National Journal reports, “Buried in the latest Congressional Budget Office numbers was some medicine for a perennial thorn in Congress’s side: the reviled Medicare payment formula called the “sustainable growth rate.” Congress goes through an annual ritual of passing the so-called “doc fix” to prevent sharp cuts in Medicare’s reimbursement...
2013 is off to a disappointing start for political junkies. What once looked like an off-year full of tantalizing races has suffered from a series of missed opportunities. From the Hotline, “the contest to replace Secretary of State John Kerry was expected to be a barn-burner, featuring a comeback from...
Jeremy Peters reports for the New York Times from the retreat in Leesburg, Va.: "After more than two trying years in the political wilderness, House Democrats who gathered here for their annual retreat are starting to appreciate a new political reality that few of them expected: They matter. It is...
Fully 72% of Americans support a “path to citizenship” that would allow undocumented immigrants a chance to become legal residents, according to a new Gallup Poll. In addition, 71% agree that the number of visas given to high-skilled foreigners should be increased; 68% favored beefed-up border security; and 85% agreed...
National Journal reports, “It was the congressional version of Fight Club: a bipartisan group of lawmakers working in secret to draft immigration reform legislation … waiting for the right time to dust it off. So when immigration reform gained bipartisan momentum after the Presidential election, this group came out of...
Press secretary Jay Carney could not say when President Obama will release his budget, when asked by reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday. He missed the deadline for submitting a fiscal 2014 budget — the fourth time in five years. COUNTERPOINT: From The Hill, “The House Wednesday passed "The...