Stories by Steven T. Dennis:
March 26, 2013
Supreme Court justices jousted with lawyers over California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage, weighing whether marriage should be a national fundamental right, left up to the states or somewhere in between. Of the 80 minutes of legal questioning, here are the 12 best moments.
March 23, 2013
Ted Cruz’s effort to tie United Nations funding to China’s abortion policy provoked a sharp, private rebuke from Mary L. Landrieu on the Senate floor Saturday morning.
March 22, 2013
In a column this week, Rep. Cynthia M. Lummis begins with a variation of a favorite GOP talking point.
March 20, 2013
Republicans and Democrats appeared to rally behind President Barack Obama on Wednesday, echoing his warning that Syria’s use of chemical weapons against anti-government insurgents would be a “game-changer” requiring a more aggressive policy toward that country.
March 19, 2013
At the White House and in the Capitol, sequestration has nearly faded from view as an issue, with no compromise in sight to roll back automatic spending cuts that were supposed to bring a doomsday scenario but so far have been met by shrugs across the country.
March 19, 2013
The White House said Tuesday that Jeffrey D. Zients, reportedly a candidate to become the new U.S. trade representative, will remain as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget until the Senate confirms a new director.
March 18, 2013
Senate Republicans have a thorny dilemma regarding President Barack Obama’s nomination of Thomas E. Perez as Labor secretary, especially now that the GOP apparatus has begun to redouble its efforts to reach out to minorities.
March 15, 2013
Rep. Dan Kildee says he and President Barack Obama are friends, dismissing the teasing he received from the president at Thursday’s closed-door meeting with House Democrats.
March 14, 2013
President Barack Obama has broken the ice with suspicious and distrustful Republicans on Capitol Hill during the past two weeks, but it hasn’t yet yielded any immediate breakthroughs on the budget stalemate that threatens to lead to yet another partisan debt showdown in a few months.
March 14, 2013
Senate Republicans pressed President Barack Obama at their Thursday lunch to stop bashing them on the stump, work with them more closely to craft a bipartisan budget deal and to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
March 13, 2013
President Barack Obama continued his push for a grand bargain, an immigration overhaul and the rest of his agenda in a meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday, but GOP leaders immediately shut the door on any compromises that would include new taxes.
March 12, 2013
Everything you need to know about House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan’s budget blueprint, from its prospects in the Senate to which White House proposals the Wisconsin Republican suggests keeping in place. Spoiler alert: “Obamacare” wouldn’t be completely discarded.
March 12, 2013
President Barack Obama on Tuesday pushed Senate Democrats to support a grand budget bargain, even as the prospects for such a deal seemed as distant as ever.
March 7, 2013
The pall that hung over the Capitol last week after Congress failed to do anything about the sequester has lifted — if only a bit.
March 7, 2013
President Barack Obama is continuing his charm offensive on Thursday with a lunch with House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan at the White House.
March 7, 2013
Sen. Rand Paul finally has his answer. “The answer to that question is no.”
March 6, 2013
President Barack Obama’s charm offensive will continue next week, when he will visit separately with House and Senate Republicans.
March 5, 2013
President Barack Obama is following through on his search for a “caucus of common sense” with that rarest of presidential commodities — his own time.
March 4, 2013
Are we seeing a softer side of the White House? After rhetorically bashing Republicans for weeks over the sequester failed to bring them to the bargaining table, the White House seems to have slightly shifted its tone, if not its aims.
March 4, 2013
President Barack Obama pushed for quick Senate confirmation of his new picks for budget director, EPA administrator and Energy secretary — although the nature of the positions themselves all but ensures plenty of partisan fireworks on the Hill.
March 1, 2013
It wasn’t supposed to be like this for the White House and a re-elected president with political capital to spend.
March 1, 2013
Congressional Republican leaders told President Barack Obama face-to-face Friday that they will not accept any new taxes as part of a solution to the sequester, and are hopeful that a deal can be reached that would avert a government shutdown at the end of the month.
March 1, 2013
President Barack Obama said Friday that he would not risk a government shutdown in an effort to avert the sequester, even as he continued to pressure Republican leaders to budge.
Feb. 28, 2013
Senate Democrats aren’t planning a shutdown showdown with Republicans over the sequester, as they prepare to move forward with an omnibus package keeping the government open past March 27, according to three senior Democratic aides.
Feb. 28, 2013
The White House threatened to veto the Senate GOP’s bill aimed at giving the president flexibility to target spending cuts — ripping the idea for protecting corporate tax exemptions.
