Republicans have spent the past few weeks trying to work the media refs over the use of reconciliation, but their own past statements and actions are coming back to haunt them. The Sunlight Foundation has tallied up reconciliation votes from the past 20 years, and found many of them to be used for divisive activities [...]

White House advisor David Axelrod appeared on CNN last night and shrugged off the suggestion that budget reconciliation is some radical process unbefitting of the august United States Senate: AXELROD: Both the House and the Senate have passed the major health care reform bills, and what has been discussed is using the reconciliation process to [...]

Judd Gregg, who hates populism, had an extended hissy fit on MSNBC yesterday, when he was actually challenged to name what programs he would cut in the name of fiscal austerity. This is what always trips up these deficit hawks, who try to scare the public with their warnings about the deficit but don’t want [...]

Just to bring everyone up to speed on the latest whip count for Ben Bernanke: Max Baucus has agreed to support the Federal Reserve chair for another term, while John McCain has come out in opposition. Our country is still facing an economic crisis and while I appreciate the service that Chairman Bernanke has performed [...]

Chris Dodd and Judd Gregg issued a joint statement today expressing confidence that Ben Bernanke would be confirmed to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Democrat from Connecticut who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Republican who is [...]

Next week, it is expected that the Senate will vote, as part of a bill to raise the federal debt limit, on whether to impanel a bipartisan commission given special powers to tackle the nation’s deficit. This commission would be able to fast-track recommendations to Congress for an up or down vote without amendments. By [...]

In a pure delaying tactic, Senate Republicans have forced the reading of Bernie Sanders’ single-payer amendment in total on the Senate floor, a delay tactic designed to run out the clock on the tight schedule that the leadership has put forward to pass a bill by Christmas. Sanders’ single-payer amendment, which is 767 pages long, [...]

Harry Reid got in some good licks on Judd Gregg’s obstruction document on the floor of the Senate today. M. President, I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that Senate Republicans finally – at long last – have put a detailed plan down on paper. The bad news is [...]

This could actually be damaging for the GOP. Never before has the reality of their historic obstructionism been so obvious. Judd Gregg has now created an obstruction manual that can be distributed in a viral way. You can do charts showing how many times the GOP has used the filibuster, or videos showing them objecting, [...]

Returning to a battle begun a couple weeks ago, two Democratic Senators firmly in the “fiscal scold” caucus are holding hostage the legislative action raising the national debt ceiling until they get a special workaround to cut future US budgets. Two Democratic senators said Tuesday they wouldn’t vote to support an increase in the nation’s [...]