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December 23 may not mean much to you (unless it’s your or someone you love and care about’s birthday, obviously), but to others, it’s maybe the most important and sacred day of the entire year. That’s right, y’all. It’s Festivus. pic.twitter.com/lEPC6T8y5d — no context seinfeld (@casualseinfeld) December 23, 2022 Now, normally, Festivus features a dinner at which you gather your family around, and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year! But what if the people who have disappointed you the most have other plans? We highly doubt that all 18 Republican senators who voted...

Trump is smarter than many realize, or want to admit. He may have actually won by signing the bill many of us hate. Follow me. To begin with, you need to understand that the bill President Trump signed, was NOT a Budget. It was an Omnibus Spending bill. The President is directed by the Constitution to adhere to a Budget that Congress approves. A ‘spending bill’ is not the same as the Federal Budget. This bill is just a another Continuing Resolution to keep the government functioning, but this time for 6 Months. As such, he is not bound...

Speaker Paul Ryan was booed Tuesday after Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump mentioned him during a rally in his hometown in Wisconsin. "How do you like Paul Ryan?" Trump asked supporters at a rally in Janesville, The Hill reports. "You like him?" The boos overtook the cheers inside the Janesville Conference Center. "I was told to be nice to Paul Ryan," the developer added. "He's the speaker, he's a nice guy. "He called me the other day. He was very nice." Trump then asked the crowd whether they were Republicans and conservative. The supporters cheered in response to both questions,...

President Barack Obama responded to reports of slow job growth Friday by blaming Republicans who have opposed parts of his economic agenda. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report found the economy added 242,000 new jobs in February. The latest number highlights a long-running trend of slow, yet positive, economic growth. Obama credits the growth to his agenda but its slowness to Republicans for their opposition to his plan. “The plans that we have put in place to grow the economy have worked,” the president declared in the Oval Office. “They would work even faster if we did not have...

When you were a rowdy teen, your parents were the Establishment. Now that you're a parent, what are you? The anti-establishment, cool parent? Not likely. Rather, you're a grownup who tries to keep the peace in your discordant household; who tries to negotiate among self-interested, imperfect family members who have competing goods and goals; and who tries to instill a long-range vision for the future in your desire-ridden family who wants instant self-gratification. Welcome to the Establishment. You're a bona fide member now. Here's a defense of the amorphous, notional Establishment, as I see it, if it even exists in...

A few weeks after Congress passed critical spending legislation that fully funded Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Care Act, Republicans this week will take a symbolic stand by once again trying -- and failing -- to repeal the law. "We owe it to the American people to take our best shot at repealing Obamacare, and that's what we'll do next week," Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) said Saturday in the Republican radio address. ...

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Monday that President Barack Obama's decision to use his executive authority to enact more gun control laws is "another attempt to divide and distract from his failed policies." "We should also better enforce the laws we have on the books now to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals. Instead, the president is again targeting law-abiding citizens, intruding further into innocent Americans' lives. At a time when the country wants the president to lead the fight against radical Islamic terror, this is yet another attempt to divide and distract from his failed...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi explained her support for the $1.2 trillion spending bill that the Republican Congress passed yesterday and President Obama signed into law by pointing out to reporters that the Republicans "were willing to concede so much" to get the bill passed. The bill, Pelosi noted, did not stop funding of Planned Parenthood, and the Republicans "had to take out their provisions to destroy ACA"--the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare. Pelosi argued that the Republican leaders were so intent on getting a provision to allow exports of U.S. crude oil that they were "willing to give up...

It’s terrible for a number of reasons, but it’s on the way to the Senate anyway. A bipartisan vote closes out the House effort on the FY2016 budget, with the same kind of bloated and opaque legislation that Republicans were supposed to stop supporting: The House has passed a $1.14 trillion spending bill to fund the government through next September. It’s a peaceful end in the House to a yearlong struggle over the budget, taxes, and Republican demands of President Barack Obama. … Senators are expected vote on the budget measure in combination with a year-end tax plan that gives...

Puerto Rico's governor pressured Congress on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to win debt relief for his territory before the end of the year, warning that the island is headed toward a "humanitarian crisis under the United States flag." Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla lobbied lawmakers to oppose a massive year-end spending bill that fails to include the debt restructuring that Puerto Rico is seeking. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said Congress must act soon and he was hoping negotiators would change the bill, a step Republican leadership has ruled out. ...

The White House objects to a few Republican provisions in the omnibus $1.1-trillion spending bill, but overall, "We succeeded," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Wednesday. "So we walked into these negotiations focused on making sure that Republicans would not succeed in advancing their ideological agenda through the budgetary process, and I think, based on all of the solid reporting work that you have done over the last several weeks, there were a variety of attempts that Republicans undertook to try to do exactly that, and we did succeed in fighting off those efforts." ...

Pass the popcorn, please. This is getting good. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi went after each other in a closed meeting with the Democratic leadership over what to do about the Senate's failure to pass the Omnibus spending bill that would keep the government running through the year. The problem is that the GOP is balking over the 8,000 earmarks as well as some other wasteful spending that they wish to see removed. And Reid can't get the Republicans to budge which has angered Pelosi who feels rather exposed after the House passed the bill easily: After an angry, swearing...

Democrats, freed from former President George W. Bush's veto threats, are gutting the previous administration's programs with funding cuts and policy changes in the omnibus spending bill that the House passed Wednesday. .....same-sex domestic partners of federal workers.... eliminating D.C. school vouchers.... slashes funds for abstinence education, erases language prohibiting a "fairness doctrine" law..... spending bill would be followed soon by expanded funding for stem-cell research and a hate crimes law..... [Barney] Frank said. "That's what happens when you have an election and one side wins and the other side loses."...... "What goes around comes around," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey,...

After a week off taking a victory lap for passing an economic stimulus, Congress' Democratic leaders return to Washington on Monday for a second race against the clock to pass another massive spending package. This time it is a roughly $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill that would fund most of the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, replacing stopgap funding that expires March 6. The Senate this week also is expected to take up long-debated legislation to give the District a voting member in the House and the confirmation of Labor Secretary-designee Hilda L. Solis, one of...

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain fought vigorously over who would be toughest on congressional earmarks. "We need earmark reform," Obama said in September during a presidential debate in Oxford, Miss. "And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely." President Barack Obama should prepare to carve out a lot of free time and keep the coffee hot this week as Congress prepares to unveil a $410 billion omnibus spending bill that's riddled with thousands of earmarks, despite his calls for restraint and efforts...

The evening commute in the Washington area may soon be a little less hectic, thanks to a small provision embedded in the government's giant 2005 spending bill. The provision, authored by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), requires several major federal agencies, including the Commerce, Justice and State Departments, to permit their employees to work from home or "telework." If they don't, the agencies could lose a $5 million slice of their budgets. "With all the advances in technology today, there is just no reason to strap yourself in a metal box every morning only to drive to an office where you...