Ben Nelson, the conservative Democratic Senator who in recent months has had a voting profile not unlike a conservative Republican, announced his opposition to the DREAM Act, leaving Democratic leaders in search of additional Republican votes to make up the difference. The DREAM Act would allow undocumented students who were brought to this country as [...]

Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Bob Casey (D-PA) want the Senate to take up and pass a one-year extension of unemployment insurance benefits from 26 to 99 weeks, but they did not sound hopeful on a conference call that this could get done before the extension lapses at the end of November. Getting jobless benefits [...]

As a symbol of how Democrats have completely lost control of the tax debate in Congress, witness this display just now in the House. Basically, the House set up the terms for their debate today and their eventual adjournment this week. John Boehner called them cowards for running from extending the Bush tax cuts in [...]

While John Boehner tried to defend his comments about the Obama tax plan by claiming he was merely trying to work himself out of the rhetorical trap laid by the White House, who wants to give the impression that Republicans are holding middle-class tax relief hostage, he was not helped by all of his colleagues [...]

Ben Nelson has come out for extending all the Bush tax cuts “until Nebraska’s and the nation’s economy is in better shape, and perhaps longer, because raising taxes in a weak economy could impair recovery.” It’s funny that he throws Nebraska in there, which is sitting on 5%. It’s also funny that he calls the [...]

As we get deeper into the electoral cycle and things get more polarized, it should come as no surprise that attitudes have become more polarized on health care. The health care question stands in for the political mood, which cuts against Democrats at the moment. Whether or not that holds depends on the implementation process. [...]

Before passing the state fiscal aid bill, Democrats actually gave Jim DeMint two votes on tax rates. He wanted to add massively to the deficit – literally trillions of dollars – by freezing in place the tax rates on individuals and “small businesses” that we have now, and which make us one of the most [...]

Seemingly a counterpoint to all the momentum in recent days for Senate rules reform, a group of conservative and old-guard Democrats announced their opposition to changing the rules requiring a 60-vote threshold to clear a filibuster. Ten Democrats are cited in the article (though not all of them are named) as either opposed to or [...]

You can be excused for assuming that Senate Democrats don’t even particularly want the DISCLOSE Act to proceed to the floor today, otherwise they would be making arrangements to have all the Senators in the caucus available for the vote: Senate Democrats will be one vote down when they consider sweeping campaign finance disclosure legislation [...]

Many in the environmental community were rightly appalled by this news about the utility companies trying to extract a major price for a cap on their greenhouse gas emissions. Closed-door meetings between a select group of environmentalists and a handful of electric utility executives may determine the fate of climate change legislation in the Senate. [...]

Multiple outlets, but led by Jane Kleeb at Bold Nebraska, have confirmed that Ben Nelson will support the financial reform bill. It’s unclear what Nelson got in exchange for his support, but that was a pretty quick turnaround. Maybe Harry Reid told him that his objection to no Senate input on the head of the [...]