“Tom Price” on The Daily Caller

It is disappointing, though predictable, that President Obama, members of his cabinet, and his faithful allies on Capitol Hill are urging an increase in the nation’s debt limit without including real budget reforms, spending reductions and controls. For decades, Congress has been raising the limit on the amount of money the United States can borrow. Democrats blindly raised it six times in just the last four years. We have amassed a national debt of nearly $14.3 trillion — that is $45,000 per American — and projections indicate that by 2030 our debt as a share of our economy will be an astonishing 146%. No nation can sustain such a weight against its economy. (more)

If health care and the stimulus bill were any indication, the urgency with which Democrats and President Obama are pressing for ratification of the New START treaty during the lame duck session should be ample warning that something is awry. (more)

House Republicans have been relatively successful this week at presenting a united front around their “Pledge to America,” but only through a strategic outreach campaign to lawmakers, media and outside groups, that has managed to keep deep dissatisfaction over several key issues largely under wraps. (more)

House Republicans have been relatively successful this week at presenting a united front around their “Pledge to America,” but only through a strategic outreach campaign to lawmakers, media and outside groups, that has managed to keep deep dissatisfaction over several key issues largely under wraps. (more)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to “drain the swamp,” and rid Washington of corruption. It was an admirable goal as the House was recovering from scandals relating to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. But her pet ethics initiative, the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), got off to an inauspicious start and has left enemies simmering. Recent high-profile allegations by the independent body are only exacerbating the tensions. (more)

Although no one would specifically address House Minority Leader John Boehner’s weekend comments suggesting he would support a compromise on renewing the Bush-era tax cuts, Republican leaders made it clear Monday that they have no interest in compromising on their push to renew tax cuts for all income brackets, including the nation’s wealthiest. (more)

Workers under age 45 will pay the price for AARP’s lobbying against Medicare and Social Security reforms over the past two decades in the form of reduced benefits, critics say. (more)

House lawmakers on Tuesday quashed Republican attempts to prevent Democrats from pushing through unpopular legislation during a “lame duck” session after the November elections. (more)

The House will vote next week on a Republican measure that would prevent Democratic leaders from passing controversial policy initiatives during a lame-duck session of Congress this year. (more)

House Republicans attempted late Friday to defuse building tensions between different factions in the leadership that emerged over the last week as top lawmakers in the minority scrapped to gain inside position in anticipation of taking the majority from Democrats in the midterm elections four months from now. (more)

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King’s discharge petition, aimed at repealing Obamacare, is gaining momentum in the House as more representatives sign on. (more)

A just-released memo from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) raises fresh constitutional concerns about a provision in President Obama’s health-care law that could impose tens of millions of dollars in fines on Congress, state and local governments. (more)

Democrat leaders have said a lot of things during this year-long health care debate that most people just don’t believe. They’ve told you their plan will decrease the cost of health care, cut future deficits, and that “if you like what you have, you can keep it.” And you’ve surely heard hundreds of times the false claim that Republicans don’t have ideas of our own. (more)

President Obama on Thursday indicated that tax increases on people who make less than $250,000 a year will be on the table when a deficit commission makes its recommendations later this year on how to resolve the nation’s fiscal imbalances. (more)

It did not take long for the rhetoric about the death of the Republican Party and conservatism in the wilderness to dissipate after the 2008 elections. The GOP’s sweep of all three major elections since—in the purple to blue states of Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, no less—shows voters moving back to the Republicans (or away from the Democrats—or both) much quicker than many expected. (more)

If the White House thought its call for a bipartisan health care summit next week would put even a small dent in the hypercharged partisan rhetoric that has marred this process since Day 1, well, it thought wrong. (more)

President Obama on Wednesday rolled out a dizzying set of accusations against the Republican party that veered toward contradicting one another, as he encouraged Senate Democrats to keep fighting for his agenda. (more)

President Obama clashed with House Republicans Friday in a face-to-face meeting that was designed to improve bipartisan cooperation but quickly devolved into a series of accusations from both sides. (more)

Democrats’ leadership and their rank and file appeared to be on completely different pages regarding the prospects for a health care bill after President Obama’s State of the Union address. (more)

John Boehner rolled his eyes repeatedly and laughed. Michelle Obama glowered at Republicans. A Supreme Court justice shook his head in disagreement with the president. (more)