News and analysis from WSJ's Washington bureau
mitch-mcconnell
Ahead of Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual assault hearing, the US gears up for political and cultural war
On Sept. 24, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is expected to face the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her as a teenager. The Congressional hearing could decide whether Kavanaugh receives a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the United States. It’...
Trump’s hastily passed tax law is error-riddled
After years of dishonestly whining that the Affordable Care Act was written in secret and rushed through Congress with insufficient debate, Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration cobbled together their tax legislation in December and rushed it through Congress. Now, it appears, America is paying the price for their shoddy work.
Desperate to pass the bill — which contained massive tax cuts for President Trump and the very rich, and tax increases for many poor an...
Here’s the pricetag Senate Dems are charging Mitch McConnell to leave DACA out of the budget deal
In exchange for leaving out a key program protecting about 800,000 undocumented immigrants, Senate Democrats have pried several billion dollars in funding increases for other domestic policy priorities out of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
A document circulating among House Democrats and outside ally groups like NDD United labels the total haul of the deal as “a $131 billion increase for non-defense programs.” That figure is calculated based on how spending leve...
This is what happens when you trust Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell managed to convince Senate Democrats to vote to fund the government on Monday on the strength of his word. Based on even his recent track record, that word is worth very little.
McConnell said Monday, before a vote to fund the government through February 8, that he would take up legislation to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Donald Trump rescinded last year. McConnell promised to do so if there w...
‘Do the right thing’: Mitch McConnell, Alabama, and the Jason Kander rule
It’s unclear just how much Alabama and the Senate’s Republican leadership can drag their feet to delay actually seating Senator-elect Doug Jones (D-AL) after his victory in Tuesday’s special election. But if Republican lawmakers try to force through the tax cut bill without letting Jones have a say, they will be diverging from a tradition of respecting the results of elections — and their own rhetoric after Republican victories in special elections.
Jason Kan...
Doug Jones could kill the GOP tax bill. Here’s how Mitch McConnell can stop him.
A wave of their own incompetence is about to come crashing down on the Republican Party.
After barely passing a tax bill costing $1.4 trillion — cutting taxes for corporations and most rich people, hiking taxes for the poor, and destabilizing health insurance markets — Senate Republicans discovered a $250 billion drafting error in the bill. One Republican, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) already opposed the bill. Another, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is now wavering on the bill R...
