of Congress trade on inside, privileged information to make themselves rich — without breaking any laws.
South Carolina's Jim DeMint initially the only senator who opposed passing a portion of President Obama's job's plan that gives businesses tax credits for hiring veterans.
"I will get stronger. I will return," Rep. Gabrielle Giffords writes in her and her husband Mark Kelly's forthcoming memoir, the Associated Press reported after they got hold of a copy.
Congressional rhetoric (jobs, jobs, jobs) does not match Congressional reality (petty symbolic votes), Jon Stewart notes, especially when the House of Representatives can get into a tizzy about reaffirming the American motto "In God We Trust."
The walls of the Capital building do a pretty good job of sheltering members of Congress, who on average have a net worth of $3.8 million, from the stormy economy outside.
Today, the U.S. Senate passed a spending bill to the tune of an estimated $182 billion "to fund the day-to-day budgets of five Cabinet agencies" after dragging its feet for months, the AP reports.
With less than a month to go before the deadline to produce a debt deal, it appears that the Congressional deficit-reduction committee is nowhere close to a deal.
Congress has had low approval ratings for so long that Sen. John McCain has been able to recycle the same at least 27 times in the last five years.
Here's something that might cheer up fatalistic liberals who think all the blame for inaction on jobs will fall on the president: conservatives fear Obama's tax-the-rich message is working.
A step-by-step guide to coopting a movement
President Obama’s jobs bill was defeated in the Senate on Tuesday
Harry Reid has scheduled a procedural vote on the bill for 6 p.m. Tuesday
The House has passed another short-term budget measure, averting another shutdown
The House Republicans spent 360 days of the current fiscal year fighting the budget
By a vote of 59 to 36, the Senate tabled the bill
A shutdown is now more likely after the surprising outcome
Public Policy Poling finds the Democrat is basically dead even with Brown
Rep. John Fleming frames his opposition to the president's tax increase proposal
Not a single Republican has signed onto a letter opposing Palestinian statehood
According to provisions in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
A bad omen for Obama, a bad candidate, and "the jews" are all thrown around
Cartoonist Lisa Benson gives her take on Social Security's 'terrible odds'
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