National Politics
So that $38.5 billion budget deficit reduction deal? Not really much of anything. [T]he cuts …includ[e] cuts to earmarks, unspent census money, leftover federal construction funding, and $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can’t be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused spending…
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Waukesha County’s initial tally of its election returns didn’t include over 15,000 votes that were cast in the Wisconsin election on Tuesday. With those votes added in, David Prosser now has a 7,000+ vote lead over Joanne Kloppenburg in the state supreme court election. For the record, here’s the observation…
To those of us not in the public sector, it seems outsized when public employees and politicians make so much of temporary pay freezes or a few minor cuts (or reductions in the expected increases!). Red Jahncke adds some context that will help us understand their perspective by explaining how, nationwide, local and municipal government…
Continuation of this post. [10:40] According to the AP results, 10 of the 12 remaining Milwaukee precincts have come in along with the 8 previously outstanding precincts from Ashland County. Prosser still leads, now by less than 400 votes. One outstanding precinct from Dane County (73-23 Kloppenburg), one from Jefferson County (58-42 Prosser), and six…
According to the Associated Press, Joanne Kloppenburg has opened up a slight 4,000 vote lead with 57% of the precincts reporting in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election that will likely decide if Governor Scott Walker’s collective bargaining package of laws is allowed to stand. Looking at the county-by-county results, I am willing to bet that…
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes to reporters on Air Force One. “I think what we are doing is enforcing a resolution that has a very clear set of goals, which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis, and setting up a no-fly zone,” Rhodes said. “Obviously that involves kinetic military action, particularly…
It is now being reported that, in exchange for leaving inviolate collective bargaining rights, Wisconsin’s public labor unions are purportedly ready to discuss monetary concessions. Some newspapers have reported this development as full capituation by the unions on all matters of monetary compensation in the bill. (Let’s keep in mind that this would still place…
One hears frequently about the Tea Party extremists who are binding the hands of Republican moderates (I know, I know), but a pull away from center is hardly a GOP phenomenon: Bell’s defection is one of dozens by state and local Democratic officials in the Deep South in recent months that underscore Republicans’ continued consolidation…
What state has the most Democrat dominated legislative body? The Hawaii state senate. Byron York explains: In Hawaii, there are 25 members of the state Senate. Twenty-four are Democrats. And then there is Sam Slom. Slom, the lone Senate Republican in the state of President Obama’s birth, has represented East Honolulu since 1996. He hasn’t…
CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, is held every year and serves as a sort of bellwether for the conservative movement. According to Roger L. Simon, there was a different twist this year: The party staged by Andrew Breitbart for GOProud — the gay Republican and conservative group — was as close to a game…