Outside the Beltway

David Kurtz reports, “House Republicans are about to use “deem and pass” — a.k.a., a self-executing rule — which you may recall was the same legislative mechanism they decried last year during the health care reform debate as a threat to all that is right and good about America.”

Freshman Members of Congress are threatening to block a vote to raise the debt ceiling that Congress will have to take by this Spring. They’d be irresponsible if they did so.

The next round in the health care reform wars is about to start.

The reaction to President Obama’s recent recess appointments provide us with yet another example of bipartisan hypocrisy.

Earmarks or no, members of Congress are going to bring home the bacon to their districts. It is what their constituents want (and expect) them to do.

With just over a week to go before the 112th Congress convenes, battle lines are already being drawn in battle over the defense budget.

Republicans are renaming three House committees, including bring back Ethics and taking out Labor.

The abuse of the filibuster is just a symptom of a much wider problem.

For the first time in 35 years, the Senate may finally be on the verge of reforming the filibuster.

The new House Republican majority will force lawmakers to vote when they want to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, publish committee attendance records, ban former members from lobbying in the House gym and require new mandatory spending to be offset by cuts to other programs.

Ohio Congressman Steve Driehaus is suing a pro-life PAC for “defamation” and “loss of livelihood” over its role in his defeat in the 2010 Elections.

The 20th Amendment was supposed to eliminate lame duck sessions, but it didn’t.

The incoming House Republicans aren’t making a good first impression.

Americans’ assessment of Congress has hit a new low, with 13% saying they approve of the way Congress is handling its job.

A new poll shows that the American public is discontented, nervous about the economy, not entirely sure they can trust the new GOP majority in Congress, and has no idea what it wants from Washington. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

One simple proposal on the size of the House of Representatives.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows and, when it comes to the debate over the extension of the Bush tax cuts, anti-tax Republicans are making common cause with soak-the-rich progressives.

A Federal Judge in Virginia has handed the first legal defeat to the President’s health care reform package.

Bernie Sanders took to the floor of the Senate yesterday to rail against President Obama’s tax cut deal. It was history in the making, but it’s not clear that it actually accomplished anything.