Obama NDAA Veto Strengthens White House In Budget Talks

Obama NDAA Veto Strengthens White House In Budget Talks
Obama NDAA Veto Strengthens White House In Budget Talks

WASHINGTON: The most intriguing assessment of President Obama’s veto yesterday of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act comes from a Republican. While Mackenzie Eaglen, defense expert at the American Enterprise Institute, clearly doesn’t think much of Obama’s move — citing “his intransigence at anything less than is being demanded of him” — she also concludes that he’s…

McCarthy’s Exit: Budget Deal Or Disaster?

McCarthy’s Exit: Budget Deal Or Disaster?
McCarthy’s Exit: Budget Deal Or Disaster?

Updated with Loren Thompson & Byron Callan comment WASHINGTON: Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s sudden exit from the House Speaker race raises the chance of a fiscal disaster — but it also raises the odds of a desperate budget deal. Both extremes just got more likely. Ironically, this deepening leadership void elevates the role of Rep. John…

Pope Leaves, Boehner Resigns, Shutdown Looms…

Pope Leaves, Boehner Resigns, Shutdown Looms…
Pope Leaves, Boehner Resigns, Shutdown Looms…

WASHINGTON: Speaker John Boehner, that always-tanned, often crying fellow who has led House Republicans since 2010, appears to have given up after new challenges from fiscal radicals in the Republican Party and announced his resignation this morning. Boehner, a Catholic, campaigned for 20 years to bring a Pope to Congress. Yesterday he got his wish and…

They’re Back! Congress Likely To Pass Short Term Budget Deal

They’re Back! Congress Likely To Pass Short Term Budget Deal
They’re Back! Congress Likely To Pass Short Term Budget Deal

Congress comes back after Labor Day and its 535 lawmakers will face one of the most convoluted legislative tangles in recent memory. While there is no clear endgame yet, all parties know what must be done and — roughly — by what time. Up first is the resolution of disapproval for the administration’s Iranian nuclear deal,…

Deficit Or Defense Hawks? GOP Signals Sequester Deal Possible

Deficit Or Defense Hawks? GOP Signals Sequester Deal Possible
Deficit Or Defense Hawks? GOP Signals Sequester Deal Possible

SAN DIEGO: How much Kentucky bourbon will it take for President Barack Obama and presumptive Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to come to an agreement of some kind on how to alleviate sequestration? A few drinks in the Oval Office? A bottle between them up in McConnell’s Capitol eyrie? And what about those new Republicans…

Obama To World: We’re Back

Obama To World: We’re Back
Obama To World: We’re Back

WASHINGTON: While the talkerati focused intently on the fairly narrow issue of the presidential strategy to degrade and destroy ISIL, they may have missed the larger message President Obama sent: America is preeminent economically and militarily and has not backed away from the world stage. For almost two years — from the time he declared a…

What Does Debt Deal Mean for Pentagon?

Washington: Thank god the debt deal is done. At least that threat to our national security appears to have been nullified. One of the sacrificial lambs appears to have been the defense budget but, as with so much surrounding the negotiations of the last few months, little is known of the details. The White House…