Don’t let the Tea Party fool you. A lot of voters are skeptical of the two major political parties, but most aren’t ready for a third party yet. Still, a plurality (43%) of Likely U.S. Voters believes that neither Democrats nor Republicans in Congress are the party of the American people, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Nearly as many see a need for a new third... 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday there is “no justification” for extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, firing the latest salvo in a brewing battle over taxes. The leading Democrat and Republican in the House dug in their heels on Thursday, but it will likely be the Senate that acts first on the tax legislation. Senate Democrats may bring up the measure the week of... 

Audit The Fed The Senate voted unanimously to peer into Federal Reserve decision-making Tuesday, authorizing an examination of the central bank’s emergency lending to financial institutions in the months surrounding the 2008 financial crisis. Separately, Democrats rejected a Republican plan to end the government’s support of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — a financial rescue... 

Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is the first state chief executive to sign a measure requiring his attorney general to sue the federal government if Congress passes health care reform. Legal experts say the measure, signed Wednesday, will likely be struck down. But Idaho’s new law reflects growing frustration with President Barack Obama’s health-care proposal. Legislation... 

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this month showed more than four in 10 Americans have a favorable view of the movement, significantly more than the 24 percent with a negative opinion. That was better than the 35 percent positive rating for Democrats and the 28 percent Republicans got. In a Rasmussen poll in December, more people said they would vote for tea party movement candidates than for Republican... 

Perhaps you should read the title again. From the floor of the United States Senate, today Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse proclaimed as much about opponents of health care, including his Republican colleagues inside the United States Senate. The President of the Senate let him get away with it. Senator Whitehouse specifically said, “They are desperate to break this president. They have... 

Trust in news media has reached a new low, with record numbers of Americans saying reporting is inaccurate, biased and shaped by special interests, according to a survey set to be released Monday. The survey of 1,506 people interviewed in July by the Pew Research Center showed that self-described Republicans continued to take the dimmest view of news organizations, but discontent among Democrats was... 

All 1,018 pages of the Democrats’ health care bill can be inspected here. The bill includes racial preferences. Under the Democrats’ health care bill, if a medical school wants to increase its chances of receiving many different kinds of grants and contracts from the federal government, it should have a demonstrated record of training individuals who are from underrepresented minority... 

Congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul could have a job-killing effect on New York, creating a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for the state’s top earners and possibly pressuring small-business owners to shed workers. New York’s top income bracket could reach as high as 57 percent — rates not seen in three decades — to pay for the massive health coverage proposed... 

 Read More »

In a major strategic shift, Senate Democratic leaders will push the federal hate crimes bill to the floor of the Senate as another amendment to a “must-pass” bill (Washington Blade, www.washblade.com, June 8, 2009, “Senate to Pass Hate Crimes Bill as Amendment”). Widespread Christian/conservative protest has destroyed the bill’s chances of going forward as standalone legislation...