House to open with reading of Constitution

GOP found to violate Constitution on same day document is read on House floor
Two Republican lawmakers were found on Thursday to have violated the Constitution on the same day both parties read the document on the floor of the House of Representatives. What Democrats and Republicans did by reading the Constitution is admirable and there is nothing wrong with anybody being re-familiarized with the document. With that said, the Republicans’ campaign Rhetoric of strictly adhering to the Constitution to limit the size of government is nothing but a symbolic gesture to p...

Republicans Dispute CBO Claim That Health Care Repeal Would Increase Deficit
Friday, January 07, 2011 By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press Rep. John Boehner of Ohio greets House members ahead of his swearing in as House Speaker during the first session of the 112th Congress on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Washington (AP) - Repealing President Barack Obama's landmark Health Care overhaul would add billions to government red ink and leave millions without coverage, Congress' nonpartisan Budget referees said Thursday ahead of a political...

Two Republicans Voted Before They Took Oath
Friday, January 07, 2011 By Larry Margasak, Associated Press Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, attends a meeting of the House Rules Committee on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Washington (AP) - It only took two days for majority Republicans in the House to suffer their first embarrassment. Two of their members, including the House Republican campaign chairman, voted a half-dozen times in Wednesday's opening session before they were sworn in. Reps. Pete Sessio...

Boehner's 'big gavel,' William's 'golden voice' worlds apart
COLUMBUS, Ohio (CGE) - This week the State Ohio has been in the headlines for reasons other than the Ohio State Buckeyes won the Sugar Bowl, or that exotic pets can't be owned anymore, or even that the Governor-elect and the press really don't like each other. The reasons Ohio has cropped in the news, is that it served as a backdrop to stories about two residents of Ohio, who maybe a contemporary version of the Prince and the Pauper. The Prince this week was John A. Boehner, born and raised in O...

Congressional Calendar January 7, 2010
House Republicans plan to take the first step towards overturning the Health Care overhaul law passed by the last Congress on Friday. They'll be discussing and voting on the terms of debate for bills to Repeal and to "instruct the relevant committees" to formulate Legislation to replace the so-called ObamaCare health plan. There will be some discussion about the contents of the Repeal and replace bills, but much of the talk will be about how the measures arrived on the floor. Democrats say Repub...

House speaker bangs gavel with sense of humility
WASHINGTON — When Newt Gingrich took the gavel as House Speaker 16 years ago, he promised to transform America. On his first day Wednesday, the new House speaker, John Boehner, promised more opportunities to amend bills. That’s a somewhat exaggerated and perhaps misleading description of the differences between Boehner’s and Gingrich’s speeches as the two Republicans took over the leadership of the House. But the contrast is worth noting for what it may mean in the month...

Exit, Stage Left
American political junkies have watched with wonder as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi came unglued over the past few days. It was one of the most unnerving mental deteriorations ever seen in a major political figure. First there was the unbelievable moment in her farewell Press Conference when the Speaker who presided over the greatest expansion of our National Debt in history claimed that “Deficit reduction has always been a high priority for us.” This was followed by her bizarre, ra...

Constitution read for first time on House floor, with some glitches
WASHINGTON — Republicans made history Thursday by staging the first-ever reading of the entire Constitution on the House floor. But that record might come with an asterisk: Democrats asked why original sections that later were amended, including references to slaves, were left out of the recital, and lawmakers initially did not catch that a couple of key paragraphs were omitted when two pages got stuck together. Disputes and glitches aside, Republican and Democratic lawmakers silenced thei...

Friday: Watch live as Senate, House Democrats meet with the Register
9 a.m. Friday: Senate and House Democratic leaders will meet with members of the Register¹s editorial board and newsroom staff writers and editors. You can watch the meeting on streaming video at DesMoinesRegister.com/live. State Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, Senate President Jack Kibbie and incoming House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy will discuss the 2011 session of the 84th General Assembly that convenes Monday. ...

House Plans Test Vote Friday on Health Care Repeal
Friday, January 07, 2011 By Staff, Associated Press House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, right, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Washington (AP) - The House opens a largely symbolic debate Friday on whether to Repeal President Barack Obama's landmark Health Care overhaul, the culmination of the first week with Republicans back in charge. A procedural vote around midday will set the...

Despite glitches, Constitution is read on the House floor
WASHINGTON — Republicans made history yesterday by staging the first-ever reading of the entire Constitution on the House floor. But that record may come with an asterisk: Democrats asked why original sections that later were amended, including references to slaves, were left out of the recital, and lawmakers initially did not catch that a couple of key paragraphs were omitted when two pages got stuck together. Disputes and glitches aside, Republican and Democratic lawmakers silenced thei...

The Cantor brand goes live on day two
If Day One of the new Republican majority was John Boehner’s moment, Day Two was all about Eric Cantor. The No. 2 Republican blitzed five national morning TV shows all before 8 a.m., standing before the ring of cameras overlooking the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building. He also did local Richmond radio, read his piece of the Constitution on the floor, met with other senior GOP leaders and with his top aides. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 It’s an early s...

Rules Are Made To Be Broken?
Republicans made a new Budget rule that all Legislation must be paid for, and one of the first things they did in the new session was break their own rule: House Republicans plan to use a special exception in their Budget rules to Repeal the Democrats’ Health Care overhaul without paying for it - technically, at least. The Congressional Budget Office said last year that the Health Care reform law and its accompanying Reconciliation law would reduce the Deficit by $143 billion through 2019. ...

Michele Bachman and Anthony Weiner Square off on the GOP Agenda, Debt Ceiling
Bachmann: "Barack Obama accumulated 4 times the Debt of George Bush, so I think we need to put to bed that false canard that somehow Barack Obama was digging out under George Bush. Barack Obama created a Tsunami of Debt and that's why a few short weeks ago the American People repealed Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and 2 years from now we will Repeal Barack Obama as President of the United States From Fox News Hannity ...

The Real Deal on ObamaCare Repeal Efforts
by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Birthplace of Independent Conservatism One should watch with great interest the current House of Representatives effort to to Repeal ObamaCare. It was a bad bill that essentially was barely, if at all, understood by the representatives and senators that passed it. Nonetheless it passed on the force of a dictatorial Speaker and Senate Majority Leader marching in lockstep with Obama and a very liberal democratic party. The attempt to Repeal ObamaCare will su...

Health care repeal could deepen govenment red ink
Repealing President Barack Obama‘s landmark Health Care overhaul would add billions to government red ink and leave millions without coverage, Congress’ nonpartisan Budget referees said Thursday ahead of a politically charged vote in the House. House Speaker John Boehner brushed off the Congressional Budget Office analysis as emboldened Republicans, now in the majority in the House, issued their own report arguing that Obama’s coverage expansion would cost jobs and increase bud...

Bills to legalize gay marriage introduced in R.I. House, Senate
With the introduction on Thursday of same-sex marriage bills in the House and Senate, the battle now begins. In the House, Rep. Arthur Handy, D-Cranston, introduced his annual bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Rhode Island. The 29 lawmakers cosigning the bill include House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. As she introduced similar Legislation in the Senate, Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, said she hoped it would get a hearing and vote early in the legislative session. A mirror of Handy’s bill, ...

Senate Democrats seek rule changes; GOP wary
Senate Democrats said Thursday they will continue to seek Republican cooperation on proposed rule changes to make it tougher for the minority party to use Filibusters and other procedural tactics to block majority bills. But with Republicans staunchly opposed to tinkering with the filibuster, which they say is among the only tools they have to stop Legislation they oppose, Democrats say they're prepared to forge ahead alone to reform the system. "The rules have been abused" by Republicans, said ...

First gaffe for House GOP
Big Read: House reads Constitution, interruptions and all. WASHINGTON — It took only two days for majority Republicans in the House to suffer their first embarrassment. Two of their members voted a half- dozen times Wednesday before they were sworn in. Reps. Pete Sessions, the House Republican campaign chairman, and Mike Fitzpatrick were at a reception when other members took the oath. The two men saw House Speaker John Boehner swearing in members on television and raised their hands befo...

GOP congressman from Pa. AWOL from swearing-in
WASHINGTON - When incoming House Speaker John Boehner administered the oath of office to the 112th Congress this week, two members were noticeably absent. One is from Bucks County. Mike Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) and Pete Sessions (R., Texas) left the House floor Wednesday afternoon to meet several hundred Fitzpatrick supporters in the House Visitors Center - and missed the official swearing-in. Both men raised a hand and swore the oath while watching Boehner on television from the room, said Fitzpa...

Nineteen Democrats Scorn Pelosi in Speaker Vote, WaPo Buries Story on Page A8
The first vote cast by the 110th Congress on January 4, 2007 was for election of Speaker of the House. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) won all 233 Democratic votes (including her own). All 202 Republicans voted for Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio. Two years later Pelosi secured 255 (including her own), and there was only one Democrat, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (N.Y.) who did not vote. Minority Leader Boehner received every Republican vote, save for his own and three other Republicans who didn't vote. By co...

Historic reading of Constitution sees House tussle
WASHINGTON -- Republicans made history Thursday by staging the first-ever reading of the entire Constitution on the House floor. But that record may come with an asterisk: Democrats asked why original sections that later were amended, including references to slaves, were left out of the recital, and lawmakers initially did not catch that a couple of key paragraphs were omitted when two pages got stuck together. Disputes and glitches aside, Republican and Democratic lawmakers silenced their diff...

Tax reform jumps the line in Senate
Tax Reform zoomed up the list of Senate priorities on Thursday, with both Senate leaders on board with examining the code. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters that he and Sen. Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee would hold hearings on reform “very, very soon.” Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 “I do believe that the country is ripe for tax reform,” Reid said Thursday. “This is — our tax system — is brok...

What If They Started A Constitution Reading And Nobody Came?
If there was any doubt that the reading of the Constitution on the House floor was a stunt, that doubt can now be dispelled. It wasn’t exactly a full house as you can see here. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor held an news conference in the middle of the reading, so they were obviously not paying attention to it. But then neither were the people in this photo, who seem either engaged in conversation or otherwise distracted. You must be logged in to post a comment. Oh no...

Raising The Debt Ceiling Would Require Serious Spending Cuts
Republicans lost the trust of the American People during the last decade because they were fiscally irresponsible when they controlled all three branches of the Federal Government. Such recklessness helped allow Democrats to take over Congress in 2006 and the Presidency in 2008. While they were in power, Democrats showed even less restraint, spending Taxpayer money as if they were on Steroids and bringing the country close to hitting the Debt ceiling. During the Midterm Elections, Americans thr...