February 26, 2010 – 4:01 pm
Now that the House Ethics Committee has rendered its judgment, and has found that Congressman Charlie Rangel broke Congressional gift rules by taking trips to the Caribbean financed by corporate interests, is it too much to ask that he pay the consequences?
Beyond the trips, Rangel faces more troublesome allegations regarding his failure to pay taxes on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, the use of his congressional office to raise money for the wing of a New York college named in his honor, revised financial disclosure forms that show more than $500,000 in previously unreported wealth, and his use of a rent-controlled apartment for his political committees.
Rangel said Thursday that he met with ethics investigators about a month ago to discuss those issues but he offered no details of those discussions.
Since Rangel asked the ethics panel in the summer of 2008 to scrutinize his activities, which had become a source of controversy, Democrats have defeated a series of GOP resolutions calling for his resignation as Ways and Means chairman.
February 25, 2010 – 11:10 pm
After the President’s sparring session with House Republicans during their retreat, I stated that the rhetorical confrontation I really wanted to see was a debate between Barack Obama, and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
Here is why:
February 24, 2010 – 4:26 pm
Congress is now very unpopular:
Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job.
That’s up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached a month ago.
Only 10% of voters say Congress is doing a good or excellent job.
Nearly half of Democratic voters (48%) now give Congress a poor rating, up 17 points since January. The vast majority of Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party also give Congress poor ratings.
Seventy percent (70%) of voters say Congress has not passed any legislation that would significantly improve life for Americans, up 10 points over the past month and the highest level of dissatisfaction measured in regular tracking in over three years. Only 15% say Congress has passed such legislation.
Forty percent (40%) of voters nationwide now say it is at least somewhat likely Congress will seriously address the most important issues facing the nation. That’s down from 59% last March. Only 9% say it is Very Likely Congress will address these issues.
February 23, 2010 – 5:21 pm
Here’s the problem that reconciliation predictions run into: there’s simply no way to do the math.
February 22, 2010 – 5:44 pm
Because credit card companies simply find ways to circumvent them. Port-siders who are in love with regulation believe that this is proof positive that credit card companies are evil, and that this is the end of the story. But Nick Gillespie points out that the narrative is just a bit more complicated than that:
February 10, 2010 – 12:01 pm
A Senate majority large enough to break a filibuster takes time and geographically broad-based appeal to develop, as it should – even the high Democratic tides of 2006 and 2008 weren’t robust enough to provide the margin of error against the death of a single Senator derailing the 60-vote majority. There is no reason why our system should disregard its longstanding defenses against the perpetual rule of a single election cycle’s fleeting majorities.
February 5, 2010 – 10:09 pm
Matthew Continetti’s words are definitely worth noting:
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Barack Obama, budget, Budget Deficit, Democrats, Fiscal Responsibility, health care, Health Care Policy, Health Care Reform, Medicare, National Debt, Obama Administration, Paul Ryan, Peter Orszag, Republicans
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February 2, 2010 – 9:33 pm
Daniel Ikenson puts forth a very good argument concerning the Obama Administration’s–and Congressional Democrats’–favorite excuse for slowing down action on the trade liberalization front:
February 2, 2010 – 2:11 pm
But it would appear that Arkansas’s Senate seat is in the “likely R” column.
January 31, 2010 – 8:01 pm
It’s true. You can read his claims here.
January 30, 2010 – 3:01 pm
Two very good podcasts, courtesy of the New Ledger’s own Ben Domenech, and the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon.
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Barack Obama, Ben Domenech, Democrats, health care, Health Care Policy, Health Care Reform, Michael Cannon, Obama Administration, Politics, Republicans
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January 30, 2010 – 2:50 pm
Read this, from yesterday. And read this from today.
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Barack Obama, Democrats, Ezra Klein, health care, Health Care Policy, Health Care Reform, Obama Administration, Paul Krugman, Politics, Rahm Emanuel
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