Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Rep. Paul D. Ryan is the new speaker of the House and he’s already signaling that things will be different under his leadership. “No more favors for the few,” said Ryan, R-Wis., in an address before the full House on Thursday morning. “Opportunity for all. That is our motto.” Ryan, after easily being elected the…
POKHARA, Nepal—In 2010 Dilu Ranabath left Nepal to find work in Iraq. He took out a $4,000 bank loan to pay a fixer to get him into the country without a visa and to find him a job at a U.S. military base. For about three months Ranabath lived in a shipping container in Baghdad…
DHARAMSHALA, India—When Sonam Dorjee was a Buddhist monk at the Debung Monastery in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, he would not kill an insect. After all, that annoying fly buzzing in your ear could be the reincarnation of a beloved family member. But when Chinese soldiers opened fire on the Tibetan refugees with whom Dorjee…
Two conservative lawmakers are accusing Republican leaders of using an accounting gimmick in their budget deal—a “trick” that mimics a tactic Democrats employed to pass Obamacare. Sen. Jeff Sessions and Rep. Mo Brooks call it a practice in double-counting to produce a better budget score. Democrats did the same thing with the Affordable Care Act…
Despite overwhelming opposition from the majority of Republicans, the House of Representatives voted to pass a two-year budget deal today that raises spending caps by $80 billion and suspends the debt limit through March 2017. The deal passed, 266-167, with support from moderate Republicans and all but one of the Democrats. Just 79 Republicans supported…
A preliminary look at 2016 Obamacare shows that consumers on the federal health exchanges will have differing experiences. The Obama administration has announced that the average benchmark premium rate increase for the coming year will be 7.5 percent for the 37 states using the federal HealthCare.gov platform, but rates vary widely from state to state….
The United States is scaling back its military while nations hostile to American interests continue to grow in strength and aggression, according to The Heritage Foundation’s annual Index of U.S. Military Strength, released Wednesday. The index, rolled out nearly a week after President Barack Obama vetoed the nation’s annual defense bill, found that the military…
HYATTSVILLE, MD—It’s 3 o’clock on a Monday in October, and Vianelly, a 19-year-old mother of two, is reflecting on the string of memories that led her to St. Ann’s Center for Children, Youth, and Families. Her mother’s passing when she was six. Dropping out of high school. Two teenage pregnancies. Being kicked out of her…
A size five ring is almost as big as the hand of baby Sophia Reneigh Reynolds. Born at one pound, two ounces, Sophia spent the first few months of her life in a hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “Things were going all as planned [when] unfortunately and unexpected[ly] at 22 weeks [Sophia’s mom Valerie] went into…
Rep. Paul Ryan is House Republicans’ nominee to be their next speaker. Behind closed doors and by secret ballot, 200 Republicans nominated Ryan for speaker. The only other competitor, Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., received 43 votes, mostly from members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Ryan needed only 124 votes, the majority of Republicans, to…
The chairman and former chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, a group of the most conservative senators, are urging their colleagues to oppose the budget deal crafted by congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the current and former chairs of the committee,…
A 10th co-op created under Obamacare has collapsed. Combined, the failed nonprofit insurance companies have received more than $1 billion in loans, with more than 600,000 consumers affected. The latest casualty, the Utah Insurance Department, announced yesterday that Arches Health Plan, a consumer-oriented and operated plan, or co-op, will not sell insurance in 2016. The…
House Republicans from across the conference are negotiating changes to their official rules that could be voted on before they elect their new speaker Thursday. Leaders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have been the loudest in calling for altering process and rules to empower rank-and-file members, are optimistic change could come before Rep….
In an interview Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, doubled down on his promise to filibuster the Boehner-Obama budget deal reached by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. “This is a disaster,” Paul told Fox News about the deal, which would allow Congress to spend another $85 billion in the next three years. “I’m…
Rep. Paul Ryan, the leading candidate to be the next House speaker, announced today he will support the budget deal negotiated by Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama. Ryan’s announcement comes a day after he criticized Boehner and Obama’s backroom dealmaking, which led to the spending package. In addition to raising the $18.1 trillion…
House Republicans, enraged by the inaction that has hindered federal investigations into the IRS, introduced a resolution Tuesday to impeach Commissioner John Koskinen, charging him of lying under oath and failing to respond to subpoenas for evidence. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz declared in the four articles of impeachment that Koskinen “engaged in…
Nearly four months after Congress shut the door on the Export-Import Bank and allowed its charter to expire, 127 Republicans and 186 Democrats voted to bring the controversial agency back to life. The majority of Republicans, along with House Democrats, passed a bill reauthorizing Ex-Im through 2019, 313-118. One Democrat, Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida,…
House Speaker John Boehner’s budget deal has earned him praise from the White House and congressional Democrats, but conservatives are unhappy with the package, saying the outgoing speaker “burned the barn down.” Flanked by Republican House leadership at a press conference this morning, Boehner officially announced the deal and said he was confident that the…
Stuart Bowen, the inspector general of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, told The Dallas Morning News that a whistleblower alleging Medicaid fraud at Texas Planned Parenthood clinics spurred the agency’s investigation. The Daily Signal previously reported that inspectors from the Texas Office of the Inspector General recently served subpoenas for clinic records at several Planned…
A leading House Democrat has indicated that the party’s leadership is considering not participating in the Energy and Commerce Committee’s new select investigative panel on Planned Parenthood. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., the chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said that Democratic leadership is contemplating a boycott of the panel. “You…