The Senate on Wednesday approved President Obama's pick to lead the nation's Medicare agency, sending it a permanent leader for the first time in several years as the nation inches closer to sweeping health care reforms. Marilyn B. Tavenner enjoyed bipartisan support at the committee level before the full chamber voted, 91-7, to confirm her as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
President Obama's takeover of health care is so complicated that the government is about to hire a fleet of bureaucrats to explain what it's all about.
The White House on Friday said it was wrong for the Internal Revenue Service to target some conservative groups — notably ones that had the words "tea party" in their titles — during the 2012 election session.
"Terrorists murdered four Americans, we demand the truth," reads a terse new petition for White House transparency on the Benghazi attacks, organized by the American Center for Law and Justice and signed by 77,000 people. "President Obama: With continually changing stories and inaccurate accounts, the American people have been misled. Terrorists attacked American soil —; our embassy — we need the truth and accountability," the petition says.
White House spokesman Jay Carney Tuesday said President Obama would consider a congressional attempt to fix flight delays caused by sequester cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration but blamed the traveling inconvenience on Republicans for letting the budget cuts take place.
Congress this week approved a bill to free thousands of federal government employees from having to disclose their financial dealings online, rushing the bill through the Senate late Thursday and through the House on Friday. But the push to undo the online reporting requirement is proving to be controversial.
While the rest of Congress was struggling to avoid the dreaded fiscal cliff late last year, then-Sen. John Kerry whisked off to London with a top aide. It was a classic farewell trip for a veteran Democrat about to become America’s next secretary of state.
Arianna Huffington and Chris Christie will make a political odd couple later this month, as the Huffington Post founder brings the outspoken New Jersey governor as her guest for the annual White House Correspondents' dinner.
