Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Lawmakers greeted the White House's $526.6 billion defense budget request with skepticism Thursday, as top Pentagon officials defended proposals previously rejected by Congress, such as base closures and increasing health care enrollment fees.
Getting healthy young people to buy health insurance is key to making President Obama's health care overhaul work, but his administration is excluding roughly one million illegal immigrant youth allowed to remain in the country from the law's mandates and benefits.
Thanks to the Internet, a revolution has occurred in the way local campaigns are financed. Outfits such as ActBlue on the left and Club for Growth on the right harness donations from partisans across the country, channeling them into campaigns where they are backing candidates who tend to be on the ideological wings of the two parties.
President Obama's latest jobs initiative — a pledge to accelerate expansion plans for five ports along the Eastern seaboard — is getting rave reviews from an unexpected corner: a handful of Republicans usually sharply critical of the president but who have also fought hard in recent years for federal dollars to help ready their ports for the flood of shipping and commerce expected by the Panama Canal's expansion.
Dear Sgt. Shaft: Will you please publicize the injustice to military surviving spouses? Although 100 percent disabled, my husband was able to receive both his military retirement pay and his VA disability, thanks to Sen. Harry Reid's bill, S. 170. When he passed away, those concurrent receipt benefits were not passed on to me. Why?
The tea party movement is in the midst of re-invention, judging from the big doings at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition convention, now under way in Myrtle Beach.
The South Carolina Tea Party Coalition descends on Myrtle Beach this weekend for a bustling convention.
Rep. Michele Bachmann founded and leads the House Tea Party Caucus, but the Minnesota Republican's presidential bid has won only one endorsement from its five dozen members — putting her well shy of Mitt Romney, who leads the presidential field with eight supporters from the caucus.
The House Armed Services Committee chairman is warning that further reductions to projected defense spending could make a military career so unattractive that it would force the Pentagon to revive the draft.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon plans to begin enforcing repeal of the 1993 law stating that homosexuals are not eligible for military service, usually called "don't ask, don't tell." Senior House Armed Services Committee leaders are saying "Not so fast." In a Sept. 12 letter to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, committee Chairman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, California Republican, and personnel subcommittee Chairman Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican, called for a delay in implementation until the Pentagon provides written regulations that the repeal legislation requires. PowerPoint slides do not qualify.
With her husband having just committed U.S. forces to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, in addition to seeing through America's two other wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, first lady Michelle Obama turned her attention Tuesday to military families by launching a program to ensure troops and their loved ones have the support they need.
"We used to conform behavior to the military. Now we're conforming the military to behavior."
"Could [I] have misspoken? Yes, I am male, I'm over 50. By definition, I can misspeak."
When Hollywood decides a former White House aide is fair game for attack, facts don't come into play. History, however, cannot be so cavalier about the truth. The new movie "Fair Game" - based on the outing of CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson during political battles concerning the war in Iraq - is anything but fair or honest. In depicting former vice-presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as a sinister point man in a broad effort to destroy Mrs. Wilson's career while concocting a fraudulent case for the war, the movie perpetuates myths that improperly damage U.S. credibility.
She's posed on the red carpet at Cannes in a flowing designer gown, at Deauville in a sleek black bustier and palazzo pants. She exchanges e-mails with Naomi Watts. Sean Penn hung out at her house. Not for nothing have they called Valerie Plame Wilson the Glamorous Spy.
"Moving from a one-year to a two-year budget process will allow Congress to devote more time and attention to the wasteful programs and policies that need reform," Mr. Wilson said.
Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, GOP push to switch to 2-year budget →
South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican, famously yelled "you lie" when Mr. Obama said the legislation would not apply to undocumented immigrants while addressing Congress seven months before the Affordable Care Act was passed.
