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Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has his work cut out for him in passing a bill to raise the $18.1 trillion debt ceiling. The lame-duck Speaker needs to win 30 Republican votes to lift the government’s borrowing limit, even if the entire House Democratic Caucus votes with him. Boehner was only able to pull 28 votes the last time the House approved a clean debt-ceiling increase — and one-third of those lawmakers have since left Congress. Now Boehner is even weaker politically, and he has little time to act. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has urged Congress to raise the debt limit...

House Speaker John Boehner is signaling that he’ll move must-do legislation to increase the government’s borrowing cap before he leaves Capitol Hill. The statutory cap on the government’s so-called debt limit needs to be raised by early November, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday, confirming a recent warning from the administration. Boehner himself has said that he doesn’t want to leave a “dirty barn” for his successor, comments that have been widely interpreted as a promise that he would try to at least clear away the debt limit issue rather than saddle the next speaker with the task. …

House Speaker John Boehner is looking to move a bill to lift the debt ceiling before he leaves Congress, a tactic aimed at helping his successor, according to multiple sources with knowledge of internal party planning. Timing has not been decided, but the Treasury Department says the nation's borrowing limit needs to be raised by Nov. 5, and Boehner (R-Ohio) would like to resolve the issue before a new speaker is sworn in. Boehner expects to step down Oct. 30. His office declined to comment for this story....

The debt ceiling issue is returning to the forefront in American politics, again threatening a government shutdown. Last time, the shutdown resulting in sequester for many agencies that suspended work for many government employees; a great deal of political theater dominated the news cycle; but ultimately, things returned to a basic normalcy. This time may be different, as a number of critical factors face Americans in 2015. Last week, Congress passed “procedural martial law” to address stop-gap spending as it faces the debt ceiling crisis again. Meanwhile, this quietly announced martial law forced a vote on bills the same day,...

Stocking Congress with progressive Republicans, who talk a conservative game but act in concert with progressive Democrats, is an excellent, ancient, tried-and-true strategy It’s the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of fall. It just keeps coming around. So does the Kabuki Theater in congress over the debt ceiling, which will ultimately be raised. The show that accompanies the process will be characterized by the usual irrational plot, appalling acting, extremely competent Democrat propaganda and not much benefit for the nation. Republicans know very well that the Democrat propaganda machine has already revved up and is snorting and pawing at the...

Many of us remember the histrionics on display by GOP members of Congress when they had to take positions and vote on hiking the country’s debt ceiling. Well, according to the following information, provided by someone who sounds very authentic, here is the legerdemain that went on in that closed door session of the uniparty in D.C. There are a number of details here that lead me to think this is a true account. You may certainly make up your own mind. The Congressman’s name and state are deleted to protect his identity. “That Tuesday, lunch began with our leadership...

While you were sleeping... The final debt figure for today will come out later this week, it’s expected to be a limit of about $18.2 trillion. But the government has some wiggle room for handling its debt situation while Congress considers whether and how to raise the debt ceiling, a process that could still take months to sort out. Most importantly, the Treasury Department can use “extraordinary measures” to cope with the debt, which are several tools the government has used before when up against its borrowing limit. For example, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Congress on Friday that as...

Among the many constitutional outrages President Barack Obama has perpetrated on the country is unilaterally amending legislation duly passed by Congress with a stroke of the pen. He's done it several times now with Obamacare alone, perhaps thinking that since the monstrous law has been dubbed with his name, he has the power to change its terms. The latest example is his decision to delay for three more years the penalty for employers not complying with the law. Now think about this. If Obama has the power to delay certain provisions of the law for three years, would his successors...

‘It’s a sad day in the history of the Senate,” Mitch McConnell bitterly announced. The minority leader wanted Americans to know, or at least to believe, that Republicans were outraged by what he called the Democratic majority’s “power grab” — detonation of the so-called nuclear option, exploding the minority’s ability to block presidential nominees. In truth, the GOP had not done much of anything to oppose Obama picks. Eric Holder, to take just one example, was confirmed by a whopping 75–21 margin — with 19 Republican yeas — despite the Mark Rich scandal, the FALN terrorist pardons, and a history...

A dozen members of the Texas congressional delegation reaped state retirement benefits while collecting their federal paychecks over the last two years — a much higher rate than other states’ lawmakers. Thirty-five percent of the 34-member delegation reported dipping into state pension funds in 2012 or 2011, according to recently filed financial disclosure forms. That is nearly twice the one-fifth of all members of Congress members who reported drawing public retirement benefits last year, according to an analysis by the National Journal released Friday. Texas Sen. John Cornyn dipped into three retirement funds in 2010 — more than any other...

The financial future of Estacado High School students looks much brighter. Senator, John Cornyn, was on hand for the showcase of a financial literacy program. The curriculum uses video, animations, gaming and social networking to teach students money management principles. Cornyn said the program, Ever-Fi, teaches the basics of how to have a productive and functional life. "Learning these tools will prepare students to go to the college of their choice and to make sure they don't get in trouble by incurring debt that they can't repay," he said.

LUBBOCK, TX-- US Senator John Cornyn took a break from the capitol grind Thursday to meet with students at Lubbock ISD and to share his thoughts on the upcoming primary election. "It's good to be back home," said Cornyn The senator visited Estacado High School to showcase a new web-based program that helps students make wise financial decisions. "Part of this curriculum is even being taught at the elementary school level is pretty amaznig because these are things people need to learn you might call them life skills," Cornyn said. It's a program Cornyn said congress could even benefit from....

First, men - a reminder: Get your woman something for Valentine’s Day. Flowers, chocolate, a diamond ring, whatever it takes. Show your love. Even if you are a dishonest scoundrel, do that. Especially if you are a dishonest scoundrel, do that, it might get your mistakes forgiven. Maybe that is why scoundrels sometimes learn to be good at the ‘do something bad, then make a big display of some small token of goodness to cover the tracks’. Which kinds of reminds me of our scoundrels in DC, coming home and saying “See, I brought flowers” and we are wondering “What...

U.S. Senator John Cornyn will visit Estacado High School this week to showcase a new web-based financial literacy curriculum. The curriculum, which was underwritten by Prosperity Bank, uses the latest in new media technologies, including video, animation, 3-D gaming, avatars and social networking, according to a news release from the Lubbock Independent School District. The program is designed to bring complex financial concepts to life for today’s digital generation. It will assist hundreds of students each year in understanding money management principles.

Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn say they put the country first. The debt ceiling needed to be raised. Ted Cruz opposed raising it. So McConnell and Cornyn voted to shut down Ted Cruz. They voted to cut off debate on raising the debt ceiling so that it could be raised. McConnell and Cornyn have both been very clear about this. John Cornyn told the Austin American-Statesman “I think it would have been bad for the economy, bad for the American people, and I don’t think it would have been good politics either.” Mitch McConnell declared it his job to...

Very few Americans know how close the country came to catastrophe this week. The final tally shows that the Senate voted by a wide margin Wednesday, 67 to 31, to break Sen. Ted Cruz’s filibuster of an increase in the debt limit, thus avoiding a default on the United States’ full faith and credit. But 15 minutes after the voting should have ended, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell had apparently secured only two of the five Republican votes he needed to join all 55 members of the Democratic caucus to pass the measure. He raised three fingers in the air and...

The first wave of Tea Party lawmakers strode into Congress in 2011 on a wave of denial and anger. They were angry at President Obama and business as usual in Washington. But they were also in denial about their power—or rather powerlessness—to change it. Three years later, the right-wingers have progressed through the stages of grief (which are not real, incidentally, when it comes to grieving). Now, in the debt-ceiling debate currently under way in Washington, we have proof they’ve reached the final stage: acceptance.

Most of the political world’s attention this week was focused on Speaker John Boehner’s decision to let President Obama continue borrowing without limit until next March. Speaker Boehner’s decision to break with his conference — and break with his own dollar-for-dollar rule in raising the debt limit — shows that the House GOP conference is without leadership today. While this should strike fear in all who hope to see a conservative governing majority by 2017, Heritage Action’s Conservative Policy Summit showed that there is a path out of the wilderness, if only Washington’s political class can find the courage to...

If you follow an all or nothing strategy you usually end up with nothing!I was very disappointed that both Speaker Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-KY) both caved on efforts to exact a compromise from Obama for a debt ceiling increase. I had hoped that attaching approval of the Keystone pipeline would force Obama to accept this worthy and environmentally safe project and help create tens of thousands of new good paying jobs for Americans. But Tea Party Republicans in the House refused to vote for ANY increase in the debt ceiling. Had Speaker Boehner brought up a...

When Speaker of the House John Boehner said that conservative groups like the Club for Growth have been “misleading their followers” and have “lost all credibility,” I didn’t pay much attention to it. After all, members of Congress are constantly saying the Club doesn’t matter — even though it’s belied by the facts: Since 2006 the Club’s PAC has helped nearly 50 endorsed candidates get elected to Congress. Some of the party’s brightest stars — senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Ted Cruz of Texas, congressmen Ron DeSantis of Florida and Justin Amash of Michigan —...