30 days ago- "We call it the 'Bank of America bill on steroids.'" A House staffer told me that, demanding anonymity, but speaking on behalf of aides to GOP members of the House Financial Services Committee.
218 days ago- West Des Moines, Iowa — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani made his way through the shops on Fifth Street in historic Valley Junction (the fancy name for the rapidly growing town of West Des Moines) in the cold early evening hours on Wednesday night.
225 days ago- Prospects aren’t good for enactment of major energy legislation aimed at “greening” America’s power and transportation sectors, and much of the media are portraying it as a win for big business over environmental groups.
232 days ago- Congress moved forward this week on legislation creating a federal program to promote international tourism. Tourism industry leaders are pleased, but perhaps not as pleased as the lawmakers and lobbyists who pushed the industry to call for such a program.
239 days ago- Federal regulation of food, often portrayed as government efforts to protect consumers from unscrupulous industry, has shown itself this month to be a club by which one business can crush its competitors.
246 days ago- Democrats eager to preserve the federal estate tax — the fate of which is currently being debated by the Senate Finance Committee — portray the levy as a grand equalizer and argue that killing the tax would help only the ultrarich.
253 days ago- All good companies adapt to changing business environments, but perhaps no corporation matches Archer Daniels Midland’s adeptness at using big government to generate profits, come rain or shine.
260 days ago- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., portrays herself as a scourge of the pharmaceutical industry, but she has shown that she’s willing to help a drugmaker if that’s what it takes to profit Planned Parenthood, her indispensable political ally.
267 days ago- Global warming has moved to the forefront of the congressional agenda thanks to a new bill sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John W. Warner, R-Va., that would restrict emissions of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide.
274 days ago- The Senate recently passed a bill authorizing money for the Army Corps of Engineers with a price tag of about $14 billion. The House version of the Water Resources Development Act passed at $15 billion. In a conference committee, lawmakers from both chambers hammered out the differences, and in the end came to a compromise: $23 billion.
288 days ago- Democrats may never get enough votes to override President Bush’s veto of their bill expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), but they hope to draw quite a bit of GOP blood in the process.
302 days ago- Labor unions lobbied Congress heavily over the past few years to increase the federal minimum wage, trumpeting the cause as a struggle to help the working man. The higher minimum wage that went into effect this summer certainly helps union workers, but as last month’s uptick in unemployment shows, the benefit may come at a real cost to other American workers.
316 days ago- On Capitol Hill and the presidential campaign trail, Democrats are pushing a tax hike on some of America’s richest businessmen — managers of private equity firms and hedge funds. Whatever the outcome of the tax debate, by opening up the issue, Democrats have tapped a new source of campaign funds and lobbying jobs for their friends.