Related Content: Congress
GOP cuts support after Mo. lawmaker Akin's rape remarksEssential Reads A growing controversy over his comments about rape victims has placed Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., under pressure from senior Republican officials to bow out of his Senate race today so the GOP can nominate someone with better odds of defeating Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. |
Obama hears call for bipartisanship during Sunday sermonEssential Reads On the Sunday morning TV news shows, surrogates for President Obama and Mitt Romney were duking it out over healthcare, Medicare and whether their ads are getting too nasty. Both candidates, meanwhile, were at worship with their families. |
This Congress could be least productive since 1947Essential Reads Congress is on pace to make history with the least productive legislative year in the post World War II era. Just 61 bills have become law to date in 2012 out of 3,914 bills that have been introduced by lawmakers, or less than 2% of all proposed laws, according to a USA TODAY analysis of records since 1947 kept by the U.S. House Clerk's office. |
In Iowa, Obama Tries to Summon Spirit of '08Essential Reads Call it the heartland nostalgia tour, with a plan. President Obama on Monday embarked on a three-day journey by bus across the Hawkeye State -- an adventure plotted literally and figuratively to remind his supporters how they helped send him to the White House in 2008, and how Iowans can do it again in November. Three days in Iowa -- a commitment of time considered rare for a president immersed in such a tough campaign -- offered Obama a way to stop the clock, or at least slow it down. |
August 3, 2012Weekly Show Mitt Romney and President Obama rally undecided voters in battleground states. The Tea Party scores a big victory in Texas runoff with Senate nominee Ted Cruz. Plus, the July jobs report and Congress leaves key legislation unfinished at start of summer recess. Joining Gwen: Amy Walter, ABC News; Karen Tumulty, The Washington Post; David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal; Susan Davis, USA Today.
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A Portrait Of A Country Awash In 'Red Ink'Essential Reads As the federal debt balloons, reducing it would seem more and more pressing. Yet policymakers remain far apart. Debt, deficit and budget rhetoric is often accompanied by numbers cherry-picked to support a particular political view. But a new book by Wall Street Journal economics writer David Wessel lays out the numbers that both political parties face. |
House Panel Votes to Cite Holder for Contempt of CongressEssential Reads A House oversight committee voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, marking an escalation of the long-running dispute between Republicans and the Justice Department over internal administration documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. |
Obama Invokes Executive Privilege over DOJ DocumentsEssential Reads President Obama has asserted executive privilege over the documents sought by a House committee as related to the "Fast and Furious" operation, a development which will have a big effect on the contempt proceedings. |
Maine Candidate: Don't Assume Party AffiliationEssential Reads Angus King is running for the Senate on a campaign pledge to tell voters how he will vote right after they elect him in November. The independent candidate, a popular former governor, is the front-runner in the open race for the seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe. He is running a campaign on a platform of changing Congress and resisting partisanship, which is complicated by the fact that senators must align with a party to receive committee assignments and determine control of the chamber. |
Obama’s New Approach: Bypassing CongressEssential Reads There’s not much President Barack Obama can do to boost the economy in the next five months, and that alone might cost him the November election. But on a range of social issues, Obama is bypassing Congress and aggressively using his executive powers to make it easier for gays to marry, women to obtain birth control, and, now, young illegal immigrants to avoid deportation. |
