Should Scott Walker Be The Republican Presidential Nominee?
Wisconsin governor signs right-to-work legislation. Fox News: Your World with Neil Cavuto http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/index.html Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/ Fox Business ...
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Should Scott Walker Be The Republican Presidential Nominee? - Video
Criticism Builds On Us Republican Letter To Iran
WASHINGTON Criticism of 47 Republican senators #39; letter to Iranian leaders escalated Friday, and one of the lawmakers expressed misgivings about writing directly to an adversary to raise...
By: Shelli Hicks
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Criticism Builds On Us Republican Letter To Iran - Video
Voters on Tuesday sent Republican Sharon Runner back to the state Senate three years after she underwent a double lung transplant. She was the only candidate on the ballot for a special election in a district representing parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
There was more drama in two other special elections held Tuesday for Senate seats.
With all precincts reporting in the 37th Senate District, former Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach of Costa Mesa won 50.4% of the vote over fellow Republican and Assemblyman Donald P. Wagner of Irvine, who had 44.1%. If the numbers hold after counting of provisional ballots, Moorlach will win the Senate seat outright, avoiding a May runoff election.
Congressional aide Naz Namazi, a Republican from Irvine, finished third in that race.
In a special election for a third open Senate seat in the Bay Area, Orinda Mayor Steve Glazer garnered 32.8% of the vote while fellow Democrat and Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla of Concord received 24.9% of the vote, setting up a runoff contest in May.
Glazer, a former advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown, was targetted for defeat by organized labor after he previously opposed strikes by transit workers and worked for candidates that competed with labor-backed contenders.
Former Democratic Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan of Alamo placed third, while Republican candidate Michaela Hertle was in fourth place, with a significant number of votes, even though she had dropped her candidacy and endorsed Glazer. Scientist Terry Kremin, a Democrat from Concord placed a distant last.
The three Senate seats were vacated after incumbents Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Mark DeSaulnier won election to Congress in November.
The election does not affect the balance of power in the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority of seats, having lost their former supermajority in the November elections.
Runner, who left the Senate in 2012, was the only candidate on the ballot in the 21st Senate District, where her only opposition came from a half-dozen lesser known write-in candidates who received small numbers of votes.
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Voters send Republican Sharon Runner back to state Senate
An elusive being has haunted Washington for decades now. Part gimmick and part punctuation mark, this mysterious creature has consistently baffled researchers and budget wonks who have sought to penetrate the fields of distortion it seems to create around the federal budget.
It was first spotted in a proposal President Reagan's budget director David Stockman submitted to Congress more than 30 years ago. On Tuesday, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the minority whip, warned that its baleful influence could be felt in a budget proposal released by his Republican colleagues.
"They have a magic asterisk," Hoyer said.
The magic asterisk: The words alone are enough to strike fear into the hearts of grizzledveterans of the budget wars.
Hoyer was apparently not referring to an actual asterisk, but to arow of figureswith the innocuous label "Other Mandatory" in one of severaltables at the back of the document. The numbers show thatRepublicans are planningto save $1.1 trillion over 10 years by reducing outlays for mandatory spending other than on health care and Social Security, a drastic reduction for that category as compared to current policy.
It was not immediately clear where the savings would come from, but they're necessary in order for the budget to balance within a decade, as Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, saidit would. The large reduction in this category is crucial for attainingthe budget's $5.5 trillion of overall savings, which the document stated could be achieved "without gimmicks or creative accounting tricks" or "sudden and arbitrary cuts to current services."House Republicans hope to reachthose goals whileincreasing spending on the military andwithout raising taxes.
Other than health care and Social Security, mandatory spending includes a range of programs such as food stamps, disability payments for veterans, the earned income tax credit, and Pell grants for college students. The budget document did not specify which would be cut. Even presuming very large cuts to these programs, though, it was still unclear how lawmakers expected to come up with $1.1 trillion, said Bob Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
By comparison, the Republican majority in the House voted in favor of reducing the budget for food stamps in 2013. The controversial measure passed only narrowly, with every Democrat and a fewRepublicans opposed. Many worried the cut was too severe, but it totaled $40 billion, just a sliver of the savings claimed in this week's proposal.
No visible asterisk appears in the document, although the magic asterisk is reportedly capable of changing shape and even becoming invisible.
PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush was accused of allowing the asterisk toinfiltrate hisproposals to Congress, as was President Clinton. More recently, during the 2012 campaign, commentators noteda gap of some $897 billion in the budget ofRep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), then acandidate forvice president, which was also attributed to mandatory spending.
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Wonkblog: House Republican budget: Theres a mysterious $1.1 trillion in spending cuts in the House GOPs budget
Feb. 6, 2015: Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., answers questions from the media as he returns to Peoria, Ill.(AP)
Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock abruptly announced his resignation on Tuesday, after facing questions for weeks concerning his lavish spending from government and campaign accounts.
In a statement that took congressional leaders by surprise, the congressman said he would resign, effective March 31, "with a heavy heart."
"Serving the people of the 18th District is the highest and greatest honor I have had in my life. I thank them for their faith in electing me and letting me represent their interests in Washington. ... But the constant questions over the last six weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for me to serve the people of the 18th District with the high standards that they deserve and which I have set for myself," he said.
Schock has faced mounting accusations of using taxpayer dollars for personal expenses and claiming questionable reimbursements.
He started facing scrutiny after it came to light that he had decorated his office in the theme of the PBS program "Downton Abbey."A public watchdog group later filed a federal ethics complaint against him for using congressional money to redesign that office -- and for billing taxpayers or his campaigns tens of thousands of dollars in private air travel on donor-owned planes.
On Monday, the Associated Press confirmed that the Office of Congressional Ethics had reached out to Schock's associates as it apparently began an investigation. The office is an outside panel that reviews ethics complaints against House members and makes recommendations to the House Ethics Committee.
Fox News is told by multiple sources that Schock did not notify Republican congressional leaders before making his announcement on Tuesday.
Speaker John Boehner said in a statement: "With this decision, Rep. Schock has put the best interests of his constituents and the House first. I appreciate Aaron's years of service, and I wish him well in the future."
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, also of Illinois, called the resignation a "surprise" and said it "reflects the gravity of his situation."
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GOP REP RESIGNING Schock to step down amid ethics questions