'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities

After several years of complaining that Congress didn't have a budget, Republicans are now the ones holding up the 2014 budget process.

The Obama administration amped up its offensive Sunday with Republicans over the $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts scheduled to kick in Friday, releasing fresh warnings of a "real impact on people's lives" despite GOP claims the White House is exaggerating the potential ill effects.

The Senate is plowing this week toward passage of a bill aimed at domestic abuse for the second time in two years — but with provisions involving gay partners, illegal immigrants and jurisdictional disputes on Indian lands, the legislation faces an uncertain future in the Republican-run House.

New York-area lawmakers in both parties erupted in anger after learning the House Republican leadership had decided to allow the current term of Congress to end without holding a vote on aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy.

House Speaker John A. Boehner's latest "fiscal cliff" offer to the White House has budget hawks fearing he is preparing to break his promise to deliver a dollar in spending cuts for every dollar increase in the nation's borrowing limit.

President Obama can never quite pull off the impression of being bipartisan and cooperative. When he tossed out possible corporate tax reform ideas to appear business friendly, Republican leaders weren't impressed.

Washington is abuzz over whether House Speaker John A. Boehner is purging conservatives from positions of power within his caucus. In a closed-door meeting Monday, Republican leaders stripped plum committee assignments from four outspoken advocates of limited government.

House Republicans voiced displeasure with their leaders in a closed-door meeting Wednesday after some conservatives were kicked off plum committees this week in retaliation for bucking party leadership on big votes — and were met with warnings that others still could be punished.
President Obama signed legislation Tuesday that affords greater protection to federal employees who expose fraud, waste and abuse in government operations.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner says he has received letter of resignation from Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
President Obama's attempt to invoke executive privilege to forestall contempt-of-Congress proceedings against Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. failed. Instead, the claim elevates the dispute between the administration and Capitol Hill to a new and troubling level.

Undercutting one of President Obama's core economic arguments less than 24 hours after campaigning for him, former President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that Congress should extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, even for the wealthy, because the economy threatens to tumble back into recession.

It didn't take long for earmarks to try for a comeback. After the Tea Party swept the 2010 midterm elections, House Republicans used their majority power to put an end to pork-barrel projects. Now 15 months later, the Republican caucus is split over bringing them back or ending them once and for all.

When Rep. Mike Rogers publicly suggested last week that Congress reconsider its ban on pork-barrel spending, the Alabama Republican probably didn't know what he was stepping into.

After struggling for weeks to write a transportation bill, House Speaker John A. Boehner has set up a showdown vote Thursday on a stopgap measure to keep federal highway and transit programs running beyond this weekend.