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...
Senate
Senate Confirms Trump Nominee Alex Azar as Health Secretary
Mr. Azar, a former drug company executive, immediately confronts two huge challenges: how to rein in drug prices and how to administer the Affordable Care Act.
Democracy’s lost decade
There is something profoundly wrong with the United States of America’s system of government.
For proof, briefly take stock of the last ten years in American democracy, in which a combination of factors — the filibuster, the way we draw legislative districts, Senate malapportionment, and the Electoral College — converged to rob American voters of a meaningful ability to choose their own leaders.
- In 2008, President Obama won a resounding victory, defeat...
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take up legislation to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Donald Trump rescinded last year.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...
Medical Research? Congress Cheers. Medical Care? Congress Brawls.
Lawmakers are pushing for billions in new funding for biomedical research, but sparring over health insurance and almost everything else related to the Affordable Care Act.
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...
Senate advances tax bill that benefits the rich and will cost $1.4 trillion dollars
The Senate voted 51 to 49 to pass its version of the GOP Tax Cuts and Jobs Act early Saturday morning. Many lawmakers only received the text of the massive bill, which has far-reaching implications across multiple sectors, just before the vote, leaving no time to read the almost-500 page piece of legislation.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) was the only Republican to vote against the plan, and no Democrats voted for it.
The Senate version now has to be reconciled with the House versio...