THE VALENTINE’S DAY FILIBUSTER…OR WAS IT FirstRead writes, “Safe to say, there was little love in the U.S. Senate yesterday on Valentine’s Day. Senate Republicans used a filibuster to temporarily block Chuck Hagel’s nomination to head the Pentagon -- the first time a filibuster had ever been used against a...
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established a minimum hourly wage for covered, nonexempt employees. It was $0.25 back then, and it is $7.25 right now, which is where it’s been since 2009, when a third consecutive annual raise kicked in. Before 2007, the federal minimum wage stood at...
WATER BOTTLE MOMENT From the WashPost, “The job of responding to the State of the Union address is a thankless task…. At worst, the responder looks like he’s taped a hostage video. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal still hasn’t recovered from his much mocked response in 2009.” Fox News Latino wrote,...
FirstRead notes that, “President Obama laid out nearly two dozen proposals, … but his speech was met by a brick wall of Republican opposition. … “Following four years of this president's unwillingness to challenge liberal dogma, we got more of the same,” McConnell said. That echoed House Speaker John Boehner’s...
“The most striking aspect of Obama’s State of the Union address, writes NJ’s Ronald Brownstein, was how unreservedly he articulated the views of the coalition that reelected him, and how little need he felt to qualify those views for fear of alienating voters beyond it. There was a confidence bordering...
From The Fix, “President Obama set the tone for his second term Tuesday ... polls suggest most of his big proposals have broad public support. That doesn’t mean, of course, that Congress will pass the bills, but it does suggest that the president is pushing ideas that the American public...