Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) cast concern on House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) leadership after he moved to pass the fiscal cliff bill without a majority of the party's caucus, a violation of Hastert's rule.

"Here is the problem. Maybe you can do it once, maybe you can do it twice, but when you start making deals when you have ( Read more... )

House Republicans proposed permanently extending all of the Bush-era income tax rates for the wealthy in their "fiscal cliff" offer made to the White House on Tuesday, according to a CNN report and confirmed by The Huffington Post.House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican negotiating partners have said they don't believe the White House has ( Read more... )

Washington (CNN) -- They are losing the battle over higher taxes on the wealthy, so now Republicans are threatening a political war next year when it comes time to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

With cracks appearing in their anti-tax facade and polls showing most Americans favoring President Barack Obama's stance in the fiscal cliff ( Read more... )

It was Lyndon Johnson who best understood that the key to political empowerment for the disenfranchised was to give them access to the electoral process. That's why he made passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 his top priority.

But it's doubtful he would think too kindly of a measure we might call the Rich Persons and Corporations Empowerment ( Read more... )

Job applicants sought - but only if they don't need work ( Read more... )

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WASHINGTON -- You can't swing a dead cat video in Washington lately without hitting a lobbyist, consultant, attorney or adviser on retainer to Google or one of its tech rivals. Google, whose top executives have long been a bottomless cup of campaign coffee for Democrats, is finally entering its bipartisan phase, theatrically hiring Republican ( Read more... )

(CNN) -- I'm a Republican. Always have been. I believe in free markets, low taxes, reasonable regulation and limited government. But as I look back at the weeks of rancor leading up to Sunday night's last-minute budget deal, I see some things I don't believe in:

Forcing the United States to the verge of default.

Shrugging off the needs and concerns ( Read more... )

A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong.

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America ( Read more... )