Month: April 2013
Large Majority Wanted Senate to Pass Gun Bill
65%
Of Americans say the U.S. Senate should have passed the measure that would have expanded background checks for gun purchases,a new Gallup Poll finds, while 29% agree with the Senate’s failure to pass the measure.
Iowa Lawmakers Seek to Punish Judges for Gay Marriage Ruling
If the justices are going to behave like legislators, they ought to receive lawmakers’ pay.
— Iowa state Rep. Larry Sheets (R), member of the group of Iowa Republican lawmakers that has attached an amendment to a judicial branch budget bill that would reduce the salaries of the four remaining justices who were part of the groundbreaking case to legalize same-sex marriage in the state, the Sioux City Journal reports. Their salaries would be reduced from about $163,000 annually to $25,000, the amount legislators are paid.</h2>
Chootzpah: Mired in Scandal, Rep. Bachmann Re-Launches Tea Party Caucus
The Caucus went dark last summer, in part because Bachmann was preoccupied by her presidential run. After the election, there may have been meager enthusiasm for getting the group together because 10 of its original 60 members lost their seats. As recently as last month, the membership page of the Caucus website was defunct. The movement is also in bad odor with the public. A poll in January from Rasmussen, the GOP pollster, found that just 8 percent of those surveyed would cop to being tea baggers.
And yet the Caucus met this week for the first time since the 113th Congress was sworn in, and Chairwoman Bachmann — who had received the endorsement of just one member of the caucus, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, during the Republican primaries — was on hand:
It’s Pretty Sickening
Congressional leaders are meeting in Washington somewhere
For secret negotiations they don’t want to share.
In an ultimate cop-out
They are trying to opt out
Of procuring their health insurance through Obamacare.
The Weaker Speaker
John Boehner’s quick with a mean-spirited quote,
Though it’s rare he says anything of real note.
But when it comes to legislating,
Lately he’s been hesitating —
Pulling bills ’cause he just can’t get the votes.
